Hanhart Primus Diver | Hands on Watch Review

Hanhart Primus Diver

I can easily say I have fallen in love with Hanhart Watches. I have always admired them from afar but it wasn’t until recently that I got a chance to review one, the Hanhart Pioneer MK I, back in July. I absolutely adore that watch, for many reasons. That brings us to the topic of this review, the Hanhart Primus Diver. While I may not be as emphatic about this model as I was with the Pioneer, this Primus Diver is no slouch. It is an automatic chronograph diver, with a stadium style case and articulated lugs. It is a watch that for sure stands out and oozes quality, as you would expect from a German designed-Swiss Made timepiece. I did have one issue though and while not major, it was a little disappointing, but keep reading to find out more about this Hanhart Primus Diver.

Hanhart Primus Diver Specializations:

• 44mm Width
• 15mm thick
• 24mm Lugs
• 53mm Lug to Lug (fully extended)
• Sapphire Crystal
• HAN3809 (bicompax) Base 7750 Automatic
• Branded Rubber Strap

Price $2740

To purchase in the US: 

http://www.watchbuys.com/store/pc/Hanhart-Primus-Diver-Blue-Dial-p2158.htm

As I discussed in the video review and the prior un-boxing on Youtube, the blue shade used on the Hanhart Primus Diver is a little hard to describe. It is not a dark blue but not a royal blue either. Aqua blue maybe? I have tried to show it in the best possible way in the photos, but even the photos on the Hanhart website don’t really show it as it looks in real life. Why do I tell you all that? Well, when you are considering a watch you can not see in person before you purchase, all information is helpful. Some people are real picky about shades of blue on watches as well.

The dial of the Hanhart Primus Diver is nothing short of fantastic. This comes from someone who is not regularly a chronograph fan. I have reviewed many chronographs and bought a few in my life as well, but I tend to lean towards 3 hand or GMT watches. What I like about the Primus is that they removed a sub-dial, enlarged the other two and moved them as far apart as possible. The remaining two sub-dials are very large and easy to read-something not always prevalent on chronograph watches, which is probably my biggest gripe with them usually, they are just so damn hard to read. The partially skeletonized hands are still visible wherever they are on the dial and the red second hand not only gives a nice pop of color, but also ties in with the anodized red lume marker, chronograph pusher and clasp accent. Attention to detail could be a tag line for Hanhart as they are all over it.

As expected with a watch of this caliber, the action on the crown, pushers and bezel is fantastic, fluid with a nice feedback. The bezel of the Hanhart Primus Diver is unique in that it makes almost no noise, but yet it glides easily around the case and stays in place when set. The bezel is fluted and concave to match the stadium style case, yet is easy to grasp due to how it sits up on the case. If you were to use it for actual diving, the bezel triangle is large and glows just as well as the hands and markers, though red is the first color to disappear under water which makes me question why so many brands use red on the dive watches.

At 44mm and 15mm thick, it is not a thin watch, though it could of have been thicker as many brands tend to do with a 7750 movement in a diver, making it a ridiculous 17 or 18mm thick. What is great is how well this adapts to any size wrist with the articulated or movable lugs. The lugs are functional as well as an interesting aesthetic giving the Hanart Primus Diver a futuristic look and feel.

While the movement in the Hanhart Primus Diver is not heavily modified like in some of the other line of watches from the German brand, it is still a Valjoux 7750 automatic with one of the sub-dials removed and a gunmetal stenciled rotor. I think little more decoration to the movement could have been done here, as it does look a little plain, or just forgoing the display case back altogether and going with a nice solid case back like on the previous Hanhart I reviewed.

This brings me to the disappointing part of the review. The molded rubber strap is great, it looks good, is comfortable and the deployant clasp is custom, beautiful and makes putting it on and taking it off a breeze. Unfortunately, this particular example had an issue. There are two prongs on the buckle that go into the strap holes to give a secure fit. One of them snapped off, just taking it off the wrist at one point. No dropping, banging etc happened. I can tell that it is not welded on though, looks like it is press fit. This is something I hope Hanhart will rectify with future production if possible. It saddens me to report this honestly, as the rest of this watch is so well made, this was a huge shock to me.

In an attempt to end this review on a more positive note, the lume is phenomenal. The large sub-dials glow like full lume dials, something you do not always see, which if you are actually going to use the chronograph in the dark, this is a bonus.

It is clear that I really like the Hanhart Primus Diver. The design is funky, the quality and precision of the case is well above par for its price point and it for sure does not look like every other diver out there these days. While it is disconcerting about the prong on the clasp, I always state that I am given one example, and this could be something isolated. I will say I wish they welded the prongs to the clasp instead of being press fit, though I have not seen any others posting issues of this when I did a quick search online. As always, nothing is perfect, even though we would like it to be, and I really wanted this one to be as it was so close. If for whatever reason this happened to one that you bought, I imagine Hanhart would take care of it, and since they use two prongs on the buckle, it shouldn’t be something where the watch would fall of your wrist and hit the floor because of it. The buckle issue is bothersome, but I will still give the Hanhart Primus Diver a 93/100. That is an A- I guess, which is still pretty damn good.

