Ocean Diver Watch Blog

Those of you who follow my blog will know that as well as being passionate about everything to do with hiking and backpacking, I am a huge watch geek. I have been into watches for as long as I can remember and my personal collection is pretty significant :)  I'm also an art major specializing in usability and have for the longest time wanted to see my own watch designs put into production. That almost happened last year with my winning watch design going through the engineering process and being turned into a prototype with the intention of going into full production late last year.  Unfortunately it never worked out, for various reasons that I won't go into the original plan of having the watch manufactured in China using Chinese movements didn't work. We were so close... Fast forward to today, and the announcement that the Prometheus Watch Company will be releasing not one but three of my watch designs into full production and they will all be Swiss Made using Swiss move...

So, late last night I drove to my local UPS depot to pick up the Ocean Diver watch prototype that had been expressed shipped to me from the manufacturer. UPS tried to deliver it in the morning but no one was home and rather than wait for Friday (Thursday is Thanksgiving for all you non US folks) I decided to go pick it up. I waited until after the kids were tucked up in bed before opening the package and was so excited I could barley stand it. The watch looks so amazing in person it's hard to describe - seeing my design in the flesh and holding it in my hands was exhilarating and unbelievable at the same time. It's so cool. The pictures don't really do it justice, but here's a bunch I took today just because I could :)

Amos, the watch manufacturer, has just sent me and the Prometheus brand owner a series of pictures of the fully assembled Ocean Diver prototype. He's also express shipped us both one of the prototypes shown in these pictures which should arrive Thursday or Friday - not sure because Thanksgiving holiday is Thursday. I'm told I'll be getting the prototype with the polished case back, which was finished that way by mistake - the final versions will all have brushed case backs to match the finish of the rest of the watch body.  There are some other small details that are being adjusted before production so these pictures should not be considered final - there just to show how the assembled watch will look. I love it! Of course I'm biased as I designed the watch, but it's hard not to get excited about seeing your own design put into production and be so incredibly well accepted and desired by serious watch collectors. We just received our first request from a watch deal...

Front and back views of the complete watch :)

Here is the first picture of the fully assembled (but unfinished) Ocean Diver prototype. There's quite a bit of work remaining to be done and all of the parts have to be carefully finished/polished and cleans before final assembly - but this at least shows all the pieces put together :)

It's still going to be another couple of weeks before a full prototype of my Ocean Diver will be ready, but below is an early picture of the main components assembled to show how it will look. I know I'm bias but I don't mind saying it's a nice looking watch :) Excuse the poor picture quality...

I've just received the first pictures of the actual dial of my Ocean Diver watch design. It looks amazing and if you look closely you can see a huge amount of luminous material on the hour numbers and indicies. This bad boy is going to light up a room with all that lume! We've used the same luminous material that Seiko uses on its dive watches. Here's a picture of the internal rotating bezel. Notice how the 12 o'clock hour marker have luminous material applied. I can't wait to see how the watch looks when it is completely assembled with hands and day/date dials. Getting closer to having that first prototype ready :)