I have had a passion for watches ever since my Grandad and I looked through the window of a Rolex dealership when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I distinctly remember wondering how they managed to get the drop of water to hover over the date window without it falling off. (That was a Rolex GMT Root Beer if my memory serves me right).
As a child of the 70’s, I witnessed the ‘quartz revolution’ - yearning for, and eventually getting, an LED quartz watch. Oh the joy! Oh the very short lived joy! Many MANY watches later, I now have a small collection of favourites (mostly anyway) and the bug has got me again. I went and bought the Steeldive Tuna. My first watch purchase in a couple of years at least.
Steeldive appear to specialise mostly in Seiko homages. I personally don’t consider these as fakes for a couple of reasons listed below:-
They’re not pretending to be something they’re not - they use their own branding or alternatively offer a sterile dial version.
They’re far better made than any fake/replica I have come across.
They stand by their product - offering proper customer protection.
I recently acquired a Seiko Willard copy (not quite sure if the make - definitely not Steeldive though). The Willard definitely had the Seiko Nh35 movement fitted and I was extremely impressed with the superb timekeeping (about +2 per day). I've been looking at the Steeldive range for some time now - not being able to decide between the Tuna, Willard or the MM300 homages. Eventually I decided on the Tuna.
I was really worried that this watch would look utterly stupid in the flesh - well I was wrong. This was looks utterly superb and I have been totally smitten by the look. On the wrist the watch really does remind me of my old Gen 1 Seiko Black Monster. A watch I've always regretted selling (well that's actually true of pretty much all the watches I've sold in the past).
Having never owned a Seiko Tuna (the closest I've got is the Black and Orange Monsters) I really can't compare the Steeldive to the Seiko it's emulating. Up front I can say that the finish on the Steeldive can't compare with the original Seiko. Whilst still representing excellent value for money, the Steeldive does have a few sharp edges - especially on the bracelet. At the end of the day, I think that this is perhaps the most obvious difference between the Steeldive and the Seiko.
Obviously the Seiko's have other features that are going to be missing from the Steeldive. Their 'L-Shaped' crystal gasket, mono case, crown gaskets, etc, clearly show what Seiko bring to the table to account for their significantly additional cost. All said and done though, the Steeldive isn't just a simple cosmetic copy (that is often the case with Rolex replicas - don't even consider getting them wet). I'm confident that you can get the Steeldive wet - utterly soaked in fact. It’s only fair to point out that the Steeldive presents excellent value for money because it comes supplied with both the stainless steel and rubber-style straps along with an additional set of spring bars and a spring bar tool. All this wrapped in a plastic waterproof case.
Rough edges aside (and trust me, they’re not really that bad), everything else about the watch is top class. The first thing that you’ll probably notice is the lume. It’s fabulous! What’s more, the lume extends to the bezel - this is a really nice touch. Likewise the crystal is a proper sapphire one with a slight dome. The crystal also features a mild anti-reflective coating (on the inside thank goodness) which does definitely help with unwanted reflections. There are several videos on YouTube which clearly show that the crystal measures as sapphire so I have no reason to doubt it.
Regarding accuracy, it’s early days yet, but the Steeldive Tuna appears to run at about 4 seconds slow per day (with the watch being worn). This is more than acceptable for an automatic movement and it's always nice to see an inexpensive movement offering this kind of performance. The date wheel takes some time to change - not offering the instant change offered by the Swiss ETA movement (and Omega and Rolex of course). The NH35 offers hacking and hand winding which definitely helps maintain a degree of accuracy and the hand winding is one of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced on any watch - regardless of the price. I really like this movement and it appears to work well on a wide variety of different watch styles. It has a definite vintage vibe to it which works well with the assorted Steeldive watches. These inexpensive Seiko movements are real workhorses and generally don’t require a service for at least 10 years (although many operate perfectly fine for 2 or even 3 times that long). The real beauty of these movements is that they’re so inexpensive, you may be better off simply dropping a new movement into the watch rather than have it serviced. To each their own.
I have had experience with replica watches - they're definitely designed to replicate top-end watches - but only on a visual level. Their capabilities, movements and overall feel definitely betray their inexpensive and dodgy origins. Steeldive offer a much higher degree of performance in their designs. Whilst I highly doubt that the Steeldive Tuna Emperor could withstand 1000m depths - likewise I strongly suspect that the regular Steeldive Tuna would struggle to withstand 300m of water resistance. Truth be told though I have no evidence to the contrary either. I would absolutely love it if someone out there could prove me wrong on this.
This is an excellent watch. That's it. There's really not much more to say. For the money, it represents superb value for money. It’s a very honourable homage to some of the nicest Seiko’s out there. Whilst some think that these are even better than the originals thanks to their modern movements, outstanding lume and the use of sapphire crystal rather than Seiko’s Hardlex - I personally don’t think so. The slight roughness to some edges and the inexpensive bracelets tend to prove otherwise. These things can be effectively resolved though if you wanted to and at the end of the day the Steeldive Tuna is an extremely impressive watch and a bargain to boot.