The BEST Affordable Retro Diver - San Martin '53

hello and welcome to just one more watch welcome today to my review of a little watch that has made a big impression since it arrived here in sydney last month i think it is fair to say that the entire watch market the whole watch industry therefore has been very much riding the crest of a retro dive watch wave over the last nearly 10 years now when you think about it all of the big swiss players are represented in the marketplace they all have their own contributions trudeau with the black bay range breitling with the super ocean heritage login with the legend diver and of course my own personal favorite the aurus diver 65 a watch that i've owned no less than three of over the last three years that retro vintage look has certainly filtered into the more affordable 1 000 or less end of the market the likes of baltic veer and yema all produce very nice little vintage watches not too many ultra affordables though not too many watches have that retro look for less than 250 us dollars indeed one of the few that i have reviewed on the channel i reviewed about a year ago it was the invicta 1953 fantastic watch for 100 bucks but you still cannot buy one for love nor money that is why i think today's review the san martin 6200 let's just call it the san martin 53 because that is very much the look that they are also going for i think this watch will hit the spot for a lot of people in terms of size in terms of price and in terms of the specifications and the build quality that it offers for the money you saw the pop-up i'm sure this video is sponsored by the san martin official store on aliexpress they sent me the watch for free last month and i do not have to send it back i will therefore leave a link to this watch on their store on aliexpress in the description of the video they're currently retailing for less than 240 us dollars i reckon this watch is worth every single one of those dollars it is beautifully well made it is beautiful to look at and the bracelet is undoubtedly one of the best bracelets i've seen on anything for less than a grand let's flip the camera and have a look at it so what exactly do you get for your 237.60 well if you have purchased a san martin or a chronos or a proxima or even a steel dive before then this little plastic flight case arrangement should look familiar you know there's only a couple of dollars worth here but probably more sensible long term than a cardboard box and ensures that the watch and content arrive to you in good condition and what have we got here we have got a warranty condition and user manual a proper two-year stamped and dated warranty card which is always great to see from a chinese brand little plastic hang tag and as a bonus they have added in a nato strap now bit of a missed opportunity it's a high quality nato i will show you the watch on a nato later on but not this one couple of nice spring bars here as well they could have included a bond nato though because this is essentially a homage to the 1953 rolex submariner as worn by none other than sir sean connery himself as bond in dr no and various other early movies and there you are like i said i think we should call this one the san martin 53 because it is clear that they are going for that early early submariner look interesting though that they have copied some elements of the design but not others the dial patterning the indexes are all identical slightly different bezel different handset though but i'm delighted to see that they have gone for the rivet style bracelet as featured on the original as well now in terms of sizing they have effectively split the difference between the original which was a 36 and a contemporary submariner which is 41 they have gone for 38 mil in diameter just over 13 mil thick super compact 45 and a half mil lug to lug 20 millimeter lug width there is a bit of taper on that rivet bracelet it is just an outstanding bracelet i will show you that in more detail in a minute or two down to 16 so i tapered from 20 down to 16 back up to 18 at the clasp and this one sized up for me i only had to remove one link so i reckon if you are bigger in the wrist than about seven and three quarter inches you might struggle with this one but if you are eight inches or above then maybe a 38 mil wasn't quite what you were looking for sized up for me this one weighs in at 135 grams so it's that slightly smaller slightly lighter style that i thoroughly appreciate all stainless steel construction stainless steel case crown coinage bezel and full stainless steel bracelet piece of double domed box domed sapphire crystal they are very nice kind of vintage touch obviously the original submariner would have had a hesalite acrylic so they're kind of going for that look but with modern materials and we have a ceramic bezel insert 120 click unidirectional rotating dive time coinage bezel bezel action is absolutely fantastic no back plate no bounce at all and everything lines up beautifully when have i said that about a 250 watch from certain other large japanese brands it has been a while has it not and the case finishing i think is fantastic for a 240 watch super super fine brushing on the mid case high polish vintage style crown unguarded it is quite a small crown it's not a super