Saturday, March 16, 2013

BOREALIS Francis Drake DIVER

By TLex Introducing Borealis, a start-up Portuguese watch brand and their debut divers� model, the 'Francis Drake' named so after the famous 16h Century English sea captain and navigator. The watch owes its classic good to both Rolex and Tudor, but more specifically Tudor from which it is most heavily influenced.



It looks a lot like the lovechild of the Black Bay (dial) and Pelagus (case). Its most prominent feature being the iconic �Snow Flake� handset that Tudor used for their vintage models back in the day. A design that was only recently resurrected for the two said divers models that were released at Basel last year.



The Francis Drake, which is powered by a Chinese made Seagull ST210 automatic movement is bound to find favor with collectors who are on a more modest budget, but is likely to incur the wrath those who revere Tudor, who are right now making steps towards being a great name again and having just recently announced a return the US market! 

Still the Francis Drake is a good-looking watch, but then again, why wouldn�t it be given its inspiration! There's also a very fine line between homage and rip-off: what do you think?



The Francis Drake has a 316L Stainless steel case the diameter of which measures 42mm with a thickness of 12mm, a lug to lug width of 50mm and a lug size of 22mm. It is fitted with a domed uni-directional rotational divers bezel with red insert (not sure what material its is), a Sapphire crystal with AR-coating on its inside and a screwdown crown and caseback engraved with a ship�s anchor. Water resistance is of 300 meters. The dial is with Swiss Made C3 Superluminova applied hands and markers.



Borealis expect to receive their first stock in May. Its price will be of 349USD + shipping. It comes with a 12 months warranty. Follow the link below for further details . . .

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