District Time visitors always get to see an amazing selection of watches. Many will buy one or two (or three) before the weekend is over. The luckiest of the bunch will walk away with one for the very appealing price of “free” after winning one of our many giveaways. This year will be no exception and among the various prize watches is the Aquatico Steel Man I am reviewing today.
The Steel Man is not a watch for the timid. This instrument-style diver boasts an aggressively styled, multi-part case, that measures 43.5mm wide, 50mm long, and 15.5 thick. It accepts a 24mm strap because anything else would look spindly in comparison. You might be tempted to compare it to the Bell & Ross BR-03-92 Diver, but aside from the general instrument design with exposed fasteners (a look shared by many others) the two have little in common.
On my 6.75″ wrist, it wears large, but that is entirely the point, isn’t it? You don’t wear something called the Steel Man to a wedding or a funeral. You wear it to explore shipwrecks and punch Great White sharks in their snouts. More likely, you wear it because big, bold divers are fun.
And a diver it is. The Steel Man packs a tough and trouble-free Seiko NH35 automatic movement. The AR-coated sapphire crystal and a glossy ceramic bezel insert should handle their fair share of bumps and bangs without scratching. The bezel is a 120-click unidirectional unit that moves with firm action and is easily grippable, as is the large signed crown. Water resistance is an insane 1000m, which will take you right down through the ocean’s mesopelagic zone. Of course, any watch rated for the mesopelagic zone needs strong lume because very little light penetrates to that depth. Have no fear, because Aquatico has tricked out the Steel Man with T100 tritium lume that generates light by bouncing the electrons emitted from tritium gas off of phosphor. Unlike luminous paint, it requires no light source or charge to get rolling. Eventually, the tritium decays altogether and the light dims, but that process takes decades. The glowing bits that are not T100 on the Steel Man are conventional lume, and there are plenty of them, including the chapter index and all of the engraved markings on the bezel insert. At night, the watch lights up like Times Square. It’s an impressive display.
The case’s multi-part construction is most apparent when viewed from the side so you can appreciate the way the squared plates sandwich the central barrel. Surprisingly for a deep diver, the Steel Man has an exhibition case back, displaying the workmanlike NH35 and its signed rotor.
Aquatico supplies the watch with two straps: 70s-style rubber and rugged brown leather, both with signed buckles. As regular readers know, I am quick to fault brands that ship dive watchers without a properly waterproof strap so the Aquatico wins on that mark. Those same readers also know that I am a hypocrite who wears most of his divers on leather because I like the look and spend 99% of my life on dry land. So, this is a double win in my book.
Speaking of winning, you can order the Steel Man directly from Aquatico for $599, but one lucky soul will walk away with it for free at District Time, and while $599 is fair, free is so much better!
To place an order, head over to AquaticoWatch.com. To try and win this one, visit the District Time Watch Show, March 5-6, 2022 at the District Architecture Center, 421 7th Street NW, Washington, D.C. Open to the public from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.