easy crown to grip but the benefit of a small crown is once it's screwed back in very unobtrusive when the watch is on the wrist you've got a longitudinal brush into those upper lugs matching a similar finish on the end link of the bracelet and there is a high polished chamfered edge now it starts off slightly thicker at the bottom end of the lug and then it disappears to nothing when the watch the crown the case the bezel all meet in the middle before then reappearing and doing the same down to the other side of the log a very very nice effect and you can see a very pleasing bit of vintage style distortion from that box domed sapphire to boot let's have a look at the bracelet and check that standard of finishing for seven 237. i have not seen anything like it for the price or quite a few hundred dollars more as mentioned in the intro i have owned three rs65s which have had this rivet style bracelet as well and this is as well finished as any of those have been and they're a thousand us plus so the first three links are unadjustable following those all the other links are adjusted by using two screwdrivers so one on either side and as you can see there a couple of different finishes so high polished ends and a brushed upper surface they're actually separate end pieces so that is a five link bracelet if you see what i mean rather than a three link the clasp is pretty good as well it's got that san martin signature hexagon there the logo etched into it not just stamped on it and four levels of micro adjust double security pusher and it is a proper mill clasp as well overall a seriously seriously nice bracelet perfectly suiting the style of watch and just gorgeous in quality and zero rattle from the end link this whole watch is put together beautifully very very solid feeling let's have a look at the dial i'll chuck in some macro here and clearly they have gone for that 1950s rolex submariner look they have apes the pattern almost exactly that being a large down pointing triangle at 12. three rectangles at the three the six and the nine and small circular indexes everywhere else this dial is just printed there's a minute track around the outer edge all nicely legible san martin logo printed above the pinion now you can get it sterile if you want to and i think for a little bit more money you can get your own custom logo printed if you want to have your name or your favorite football team or whatever the hell you want san martin will do that for you 200 meters 660 feet in nice vintage italic script and automatic printed above the index at six now if i pop the thumbnail back in you can see i must have pulled an old picture of the watch for it they use the word submariner printed on the dial i don't think you get away with that for more than about five minutes and i'm delighted that they changed it to automatic rather than submariner nice handset as well they have gone from mercedes hands something which was missing from the original submariner that had pencil hands instead they've gone for a slightly different lollipop secondhand there is a small counter bounce and a quite a prominent circular lollipop heading out towards that minute track proper dlc coated gold hands nice and cleanly cut as well and plenty of c3 vintage old radium style loom on the hands the indexes and the bezel insert the loom is really quite good it has that lovely rich deep green that you get from c3 old radium if i crank the speed up and we head towards the end of the 20 minute test period you know it's still hanging on in there there's always a bit of a price to be paid for the vintage loom but it is pretty good all round like i said san martin make a good watch there are no weak points here at all including the loom the case back is entirely sterile again very much like a rolex of the 50s or a rolex indeed of 2021 that's what they look like you can see the solid end links on the bracelet there as well or very nicely machined even from the back what that means is if you are a tinkerer if you do want to take the case back off this one at some point to adjust the movement or replace it or whatever you are gonna need a specialist tool fortunately they're not expensive to buy i picked up this header pi set a couple of years ago and it's actually very good it has served me well for all of these unusual rolex intruder style case packs i'll leave a link to that one in the description of the video as well 13 and 90 cents from aliexpress it's not going to cost you a fortune either i'm sure you've probably already had a guess as to what movement lay behind that sterile case back and that guess was the seiko nh35 well give yourself 10 points because you're right i usually say that the average seiko nh35 that i've had through the channel comes in around plus 10 seconds per day this one rather proves my point plus 11 seconds per day healthy amplitude minimal beat error running at 21 600 vibrations per hour these really are the mainstay of the sub 300 end of the watch market 24 joule hacking and hand winding bi-directional winding a couple of sequels goodies like the magic lever system and the diashock anti-shock system they're rugged they're robust they're reliable and above all else they're cheap let's get it on risk because it wears very very sweetly indeed i love the black and