InvictaPro Diver - SCUBA Stainless Steel Men's Quartz Watch - 45mm

Superb watch, I now have these Pro Diver watches in four different styles! They are my favourite watches in my collection for looks, size and reliability. In total I now own 7 Invicta watches and love them!

Good on the eye and looks good..

I have to be honest and say that I have never heard of the brand Invicta before getting this watch, but having done some research now I realise that the company is very well established, over 100 years old and is privately owned and funded. Invicta use materials that are traditionally found in only high end watch at high end prices.Having looked at their website they have a HUGE range of watches to match any taste and style and they also have a collectors club which offers rewards for collectors.This watch is lovely, really heavy and feels AND looks fantastic. It comes in a gorgeous yellow watch box, complete with instructions, warranty and club membership details. The box makes it look something special even before you open it.My husband and I are both divers, so this pro watch will be great as it will match up to the demands of depth / water / pressure. The bezel dial is very positive in feel and does not feel like it could accidentally move - essential for diving.It has a lovely fell to the strap, I love the matt/gloss appearance and the overall look of this watch. I am not going to repeat the technical details on the product information, but what I will say is that this watch looks and feels like it should cost a lot more than it actually does.It is classy, expensive looking, expensive feeling, sturdy, heavy and has great features. It will make a lovely gift without breaking the bank.

When I unpacked this watch in its bright yellow box, my initial impressions were good; it comes with a polishing cloth and a smart little instruction manual and warranty. Unfortunately I liked the watch less after spending some time (hah!) with it. The first puzzle was that the manual is generic and doesn’t altogether apply to this specific watch. It has sections for chronograph with big date and day, and chronograph with day, date and month; but this is a chronograph with a small date only.This is perhaps why there is a scruffy folded sheet included entitled “Operation – VD 57B”. The code refers to the movement, which is made by Hattori, a brand of Seiko. You can look this up on the web; it is Japan-made and quite inexpensive.Of course the movement is only a small part of the cost of the watch, but you should not consider this a high-end watch, despite the high recommended retail price. In fact, it is widely discounted by 80% and more, so this is one of those items which looks like a great deal because you are getting such a big discount from full retail, but in fact nobody buys it at full retail. That does not make it a bad buy as such, provided you don’t pay too much, but I don’t like this kind of marketing.The next thing I noticed is that this watch, which has a case made of stainless steel, is really heavy. I made it 185g, though this will go down a little if you have to remove a few links from the bracelet. I am not clear why Invicta made it so solid; it is not necessary for water resistance. Maybe the weight is reassuring for some.Talking of the links, one of the first things I look for is how to shorten the bracelet. Sometimes there is a free service where you mark the required size and return it; sometimes the advice is just to take it to a jeweller. In this case, there is no advice at all. Searching the vendor’s site I did find a comment to the effect of, do it yourself if you have a band resizing kit, or take it to a shop. Fair enough I guess, but there are several types of bracelet and if you are going the DIY route it is helpful to know a few more details.The next thing I noticed is that the design of the watch is not that great for reading the time. The hands have a kind of wire frame design with a luminous pointer on the end. The watch face is quite busy, with three chronograph dials and chunky, shiny hour indicators, and it is just not as clear as most watches.Another little design issue: the date indicator shows three numbers, with the central one being the one you want. So why make the little window so big that it shows yesterday and tomorrow as well?A few notes on features. There is a rotating bezel that lets you align a luminous pointer with the minute hand, so you can then read the minutes elapsed at a glance. Handy for diving of course (this is a “Pro Diver” watch), and a simple alternative to the chronograph for when you don’t need a super-accurate timer.There is also a chronograph, with three dials. The upper one measure tenths of a second, the lower dial seconds, and the middle-left dial minutes. You can therefore use this as a stop watch for times up to 60 minutes. Operation is the usual thing of pressing the top button (A) to start and stop, and the lower button (B) for reset. You can also measure accumulated time and split time by pressing different combinations of A and B. There is an annoyance though. If you use the chronograph to measure say 45 minutes of time elapsed, then reset, it appears that the second hand dial has to rotate once for every minute when resetting. This means the reset can take a relatively long time, which could be a nuisance in some scenarios.There is also a tachymeter scale, for calculating speed, along the inside rim of the watch. The markings are tiny and hard to read.In the manual is information about a one year warranty which according to another leaflet in the case can be extended by a year when you register. It's a bit confusing though, since the information in the manual relates to the US warranty. Follow the link on the leaflet though, and you get to the European service site. It looks like we get better terms in Europe, since we get a two-year warranty that can be extended to three years. Note that consumer rights in the UK mean you always have the option of going back to the retailer. I was concerned by the warranty terms in the manual that say “in the rare circumstance that your watch cannot be repaired due to market availability of key components, Invicta reserves the right to replace the timepiece for a model of the same or lesser value”. Lesser value? But again, maybe that does not apply in Europe.I am not keen on this watch then, having said which you do get a (very) solid watch and chronograph that is specified for 100m water resistance and looks quite impressive with its black and silver finish. The "flame fusion" glass looks hard-wearing. If you can live with the annoyances mentioned above, and if the price is right, it could be a reasonable buy. I don’t see many actual pro divers lining up for this one though.

NOTE: Star rating is dependent on the price at time of review, which was £239. Other versions of watch are on Amazon at £89, which would increase the rating to a four star.Invicta are a popular brand in the US that is mostly sold through television shopping channels; it's products are generally well made, solid and use mainstream but decent components. In this case, it's a chunky, divers watch in a thick black finish. Thick and generous is a theme here; the case is 13mm deep and sits high on your wrist, the strap meanwhile has what feels like a really deep paint finish over the stainless steel. I suspect you'll get a good couple of years of sustained wear before it shows too much thinning.The face is black and silver and though busy is well delineated; with a consistent styling that is quite attractive. The whole watch hangs together stylistically - it's a big, mostly black chunkathon, goes well with casual or smart wear as a result.Internally; the movement is a Seiko sub-brand and a perfectly good part. The face features mineral glass that has been finished with a layer of what Invicta calls 'Flame-Fusion', which gives the face a slightly harder and less reflective performance than standard mineral glass alone. It's essentially a halfway house between standard mineral glass and sapphire crystal. When the watch is available at the discounted price the flame-fusion compromise is fine; at £289 it's not really up to snuff.The packaging is almost comically over the top; you get a wildly styled yellow box covered in faux-leather that features waves and ridges over the top; inside is suede-like fabric housing the watch on a large similarly covered pill. There is a pretty poor manual and a card for Club Invicta; an organisation the benefits of membership for which I could not fathom. But if you're giving this watch as a gift then it has a lot of wow-factor in the packaging.Overall; at sub-£100 this is a chunky, nicely finished watch that will give years of solid service.