The new Korsbek Oceaneer is another high-quality dive watch emerging from the growing boutique market. We’ve touched on this trend before here at Gear Patrol, introducing you to companies like BaliHa’i and Zinex. These lines are a great place to find yourself a watch on par in quality with any well known brand; plus, you’ll get that an added individuality bonus, as you’ll be unlikely to spot others wearing one. All this for a much more reasonable price to boot.
The Oceaneer is the second watch released by Korsbek, a one man show out of Washington (state) run by Poul Brix. With plenty of input from his followers, he’s produced one hell of a dive watch as an encore to his well received Ocean Explorer. The Oceaneer is a beast… dare I say a Sea Monster… of a watch, clocking in at 45mm in diameter and at 17mm in height. In spite of its magnitude, the Oceaneer wears very well, but you may need to get your shirt cuffs tailored. I have a 7″ wrist, which is not very big, and I still felt more than comfortable with it on.
The Oceaneer, as a whole, is a beauty. From a clean, legible face, bead blasted finish, and great lume, to the engraved Korsbek sheild on the crown, everything has been thought out and executed perfectly.
On the performance side, the Oceaneer delivers in spades. HEV (Helium Escape Valve), 1000m depth rating, Fricker case, Anti-Magnetic inner case (crucial for those of you planing a dive trip to the island in LOST), are all included. All of this is built around the Swiss ETA-2892 A2 movement, which is commonly thought to be on par with Rolex’s in-house movements.
The packaging is equally thorough, with the watch arriving in an orange Pelican case with spare links, a rubber diving strap, and the tools to needed to change them. The Korbek Oceaneer is a tool watch that makes being tough look damn good.
Authors Note: This is a big watch, both in size and in heft, so keep that in mind if you normally wear something very light. Poul’s following is very active on Watchuseek; check out his forum to see how well satisfied his customers are. The man takes his customer service very seriously, and, these days, that’s especially nice to see.
