Sottomarino Siluro Quartz Chronograph Watch Review

I would Ike to thank Bahnstormer_vRS (Guy) of the Christopher Ward Forum for providing this watch for review. At the time of writing, this watch is on sale at Precision Time, for the great price of $111. Grab it while you can! We’ll take a look into why this is such a great deal.

http://precisiontimeco.com/watches/sottomarino/sm70112-c

The case

The first thing you notice is the sheer size of this beast. It measures at 47mm without crown, and 56mm including the crown guard. The case is 12mm deep. The second thing you notice is the oversized crown guard, which is a little different to usual ones you see, and is tastefully done. It keeps with the overall stealth / tool styling of the watch. The crown is push/pull, not screw in. It has the Sottomarino logo embossed on the end, which is nice and deep and adds to the quality appearance of the watch.

The case has Sottomarino engraved on the left side (and looks much classier than for instance Invicta).

It is completely brushed marine grade 316L stainless steel, bar the sides of the chrono buttons being polished. It has a 200m water resistance rating, so it should be ok to take a dip and not worry about it.

The case back is nicely designed, with contrasting polished and matt finishing. The text is lightly etched.

On the website it says that it is a mineral crystal, yet on the case back it says “fused sapphire crystal”. Confusing! But I would go by what’s on the watch.

The dial

The dial is a matt off-black (very dark grey) with subtle slightly lighter grey printing (which is all flawless). It is a sandwich dial, that being that the numbers are cut out of the dial, and the lume is on a lower layer. This adds subtle depth to a very understated dial. I think the number font used is great – very unique, and looks very cool, yet is so legible.

The date wheel and window also add to the design theme of subtle stealth, with a slight grey border around the window and the date wheel itself being grey with white text.

The lume is reasonable, it is reactive to light and charges well, but doesn’t glow insanely bright or last a massive amount of time. However, it is noticeably better than some other watches so I’d say that it is better than average.

The hands are designed in a minimalist fashion and are flawless. The hour / minutes hands are batons with lumed centres.

The big second hand and the subdial hands are thin arrows, with the big seconds hand having a nice counter balance.

The dial also has a nice subtle minute track on outside of dial/on the rehaut. There are light grey markings for the first 20 minutes then every 5. Again, very subtle, but you can notice it and it is another nice little design feature.

The movement

The movement used is the solid, dependable and bulletproof Miyota OS20. The 12 hour dial on the left has not been used to keep the watch face minimal. What can you say about this movement? Long battery life, solid, and pretty darn accurate. The top subdial is chrono minute counter, the bottom dial is the running seconds, and the big seconds hand is the chrono seconds. Let’s move on!

The strap

The strap is made of nice thick black leather, and it is obvious that it is good quality when you feel it and wear it. It is very soft and supple, and is easy to wear. However, the thickness does mean that it is a little tricky to take the strap on and off, but this is a minor annoyance.
It has a decent quality brushed stainless steel buckle, with the logo etched on the top face of it (it could have slightly deeper etching).

Coupled with the thick strap is the just as thick loops. These could have been left behind in quality, but they are of similar heft to the strap itself, and adds to the feeling of security when you are wearing it.

There is very thick off-white creamy stitching, which matches the numbers on the dial perfectly and carries the only light aspect of the watch through.

Final comments

The Sottomarino Siluro is a watch that offers something a little bit different. Of course, the size will put off many people. But for those who are interested in it’s looks, are happy with a 47mm watch with very thick leather strap (others will notice it when it’s on) I would recommend it. I especially like the fact that it is a very different design to the majority of the watches out there, and at the price that it is, is genuinely is a great amount of watch for the money.