Watch Reviews
Honest watch opinions about watches we love, hate, and all those in-between.
Nodus Sector Deep: The Most Capable Nodus Diver Ever?
Looking back, it’s no secret that we’re big fans of Nodus here at TBWS. We’ve held them up several times as one of the few modern boutique brands that offer affordable, well-built watches while building upon a shared design language. It’s a hard thing to do as a smaller watch startup. But somehow Nodus has managed to pull it off. “It looks like a Nodus” is something I’ve caught myself thinking in a few attempts at watch-spotting during meet-ups and watch shows. And often times I’ve been right. Watches like the Contrail, the Duality, and the new Retrospect III all share something visually in common, while serving the collector’s market as very different watches. That’s why I got excited when Wes from Nodus mentioned they’d soon be releasing a badass 500m destro-orientation diver, called the Nodus Sector Deep. Shortly after handing me a prototype in NYC last year, I knew I’d have to get one in to photograph and review. The Deep is what Nodus refers to as the “deepest diving iteration” of their Sector series—a growing family of watches with a shared midcase and design philosophy spanning everything from GMTs to simple field watches. The idea was to push the series to its absolute limits with a highly functional dive watch sporting some serious specs. It’s ambitious but judging from my brief period with the watch, I think they nailed it. And after its official release today it’s a safe bet that this may easily become the most popular watch in that series. At least that’s my prediction. I may just be cheesing hard over how cool it is, so bear with me. Case One of the first things you might notice about the Nodus Sector Deep is that its case and bracelet are fully bead-blasted for a tool-ish…
TBWS Watch Reviews: What To Expect
What are our watch reviews all about? Honesty and real-world insights. We’re watch lovers first which means we always try and conduct reviews from the viewpoint of an actual normal person’s wearing perspective. We generally don’t cover watches that are ridiculously overpriced or just not accessible to real, down to earth watch folk like us. We specifically focus on affordable watch reviews because that’s what we’ve always wanted more of in the watch blog world.
Watch reviews are generally conducted and broken down into focusing on 4 parts of a timepiece.
Watch Reviews in 4 Parts:
- The Case
- The Dial
- The Strap/Bracelet
- The Movement
After-which we round out our review with an overall perspective on the watch. Please check out the sections below detailing how we approach each section of the review.
The Case:
Design and real-world wearability are huge factors for us in how we conduct watch reviews. That’s why we start with the case. We always try and focus on the intersection (and sometimes the divergence) between how a watch case looks and how it actually wears on the wrist. We also critique the overall quality of finishing, which is becoming something watch folks are looking for more of in affordable watch reviews.
The Dial:
This is traditionally where the visual impact of the watch occurs. But what makes a watch dial aesthetically and functionally successful? That’s one of the main things we explore with out watch reviews. A dial isn’t just about the colors – it’s about how the brand decided to balance all the interior dial elements in relation to each other. Our watch reviews tend to focus on digging deep into the symmetry and asymmetry of what makes a dial visually successful (whether the aim of the watch is to be aesthetically pleasing, functional, or both).
The Strap/Bracelet:
As watch blogs have evolved scrutiny of straps and bracelets has increased. That’s because traditionally pulling back on quality in this area has been a cost-cutting measure which inevitably impacts the consumer in most circumstances. That’s why TBWS focuses so heavily on straps/bracelets in our watch reviews. Breaking down the materials, construction, changeability, and overall aesthetics, a TBWS watch review will offer a holistic perspective on what to expect with a timepiece’s strap/bracelet.
The Movement:
Rarely seen but impossible to live without. In traditional watch reviews movements never received too much attention. But as consumers begin to become more and more curious about every aspect of what they’re spending their hard earned money on, attention on what makes a watch tick has increased. That’s why we dedicated an appropriate portion of our watch reviews to focusing on a timepiece’s movement. Whether it’s a mechanical or quartz mechanism, the TBWS watch blog appreciates all movement types and is dedicated to offering an authentic opinion on both the movement itself and how it’s actually utilized and featured by the watch brand. Plus, we’re movement geeks. So we love talking about this stuff.
If you have any questions about how we conduct watch reviews please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. And be sure to check out our weekly watch podcast!