watches.jitteryjim.com

Originally published January, 2008.

Specs

• Make: Debaufre
• Model: Triton
• Movement: Sellita SW-200
• Dial: Black
• Features: Date, Screw down crown
• Material: Stainless Steel
• Crystal: Sapphire
• WR: 300M
• Width: 45mm
• Height: 14mm
• Lugs: 24mm
• Lug to Lug: 54mm
• Weight: 133 grams (head only); 164 grams (w/ stock strap)
• Date Purchased: January 22, 2008
• Purchase Price: $525
• Source: Direct from Debaufre

Why this watch?

Um…I’m easily influenced by others? Is that a good answer? Truthfully, it is part of the answer, but a small part of the answer.

I’m a fan of sports watches (I prefer that term over “diver” since I don’t dive, hell, I hardly float) and own (and have owned) several different ones in the “Poor Man’s” range. When Debaufre introduced the Triton I was smitten immediately. It looked big and very cool. Lots of “wrist presence” in this package, to be sure. And it is unique, unlike some of Debaufre’s other models which are patterned after existing designs. But, I did not leap on one right away; mostly because funds were non-existent and I was concerned about the size of the watch. It did stay in the back of my mind, and the more I saw it and read about it, the more it moved to the front. This is the part where I become easily influenced.

PMWFer Jeff (TakesALickin’) posted that he had pulled the trigger on one, which got me all jazzed up about it as I was considering letting a couple of pieces go and would have some funds. I began that process and about the time Jeff had his “Is happy day!” post I had the funds and pulled the trigger myself, his photo tipping me over the edge. Although, not without reservations. I was concerned about the lug to lug distance (length) as I do have smallish wrists (6.5″). I wanted it to fit well and not look like a hubcap or manhole cover. If all else failed I planned to return the watch to Debaufre and pursue something else. As it turns out, I did not need to.

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1. Side by side: IWI Marine Diver & Triton
2. Side by side: Seiko 6309 & Triton
3. Side by side: Omega Seamaster & Triton
4. Side by side: TAG Heuer Super Pro & Triton

Packaging and Presentation

Debaufre shipped the watch out on a Tuesday and it arrived that Friday, much to my surprise and pleasure as the watch was not due until Monday according to Fed Ex. The watch box was well packaged and protected inside the shipping box. The standard watch box (you can upgrade for an additional cost to a wood display box with an extra strap and strap tool) is black with a red stripe, and the Debaufre coat of arms on top of the box. The box is actually contained inside a black cardboard sleeve with a rectangle cut out of the top so you can see the logo. It’s 4.75″ wide, 4.75″ deep and 3.5″ tall. Opening the box one finds the Debaufre name on the inside of the lid, and of course the watch, protected by an additional piece of foam. It’s always nice when people (be they an individual seller or a company like Debaufre) take the time to make sure the watch is protected inside whichever vessel it is to be shipped in. It’s not like the top of the box is not padded, but the foam just provides that little extra protection. Also inside the box is an International Guarantee card (size of a credit card) that has the details of the 2 year guarantee, signed and dated. Not the most elaborate presentation (as I have had with some Hamilton and Zodiac watches), but not a shoddy, throw-away package either.

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5. The box and outer sleve
6. Box showing the Debaufre coat of arms
7. Inside the box

Case, Bezel, Crown & Crystal

Here’s where we get into some of the coolness of this watch. First, it’s big! Holy cow is it ever. It’s a substantial hunk of stainless steel, weighing in at a substantial 133 grams for the watch head only. The stock strap adds a few more grams to bring the total weight up to 164 grams. As stated before, the case is 45mm in diameter, 14mm thick, with 24mm lugs and a distance from lug tip to lug tip of 54mm, which is a whopper of a size. The bezel makes up a fair bit of the face of the watch, with the dial and inner chapter ring actually measuring in at 31mm, leaving the rest of the measurement to the bezel (14mm, for those keeping track). As one would expect the lugs to taper toward the wrist, preventing the appearance of wearing a flat disc on the wrist.

