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Created in 2014, Spinnaker a watch brand from Hong Kong that specialises in making dive style watches. Much like every other dive watch created, Spinnaker watches are more fashionable than purposely made to be used underwater.
As Spinnaker make mechanical watches, they can be viewed as a natural competitor to both Citizen and Seiko. Although, with that being said, there are a couple of distinct differences. The first is that Spinnaker do not make their own movements and therefore rely on the aforementioned companies. Secondly, Citizen and Seiko both have a distinctively Japanese smart design. Spinnaker are targeted more towards a western audience and follow a much more up to date and fashionable style.
The Spinnaker watch company has not been around long, but already has impressive reviews and a nice collection of mechanical dive watches. It will be interesting to see if the Chinese brand is able to penetrate the market further, or run in to too much competition.
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Where Are Spinnaker Watches Made?
Spinnaker watches are made in Hong Kong. This is fairly common for brands which do not make their watches in Switzerland, since the construction costs are relatively inexpensive in comparison. In addition to this, Hong Kong has a solid watchmaking history in terms of mass produced timepieces.
With that being said, Spinnaker watches do not use Chinese movements. Instead, Spinnaker choose to use Miyota (Citizen) and Epson (Seiko) movements. As both of these movements are Japanese, they are made to a much higher standard and specification than anything made in China. In short, Spinnaker use good quality movements in their watches.
No Longer A Microbrand
Much like any other watchbrand started after the year 2000, Spinnaker began their life as a microbrand. Whilst Spinnaker are certainly not a large watchmaker by any measure, they offer a large variety of watches and therefore can no longer be considered a micro brand. As of today, Spinnaker have over 10 different watch collections with various color schemes available in each design. Not only this, but they also offer meca-quartz watches for those who do not like pure automatic movements.
If you mention the Spinnaker watch brand to anyone who does not know about watches – they will not have heard of the company. However, Spinnaker is now at a level where other brands have to take them seriously as a competitor.
Spinnaker Watches Are Good Value For Money
One of the main selling points of Spinnaker watches is the value for money. Spinnaker watches are in a price point which is not budget, but not overly expensive. This allows them to sell watches which are higher quality than the likes of a Seiko 5, but below the standard of a Seiko Presage.
Another unique feature of Spinnaker is the design of each watch. The dials used on Spinnaker are original in that, they are almost always not one solid color. Instead, Spinnaker use textured dials or a variation of a color which changes from light to dark. This design ensures that they are not just another bad copy of the Rolex Submariner and are able to stand out from the crowd.
The Best Selling Spinnaker Watches
Hull Chronograph
By far the best selling Spinnaker watch is the Hull chronograph. Due to the expense of automatic chronograph movements, Spinnaker have opted to use the Miyota 9015 – which is a meca-quartz movement. Essentially this works in such a way that a rotor spins and stores kinetic energy inside a capacitor which needs replacing (inexpensively) every 10 years or so.
In terms of design, the Hull is very original using a strange roman numeral layout for the top half of the dial and classical numbering for the lower. The square-ish rounded case shape is also somewhat unique, especially for a chronograph watch. As the Hull uses small lugs, this ensures that although the case size is 42mm, it doesn’t wear too large.
Overall, this is really not bad value for money, especially considering there is really nothing else quite like this made by another watch brand.
Dumas Dive Watch
A great choice for a skin diver watch. The Spinnaker Dumas is fairly sizeable if you look at its specifications. At 44mm, you might think this watch is oversized, but you would be wrong. As the Dumas does not have any lugs, it wears considerably smaller than you would think.
Once again Spinnaker have opted to use an unusual case shape, in this case an octogan. Combining this with the unusual color combination of grey+orange really makes the watch stand out. The watch is also relatively lightweight as it uses a milanese bracelet rather than a classic heavy stainless steel link variation.
The watch is not too cheap given that is uses a fairly basic NH35 movement, but given the design this is not unfairly ovepriced.
Croft
One of the best looking and most original designs of a classic dive watch. The Spinnaker Croft has a rather strange water resistance level of 150 meters. Obviously this isn’t really a major selling point for a dive watch which isn’t going to go near the ocean though.
The main design feature of this particular watch is the seconds hand. Instead of having a classic seconds hand, the Croft uses a small subdial instead. This is placed just below the cyclops which allows easy viewing of the date window.
As the Croft is such a popular Spinnaker watch, there is a variety of colors available if you are not a fan of the gold and green image shown above.
Bradner
Yet another classicly original watch design. The Spinnaker Bradner does not have a classicly shaped layout. Instead of having a singular crown at 3 o’clock, the Bradner instead has no crown in this position but has crowns at the 2 and 4 o’clock positions respectively.
Spinnaker have chosen to use a beaded bracelet instead of solid links which once again keeps the watch relatively lightweight when compared to alternatives. An exhibition caseback gives you the opportunity to view the movement, which is another fairly standard feature for modern automatic watches.
