Forged carbon is an awesome material to make watch cases from. However, until recent it was only the elite of the watch world that used it, creating watches with equally elite price tags. With forged carbon, slowly but surely entering the affordable watch scene, it is now time for Helson to use it for their Shark Diver 45.
As the name indicates, does the Shark Diver have a diameter of 45mm. Combine this with a height of 18mm, and you know that you have a substantial watch in our hands. However, by crafting the case and bezel from forged carbon, and the case back out of titanium with a DLC coating, and fit it with a rubber strap, the total weight is only 138 grams. That makes you Seamaster Professional all of a sudden feel heavy.
Helson does not substitute for quality, because with a 4mm thick sapphire crystal (with AR coating on the inside) the water resistance is an impressive 2000m/6.600 ft. Of course nobody can dive that deep, but if you could, you would for sure appreciate the generous applied Super Luminova coating on the dial, hands and bezel. As choice of movement you might expect something Japanese, but Helson went for one of the most reliable automatic Swiss movements on the market; ETA’s 2824-2
The true treat of this watch is the forged carbon case and bezel though. As exotic as the material still may be, it looks rather understated, almost technical. Because it is forged, you can actually see the different layers of carbon fiber, almost like a subtle monochrome pin stripe. While they cut the case horizontal from a block of forged carbon fiber, the bezel also shows the horizontal look of the material. It gives a stripped, camouflage kind of look. very cool, especially with the oversized and with Super Luminova filled dashes and numerals.
The Shark Diver 45 Forged Carbon will be available August 2016, but is now already available for pre-order. This can safe you US$300,-, because the pre-order price is US$ 999,- and the regular sales price is $1.299,- More information can be found on the website of Helson Watches.