Zelos Bronze Swordfish 300 metre Dive Watch
I’ve always wanted to try a bronze watch to experience the ‘patina’ that develops over time for myself, but usually they are too expensive, or look just plain ugly. They are usually dive style watches to be fair, so will always be a bit on the chunky side, but when I saw the Zelos Swordfish with the teal sandwich dial and no date window it became a must have, it just looked so good.
A few weeks after the order was placed at the early buyer price of $299 (Inc. delivery) a Fedex parcel duly arrived, now if you've seen any of the reviews for Zelos products, you’ll know that the packaging supplied is great! Slide off the card sleeve to reveal a wooden box (OK so not the greatest quality, but certainly not to shoddy) inside is a quality watch role – can’t quite make up my mind if it’s genuine leather of not, but still very nice. The watch came fitted on a rubber dive strap and a second high quality Horween leather one, but only one bronze buckle to share between the two straps and finally a decorative bronze colour metal warranty card.
The watch itself looks absolutely superb in the flesh, the teal sunburst dial is so vibrant when it catches the light, and only one problem, my watch didn’t actually work! A quick email to Zelos and before the week was out I had a fully functioning replacement on my wrist. All costs were covered by Zelos, including sending pre-paid label’s for the return of the original watch after I was happy with the replacement – absolutely superb service from Zelos.
So to the watch itself; it was soon put on the leather strap, it just looks the part, especially as the overall finish has dulled in the month since it arrived. The case itself hits the perfect balance between looking industrial and at the same time decorative, it isn’t what you would call highly polished or brushed finished to my mind, but that would be superfluous as it will soon accumulate its patinated coating. In the hand it feels substantial, but doesn’t feel (or look) overly large on the wrist. I already love the dial colour, but when you add the applied gold Zelos logo and that oh so shiny handset it truly does, to my mind, look spectacular. The juxtaposition between the dial and the slowly dulling case just adds so much interest to this watch; don’t think it’ll be quite the same for many of the other variants available on their site especially those with the darker dials, which is perhaps why the teal dialled one was the first to sell out. The bezel action is first-rate with just the right level of effort require to rotate it, it has a robust sounding ‘click’ and absolutely no back-play. It is also fully lumed which is very bright along with the hour markers on the sandwich dial and the hands, with the exception of the second hand which is a different colour and not as intense. The screw down crown is easy to operate, superbly & deeply knurled, so very easy to grip but again the movement is a Seiko NH35, so has a ghost first position when you pull out the crown, which would have been used to set the date if it had a date window, so needs pulling out further again to set the time. The stainless steel back to the watch is rather plain compared to many these days with a simple depiction of a swordfish, which look a bit odd to me, almost as though shown trying to walk on its tail, but it is sharply defined. Watch dimensions are as stated on the website and I feel quite compact for a rated 300 Metre dive watch, not that mine will see any dive action with the wettest it’s likely to get is washing the car, but that’s probably the same for the vast majority of dive watches bought these days. Would I change anything, yes, I’d like a more defined point to the tip of minute hand & it only comes with a one year warranty where most micro brands seem to go for two, but that’s it.
So the slow change in finish or patina, well it is certainly very noticeable and I have to say I do enjoy seeing the changes and as the photograph on the left shows (latest picture at the top) the change is pronounced even though it has only been about a month since it was unwrapped.
This watch is absolutely worth the price even though it is now $349 and Zelos are certainly, based on my experience, a great company to deal with, indeed they’ve just re-issued the stainless steel version of the Swordfish. The Sand Black version is looking good, interestingly the teal dial variant here just doesn't excite me the way it did in bronze, just have to decide before they go up in price next month!
More pictures of the Swordfish can be found in the Watch Picture Gallery along with some of my other watches.
A few weeks after the order was placed at the early buyer price of $299 (Inc. delivery) a Fedex parcel duly arrived, now if you've seen any of the reviews for Zelos products, you’ll know that the packaging supplied is great! Slide off the card sleeve to reveal a wooden box (OK so not the greatest quality, but certainly not to shoddy) inside is a quality watch role – can’t quite make up my mind if it’s genuine leather of not, but still very nice. The watch came fitted on a rubber dive strap and a second high quality Horween leather one, but only one bronze buckle to share between the two straps and finally a decorative bronze colour metal warranty card.
The watch itself looks absolutely superb in the flesh, the teal sunburst dial is so vibrant when it catches the light, and only one problem, my watch didn’t actually work! A quick email to Zelos and before the week was out I had a fully functioning replacement on my wrist. All costs were covered by Zelos, including sending pre-paid label’s for the return of the original watch after I was happy with the replacement – absolutely superb service from Zelos.
So to the watch itself; it was soon put on the leather strap, it just looks the part, especially as the overall finish has dulled in the month since it arrived. The case itself hits the perfect balance between looking industrial and at the same time decorative, it isn’t what you would call highly polished or brushed finished to my mind, but that would be superfluous as it will soon accumulate its patinated coating. In the hand it feels substantial, but doesn’t feel (or look) overly large on the wrist. I already love the dial colour, but when you add the applied gold Zelos logo and that oh so shiny handset it truly does, to my mind, look spectacular. The juxtaposition between the dial and the slowly dulling case just adds so much interest to this watch; don’t think it’ll be quite the same for many of the other variants available on their site especially those with the darker dials, which is perhaps why the teal dialled one was the first to sell out. The bezel action is first-rate with just the right level of effort require to rotate it, it has a robust sounding ‘click’ and absolutely no back-play. It is also fully lumed which is very bright along with the hour markers on the sandwich dial and the hands, with the exception of the second hand which is a different colour and not as intense. The screw down crown is easy to operate, superbly & deeply knurled, so very easy to grip but again the movement is a Seiko NH35, so has a ghost first position when you pull out the crown, which would have been used to set the date if it had a date window, so needs pulling out further again to set the time. The stainless steel back to the watch is rather plain compared to many these days with a simple depiction of a swordfish, which look a bit odd to me, almost as though shown trying to walk on its tail, but it is sharply defined. Watch dimensions are as stated on the website and I feel quite compact for a rated 300 Metre dive watch, not that mine will see any dive action with the wettest it’s likely to get is washing the car, but that’s probably the same for the vast majority of dive watches bought these days. Would I change anything, yes, I’d like a more defined point to the tip of minute hand & it only comes with a one year warranty where most micro brands seem to go for two, but that’s it.
So the slow change in finish or patina, well it is certainly very noticeable and I have to say I do enjoy seeing the changes and as the photograph on the left shows (latest picture at the top) the change is pronounced even though it has only been about a month since it was unwrapped.
This watch is absolutely worth the price even though it is now $349 and Zelos are certainly, based on my experience, a great company to deal with, indeed they’ve just re-issued the stainless steel version of the Swordfish. The Sand Black version is looking good, interestingly the teal dial variant here just doesn't excite me the way it did in bronze, just have to decide before they go up in price next month!
More pictures of the Swordfish can be found in the Watch Picture Gallery along with some of my other watches.
