Phoibos Wave Master PY009C Dive Watch
A bit of a mixed bag with the Phoibos Wave Master! I wanted one of these when they were first released, great spec for the money and a ‘no date’ option, which actually used a non-date wheel movement. However there were things that I found a bit disconcerting on the web reviews, I agreed that the hand-set looked too short and there was the issue of people reporting that the screws in the bracelet link were fragile and had a tendency to get damaged when removing links so I didn’t pursue this watch. Fast forward to version two and all the above issues seem to have been addressed: the hands are now longer and look more suited to the dial and the screws that hold the links together have been increased in size – so an order was place with Phoibos Europe, the UK warehouse and a few days later the watch was delivered. As before it looked stunning, the case is beautifully finished, so leaving the stickers all in place I shook the watch to get it going and let it run, periodically giving it another shake to keep it going and after about 12 hours decided it was OK to peel of the stickers/wrapping as it seemed to be keeping time very well.
I was really looking forward to getting this one on my wrist, but the first disappointment was when unscrewing the crown it popped straight out into the second position for adjusting the time, completely bypassing the winding position! Basically you have to be a bit careful unscrewing the crown, to ensure it doesn’t pop out to far, so no big deal really. Then I had a little play with the bezel and this was a bit of a disappointment – really sloppy, light action and loads of back-play, which is a bit odd as every review of previous Phoibos watches has praised the bezel action! Since receiving my watch I’ve seen several reviews online where this is mentioned, again not really a big deal as I don’t actually use the bezel for timing anything in reality, but I have noticed on occasions that it has moved and I’ve not been aware of when or how this happened – so not really that good if you were to use the bezel for the function it was meant for in my opinion. So on to adjusting the bracelet, firstly one screw I just couldn’t move, it was really stuck fast and decided to remove other links than potentially damage this particular screw-head, fortunately the others were easier to get out, but when I came to put them back in found that they would thread in easily on some links, almost as if each screw was matched to the link it came out of, so OK just had to make sure that when I removed a screw it went back in the appropriate link, but this does indeed give me concerns over the machine tolerance’s and potential QC whoever & wherever the bracelets are made. In the end I decided to not bother with the supplied bracelet and wear the head on a NATO which had nicely matched blue coloured stripes that matched to hour markers and hands.
All the above aside the watch looks superb and functions really well, keeping superb time, the overall finish is wonderful with just that polished chamfer between the lug tops and the case sides, it really is a pleasure to look at and it is one of my favorite watches to wear – even though to me the bezel has been reduced to a ‘fidget spinner’ which I find myself absent mindedly playing with now and again, so for version 3 could definitely do with a more robust upgrade! The only other thing I’ll mention was that the deeply engraved case-back is aggressively cut and the edges of all the detail shown are quite sharp to the touch, not that you feel this on the wrist but only when you’re handling the watch. This reduces the tactile pleasure of handling the watch, but again isn’t a major issue in the grand scheme of things. Overall I’m happy with my Wave Master and look forward to wearing it for years to come, but it certainly could have been so much better. As a side note after I purchased the watch Phoibos asked me to review the watch for their site and give it a star rating, given the above it only got a three, but then Phoibos have never published the review anyway…
I still like the watch and would still have bought it even if I’d have known all the above in advance.
Picture of some of my other watches can be found in the Watch Picture Gallery.
I was really looking forward to getting this one on my wrist, but the first disappointment was when unscrewing the crown it popped straight out into the second position for adjusting the time, completely bypassing the winding position! Basically you have to be a bit careful unscrewing the crown, to ensure it doesn’t pop out to far, so no big deal really. Then I had a little play with the bezel and this was a bit of a disappointment – really sloppy, light action and loads of back-play, which is a bit odd as every review of previous Phoibos watches has praised the bezel action! Since receiving my watch I’ve seen several reviews online where this is mentioned, again not really a big deal as I don’t actually use the bezel for timing anything in reality, but I have noticed on occasions that it has moved and I’ve not been aware of when or how this happened – so not really that good if you were to use the bezel for the function it was meant for in my opinion. So on to adjusting the bracelet, firstly one screw I just couldn’t move, it was really stuck fast and decided to remove other links than potentially damage this particular screw-head, fortunately the others were easier to get out, but when I came to put them back in found that they would thread in easily on some links, almost as if each screw was matched to the link it came out of, so OK just had to make sure that when I removed a screw it went back in the appropriate link, but this does indeed give me concerns over the machine tolerance’s and potential QC whoever & wherever the bracelets are made. In the end I decided to not bother with the supplied bracelet and wear the head on a NATO which had nicely matched blue coloured stripes that matched to hour markers and hands.
All the above aside the watch looks superb and functions really well, keeping superb time, the overall finish is wonderful with just that polished chamfer between the lug tops and the case sides, it really is a pleasure to look at and it is one of my favorite watches to wear – even though to me the bezel has been reduced to a ‘fidget spinner’ which I find myself absent mindedly playing with now and again, so for version 3 could definitely do with a more robust upgrade! The only other thing I’ll mention was that the deeply engraved case-back is aggressively cut and the edges of all the detail shown are quite sharp to the touch, not that you feel this on the wrist but only when you’re handling the watch. This reduces the tactile pleasure of handling the watch, but again isn’t a major issue in the grand scheme of things. Overall I’m happy with my Wave Master and look forward to wearing it for years to come, but it certainly could have been so much better. As a side note after I purchased the watch Phoibos asked me to review the watch for their site and give it a star rating, given the above it only got a three, but then Phoibos have never published the review anyway…
I still like the watch and would still have bought it even if I’d have known all the above in advance.
Picture of some of my other watches can be found in the Watch Picture Gallery.