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Helgray TCD-01 | Hands on Watch Review

Helgray TCD-01

Affordable watches sure have come a long way in the past 15 years or so. Before the internet that we have today and the surge of microbrands over the past decade, the affordable watches consisted of Timex and the like, Fossil, Guess, etc.  To get anything really decent you were looking at probably around $400 and it was usually a Citizen or Seiko. The landscape has obviously changed, for the better in my opinion and now there is no shortage of “bang for your buck” watches. All are not created equal though and even if the spec sheet sounds great, you need to keep in mind that it is still a $250 watch and it will not be able to compete with most $500 watches, let alone $1000. Where does this Helgray TCD-01 fall on the scale? Well, it has an all titanium case and bracelet, a sapphire crystal and a quartz movement for around $250 (price has been fluctuating on the website since I have had it in hand for review, more on that later). On paper, it sure does sound like a lot of watch for the money, and overall, it is, but it is a budget watch and with that, there are a few caveats.

Helgray TCD-01 Specifications:

• 42mm Titanium Case (Bead Blasted)
• 11mm Thick
• 22mm Lug Width
• 50mm lug to lug
• 127 grams in weight (on un-sized bracelet)
• Sapphire Crysal 
• Ronda 513 Quartz Movement
• 300 Meters Water Resistant

Price: Around $200-$250

https://www.helgray.com/collections/tcd-01/products/tcd-01-blue

Let’s talk price of the Helgray TCD-01 for a minute. Not so much about the low price itself, but within the past month or two I have seen the price fluctuate about 5 times. I have never seen it offered for the full $299 price, it has been $249, $199 and even $179! There is also a pop up on their website imploring you to sign up for their email newsletter and you will receive $20 off your order, meaning if you catch it at the $179 price, you could check out and have this watch for $159!! Now, I know I have not got into the rest of the review yet, but it does make you question how they could afford to sell this watch at that low of a price and how they could be making money. I know, you are saying it is a Chinese watch and they are still making money. That may be true, but is it enough to keep a business going into the future? That is a topic for another day I guess.

How is the watch you ask? Not bad at all. The Helgray TCD-01 is an all titanium case and bracelet with a bead blasted finish. One important thing I want everyone to know is that this is Grade 2 Titanium. What does that mean? Frankly, it is a lower grade titanium. It is still super lightweight but it does not have the same properties as 6AL4V or Grade 5 titanium that we are used to in higher end watches and knives. It also seems softer to me, as I showed in the video, the titanium on the bracelet was banged up from a plastic watch hammer when I was sizing. Speaking of sizing, this Helgray uses standard friction pins and has four holes in the clasp for fine tuning, but it is not the easiest to size as the pins are really stuck in there and a few I pulled out bent with almost no pressure.

Powered by a Ronda 513 quartz movement, the Helgray TCD-01 ticks away just fine and something rarely seen in budget quartz watches is the second hand actually hits the markers almost dead on-at least on this example. The matte blue dial is what I refer to as electric blue. It is also available in orange and there are GMT versions in either white or black. While the electric blue color is very eye catching, the dial itself lacks any pop. It almost seems like cardboard and of course has printed markers, which I would expect nothing else at this price point. Is anything really wrong with the dial? I wouldn’t say so, it is just a little flat looking.

The bezel of the Helgray TCD-01 is PVD coated titanium. As far as function, it works great. The crown does as well, no issues as far as wobbly crown or loose or stiff bezel. When you see PVD, it tells you how the coating was applied, but it is not telling you what was used to coat it. In this case, I have found the PVD coating to be a little on the cheaper side. It is not rubbing off from just being in the air or going in and out of your pocket etc, but if you bang it against a door or something else that normally would leave your watch scratch free, check your bezel as some of the PVD might have come off.

This would not be a lume junkie’s watch. While the Helgray TCD-01 claims C3 Superluminova on the dial and bezel, it does not glow super strong and I found it starts to fade rather quickly. It may just be that it does not have a decent amount of the compound applied for it to glow longer, or it is a cheaper form of lume that is being used.

Here’s the deal. It may sound like I am dogging on this watch left and right, but I am not.  I like the look of this watch a lot, and it has perfect dimensions for me at 42mm with 22mm lugs. It is also super lightweight on the wrist, which is always  nice change from a hunk of metal on your wrist. I am just giving you my findings and a few things that I think are on the cheaper side, but I have not forgotten that this watch can be bought for as low as $159 with a coupon and sale. You are still getting an all titanium case case with a sapphire crystal for that price and that is pretty crazy when you think about it. If you are looking for a nice beater or an inexpensive titanium watch, this would be a great option depending on what price you can grab it for. If you are looking at it at $250, for a few dollars more there have been brands such as Obris Morgan offering automatics, but again, at under $200, I think most will enjoy it for what it is.

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