It’s been a busy stretch for Yema, with the brand steadily building out its catalog of in-house powered dive watches at prices that keep getting harder to ignore. The latest release is the Navygraf Phantom CMM.10, a fully blacked-out version of the Navygraf that leans into a more tactical aesthetic without straying too far from the line’s vintage-leaning DNA.
At first glance, this feels like Yema testing how much darker the Navygraf can get before it loses what makes it a Navygraf. The case, bezel, dial, and H-link bracelet all wear a black IP coating, and the brushing on the case is pronounced enough that it should help mask the kind of micro-scratching that black coatings tend to broadcast over time. The 38mm case stays true to the line’s sub-vintage proportions, and the 11mm thickness keeps it on the slimmer side for a 300m diver. A screw-down crown with Yema’s “Y” engraving sits inside a proper crown guard, and the sapphire caseback shows off the in-house movement.
The dial is where the Phantom keeps a foot in familiar Yema Navygraf territory. The yellow accents on the handset and dial details remain, and a white minute track frames the perimeter to keep things legible against the otherwise monochrome backdrop. Super-LumiNova handles the low-light duties with a teal glow, and the double-domed sapphire crystal adds the kind of subtle distortion you’d expect from a watch that wants to feel a little vintage even when it’s dressed in stealth mode. The unidirectional bezel uses a sandblasted black ceramic insert with the 60-minute scale presented in relief, which is a nice touch at this price.
Powering the watch is the in-house Caliber CMM.10, running at 4Hz with a 70-hour power reserve. That spec sheet is the part of this release that’s hardest to argue with. Yema has been pushing the CMM.10 across more of its catalog, and seeing it land in a 38mm tactical diver under $2,100 with the kind of materials Yema is using here continues a trajectory the brand has been on for a few years now. Whether the long-term reliability of the caliber matches the spec sheet is a question that’ll only get answered with time on wrists.
The bracelet is one detail worth flagging. It’s an integrated H-link with four micro-adjustment positions, and Yema notes that those adjustments require a tool. That’s not a dealbreaker, though on a 300m diver where wrist size can shift over a long day, on-the-fly adjustment is something I’ve come to expect at this price. Several competitors in the same territory have moved toward toolless systems.
The bigger question is where the Phantom fits inside Yema’s increasingly crowded Navygraf lineup, and whether a fully blacked-out execution finds an audience that the brighter variants haven’t already pulled in. It’s limited to 200 pieces and lands at $2,090, with shipping, taxes, and duties bundled into the price. That’s not a huge run, so the market will sort that out quickly enough. For now, it’s another data point in Yema’s ongoing argument that an in-house caliber at this price isn’t supposed to be possible.
Co-Founder & Senior Editor
Michael Peñate is an American writer, photographer, and podcaster based in Seattle, Washington. His work typically focuses on the passage of time and the tools we use to connect with that very journey. From aviation to music and travel, his interests span a multitude of disciplines that often intersect with the world of watches – and the obsessive culture behind collecting them.