By Vincent Deschamps
Back to life
Whenever we tell stories about timekeeping devices, there are several paths we can take based on who made them, why, how and for how much. We can focus on their design, which is what we are mostly drawn to whenever considering a new acquisition. Or we can look at their technical specifications when searching for a watch for a specific activity. And of course, there is the brand’s history (whenever applicable) or its track record in terms of quality and value.
Sometimes, we get lost in subjective conversations about who made it first or who has legitimacy in X or Y domain of horology. Thus, we are pushed to only look at specific brands and dismiss others entirely. But who cares about any of this? It seems too many people do. But you are here being summoned today to lose your grip on pointless rhetoric and simply enjoy a joyful virtual ride dissecting the latest version of a skin diver made by a popular revived brand. The maker is Wolbrook, born in 1949 and brought back to life in 2019.
Wolbrook’s entire raison d’être was to make affordable, reliable, and legible tool watches for civilians fond of outdoorsy adventures and professional pilots, divers, and explorers. It did so for the first group under the name Wolbrook and for the second under the name Douglas. Today, both sides of the brand’s watchmaking capabilities are represented on one website. This makes it easier for anyone to find their next capable diver, legible field watch, or functional chronograph. And even though Wolbrook/Douglas has indeed been making all sorts of tool watches for a great while, the group is mostly known for its dive watches and particularly its skin divers.
Wolbrook/Douglas currently has an impressive seven families of underwater exploration tool watches. This article will focus on one of its latest releases: the Skindiver Automatic 38mm Even Numerals Dive Watch — White Lume with a date. Phew. The reference number is 26-SA38E-002-BOR-STL-LE1, as presented here on the beads-of-rice bracelet.
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Key features of the Wolbrook Skindiver 38 Date
Skin diver?
The first point of interest in discussing skin divers is what prompted mankind to make them and call them that. In a nutshell: they were designed and specced out to be smaller and easier to wear than professional dive watches. They were marketed to cool nine-to-fivers who dive in the Caribbean in the summer and like to display a certain sporty edge when not travelling to exotic places. Or simply put, skin divers constituted a good combination of wearability, legibility, and reliability many folks were looking for in the 1960s and beyond, regardless of how much diving they would actually do. (You can learn more about skin divers by checking out this brief-yet-comprehensive history on the genre.)
Stereotypically, skin divers had smaller and thinner cases and thus less water resistance than professional divers. But today, technology is such that brands can give average-sized cases all the water resistance we need. In the case of the Wolbrook, that means a body measuring 38 x 46 x 12mm with a 200m depth rating.
Bezel, dial, calibre
And everything else that we are all looking for in a good dive watch has basically been fitted to this Wolbrook. That makes it a highly compelling skin diver to take into consideration. For example, the bezel is made of PVD-coated stainless steel for that extra scratch resistance. It is equipped with 120 precise clicks that do not step back at all. The markings are incised and paint-filled, and the 12 o’clock triangle is lumed with BGW9.
As another example, there are generous applications of BGW9 on the hands and printed hour markers. Reading the time when night diving or doom-scrolling in the wee hours of the morning is easy. And of course, a screw-down crown and case back help provide the aforementioned 200 metres of water resistance, which is more than most of us need. There is also a boxed sapphire crystal complemented by a clear inner anti-reflective coating, and a reliable calibre—the Miyota 9015 (4Hz/42 hours of power reserve). The plus Wolbrook offers is its proprietary HexapleX® shock-resistant architecture.
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Of Interest
It might come across as odd to find a proper shock-absorbing mount inside a dive watch, let alone a skin diver boasting 200 metres of water resistance and measuring a reasonable 12mm in total thickness. But that is a “little” something that sets Wolbrook apart from the general competition and the numerous brands that make a myriad of skin divers. As it did in the 1940s, the brand remains faithful to its original mission of producing affordable, reliable, and legible tool watches, albeit under entirely different management. (We will discuss moolah in the conclusion.) Looking at the specs alone, then, we do understand that the Skindiver 38 Date (for short) was thought through holistically to be an all-round skin diver and multipurpose tool watch. In the same vein, Wolbrook meticulously designed and engineered all aspects of this timepiece. I’m particularly fond, for example, of the beads-of-rice bracelet. It is equipped with an old-school clasp and visually aggressive middle links.
The bracelet is comfortable to wear as the clasp is light and thin, unlike today’s clasps that are typically equipped with tool-less micro-adjustment mechanisms. This choice actually makes sense. Visually, the Skindiver 38 is graced by a strong air of vintage horology, which constitutes an integral part of its value, subjectively speaking. The case is your typical skin diver affair. The stainless steel chassis is devoid of polished accents and chamfers, displays large straight cut-outs between the lugs, and is equipped with a curved mid-case. And the dial is itself worth taking a deeper dive into (apologies for the lame pun).
It boasts the stereotypical Arabic numeral and baton layout found on countless skin divers in the 1960s and ’70s, with markers composed of lume and grey outlines. There is also a set of polished hands, including a plongeur-style minute hand and a seconds hand equipped with a large lumed lollipop element. The icing on the cake for me is the trapezoidal framed date aperture at 3 o’clock and its roulette date wheel.
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Specs
| Case | 316L Stainless Steel 38mm Diameter 46mm Lug to Lug 12mm Thickness 20mm Lug Width Screw-down Caseback & Crown 200m Water Resistance |
| Dial & Crystal | Box Sapphire Crystal Black Dial Sword & ArrowHands Printed Markers & Numerals Super-LumiNova |
| Movement | Miyota 9015 HexapleX® 24 Jewels 28,800vph 42-Hour Power Reserve |
| Strap | Stainless Steel BOR Bracelet |
Wolbrook Skindiver 38 Date
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Final thoughts
You see, today you learned about an objectively cool skin diver you are now considering taking a closer look at. And why not slide it into your shopping cart? The Wolbrook Skindiver Automatic 38mm Even Numerals Dive Watch — White Lume with date is technically comprehensive and visually anchored firmly in the 1960s. You will probably find that to be quite the attractive combination. But what will definitely prompt you to buy it relates to the ever-so-important question of moolah.
As presented here on the beads-of-rice bracelet, the Skindiver 38 will set you back $943 CAD. You can also get it on either a grey or black Tropic rubber strap for $881 CAD. And if you’re not that much into the pure monochromatic colour scheme, Wolbrook also offers this model in a Vintage Lume – Cédric Dodane limited edition and a Green Lume version. The latter colour accent was a trademark of many Douglas watches from yesteryear.
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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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