Stuhrling Original Aquadiver Regatta Champion Review

A man should wear a watch. Over the past few years I forgot this but since I started exercising more and occasionally wearing my heart rate monitor watch I remembered how convenient it was to wear a watch rather than to pull out my phone. So I started getting my watches back in  working order, cleaning them and replacing batteries. While I was looking for a watch repair tool kit I happened upon a great deal on this Stuhrling Original Men's Aquadiver Regatta Champion Professional Diver Watch and decided to pick it up.

This post will be a review of the Stuhrling Original Aquadiver Regatta Champion watch with a black dial and bezel.

Stuhrling Original 395.33B11 Aquadiver Regatta Champion Professional Review

Considering the cost of this watch, I'm very impressed with the quality. Amazon shows it has a list price of $325, a regular price of $129 and it's currently on sale for $69.99. I managed to pick it up when it was at an even greater discount at $49.99. While Sturhling does have watches in the $300 range as well as watches in excess of $1,000 many of the watches are being sold at big discounts over their suggested retail price. Shortly after I purchased the watch the price jumped around between $70 and $100 that same day. I don't know what to make of their pricing yet.

Swiss Made Quartz Movement

The watch features a Swiss Quartz movement, the Harley Ronda 515. While the Ronda 515 is a genuine Swiss movement, made in Switzerland by a respectable company, the 5xx series of movements are their lower end series for more affordable watches. To put that in perspective, the Ronda 515 movement can be bought for about $13 and they're 775 movement, which is their next step up and has similar configuration only goes for a few bucks more. Even their top of the line date movement isn't that much more, nor are similar movements from other Swiss manufacturers. This particular movement is found in watches that list for over $1,000.

The Ronda 515 movement contains 1 jewel compared to some of their higher end 3 hand movements which contain up to 4 jewels. Jewels are used to line the openings where shafts are inserted. They are harder than the metal components and take longer to wear out.

The Stuhrling Original Aquadiver Regatta Champion uses a 371 battery. The battery should last for 45 months. One nice feature of this 515 movement is if you pull out the stem to the 3rd position it reduces the power consumption by 70%. The watch won't keep time in that setting, and with the stem unscrewed is less water-resistant, but if you're not planning on wearing the watch for an extended period of time you can make the battery last longer.

So, is this the best Swiss Made movement out there? No. But it still is a quality Swiss Made movement.

Classic Styling

The Aquadiver Regatta Champion comes with a stainless steel deployment clasp. The side links have a brushed finish while the center links are polished.  Everything about this watch feels durable. The deployment clasp is very secure. After opening the safety latch, two push buttons on either side of the clasp need to be pressed to release the clasp.

It is available with varying colors for the rotating bezel and markers. I opted for black but it is also available in blue, green, red and orange. The rotating bezel has markers for timing the amount of minutes you've been underwater. That's what makes it a diver watch. The bezel also has notches or I guess what's known as a coin edge which creates more sparkle around the bezel.

The watch has it's own distinct styling, such as the large Arabic numbers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 and the wide markers for the rest, as well as the unusual position of the date window between the 4 and 5 markers, but there's no denying that this watch takes some cues from the more expensive Rolex Submariner (maybe more like the Sea Dweller) and the Omega Seamaster seen below.

      

The Krysterna Crystal is a new material used for watches. According to Sturhling it is an improvement over standard mineral crystals, but not quite as scratch resistant as sapphire. The material was first used for high-end eyeglass lenses. The crystal on the watch is flat and barely protrudes above the bezel which helps prevent it from snagging on clothing and other items.

The luminescent markers and sword style hands make the watch easy to read. Unfortunately, while the markers glow brightly after being exposed to light, the glow does not last very long. Luckily, I don't find myself in pitch black areas too often.

My only other complaint is that the box the watch comes in is too damn big! It's a nice box but it could easily accommodate 2 or 3 more watches in it. I like to keep my watch boxes and I hate that it will take up valuable storage space.

Although I have almost pulled the trigger on very expensive luxury watches, I just don't because I think the money would be better spent elsewhere. The Stuhrling Original Aquadiver Regatta Champion is a great watch in its price range and given its current sale price it's a tremendous value. It's a nice looking, durable watch from a respectable company even though it may not have the cachet as luxury brands. For me a watch is more tool than fashion and I don't feel I need to impress anyone with an expensive watch.