Namica Shirahama MkII Review: Colourful, Refined, and Ready to Dive

by Vincent Deschamps

Only four months shy from making it a full four years since we first coveredNamica. It was at the end of 2021 that the Japanese brand released its first collection, the Shirahama. Since then Namica released a second collection in early 2024 called the Okami, an angular everyday urban timepiece visually very different from the diver but also very much so a Namica for its modern design and unique color choices. So there is a theme going on here with the brand, one which it took a gamble doubling down on by refreshing the Shirahama and making it a second opus. Whenever we study the second version of anything we naturally expect to see something better. In the case of watches, more refinement and better value so that the brand stays in line with what others offer and what the market yearns for. Good news and spoiler alert: the Shirahama MkII is much better.

So we’re dealing with divers that come with all of the good specs any proper dive watch should have, but also ones that have a lot of personality. Bright, bold, and candy-themed colors, fumé dials and Kanji characters, there are five versions of the Shirahama MkII and they all share the same specifications. They retain what made the first generation stand out, for example the Squale handset and angular case, the intensely lumed translucent bezel inserts, crown at the four o’clock, and fun color combinations. Everything that made the first generation of Shirahama interesting and worth taking a close look at—and for many adding to their personal collections—are here and enhanced by a few redesigned elements and higher quality of manufacturing. (Much higher than the latter.) The myriad of small changes contribute to endowing the Shirahama MkII’s with a more mature aspect and character, whilst remaining of course light-hearted tool watches.

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Key Features of the Namica Shirahama MkII

Dimensions

Whilst being the most colorful and playful divers you might have ever come across, their inviting personality should not fool you into thinking the second generation of Shirahama’s do not mean business. First, they’re nimble and comfortable to wear on the wrist, measuring 40mm in diameter, 47mm lug-to-lug, 11.7mm thick, and coming with a lug width of 20mm (pretty much the Goldilocks dimensions).

The three-link Hexad stainless steel bracelet (“Hexad” means a group of six and refers to the six facets each link is made out of) tapers to 16mm at the clasp and showcases a mostly vertical brushed finishing save for the polished flanks of the outer links. The links have screws and the spring-bars are of the quick-release variety, and the clasp has a built-in tool-less micro-adjustment mechanism of the push-to-slide variety (you can tighten the bracelet whilst wearing the watch on your wrist).

Note: the Shirahama MkII’s can also be purchased with a FKM rubber strap.

Movement

These models are also equipped with the now uber-common Miyota 9039 caliber (4Hz/42 hours of power reserve) which is the Japanese equivalent of the Swiss ETA 2824 and Sellita SW200. I personally would always opt for a Miyota over any similarly spec’ed Swiss calibers for they generally run better and more accurately.

Moreover, we get 200 meters of water resistance (screw-down crown and case-back,) a top-hat sapphire crystal the particularity of which is the dramatic “super” chamfer which creates intense distortions and sometimes even obstruct the view of a tiny portion of the dial, equipped with blue inner anti-reflective coating. There is also a lot of BGW9 lume on the hands, hour markers, and sapphire bezel insert which is mounted on a 120-click bezel complemented by two rows of Clous-de-Paris shaped machined pattern which we also find on the crown but in four rows.

Of Interest

Specs-wise, the Namica Shirahama’s MkII are indeed solid and ready for whatever type of adventure you are into. But, as we know, they are much more than this: they are light-hearted, colorful, and cleverly designed tool watches that come with their own intense personality. There exist five versions and I got my hands on four of them: the Neo Tokyo Evo, Cherry Blossom Candy, Ultra Blue, and Cherry Blossom Candy. The fifth version is called Neo Blizzard and has a white-on-black color theme. The Neo Tokyo Evo is the wildest of all five options for it has hollowed printed hour markers (made entirely of luminescent material) and a dégradé effect which transcends between purple and blue in a vertically brushed pattern. All other versions have a classic diver layout with applied hour markers composed of batons at the 3, 6, and 9, an inverted triangle at the twelve, and circles everywhere else.

If my memory serves me well, the first generation of Shirahama’s had more dense dial layouts where the markers and hands appeared closer to one another. On the second generation the dials look more balanced and more refined, for the hands and markers are better proportioned together, where the hour indices are smaller and closer to the minute track and the hands thinner and longer. The minute track is printed on the angled rehaut and complemented by a pearlescent finish, and visually bisected by the crystal’s chamfer. The bezel inserts also appear thinner and better manufactured, as the transitions between the printed and lumed elements are neater. And even though the bezel inserts might be narrower, they glow as brightly as they did on the first generation, which goes to show that the Shirahama’s MkII are indeed much better made. The nighttime show created by the positive and negative printed elements on the bezel insert are quite something!

SPECS

Case	Titanium 40mm Diameter 47mm Lug to Lug 11.7mm Thick 20mm Lug Width Screw Down Case Back & Crown 200m Water Resistance
Dial & Crystal	Sapphire Crystal Coloured Dials Applied Indexes Pencil Handset BGW9 Super-LumiNova
Movement	Miyota 9039 24 Jewels 28 800bph 42-Hour Power Reserve
Strap	Hexad Stainless Steel Bracelet

Namic Shirahama MkII

Final Thoughts & Pricing

I reckon that the Namica Shirahama MkII’s won’t be for everyone. Each version comes with something unique and they all share common and intense design features—bright and/or bold colors, Kanji characters or hollowed out hour markers, visually imposing bezel inserts by day and by night, or ultra matte fun colors. But they are indeed light-hearted, cool, but also legible and robustly made as we saw earlier. They are akin to what a Squale or Submariner could look like should the creators behind these brands’ tool watches take themselves a bit less seriously and decide to have some fun. More importantly however is the fact that the Shirahama MkII’s will be relatively affordable to acquire.

Prices begin at $529 USD on the rubber on launch day (August 5, 2025) and $599 USD on the bracelet, then go to $549 and $629 USD respectively during the pre-ordering window (August 6-19, 2025), and with full retails of $600 USD and $675 USD after that. Delivery is expected for December of 2025.

You can learn more about all of this here.

About the author

Vincent Deschamps is a museum professional, originally from France, with more than 10 years experience as a researcher, producing visitor experiences for national and international organizations. He is also the founder of mainspring.watch. You can follow Vincent on Instagram.

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