We’re delighted to share a hands-on review of the Sea-Gull Okeanos Professional 1000M Diver, written by Ariel Adams, founder and editor-in-chief of A Blog to Watch — one of the world’s leading watch publications. During his travels, Ariel personally tested the Okeanos in real diving conditions, offering an authentic perspective on its performance, design, and craftsmanship. His experience perfectly captures the spirit of Sea-Gull’s professional-grade watchmaking. The following is his full review:
When most timepiece enthusiasts think about China’s Seagull (Sea-Gull), they think about watch movements rather than completed timepieces. That’s because in the West, most opportunities collectors have with Seagull are when lower-priced mechanical movements are put into third-party watches. A good current example is the popularity of brands like Studio Underd0g, whose mostly budget-priced watches often feature mechanical chronograph movements produced by Seagull. That said, Seagull is ramping up its brand presence outside of Asia and hoping to introduce more complete timepieces to the enthusiast community. This includes standard category Seagull watches ranging from dressy to sporty, as well as higher-end artistic watches with hand-painted dials and tourbillon movements. Today, I am going to look at one of Seagull’s higher-end diver-style watches that the company recently introduced for its 70th anniversary. Take a breath, as this timepiece has a long product name. I am going to look at the reference 816.37.1217H Seagull 70th Anniversary Okeanos Professional Ultra Diving Auto-Mechanical Watch Waterproof 1000M. I will probably just refer to it as the Seagull Okeanos since it is the only diver’s watch in the current range to have the “Okeanos” name.
The Seagull Okeanos is not the highest-end diver’s watch that Seagull makes, but it is rather on the upper-mid price range and is available in two versions — a naturally finished steel “silver” model and this “black” model with a PVD-coated steel case and matching bracelet, with a deep metallic blue dial. Currently, there are over 20 different diver-style watches available on the Seagull website. Those aren’t all distinct watches, but there are at least six or seven entirely different models of classic and modern-style dive watches to choose from by Seagull, and some of them are priced at over $1,500 USD. I’d like to check out more of them on aBlogtoWatch in the future. For now, I will focus on my experience with the Seagull Okeanos. Unlike most of the dive watches I get to review, I actually took this one swimming into the ocean and got to observe how the dial looks underwater (which is always slightly different than on land).
I will admit that what initially drew me to the Okeanos was the use of Chinese characters for the brand logo, as opposed to saying “Sea-Gull” in English. As far as I can tell, nearly all the other dive watches Seagull currently makes use of English logos (aside from two retro-style Seagull 1984 Antarctic Expedition pieces), and the Okeanos is among the only sport models that uses Chinese characters. I do believe that English branding is probably best for a mainstream audience, but I enjoyed the novelty of something that felt a little bit different to me. The second thing I was interested in with the Okeanos was its water resistance and overall durability. Even though it isn’t the most expensive diver-style watch produced by Seagull, it does have the highest water resistance at 1000 meters, and on top of that, Seagull promises that each piece is individually pressure-tested. Practically speaking, most people will get all the dive watch utility they need out of a 200 or 300-meter-rated product. We tool-watch lovers enjoy the engineering around such products and seeing how various companies approach deep-diving timepieces in terms of design and pricing.
While value-for-money and practicality are what you can expect from a brand like Seagull, aesthetic originality is not. Most of Seagull’s dive watches are seemingly inspired by models from popular European and Japanese brands. The core dial and case design of the Okeanos Professional Ultra Diving Auto-Mechanical Watch Waterproof 1000M is a blend of Seiko and Omega elements, with nods to Rolex and a few other dive watch makers. Of course, Seagull was careful not to outright replicate anything, but the design influence for the Okeanos is clear.
