Helberg Homage to Deep Sea Special - What says TRF?

[TonyD]

Here's an interesting one. Normally the word "homage" causes me to wince in pain. The derivation comes from the idea of respect, paying homage to something great. I don't feel that making anything that looks like someone else's design or product and sticking your own name on it is respectful.

This is a new watch from Helberg, which has a German parent/sister company H2O that has been making dive watches for some time now. The design is insane looking, and for an engineer like myself quite intriguing. The company makes no effort to hide the fact that this is heavily inspired by the Rolex Deep Sea Challenge watch. Take a look [Image from Helberg website, rendering] :



I find myself drawn to this one and plan to place an order soon. Somehow this one feels like it actually DOES honor the source material in a meaningful way. Maybe its because they don't hide like a lot of companies that make homage type watches. Maybe its because the Rolex version was never really available for purchase and never existed beyond a few prototypes.

I have been looking to add a bronze small batch watch to my collection for a while and stumbled upon this one. 6000 meters (20,000 feet) is pretty close to the world record for depth I believe.

Besides weird looking with a huge goofy crystal, what do you guys think?

Link to website: http://www.helberg.com/
Link to Rolex info: http://oceanictime.blogspot.de/2013/...ngineered.html

Specs from Helberg website:


MATERIALS

- Stainless Steel Version: Case, bezel, crown and case back are made from brushed surgical stainless steel 316L
- Bronze Version: Case & bezel are made from brushed German bronze CuSn8,
crown stainless steel 316L, case back stainless steel 316L
- Sapphire front glass
- Gaskets made of Viton and Teflon
- Hands, dial, bezel with SuperLuminova BG W9
- Chromed or golden polished handset
- Dial with chromed or golden marker

FEATURES

- Original SWISS ETA 2824 movement
- Two bezel styles available / minimalistic bezel with highly polished top or
dive style bezel with brushed top and sides
- Water resistant 300 atmos. / 3000 meters / 9842 ft. with double domed sapphire glass and display case back
- Water resistant 600 atmos. / 6000 meters / 19685 ft. with optional spherical sapphire glass and closed case back
- Antimagnetic: 70.000A/m. with closed case back
- Inside AR coated / anti scratch sapphire crystal
- 120 positions bezel
- Stainless steel bracelet with micro adjustment optional

DIMENSIONS

- Bezel diameter: 41mm
- Case diameter: 42mm
- Thickness with display case back and without crystal: 16.80mm
- Thickness with closed case back and without crystal: 18.80mm
- Thickness with double domed crystal and display case back: 19.20mm
- Thickness with spherical crystal and display case back: 25.20mm
- Thickness with double domed crystal and closed case back: 21.20mm
- Thickness with spherical crystal and closed case back: 27.20mm
- Length: 57mm
- Thickness of the opt. spherical crystal: 15mm
- Thickness of the double domed crystal: 7mm
- Sapphire crystal diameter: 31mm
- Dial diameter: 30mm
- Space between lugs: 22mm
- Crown diameter: 9mm

PACKAGING

- HELBERG CH1 watch
- Leather strap with HELBERG CNC buckle
- Screw driver
- Peli-style watch box
- Warranty card