Review of Kobold Arctic Diver

[Solar]

Hi all, I recently received a Kobold Arctic Diver, a beast of a diver's watch that has case, crystal and dial design aspects that are a departure for me from my regular daily Rolex wearers.

Its a hefty beast, large and in charge, with serious wrist presence. Its also born to wear a Nato strap, of which I have four (including the black one that Kobold ships it with, which my wife likes better than any of my other Natos......).

The dial has a 60 click bezel with very very definative clicks. The top triangle does come right onto the centre-top 12 o'clock with solid authority. Some have said that the coin edge of the bezel is too sharp, but I find this bezel easier to grip and turn in the water. The sharp-ish edge of the bezel does really facilitate turning it when its wet.

The sapphire is a nice domed crystal, different from my Rolexes. Its a really nice look, and the anti-reflective treatment is on the inside of the crystal only, so it affords a degree of anti-reflection without the problem of an outer layer of AR coming off. Best of both worlds to me.

The date is not huge, but with my ageing eyes preferring a cyclops or a date magnifier, this date is actually legible to me, so good on that. The dial is a nice matte black, similar to the Omega Speedmaster, the quintessential, most legible watch in the world (and beyond). This matte black dial lends itself really well to legibility with the use of the hour indices that are dots of Superluminova (SLN). The indices are without metal surrounds, similar to the older 1960's Rolex sport models. I like the metal surrounds with SLN such is is on my Rolex sport models, but the dot of SLN without the metal surrounds of the AD looks more utilitarian and it has a nice visual presentation, to my suprise. The words, "Arctic Diver" are a wonderfully-discreet grey-platinum lettering, which takes a second glance to see. I really like this low key approach and it looks the business on the dial.

The case is utilitarian, with a brushed case and lugs. The crown is either bead blasted or it is titanium. Either way, it works in my opinion either intentionally to add a slight contrast to the case stainless 316L, or as an impromptu marrying of materials ("Hey, we got a great price on 10,000 bead blasted crowns....where can we use them?"). Regardless, it does work.

The caseback is as we've seen already in previous posts, bare of any engraving. I would have liked to see something there, but there is nothing beyond the simple engraving on the caseback edge giving the company name and the info about the particular watch.

The hands are metal and SLN, and the overall face appeal of this watch is, for someone who wears a Rolex Sub LV as a daily wearer, very easy on the eyes and bold without being over the top. Reading the time for me--with my ageing eyes--is quick. I wondered how it would be without the minute hash marks on the inner chapter ring, but its actually really easy, because the bezel has number increment markers every five minutes....20-25-30 etc. A glasnce at the dial allows you to reference off of the bezel and quickly determine if its 10:18 or 10:17......

This is my first Kobold, I've been interested in the brand for years. I pulled the trigger on the AD, and it is quite a watch with big presence, rareity and uniqueness of design in the big case and monster lugs and the unusual, bare dial. As I wrote earlier, it was born to be used with a Nato. Strap changes are tricky for other straps, and Natos you can change faster than changing your mind, since the lug bars stay in place. It looks like the Kobold Large Soarway Diver (LSD) without the splash of colour that the LSDs yellow second hand adds. I like the blue used for the AD second hand, and have two straps (a black NATO with the blue line in the centre of the strap and a so-called Kevlar-rubber sandwich with blue stiching, which I'm wearing now) that really work great with the watch.

Over the past 48 hours, its running at +7 seconds.

And now, the pictures......

[iwantagmt]

Awesome! Good review and nice watch!

[heresiarh]

very clean looking face, but in my eyes, it looks no bigger than a Rolex deep sea model ...

[Robertf]

That looks excellent, especially on the tan strap

[asindhidude]

Size and Water Resist depth?

[newmedia]

45mm and 30ATM

I been looking at Kobold private label watches made for Land Rover.

seems like decent deal for 2 watch kit given out by car company when the car was sold.

Kobold wants to be same quality company as Rolex but with very limited controlled supply.

seems like this type of marketing works well enough spent huge portion of income on advertising.

[Solar]

Originally Posted by asindhidude

Size and Water Resist depth?

45 mm and 500 m

[Skullring]

Thanks for the review and photos.

[ocwatching]

I came REALLY close to pulling the trigger back earlier this year as the introductory price on the Kobold AD was like $1800. I thought that it was a great value or a quality watch.

Thanks for the review. I like the Kevlar blue stitching...

Congrats on a solid watch...

[asadtiger]

congrats on a solid and very pretty watch...the blue seconds hand really sets it off very well and the kevlar blu stitching strap is perfect

[danielb8]

Thanks for the review :)
Looks great on the brown strap

[Elmo151]

from the Kobold web site

45.85 mm diameter (bezel end to bezel end);
49.65 mm diameter overall (bezel end to crown end);
55.25 mm length overall (lug end to lug end);
24 mm lug width (between lugs; measures strap width);
15.25 mm height overall
154.6 g. weight (with strap attached to watch)
crystal synthetic sapphire; domed, anti-reflective (inside only); extra-thick
crown screw-locked; signed
bezel rotating; uni-directional with count-up minute scale
back stainless steel (surgical grade); screw-locked
ratings* waterproof (50 atm/1,650 ft with crown locked);
(3 atm/100 ft with crown unlocked); antimagnetic (80,000 a/m); shock-resistant; pressure-proof to 50 atmospheres;

movement ETA 2824-A2; Swiss-made;
winding automatic mechanism
jewels 21
balance Glucydur
mainspring Nivarox 1
functions hours, minutes, seconds;
other 40 hours power reserve, integrated shock resistance system (INCABLOC)

[JBat]

It looks to be a really legible and really robust watch. I think it would work great for diving, if only because it's so easy to read. Nice review and pics.

[Solar]

Originally Posted by JBat

It looks to be a really legible and really robust watch. I think it would work great for diving, if only because it's so easy to read. Nice review and pics.

As I get older, and my eyes get older too, let me tell you, the big dials make a HUGE difference.

Chris