Swiss Watch Company, SWC Diver Review

roadwarrior

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Average Bros
Published on Jul 2, 2019

On this episode we review the SWC Diver from the Swiss Watch Company. I've seen these popup more and more, on various social feeds, so I'm happy to be able to get these in for review on the channel. The SWC Diver is all about delivering a high spec Swiss Made Dive Watch at an affordable price point and I think they do just that, Swiss Sellita Movement, 300m WR, Sapphire Crystal, Ceramic Insert, all on a solid Stainless Steel Bracelet. On paper, the diver checks all of the boxes, in the metal it adds a really nice tool aesthetic that help set the watch apart. With it's super matte setup, paired with various pops of high polish, and just gobs of lume applications, this piece won't be mistaken as a basic desk diver. Let me know what you think in the comments below, thanks guys!


https://swcusa.com/collections/

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Description

Specifications:

  • Swiss Made
  • SW 200 Swiss Made Automatic Movement with 28800 A/h (4Hz)
  • 26 jewels
  • 316 L solid stainless-steel case
  • 120 step uni-directional divers bezel
  • Ceramic diver bezel ring
  • Oil pressed case back
  • Sapphire crystal
  • 5x Anti reflective coating
  • 30 ATM / 1000 ft water resistant
  • 20 Layers of Swiss Made Super-Luminova for the indexes
  • Solid 3 link 316 l stainless steel bracelet
  • Capsa pins
  • Solid integrated divers buckle
Measurements:

  • Case: 44mm
  • Lug Width: 22mm
  • Band Width: 22mm/20mm
  • Case Thickness: 13.2mm
  • Case 9h3h: 48mm

About Swiss Watch Company
Stephen Roemer
Stephen Roemer got involved in the watch industry at 17 years old in Biel, Switzerland. It was there that he began working in quality assurance for the Swatch group and worked with many reputable brands within the group. During this time he personally oversaw the production of millions of units and had the opportunity to work all over the world.
 
A sharp looking design, in some cool executions, with great statistics. Thanks for posting this up, Mike.:hat:
 
Wow...

A nice Omega look a like...with a little UN thrown in...

Swiss Watch Company tho...?? Not on my dial...dang...
 
I personally don't care for the watch, but the less stuff on any dial the better IMO. I've passed on one I've actually liked that were really nice, but too much font on the dial. Ocean Crawler comes to mind.

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I personally don't care for the watch, but the less stuff on any dial the better IMO. I've passed on one I've actually liked that were really nice, but too much font on the dial. Ocean Crawler comes to mind.

Price point...well...but if they would have done a different logo...maybe...
 
Same movement and originally offered in the same price range. I paid $399 for the MAKO 2 using the SW200. The last thing I care about is being Swiss made.


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$499.50 and this one had the ETA 2824-2

STP1-11 this one was $466.40

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The price is OK, but not a fan of the watch. Average design with no separation from the swamp filled industry.



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Published on Jul 15, 2019
Again a huge thank you to the Swiss Watch Company for giving me this diver to be reviewed.

So you want a Hulk, well today we are looking at the Swiss Watch Company's Diver. An extremely well built 44mm diver with a Swiss Sellita SW200 movement. This is the green version, which has a dark army green coloring, rather then the typical shiny emerald green you would expect. The real star here is the very cool multi-layered textured ceramic bezel. With 20 layers of Swiss Superluminova lume as a close second. While not the best I have ever seen, it comes close. The SWC Diver is easily better than most other drivers out there.

 
Nice review.

I also have a SWC diver here for review (the black with orange chapter ring) and have been super impressed. The 20 layers of lume is just crazy and brighter than other great microbrand lumes such as Zelos. Zero backplay in the bezel too and extremely well built. Will post a video review in about a week after receiving an order from them with all of the 4 colors The Microbrand Store will carry so it can be in the same review. Only mentioning this as SWC are going to be giving one of these watches away in the Kickstarter Watches group on FB, where the winner picks the color, and we'll cover that in the review.

Another great SWC review (and someone I quickly subscribed to - love his work and he's non-commercial) is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNMvOPi46Y
 
20 layers of lume noted... searching memory banks NFW claimed 50 ? i think LUM-TEC claimed many layers also...

imho not just the number of layers though more is better...as we all know it is the quality of the paint X1 brightest

- and paint is paint you read some posts about a japanese proprietary lume lasting all night long...but for my night ops and ninja missions gimme tubes
 
Same movement and originally offered in the same price range. I paid $399 for the MAKO 2 using the SW200. The last thing I care about is being Swiss made.



