Sunday, August 13, 2006

Vixa Nettuno Professional Sea Power Automatic

< I was checking out the ads on PMWF one morning when I saw Shane Delaurian was selling off some Pseudo Ruhlas and one included one of his straps. Shane Delaurian is a well-known strap artisan who has mastered the craft of making distinctive custom straps of extremely high quality and rich in personality. Shane also stated in one of the posts he was selling off some of his watches. He is also known for his collection of dive watches so I thought I would inquire about the Ruhlas with his strap and ask if he had anything else I might be interested in. Shane replied he was selling a nearly new Vixa Sea Power and that was it. The Vixa Nettuno Sea Power is, of course, an Orange dialed diver, and I have a fondness for this dial color above all others. Shortly thereafter (VERY) I was the proud owner of a Vixa Nettuno Professional Sea Power Automatic. Here are the details on this watch.


Specs:

48mm case diameter
Mechanical automatic movement optimized by Vixa, date, 25 jewels (ETA 2824-2)
Extra crown at 9 o'clock blocks the bezel from rotating
200m/660ft water resistant with screw in crown
High grade, solid stainless steel casing
Sapphire crystal/mineral crystal?
Solid case-back
Unidirectional bezel
Black genuine leather band; size 24mm Luminous hands and numerals

When I received the watch, I was pleased to see Shane hadn’t appeared to have used the original Vixa strap and had put the watch on a nice 24mm rubber strap. The Vixa strap is unbelievably supple and buttery sweet. I kept the rubber on as it was summer when I got the watch, and I am a sweaty man. Its all right I know I’m a sweater… I do believe I will hold off on wearing the original until the temperatures around here drop off. That won’t be too very long from now in the part of the world where it stays cold longer than it stays warm. Why do we do it??

This watch is a large 48mm diameter brute with a somewhat pale orange dial and black contrasting bezel over a lightly brushed business like stainless steel case with screw down caseback. The watch also features dual screw down crowns at 3 and 9 o’clock. The crown at 3 o’clock is a signed crown, which sets the 2824-2, and the crown at 9 o’clock locks the unidirectional rotating bezel. This seems practical and easy to operate and enhances the watches overall burliness in my opinion.



At 48mm diameter, this is clearly a large watch, which will be noticed merely for it sheer breadth. This makes for a very evident dial with luminous numerals at the cardinals and luminous circular markers at the remaining hours. The date is at 4 o’clock, which you either love or hate. There is a black chapter ring with 5-minute numerical markings and minute markers. The cardinal numbers receive dots of lume on this ring. The dial’s orange is different from archetypal orange in that it is a touch washed out and reminds me of delicious sherbet. The hand are luminous swords at the hour and minute with the sweeper being a luminous arrow tip with a red edge. The second hand is well executed in my book. The dial branding and lettering are pure joy with another splash of red! Again, I find the dial well executed overall. The lume could be beefed up but is more than adequate to visualize the time and the case back work while pleasant, is certainly underwhelming and perhaps unfitting for a watch of this deportment. There is also confusion in my mind regarding the crystal’s material. I have been told the first run of these had a sapphire crystal and fully engraved case back while later runs had mineral crystals and etched casebacks. Mine would fall into a later run based on this info. I have only heard this from others on boards so if anyone can shine more light please do and I will gladly post an update.

The watches impressive case is water resistant tested to 200m and houses the workhorse ETA 2824-2 movement. For me, this is the standard all automatic watches should aspire to. I am uncertain of how new this watch was or how heavily it was worn, but it has been a bit inconsistent in its timekeeping. The very inconsistency leads me to believe the watch may still be braking in as I have noted less variance over time. The watch is typically +8 to +10 over 24 hours which is not highly accurate in my opinion though it is certainly within respectable limits for an automatic watch.

For being such a large piece, this watch is quite comfortable. It definitely has presence to be the wearer and wearees and has a most respectable heft to it. The Vixa feels sold and reassuring on the wrist and functions well on land and in water. I only learned how hefty this watch was upon trying it on my right wrist, which is unaccustomed to wearing a watch. With the watch in this position, I could truly appreciate the girth of the Sea Power. I must also confess to treating this watch rather poorly having dropped, scraped and bashed it on all means of material without the watch missing a beat of even seeming to think twice. The brute has shrugged off every tribulation I’ve dumped on it and greets me with a sunny disposition.










All in all this is a great watch for me. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it lightheartedly as it requires some thick skin to wear such a brute with dimensions approaching Flava-Flav style. For an avid lover of orange such as me, the Vixa is a good fit.

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