It’s pretty neat to get a stylish, mechanical, automatic watch with a movement that is clean, tough and tidy. That's the Invicta Pro Diver.

Timepieces with an all-through stainless steel built are extremely hardy and exudes a class that knows valuing. It’s different from the purely luxury class. To consider it closer, you might call it utile luxury, not a futile one. Its fragility factor is 0, unlike pure luxury watches.

Definitely, you are not going to get sapphire in this range except from the Japanese and this is no Jap watch. Its mineral crystal can take the max possible blows physical contact can bring. This protects the inner mechanisms further, also from water for up to 200m. It makes the Invicta Specialty Blue Dial Two Tone Stainless Steel 17045 Men’s Watch perfect for the mud and the snow. In fact, any aquatic activity as long as it doesn’t cross the 600 feet barrier underneath.

The Invicta Excursion Reserve 17045 has admirers from all the walks of life; not necessarily divers. It’s either to be loved or hated and in the meantime, while deciding, you start getting hooked onto it. Nevertheless, you make a lot of publicity in your close circles and a fair amount in the outside world. It’s definitely a watch that comes inexpensive, with a standard movement but it’s surprising how Invicta offers this build quality at the price. But this they had to; when paying homage to the Submariner, you can’t build a cheap replica with less than desired shape, size, finish and materials.

It’s as much as the Submariner in its size, lug-to-lug is 48mm. It helps the watch to sit well on any average sized to big wrist. At 13mm, it’s not slim but reasonably streamlined to make it thin enough for under-cuff positions and thick enough for the times you go snorkelling and shallow diving. Sea water is not going to affect its rough-brushed and mirror-shiny surfaces. Even the gold, as long as you don’t let salt water dry on it.

The word Invicta is engraved deep down the side of the case, opposite the crown-side, with surprising accuracy and depth. Laser etching doesn’t come half as good.

It applies to the rest of the texts and markings (e.g. winged logo embossed on screw-in crown) in and on the watch and provides that feeling and appearance of a high-end, quality product. The polish is uniformly gleaming, bringing that good, deep and well-machined feel. The sumptuous, bright lume is stronger than what’s expected - it charges well, glows full strength. A few minutes under direct sunlight and it’s ready to glow!

“What about the movement?”- Nothing; we thought you know about the epic Seiko NH35A SII. Incredible, as we think it to be and usually found in watches crossing the $200 mark.