Reverie Diver watch

It’s not often we get excited about a new Kickstarter watch, but hot on the heels of the Hamtun Kraken H3 comes another stunning-looking diver: the Reverie Diver.

Reverie Diver – Coming to Kickstarter

The Diver is different from the usual Reverie style, which is predominantly made up of dress watches based around a cushion case design. Reverie has brought some of the sensibilities of the dress watch into a diver’s watch – to make something that is both attractive and functional.

Reverie Diver Specifications

• 316L stainless steel case. 40mm diameter, 43mm lug-to-lug, 11mm thickness and 20mm lug-width. Comes with a display case back and 120-click unidirectional rotating bezel.
• Engraved Miyota 9039 movement. Japanese automatic movement with a 42 hours power reserve, hacking seconds function and high frequency of 28,800 per hour.
• Guilloché dial with three colour choices. A double-layer dial with a signature guilloché effect. At least three colours are on offer: (1) navy; (2) olive green; and (3) warm grey.
• 2 types of Super-LumiNova. BGW9 (blue) on the hands and C3 (green) on the hour markers and bezel marker.
• Sapphire crystal. AR-coating provided on the underside to minimise glare.
• Screw-down crown and 20ATM water resistance.
• Adjustable tapered bracelet. The brushed stainless steel bracelet includes: (1) a 6mm taper; (2) micro-adjustability of up to 11mm extension on-the-go; and (3) tool-less removal design allowing easy swapping of straps.
• Additional EPDM rubber strap with tang buckle. 20mm wide and tapers down to 18mm, with the same tool-less removal design as the bracelet.
• Limited edition. Limited edition of 125 pieces per colour with each watch’s number engraved on the case-back.
• Leather travel roll. Each watch comes with a leather travel roll which fits up to 4 watches.
• Free worldwide shipping.
• 2-year international repair warranty.

Questions and Answers With Reverie Watches

We asked Samuel Tay what makes this watch so different from the countless other diver’s watches on Kickstarter. He said: “The Reverie Diver stands out from the competition in the following areas:

“1. It is one of the thinnest automatic dive watches around – The Diver is only 11mm thick despite having a display case back and an external rotating bezel. For comparison, the Tudor Black Bay is almost 35% thicker (14.8mm) despite having the same 20ATM water resistance.

“2. The dial balances visual interest with legibility – Our signature guilloché dial is exciting to look at as it almost shapeshifts under different lighting conditions. Despite this, legibility is maintained by the sector dial layout, bold hands, and the contrasting
lume colours (blue on the hands and green on the markers). Visual interest and wrist presence are maximised by the various finishes on the case (polished finishing on the flanks, circular brushing on the bezel and straight-line brushing on the case and
bracelet).

“3. The rotor is beautifully decorated– The graceful Japanese ‘Seigaiha’ pattern (i.e. “blue sea and waves”) is engraved on the rotor as a tribute to the movement’s Japanese roots and the watch’s aquatic theme. A well-decorated rotor is a rarity at this price point where brands usually only engrave their logo (if at all).

“4. The bracelet is convenient and supremely comfortable – The bracelet has: (A) a 6mm taper from lug to buckle which minimises weight and improves comfort; (B) micro-adjustments which allows the user to extend/shorten the bracelet by up to
11mm on the go (a rare feature at this price point and a real treat during summer); and (C) tool-less removal so the user can change straps without a tool.

Reverie Watches: About the Brand

We asked Samuel Tay to tell us about the Reverie brand’s origins and ethos:

“I’ve always had the desire to start my own company – the autonomy that would come with running my own business appealed to (idealistic) me. In fact, the company was named ‘Reverie’ as this all started from a fanciful musing – a tiny dream to start something I would be proud to call my own.

“I figured my chances of excelling were higher if I married my interests with the business. At that time, I had two main interests: cars and watches. Alas, I could only afford to build a watch and Reverie was born in August 2014. In a parallel universe, Reverie could have been a car microbrand instead!

“My vision for Reverie is simple: to produce beautiful watches I want to put on daily. It is thus unsurprising that elegant designs and guilloché dials are prevalent in Reverie’s collections as these are features which attract me to a watch. Mechanical movements are heavily used as well for obvious reasons – they are a marvellous engineering feat.

Apart from designing watches, I make it a point to know my customers personally. Reverie is my labour of love and has made me friends from all over the world. I really treasure interactions with everyone who shows interest in us and our watches. Hopefully, these will continue for a long time to come.”

Reverie Diver – First Impressions

The Reverie Diver ticks all of our boxes: an affordable price, a decent movement and a distinctive look. We are particularly fond of the ratcheting clasp, which will make adjusting the bracelet a doddle. The colours look good, although the green (our favourite) is perhaps a little washed out, and the case design will make it look good on a strap, without the “fresh air gap” that some dressy diver’s watches suffer from (we’re looking at you, Tudor Black Bay). We think that Reverie is onto a winner here and we look forward to a hands-on with the finished product.

Buy a Reverie Diver

The Diver is launching on Kickstarter at 2PM GMT on 27th June. The earliest early-bird price on the Kickstarter campaign will be US$325, which is a great deal given the specifications. That is a 35% discount on the – also very reasonable – final retail price of US$500.”

The Reverie Diver Kickstarter campaign can be found at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reveriewatches/the-reverie-diver-an-elegant-and-functional-dive-watch

By Mike Richmond

Mike spends what little spare time he has writing for WRUK; and what little money he makes building up his collection of timepieces.