The world of ultra-deep dive watches is steadily expanding as more and more brands achieve astonishing water resistance ratings. While old guard like Rolex and Omega still lead the pack, they do tend to have a fittingly hefty price tag. But then there’s Oceaneva, who have been making these 6,000m+ dive watches almost worryingly accessible. Now they’re pushing the boat out further by introducing the Deep Marine Explorer VI 6000m GMT, the first dual time 6,000m diver.
I’ve already been hands-on with the standard Deep Marine Explorer VI 6000m so opening up the peli style case of the GMT edition is like re-encountering an old friend. It bears the same large proportions that are necessary to accommodate that heavy duty water resistance, measuring 44mm in diameter with a thickness of 19.4mm at its thickest point to the top of the sapphire crystal. Thankfully being made from titanium, it doesn’t weigh a ton meaning you don’t have to be Superman to wear it, though it wouldn’t hurt either.
Naturally the key update to this edition is the addition of the bi-directional 24-hour bezel paired with the central GMT hand. While it’s not as traditional as the favoured immersion timer bezel, GMT complications are probably one of the more common additions to dive watches because of the travel that is often involved in visiting the world’s best diving spots. It helps you keep track of multiple time zones so you can centre yourself on the global stage and don’t accidentally call your family when its 3am back home. The ceramic bezel here has a wide grip that makes it easy to rotate without feeling loose, letting you calculate many time zones with ease.
Another use of GMT functions on tool watches is that they can serve as day-night indicators when you don’t spend time in natural light. That functionality is more traditionally associated with adventure watches and cave exploration which the Oceaneva would also be suitable for. Though another example would be saturation diving, where you can spend up to a month in pressurised environments in order to carry out professional underwater work such as research or engineering projects. I can only imagine how difficult tracking the days is when the most sun you get is through its watery glare above you.
For the dial, there are a range of colours available but the version I have here is the light blue. It’s a nice colour that gives the watch a bright quality as opposed to the seriousness of traditional blacks or the more involved gradient options. The layout with its circular hour markers, coated with lume of course, and Mercedes hour hand pays homage to the design of legendary dive watches from the 1960s, more evidently the Rolex Submariner. Though with a price tag a third of the Submariner (even less in pre-order) and a water resistance rating 20 times greater, the value of the Oceaneva is beyond question.
For the movement, Oceaneva have opted for the Miyota 9075, an automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve and an accuracy of -10/+30 seconds per day. It’s also what is known as a true GMT, which means you can adjust the hour hand of local time without altering the rest of the time display, making it easier to change time zones without tediously resetting the entire thing.
It’s presented on a tough FKM rubber strap, which is the current industry standard for waterproof straps, being both comfortable to wear and impervious to water. It has an oversize tang buckle that matches the broad dimensions of the watch. On slim wrists it can look almost comical but put it on the wrist of a Dwayne Johnson sized chap and suddenly it all makes sense.
We already mentioned that it offers great value so what is the actual pricing? At pre-sale it’s just £620 with a full retail of £2,945. At this point it’s honestly hard to be surprised by Oceaneva’s pricing despite how mad it looks on paper because the value is crazy across the entire brand. At first it was easy to assume it was all too good to be true; by now, it’s somehow par for Oceaneva’s incredibly accessible course.
Price and Specs:
More details at Oceaneava.
