Big Watches From a Small Company
Fellow dive watch enthusiasts, we live in fortunate times. The big Swiss and Japanese watch houses are cranking out new models annually in a veritable arms race to see who can go deeper. Lucky for men like us, at the other end of the spectrum there exists a burgeoning set of upstart watch companies who are gaining a foothold through creative design and high quality watches that intend to give more expensive timepieces a run for their money.
One of these small watchmakers is the Zinex Watch Company. In the past year, Zinex has released two popular dive watches – the Nitrox and the Trimix. The owner of Zinex, Joe Sadri, is an accomplished diver and his creations are brimming with functional features that are tested in real world conditions.
I scored a Nitrox to take diving recently (see photo to the right) and I found out what the buzz is about. Suffice it to say, it is well justified.
[Continued after the jump]Make no mistake, this is a big watch. At 46mm across, the steel case with double-sealed, screw-down crown and thick sapphire crystal is water-resistant to a lung-crushing 500 meters. I only took it down to 97 feet but was still able to appreciate the chunky, tactile timing bezel, highly visible dial, and oversized luminescent hands. The watch came on a steel bracelet with safety clasp and wetsuit extension, but I swapped it out for the supplied rubber strap that was plenty long enough to fit around a 3mm wetsuit sleeve. An accurate and durable Swiss automatic movement keeps the time, and mine stayed within a couple of seconds per day over the course of my week long dive trip.