The bezel has markings for each minute, with those from 1 to 15 colored in black, the rest are engraved into the bezel and left silver. That calls into question the legibility of the remainder of the bezel, given they have no color contrast, such as white on black, to make them stand out. Although not as clear as the black markings, the others are apparent at a glance, although this might be dependent some upon your own eyesight. For me I do not have any problem seeing the other markings, in good light. Lower lighting conditions do lend to some issue there, but nothing that is detrimental to the function of the watch; I might have to look a little closer, but they are visible. There are also numbers present beginning with 10 and continuing each 10 minutes (10, 20, etc.). These are black all the way round the dial. The bezel rotates counterclockwise with 120 clicks and rotates nicely at that. It’s not stiff, but also not prone to movement if bumped. With its knurled edge the bezel is also easy to grasp, even with gloved hands (which I say from experience). At 12 o’clock is a nice 3mm big lume dot. Easy to see where it is, for sure. My only concern might be hitting it against something and having the lume fall out. It’s not too raised, however, so that really shouldn’t be a problem.

The crown is located at 4 and well protected by a guard on each side. The markings on the side of the crown match the outer rim of the bezel, which is a nice touch. On the end of the crown is a star matching the one located on the Debaufre crest. The crown is nice and beefy at 6.5mm thick and 4mm tall, if the watch is worn on the left wrist one can unscrew and operate the crown with the right hand (those who wear your watches on your right wrist, as I do, we’re out of luck). The crown screws in and out smoothly, no rough spots at any point, and it catches with ease when screwing it down.

The strap is held to the case not with spring bars, but with a tube and screw configuration, similar to Panerai. Having two small screwdrivers is a must to change the strap, along with some tape to stick the small screws to so you don’t loose them. Changing straps is easy enough, just unscrew the screw, remove it and the tube and you’re ready to slide in that new strap. Caution is needed though, so one does not end up with scratches on the outside of the lugs. If you’re not too steady, or have had a lot of caffeine, some tape on the lugs will help prevent scratches.

The case back is solid, not a display back and Debaufre kept things pretty simple. The center of the back has the make and model (Debaufre Triton) with a wave pattern below the Triton. In an arc above this are a few specs, “Stainless Steel * Swiss Automatic Movt * 30 ATM * Swiss Made”. The back has indentations to allow for opening by a standard case back opener. Nothing super fancy, but not a bare back either.

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8. Crown in the screwed in position
9. Crown screwed out
10. Star on the end of the crown
11. Side view showing the crown, strap screw and lugs
12. The case back

Dial, Hands & Lume

Starting off with the dial, it’s one of the things that really attracted me to this watch. Working from the outside in we start with a chapter ring containing has marks for each minute and half minute around the dial; 120 marks around the dial. Not sure if there is a practical application for subdividing the minute as such, since it’s not a chronograph, although if one really needed to one could time something to the half second. It does allow for setting the time at half way through a minute, were one to hack the watch at 30 seconds you could use the additional hash marks to set the minute hand properly to half way through the minute. Continuing on, at each 5 minutes is also a dot of lume, with a double dot at 12. Moving in next are thin triangles angling toward the center of the dial again at each 5 minute mark, except at 3, 6, 9 and 12. The marks at 3, 9 and 12 are instead numbers, two digits each (03, 09, 12) and are in orange. The triangle at 6 is interrupted to allow for the date window. Happily, the date wheel is black with white text. It is legible without being so overly obvious, as is the case with black text on white wheels. Very happy that Debaufre went with the white on black combo. Right below the 6 o’clock position is the text “Swiss Made.” Moving in again we have another track of hash marks, this time only 60, matching the number of seconds in each minute (and minutes in each hour). I am not really sure why there is a need for a second notation given the already mentioned chapter ring; both the seconds hand and minute hand reach that chapter ring. They are laid out in such a way that the seconds hand intersects them right at the point of the triangle found on that hand (see photos for more detail). Still, it seems a little redundant and the dial could be a bit cleaner without them. At the center we have the usual type of dial text: Make, Model, Movt. and WR. In this case, the text reads: Debaufre, TRITON, Automatic and 1000ft/300m. Overall I find the dial to be very pleasing to look at, the contrast of colors and the numbers provide enough visual interest without things being overly busy.

The hands lend to the “cool” factor of the watch. The hands are in a Plongeur style with a nice, fat minute hand outlined in orange and filled with lume in the center. The hour hand is outlined in white with yellow at the center. The seconds hand is quite nice, with a black shaft that melts into the dial, leaving just the white tip floating around the dial. Naturally, the tip is lumed as well. Yes, the hands, I feel, are killer on this watch!