Overall, the Okeanos’s visual design works well, but there are a number of little areas of potential refinement that mainly involve removing text or call-outs to the piece’s technical features. Why there is so much text on the dial and case, and how this impacts marketing and sales, is really a different discussion. Suffice it to say that brands get excited about promoting their product features and fail to realize that someone wearing this watch on a regular basis will not need to be reminded that the bezel rotates, or where the helium release valve is located. Seagull actually created a different hour marker at the 10 o’clock position that is an arrow which points to the valve crown, and even has a somewhat distracting “He Valve” label on the dial. To me, this is a perfect example of an unnecessary feature call-out, even though I appreciate the designers wanting to promote the technical elements of the product. I will say that much of the unnecessary text on the dial is harder to see when actually wearing the watch. On the computer, when images are large and bright, you can plainly see all these elements. When the watch is on your wrist, a lot of these unnecessary text elements are not as readily apparent, though I still recommend that Seagulls’ designers consider stripping away unnecessary elements for future designs. Also, while the dial is painted with plenty of luminous material, there is significantly more material on the hour markers compared to the hands. The application of luminant should have been more even.
The Seagull Okeanos Professional Ultra has a 45mm wide steel case that is 15.8mm thick and water resistant to 1000 meters. Over the dial is a domed AR-coated sapphire crystal, and the rotating bezel has a lock function. To use it, you need to press the bezel down a bit, and then it rotates. Only the outer bezel rotates, with the inner, brushed steel part of the bezel not turning. The bezel system works fine, but my only gripe (which is actually my biggest gripe with the watch overall) is that the bezel moves a bit and makes a small rattling noise. Meaning that the spring system, which holds the rotating part in place, is not perfectly shaped to hold the bezel in position as gravity moves it around. Again, fixing this is usually down to a single new part, so there is hope that Seagull can fix this for other Okeanos pieces and that it isn’t an overall design defect. Other than that and some of the distracting feature call-outs on the case and dial, I found the Okeanos to be a rather competent tool watch priced well for its water-resistance rating. But Seagull exaggerates this fact on their website by making the amusing claim that: “With the robustness and functionality of luxury dive watches priced at $5,000–$50,000, the Seagull Okeanos offers unparalleled value and versatility…”
Seagull pairs the Okeanos with a matching black-colored steel bracelet on a simple folding safety deployant clasp. The bracelet is nice enough, but I decided to remove it (thanks to it being on quick-release spring bars) and replace it with the black NATO-style nylon strap that also comes with the Okeanos. I did this mainly because watches on straps tend to be more comfortable when in the water or in sweaty, wet conditions. The watch is handsome and looks very much like many dive watches on the market, with the novel exception of the proud Chinese branding (for instance, how many watches do you have that say “Made In China” right on the dial). I say this since so many watch parts are made in China, and brands are often less proud of that fact because they want consumers to imagine that the parts were produced in other, often more expensive places. So to me, having a watch with proud Chinese branding (which of course makes sense from a Chinese brand) is fresh and interesting to me, especially given how important China is when it comes to the production of modern timepieces.
Inside the Seagull Okeanos is, of course, an in-house Seagull mechanical movement. As the “Auto-Mechanical” part of the product name implies, the watch contains the automatic Seagul caliber ST2130. This movement looks to be similar in architecture to something like the ETA 2824-2, and operates at 4Hz with 42 hours of power reserve. The movement features the time and date (which is placed symmetrically on the dial at the 6 o’clock position). While I often have performance reservations about more complicated Chinese mechanical movements at lower prices, my suspicion is that the ST2130 is a good workhorse automatic and will perform nearly as well as most Swiss and Japanese equivalents.
The wonderful thing about the world of diver’s style watches is that there are so many out there. That is also a problem because it means consumers have so many choices, and it can easily become overwhelming. Seagull’s products will appeal to budget-minded but otherwise serious watch enthusiasts who are looking for quality but are also happy to eschew originality in favor of sampling interesting products. While Japan has the lead in this area, Chinese watches are also a good option and certainly less common for those who wish to be different. Seagull will require a few years to expose the community to their larger array of completed watches, and then also determine what sticks and sells in the crowded marketplace. My experience with the Okeanos has made me very curious about other Seagull watches and dive watches. The company can more or less create whatever they want, so consider me hooked on learning what they do next. Price for the reference 816.37.1217H Seagull 70th Anniversary Okeanos Professional Ultra Diving Auto-Mechanical Watch Waterproof 1000M is $1,000 USD after discount. Learn more at the Seagull watch website.