gold colors as well super vintage now 38 mil in diameter 45 lug to lug sounds very very compact however the mid length of the end link does protrude but it does point downwards and the fact that it only tapers to 16 and back up to 18 at the clasp means it's a little bulkier than one might have expected given those diameter dimensions and the short lug to lug it sits really really neatly on wrist that domed sapphire crystal adds almost two millimeters if you just took it from the case back to the top of the bezel there's barely 11 mil there it's a very very well proportioned and well fitted little piece this one and that's the overhead shot personally i love i watch this size i've got the smaller aquaterra i've got the sarbo 33 i really appreciate something that's just a little bit smaller and a little bit lighter than your average 40 mil sports watch still pretty legible though it's got those smaller hands and indexes but i don't think that makes it any more difficult to read and i'll chuck in a pocket shot here as well so you can see what it looks like on my seven inch wrist when i'm outside this style of watch that tends to be a bit smaller a bit lighter i tend to wear them a little bit looser as you can see they're a little bit lower a little bit looser still nice and comfortable as i mentioned earlier on that small crown doesn't dig into the wrist at all and that's it outside on wrist lovely lovely finish this thing generally speaking mostly brush but a few polished surfaces notably the edges of the rivet bracelet and those high polished chamfered edges of the watch case sits flat sits flush sits very nicely on my wrist so a great little watch this thing i am enjoying it very much indeed for 240 dollars you know it does a lot right great build quality great looks and i think a great size if you want a retro look then it should be slightly smaller and i think 38 suits it nicely but is it perfect how could it possibly be perfect for 240 dollars did someone order a reflecto meal with a side order of flecto there is a serious amount of flecto coming off of this crystal and also that shiny shiny ceramic bezel insert you know it says there's some anti-reflective coating on the other side of the crystal not that i've noticed and if there is some then there could certainly be more interesting choice that they've gone for a ceramic insert rather than aluminium if they'd gone for aluminium it would have been duller and it would probably have looked a bit more authentic but i would probably have moaned about them for going a bit cheap there as it is you're going to have to get used to a bit of reflection a bit of shine but i think it overall suits the watch the crystal the ceramic bezel insert and the gold shiny hands it works as an overall look the bracelet is lovely as mentioned but given that this is an unashamedly retro piece i think they could have gone two mil narrower meaning the clasp was two mil narrow as well back up to 16 rather than 18. that would certainly have made it a bit more vintagey but it would have made it a bit more delicate as well so i i kind of either or 50 50 on that one i guess and the nato it's a reasonable quality item it's a welcome inclusion therefore to the overall package as are the spring bars but you can't help but feel there's a bit of a missed opportunity there for them to have gone full connery with a bond style nato perhaps that's something they will update the package in future but overall a very very impressive little watch it's handsome well manufactured and very well priced san martin are now seriously ahead above all of the other aliexpress stuff all of the other china direct stuff for less than 300 very very consistent high quality product the invicta may be cheaper it may be half the price of this one but i think this more than justifies the increase in price in terms of the quality the build the manufacture the finishing the sapphire crystal and a bracelet that a lot of five six hundred dollar watches would kill for that's why i think this is the best affordable retro diver you can buy right now so there you have it if you like the retro dive watch look but have a budget of less than 250 us dollars i reckon this is your man there just aren't that many other unashamedly retro dive watches out there for the price and i think this one is fabulous at what it does a couple of moons and niggles here and there it is a bit shiny shiny you're going to have to use deflector because of that domed sapphire crystal and the ceramic bezel insert maybe it could have done with a little bit more taper on the bracelet and clasp but the bracelet is outstanding for the money it is genuinely beautiful fabulous tolerances throughout the watch also thanks for watching i will see you in a future video you

Channel: Just One More Watch

Views: 76,438

Rating: 4.9187818 out of 5

Keywords: san martin 6200 watch, san martin 6200 retro, san martin 6200 review, san martin 6200 watch review, san martin 6200 driver, san martin 1953, san martin sm004, invicta 1953 review, invicta 1953 automatic, invicta 1953 black, invicta 1953 watch, invicta 1953 diver, jomw, just one more watch, best retro dive watch, best budget retro dive watch

Id: A8EkNa6RgGE

Length: 14min 35sec (875 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021