Devotees of TLC's Shark Week are no doubt familiar with the Megalodon, a
prehistoric shark that grew up to 60 feet long. Savor that fact for a
moment. That is a shark about the size of an eighteen-wheeler with jaws
that could crush a whale's skull. It made the Tyrannosaurus Rex look
like a pussy cat. Captain Quint would have taken one look at this
monster and said, "Damn, you're right Chief. We do need a bigger boat. Let's get the hell out of here!" It was, quite simply, the baddest mofo that ever lived.
With that introduction, allow me to present the Megalodon dive watch
from veteran micro brand Benarus of Overland Park, Kansas. For a
landlocked company, Benarus has turned out some remarkable divers and
this brute is perhaps their most distinctive. Like its prehistoric
namesake, the Megalodon is a monster. It measures 49mm across, 53mm
long, and 19mm thick. If you make a dive watch this big, it has better
be seaworthy and Benarus does not disappoint. The whole thing is
gloriously overbuilt with specs like you might expect from a Trident
submarine. The case back and domed sapphire crystal are each 4.5mm
thick. The screw down crown is sealed with three gaskets, and the case
back is sealed with two. If you care to take it on your next commercial
saturation dive, you put its helium release valve to use. Water
resistance? Only 2500 meters. That is the depth of the hydrothermal
vents at the bottom of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the water pressure
is roughly equivalent to the weight of an African Elephant.
Of course, all this security would be worthless if it wasn't protecting a
quality movement. Inside the vault is a Miyota 9015, a high beat
automatic that should be familiar to all micro brand devotees. It is a
respected, reliable unit with a 28.8k beat rate, 40-hour power reserve,
and hacking and hand winding capabilities.
Now that we have established its technical bona fides, we get the
subjective question. Does it look cool? I'm going to give an emphatic
"yes" on that one. For such a beast, it has a fun and well-considered
design. This is the third incarnation of the Megalodon case, and to my eye, the best of the bunch. It
is thicker through the midsection than the previous model, which allows
it to accommodate the 8mm crown and large, drilled lugs. It is also the
first version to wear a luminous sapphire insert in its fat,
gear-toothed bezel. The
case is bowl-shaped, not slab sided, which should go a long way to
making more wearable and less "blocky" on the wrist. Its 24mm bracelet
is appropriately sturdy, with solid, screwed links and a signed, adjustable divers clasp with two sets of push buttons for release and for opening the wetsuit extension. The
Megalodon is offered in 316L brushed stainless steel and, in a first
for this model, CuSn8 bronze with a titanium case back.
The layered dial has a printed minute index and signature applied "shark tooth" markers on an outer ring. The lower center surface features three
lines of text (brand, model, and water resistance) and a color matched
date wheel at 4:30. That last one makes me a very happy man as nothing
disrupts a dial like a glaring date. The hands are straight and broad,
reinforcing the heavy proportions of the watch. The markers, hands, and
bezel insert are all treated with
BGW-9 SuperLuminova for a white appearance in daylight and a potent
blue glow at night. It is bold, brash, and highly legible.
Buyers
can choose from several different color combinations including a black,
white, orange, or blue dial; brushed or DLC black bezel; black or blue
insert; and a black, brushed, or orange minute hand. It ships with a
bracelet and a natural rubber strap. The bronze edition has a bronze
bezel. It's dials are black, blue, or my personal favorite, the aptly
named "Shark Mouth Red". There is no bronze bracelet option, but it
comes on a rubber strap with a signed bronze buckle.
As
this is merely a preview and I can't comment on the Megalodon's
wearability. It's size pushes the physical limits of my 6.5" wrist so it
might threaten to tip me over. On the other hand, the dimensions are
nearly identical to that of the Citizen Ecozilla on Suppa adapters I am
wearing now, so I might just get away with it. Frankly, this brute looks
so cool I probably wouldn't care.
Early backers can still get the steel version for $780, or a bronze for $900. The
watch is not exactly cheap, but over $100 less than full price, and you
are certainly getting a lot of watch for your money, and I'm not just
talking about size. The Kickstarter campaign ends July 5, 2015.
Pictures courtesy of Benarus Watches.
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