Almost On Time

The Moana Pacific Waterman is a dive watch made by the New Zealand-based brand Magrette. Even though the case size of the watch is 42mm, it does have a distinctively vintage feel about it, which is clearly down to the design.

In terms of dive watches, the Waterman clearly also has its own appeal. Dive watches could certainly be accused of being an overproduced style, although this is not just another Rolex Submariner lookalike. There are some distinct features which are outlined in the review below that separates the Waterman from its competition.

About Magrette Watches

Magrette are unusual in that they are a watch brand from New Zealand. You will likely not have heard of them before since they are a young microbrand that does not have the market penetration of well-known watchmakers.

As previously mentioned, the style of Magrette watches is vintage, although this alone would be selling them short a little. Overall, they are vintage on the base layer but have some modern elements that set them apart from typical “vintage” watches.

One cool feature about Magrette watches is that many of the models have engraved cases. Whilst the Moana Pacific Waterman does not, there are still a variety of choices if this is what you’re interested in. Anyone who knows about engraving a design on a watch case is a painstaking task that is very intricate and takes a very long time. This is a real skill and not something which can be churned out of a factory in thousands of pieces at once.

Moana Pacific Waterman

Dial & Bezel

At first glance, the color scheme of the watch is awesome. I am not quite sure how you would describe this tone of blue, but it is crisp, pale and solid. You might expect that white hour indicators are not the best against a light blue dial, but as you can see this is simply not true.

The layout of the dial is not overly complicated and just uses solid lines for each hour, with the brand’s name and model centered as you would expect. One nice and original feature is the second hand which has both a red and white pip. This doesn’t really offer any practical use but does look quite cool.

The bezel of the watch simply has 12-hour time around the edge and is not overly complicated. There is a standard serrated edge around the bezel which allows you to grip it easily even with wet hands. This directly matches the color of the dial and fits in well with the overall theme of the watch.

Case

The case of the Moana Pacific waterman is 42mm wide and 12mm high. This is pretty standard for a modern-day watch and is 2mm larger than a submariner.

Available in both bronze and steel (bronze pictured is slightly more expensive), there is a color to suit everyone’s needs. Personally, I think the traditional style of the watch is suited a lot more towards bronze – although as this material is an alloy it is not suitable for certain skin types. Furthermore, if you do not like patina, then you will almost certainly want to choose steel.

The lugs are nicely sized and are not obnoxiously large. Of course, being a divers watch, the crown is screw down as expected and has the logo of Magrette etched onto the side. There are no crown protectors which suggests this is meant to be a fashion dive watch, rather than something you would use in the ocean (no surprises here). It is however 500m water resistant, so can be used at great depths if required.

Caseback

The case back of the watch is made from stainless steel and follows a nice simple layout that is not overly complicated or ostentatious.

Magrette has a fairly unique logo which is not a typical design you would associate with a watchmaker. It is a shield with a Koru inside. At first, I thought this symbol was meant to be a wave on the sea, but further research shows this is a coiled-up fern plant native to New Zealand and is also very commonly seen in Maori tattoos. As you can see, this logo has cultural significance to its home country and looks very smart on the steel case back.

Movement & Specification

Magrette uses an extremely solid ETA 2824-2 to power this watch. If you’re not familiar with this movement, it is a very standard stock Swiss movement that is used across the board. Christopher Ward uses this movement in a lot of their watches and I also know that the Breitling Colt Superocean has this too. The ETA 2824-2 is both accurate and reliable, as well as relatively inexpensive and easy to service by watchmakers.

A domed sapphire crystal is used to protect the dial, which is pretty standard for a watch of this price. You wouldn’t really expect anything else. It does have an AR coating which is useful since a domed shape glass can often annoy you with the light reflecting, however – this easily solves this minor problem.

The hands and hour indicators are also well-lumed and use Swiss Super-luminova. In my opinion, using good quality lume is the sign of a well-made watch and shows that the production has not cut any corners.

Where To Buy

You can buy Magrette timepieces directly from their website here. Alternatively, you can stalk eBay auctions for a good deal until you find something which is underpriced like I did – although this will likely take a lot longer.

One word of warning is that the official Magrette website states that no other place on the internet stocks brand-new Magrette watches, so if you find something on another website, it is best to go direct to the source.