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Out of interest, what is the go-to small diver at around £1k? Seems like a tough price point where punters expectations will be high a but a manufacturer will have very little room for margin or compromise.
Howard-
I'd go Squale
because scoble has onefor the perception of heritage. -
A bit above 1k but Oris divers 65 36mm?
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Define "small"? I tend towards Squale or Seiko for affordable divers, they have the heritage and they're always super solid and reliable proper divers watches, but they're not usually smaller than 42mm. This new 62MAS-referencing 6R model is interesting because it's the first mechanical one they've done at 40mm (excluding the way more expensive SLA017 & variant, and the way cheaper SKX013) for … I dunno how long. But it's a few hundred quid more than last year's equivalent models and I don't think they do enough to justify the price hike.
Squale 20 Atmos is 40mm (I prefer the 50 Atmos design but that's 42mm): https://www.gnomonwatches.com/collections/squale/products/20-atmos-militaire-ceramic-1545-sel-bracelet (lots of variants of that design)
Longines do a Hydroconquest at 39mm: https://www.longines.com/en-gb/watch-hydroconquest-l3-741-4-56-6
The 40mm Oris Divers Sixty-Five is nice but more like £1500. They also do a 36mm version but that's really quite small for a divers watch. Actually there's some 40mm ones on rubber here sub-£1200, not bad: https://www.thewatchsource.co.uk/Oris/01+733+7707+4055-07+4+20+18.html
The mid range price point is so weird. You definitely get diminishing returns compared to just buying, say, a Seiko Turtle, and the good finishing doesn't really kick in until you break £2k and start getting into Tudor and Breitling.
Edit: in b4 someone suggests Steinhart
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Out of interest, what is the go-to small diver at around £1k?
Oris. Longines.
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Longines Hydroconquest. Awesome for the money, particularly the ceramic bezel ones.
umop3pisdn
danb
Regal
hugo7
ejay2.0
Bracelet clasps are a major major Seiko weak point on anything below GS level. Just like the Turtle, I don't think that case style ever really looks right on a bracelet anyway, but IMO they're really starting to push their luck at the price points these new 6R divers are reaching. You can kind of accept it at £300, not so much >£1k.