Last year SPHAERA burst onto the watch scene with their inaugural timepiece, the Desk Diver. It was a watch dedicated to the time-honoured tradition of wearing your diving style timepiece ‘from the boardroom to the beach’ (if not necessarily underwater). Now, they’ve launched their follow-up collection, called the Epoch, which takes everything good about the Desk Diver and turns it up to eleven.
On the surface, both versions of the Epoch, the Sport and the Classic, bear a strong aesthetic similarity to their predecessor. They feature a similar stainless steel case with stepped levels leading up from a bead-blasted base to a vertically brushed bezel with visible screws. It’s also the same size at a diameter of 40.5mm and a 12mm height including sapphire glass. However, the Epoch Sports’ case has some notable updates including the addition of raised crown guards and most importantly of all, 200m water resistance. The Epoch Classic goes without the new guards but updates to the gaskets and lugs also give it the improved water resistance.
The jump from 100m to 200m water resistance is huge because it means the watch can actually survive exposure to water for a decent period of time. While the Desk Diver is suitable from the boardroom to the beach, the SPHAERA Epoch can go even further and get into the waves. It really helps to emphasise the sporty aspects of the watch and is a major improvement in terms of raw specs.
Speaking of sportiness, let’s focus in on the Epoch Sport Monochrome. As its name suggests, it has a clean monochrome design with a black sandwich dial and white lume emphasising a cool, streamlined appearance. Its counterpart is the Epoch Classic Rusty, offering a fun twist on the design. It has a neo-vintage aesthetic with an artificially aged look provided by a textured slate grey dial, brushed brass hour and seconds hands and dark grey ‘rusted’ screws in its case.
These stylistic differences are also expressed through the straps they’re presented on. The Monochrome Sport comes on a Hirsch hybrid strap with Caoutchouc core and black recycled PET ocean sailcloth top. Then, the Classic Rusty is on a handmade vintage waxed leather strap with the brown colour pairing nicely with the faux rusted elements of the piece.
Powering both versions of the SPHAERA Epoch is the STP 1-21, an automatic movement with a 40-hour power reserve. It’s a solid movement and a rival to the Sellita SW200-1, which is apt because both movements are essentially clones of the ETA 2824-2. The calibre is protected by a screw down steel caseback.
I was a fan of the original Desk Diver and the Epoch series builds on that foundation in great fashion. The watches have better specifications, a more robust design and are in general more confident. Which is something that can be seen through the willingness to explore alternative styles. There’s a lot of details you could fall in love with, especially as the price of £1,355 makes them solid value.
Price and Specs:
More details at SPHAERA.
