Today we are looking at the Retro Diver from San Martin. This watch is a homage of a few watches and basically takes little bits from a number of dive watches that where produced in the 1950’s.
More importantly, this watch is similar to the watch worn by Sean Connery in Dr No. While this watch has the look and feel of Bonds watch, it is not a direct rip off, making it pretty appealing homage to many who have this watch as their grail watch.
The popularity of the San Martin retro dive watch is also helped by the fact that the original bond watches are worth about £100k these days, so it’s not exactly possible for everyone to get their hands on one. This San martin watch is excellent and really gives you that feel of a vintage Bond diver.
(You can read more about – Buying A Homage Of Your Grail Watch)
Model – SN004-G. V1.
The model is the SN004-G. V1.
I believe these are a few more versions now, with little changes being made to each new version.
One of the newer versions comes with a more brown/leather looking dial. If you look at some of the original wacthes, their dials are this sort brown colour from years of aging, so that is cool they have tried to copy that look. This watch is trying to give you the look of a watch that is 70 years old, rather than a new watch, that has a design from 70 years ago.
The watch is quite small at 38mm across, which is the perfect size for watches from the 1950s. It also comes with a faux patina, to make it look older than it is and weighs 140g. It also still has the modern benefits of 200m water resistance and a sapphire crystal.
Brand
San Martin are a Chinese watch company that sell predominantly on AliExpress since 2019. They mainly focus on budget homages, especially dive watches, but they have recently been producing some of their own designs.
Of the many Aliexpress watch brands, San Martin has one of the best reputations. Their watches are always very well finished and are high quality.
(You can read more about – Are San Martin Watches Any Good?)
Movement
Inside this vintage diver is the popular and reliable NH35 automatic movement, which is made by Japanese watch maker Seiko.
This movement does have a date function, which the dial does not show, so unfortunately there is a ghost position which can annoy some people, but really it is a rather minor detail.
Fully wound this watch is going to last 41 hours and have an accuracy of -20/+40 a seconds a day. However, I have found that it runs pretty accurately. I haven’t got a timegrapher, but I can tell it is well within the factory expectations.
(You can read more about – Will The NH35 Movement Last Long-Term?)
Dial
The dials on San Martins are usually their weakest point and I feel this watch is the same. While there is nothing wrong with this dial, it just doesn’t blow me away.
The dial is black, but it is quite dull black. This does help to make it feel slightly more vintage and faded, so maybe I shouldn’t be too harsh.
The hour markers are printed on and are that typical dive watch shape with a mixture of dots and batons and a triangle at the 12. There is also a track of minute markers around the outer edge. (I have seen they have started doing applied indices on some watches and this looks amazing, far better than the printed, but again maybe the printed adds to the vintage look)
San Martin have had a hard time choosing a logo to stick with recently, but they have gone with the right option on this watch. The font is some sort of cursive style and I think it works perfectly and I am glad that they didn’t slap their modern looking hexagon logo on this watch.
The lower half of the watch has 200m – 660ft and Automatic below this. This is fairly standard and I think it works well.
The hands are also the classic Mercedes hands and lollypop second hand that you would expect to see form this style of watch.
There is one version of this watch available, where the hands are the straight style, which was actually seen on some of the early dive watches, so if you get this version it is still pretty accurate as a 1950s homage
The most interesting part of this dial is that colour of everything. Instead of crisp white, everything is sort of yellow/brown. This is to replicate the look of aging. Watches from the 1950s (that this watch is homaging) all now have this yellowy colour from years of natural aging and patina.
This faux patina is okay. There are times I look at the watch and it just seems yellow and like fake. This is usually in direct bright light. However, when it’s a little darker, I glance down and it just looks like an old watch and like that patina is natural and supposed to be that colour.
Bezel
The bezel is a black 120 click, unidirectional ceramic bezel. It has the classic dive style minute track starting with a lumed triangle at the 12.
It feels good in the hand and mine has zero back play, if anything its maybe a little stiff.
Crystal
San Martin have treated us to a sapphire crystal, but more importantly, it’s domed. This really helps with the vintage look and feel.
Crystals on the original style of watches where usually acrylic and would scratch a lot, having the modern strength of a sapphire is just a delight. You really get the best of both worlds by getting the great vintage look without the risk of scratches.
Case
The case is made from stainless steel and is 38mm wide, 46mm lug to lug and 13mm thick and has a 20mm lug width.
As you can see at 38mm this is quite a small watch, which again keeps in character with the original watches it is homaging.
The case has a brushed finishing and overall the finishing is wonderful on this watch. The crown also has a screw down crown which helps give it 200m of water resistance. The crown also the ‘S’ logo, which San Martin where trying out for a while. It doesn’t really bother me, but I know some people hate this logo as it kind of looks like a dollar sign.
The case back is just plain screw down case with no markings.
Lume
The lume isn’t actually too bad. You will find that when a watch has the more “aged colouring” effect the lume isn’t as good, but this watch isn’t too bad.
There is lume on all 3 hands, the hour markers and there is a lumed pip on the bezel.
Strap
The watch is issued with an oyster style bracelet. My intention was to remove it and just wear the watch on a nato, just like Mr. Bond. However, the bracelet is awesome.
It’s brushed with the very outer edge and sides being high polished. It also has solid end links and is just a very nice fitting bracelet. The clasp is really decent, but has the San Martin hexagon logo… yes that’s 3 different logos on the one watch! However, it doesn’t really bother me.
Removing the links was a nightmare. They are held in place with two screws and you are given two screw drivers with the watch. The idea is that you take a screw driver in both hands and then twist one, while holding the other steady. This should give you enough torque to undo the screws. I really struggled with this. Some of the links where fine, but there were two that just didn’t want to budge. I ended up scratching the area around these screws as they kept slipping. I think I used different screw drivers in the end and I remember by fingers/hands hurt from cramp from gripping so hard.
This should have been easy, but it was a nightmare. Luckily when I did finally get the bracelet adjusted it was the perfect size.
I have since been wearing the watch on the classic bond Nato, but I have also worn it on more modern style bond Nato strap and even back on the bracelet. I honestly can’t decide which one I like the most.
Price
I paid £152 for the watch. It can often be a little more but I waited and picked this up in the 11.11 Aliexpress sale to get a better deal. Often it is better to be a little patient and wait for a sale. They happen pretty regularly so you won’t have to wait too long.
(You can read more about – Is Buying A Watch From Aliexpress Legit?)
Overall Opinion
I absolutely love this watch. I was a little hesitant at first, but after watching a lot of YouTube reviews on this watch and San Martin in general, I knew my money would be well spent with them.
What I paid for this watch and what I got really do not match up …and by that I mean I feel like I should have paid a lot more for this watch. Everything about it has been executed excellently and has equally, if not passed the quality of watches that are demanding a higher price.
I cannot recommend this watch highly enough. I know I will never own the real Bond watch and that’s okay. I am really happy with version.
(You can read more about – Should You Collect Homage Watches?)
Ian is the main writer at Horology Dream and is a lover all things watch related.
He has been a watch collector for over a decade and brings his knowledge and experience to this site to help you on your own watch collecting journey.
You can connect with him on Social media and talk anything watches or read more about him on his Author Page.