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$499.50 and this one had the ETA 2824-2

STP1-11 this one was $466.40

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Gotta agree bout this whole Swiss Made issue, don't care and does not fit into my case size comfort zone. I do like the design elements,
hopefully will come in 38-42 range in the future!
 
I actually do care about Swiss Made somewhat because although standards of assembly, cleanliness of environment, skill and knowledge of workers and QA can be good or bad in either Switzerland or China, typically it's mostly extremely good in Switzerland and there are sadly a rather large number of dirty sweatshops in China who can produce rather cheaply and forgo most of the QA. "If the watch runs, ship it" kind of thing. Of course there are some great factories in China and I'm really happy about some specific factories some of the brands we carry use, but having Swiss Made on the dial just increases my odds of having a decently built timepiece if I don't really know.

As to the prestige of "Swiss Made", the only weight that carries with me is that others perceive that. I don't. It certainly adds to the sellability, being candid, and I accept possibly higher labor costs. It's nice if you want to "show off" or sell your watch, but that's about it. One can argue Japan can make a better mousetrap and given a fair portion of most Swiss Made watches probably comes from China these days, meh...

Bottom line for me: Swiss Made = higher chance of better build and fewer issues.
 
I actually do care about Swiss Made somewhat because although standards of assembly, cleanliness of environment, skill and knowledge of workers and QA can be good or bad in either Switzerland or China, typically it's mostly extremely good in Switzerland and there are sadly a rather large number of dirty sweatshops in China who can produce rather cheaply and forgo most of the QA. "If the watch runs, ship it" kind of thing. Of course there are some great factories in China and I'm really happy about some specific factories some of the brands we carry use, but having Swiss Made on the dial just increases my odds of having a decently built timepiece if I don't really know.

As to the prestige of "Swiss Made", the only weight that carries with me is that others perceive that. I don't. It certainly adds to the sellability, being candid, and I accept possibly higher labor costs. It's nice if you want to "show off" or sell your watch, but that's about it. One can argue Japan can make a better mousetrap and given a fair portion of most Swiss Made watches probably comes from China these days, meh...

Bottom line for me: Swiss Made = higher chance of better build and fewer issues.


I understand what you're saying and agree to a point. Still I have GMT watches from brands like Zelos, Deep Blue, etc., and the GMT hand is spot on. Unfortunately I can't say the same for a "Swiss Made" Steinhart GMT. This is just one example off the top of my head. With the skill and knowledge of Switzerland you would think they could get something so basic right.
 
I understand what you're saying and agree to a point. Still I have GMT watches from brands like Zelos, Deep Blue, etc., and the GMT hand is spot on. Unfortunately I can't say the same for a "Swiss Made" Steinhart GMT. This is just one example off the top of my head. With the skill and knowledge of Switzerland you would think they could get something so basic right.

Certainly there are some examples where Swiss Made doesn't guarantee quality. For one second there, when you mentioned GMT hand alignment, I thought you were going to mention Meccaniche Veneziane's Swiss Made GMT and their infamous hand alignment issues that's spawned many a flaming thread. Another example of piss poor QA. We'll no longer be stocking MV, and the two GMTs I have left (none of which luckily had this issue) were sent off by us to a third party to be serviced and are coming back really nicely regulated as they should've really been in the first place. Thank goodness those were genuine Swiss movements.

On the whole, taking a large swarth of microbrands together, IMHO you'll typically see far better QA coming from Swiss factories and practices though (not to mention cleaner environments too) but there are sadly more than a few outliers.

It's going to be hard to express this in words but I think SWC are bringing a lot of extra value to the table here compared to a typical microbrand. The founders started the US company in 1995 after moving to the US, supplies watches to the armed forces and first responders, and is only now moving into microbrands with their first self-badged offering. He got his start in Switzerland in QA for the Swatch Group (he's Swiss) so SWC is both a registered Swiss company/corporation with Swiss manufacture, and another US corporation run by the founder and his two sons. They do all their own servicing in-house, and don't hand off to a third party. Quality has been exceptionally good for this price point, and that's hard to visualize until you handle them. The bezel action to me is just right... very crisp but not stiff, and no back play. Sure they're leveraging the Swiss prestige and they are a Swiss corp with a Swiss founder, but it's rather cool they're also a family run US business too.
 
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