Next is the topic of lume, and the Triton has its share. The dots on the chapter ring, the triangle markers, hour hand, minute hand, seconds hand, bezel dot and the numbers (03, 09 & 12) all are luminescent. That’s a lot of lume! And, actually, a fair amount of color as well: the hands, bezel dot, and dots are a yellowish lume color; the dots at 12, 3, 6 and 9 are yellow; the numbers are orange and the triangles a greenish/blue color. As I said, a lot of color and a lot of lume! Of course, the question becomes how long does it last? Some testing showed that under and LED flashlight it lit up like a Christmas tree, but did quickly fade to a steady, low glow. Based on a statement I read that the lume does not last through the night I decided to conduct a test. I lit up the watch at 9:15 PM (again using an LED flashlight) and then placed it in my closet in a dresser drawer, void of any additional light source. I was able to sleep in (due to a delay in opening of work due to the weather) so I was able to check the watch at 6:30 AM. I was happy to see that I could still tell the time (in the dark) after 9 hours and 15 minutes. The hands, bezel dot and triangle markers all still held some glow. The orange numbers were not visible. It did not glow as bright as the Seiko Black Monster (which I set next to the Triton for comparison), but it was definitely legible.

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13. A closer look at the dial and hands
14. Closer still
15. A look at the lume
16. Lume next to the Black Monster

Strap

The watch comes with a rubber dive strap with a pre-V Panerai style buckle, marked with Debaufre. It is 24mm and tapers to 22mm at the buckle. The short end is 74mm and the long end 134mm, each is 5mm thick. The strap, IMHO, is nice, but nothing overly impressive. It did not fit my 6.5″ wrist well at all: it was too long and did not fit well where the strap buckled due to its thickness. Interestingly enough, I already had the exact same strap in my strap drawer, I had bought it for the IWI Marine Diver a few months back from thorntonwatch.com. Sitting side by side the straps are identical. If you have larger wrists the strap will probably fit better, for smaller wrist guys, start looking for a replacement.

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17. Stock strap
18. Signed buckle
19. Side by side: stock strap and my strap
20. Screw and pin used to hold the strap in place

Movement & Performance

Housed inside the Triton is the swiss made Sellita SW-200 movement, a so-called clone of the ETA 2824. Although labeled as a “clone” of the ETA, the Sellita has one more jewel at 26 vs. the 25 in the ETA (it is reported that Sellita previous had been modifying the ETA movement by adding an extra jewel and increasing the power reserve). The movement is relatively new having been released to market just about two years ago at the start of 2006. I have read that there are several companies using it including Anonimo, Breitling, Hubolt, Marcello C and Oris to name a few. The movement hacks and hand winds and is stated to have a power reserve of 38 hours, although I have not tested that as of yet. I have not experienced any issues with the seconds hand movement jumping or stalling when the watch is shaken well or bumped (al la the famous Claro Semang CL 888 video of the Zodiac Oceanaire). From reading a number of posts on a variety of forums there does not appear to be any current concern with this movement in the general WIS community.

Out of the box my Triton is running on the order of about 20 seconds fast a day. A bit faster than I would like as I have to reset the watch every couple of days. I am hoping that over time the movement will settle some and slow down, if not I’ll have to give regulation a try. I am not sure if this is the norm for this watch or not, it’s just my experience.

Conclusion

Overall this is one fine, big timepiece. It is well constructed and hefty, yet still attractive. While I was disappointed with the $12.95 stock strap there is no shortage of other strap options available from off the shelf to a custom job. The lume is certainly colorful yet still strong enough to last the night and be visible to read the time. A couple of years ago I might say that it is an overly large watch, but given the trend toward bigger and bigger watches the Triton fits into the 44mm-47mm landscape quite nicely. Those with smaller wrists may hesitate to buy, but in all honesty I think it works on a 6.5″ wrist just fine – a matter of opinion, I know. This is my first Debaufre and given the overall impressions and quality of the watch I believe it will not be my last.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave any comments if you feel I overlooked something or if you have a question.

Tools used in writing this review:

Notepad
ieSpell
Canon S2 IS Digital Camera
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Photobucket
“Extra Virgin”, Olive
“The Italian Job Original Soundtrack”, John Powell
“Sleep”, Telefuzz