Watches Appreciation And Resouces: Diving into the Spinnaker Dumas Vintage Diver

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Diving into the Spinnaker Dumas Vintage Diver

Spinnaker has a pretty good line of affordable, nautical themed watches. From sailing to diving, and quartz or automatic, there are plenty of choices. Of all the watches they offer, there is one that really stood out to me: the Spinnaker Dumas Vintage Diver. Taking its name from Frederic Dumas, who was a dive pioneer who partnered many times with Jaques Cousteau on major expeditions, the style of this model is not like any of their others. I had to get my hands on this one, so I reached out to Spinnaker and was very pleased when this showed up in the mail. Lets take a look.

The Dial

This is a three hander with a date at the 3 o’clock position. Some people feel that three handers tend to be boring, but for me I like them because of their simplicity. At the same time, I do not like boring, so I like to see more on the dial to peak visual interest. I feel the Spinnaker Dumas has plenty of visual interest here. Applied to the matte black face of the dial are three color hour makers. Three sides of the markers are orange but the inner edge of the markers are blue, with each marker filled with lume which are white when not glowing. At the 12 o’clock position is the Spinnaker logo framed in a copper finish and filled with lume. The date window is done in the same orange as the hour makers and really helps with the look to me. The sword hands look great and in my opinion are the perfect size. There is nothing about the dial that really bugs me. I feel color combination along with the large hour makers just make thing stand out and I really enjoy looking at it.

The Case

Measuring in at 44mm wide, 16mm thick, and weighing 190 grams, this is not a small watch. The case is octagonal and the whole look of the thing looks a little bit like an Omega Baby Ploprof. Water resistance is a very good 30atm or approx. 1000 feet. That’s real dive watch resistance, there. The crown is a screw-down signed type with the Spinnaker Sail logo and is protected by large crown guards. Hardened mineral glass is used to protect the dial and also for the exhibition case back. The bezel is 120 click with a tight feel and not much play.

The Movement

The Spinnaker Dumas Diver is powered by a 21 jewel non-hacking Miyota Automatic movement. The movement itself is not decorated at all, but has a signed blue rotor which adds to the view through the exhibition case back. This is a good reliable movement, but it does bug me that its a non-hacking movement. I like to be able to stop the seconds when setting my time to give me an idea of the seconds gained or lost through the day. Other then that, it is a good reliable movement.

The Lume

I absolutely love the lume on the Spinnaker Dumas. The lume on the hands and markers have a strong green glow and the lume on the bezel have a nice blue glow. Even the Spinnaker Sail Logo glows. It’s such a great visual in the dark.

The Straps

The Spinnaker Dumas Diver comes with two straps and both look great. The watch comes with the stainless steel milanese bracelet which is very well made and heavy. It is either a really coarse milanese, or a really tight shark bracelet. Normally, milanese is characterized by its fine, thin metal woven loops, which are much thicker here. It is easy to adjust with the clamping mechanism in the clasp that typically comes on a milanese bracelet. This can easily be adjusted anytime to fit a dive suit when needed. Once adjusted the clasp is just like any other steel bracelet clasp, just snap and go. The other strap is a black leather strap with signed pin and buckle clasp. The leather is treated for water resistance and was alittle stiff but conformed to my wrist after time. The black leather with orange accent stitching looks perfect with the watch. Both the strap and bracelet look great on this watch.

Overall Impression

The Spinnaker Dumas Vintage Diver in my opinion is their best watch yet. It very solid, looks great, and can be used for some serious diving. There is nothing visually wrong with this watch and it just feels so good to wear. I can easily compare this to my Swiss Alpina Extreme Diver. My only issue is, I wish it had the hacking movement. The retail price on this is very reasonable at $ 420 USD but even better if you use the discount code WWR30 dropping it down to only $ 294 USD. That’s 30% off. Great price for a watch like this. You can check them out at spinnaker-watches.com.

Summary