Specifically, with a watch of this size and a crown on the right side, there’s always the risk of irritating the back of your hand. Another feature that I welcome is the left-hand crown. The brand developed an innovative locking system (Locking Ring System), allowing for quick and worry-free battery replacement. Without precautions, the oil will spill out when opening the watch to change the battery. With battery-powered oil-filled watches, there’s always the fear of changing the battery. As we can see in the picture of the Kienzle The Deepest at the start of this article, the air bubble is much smaller, but I’m sure the amount of oil in the watch is too. For this watch, it’s very well possible that a smaller bubble wouldn’t do the job correctly. I do wish the bubble had been slightly smaller, but I guess its size is probably calculated with the expansion and retraction of the amount of oil in mind. I’d even say I like it as it’ll be an excellent conversation starter. To me, the air bubble in the Darkmoon isn’t annoying at all. The big difference is that the air bubble freely moves through the oil and will be visible on the dial. A bubble of air can compress and retract and act equally as well as Ressence’s bellows. However, a simpler system leaves a little air in the oil. This range covers all temperature situations a watch might encounter. These bellows expand or compress to compensate for changes in the oil’s internal volume between -5° and +55° Celsius. Ressence invented a neat, specially designed system where seven air- or gas-filled bellows are placed inside the movement in the oil. When the oil inside the watch expands due to increasing temperatures, the inner part of the case back slightly moves outward. Sinn uses a case back that acts like a membrane. To tackle this problem or situation, different watch brands found different solutions. So if the temperature of an oil-filled watch rises, the oil will expand, and if a watch case is fully filled with oil, the oil has nowhere to go. With temperature changes, the oil will expand and contract.
One might think this is a flaw, but it’s intentional and, in fact, necessary. One of the first things you’ll notice when looking at the U-Boat Darkmoon is the air bubble under the glass in the oil. But the other advantage that oil-filling brings - improved readability and an attractive appearance - is exploited to the fullest. The Darkmoon is no diver’s watch, so the reason for oil-filling can’t be the enhanced pressure rating. Don’t hesitate to explore all variations here. There are 40mm and 44mm sizes, at least six different dial colors, two case colors, and even a version with a red-colored crystal.
And it’s good that the model name is so descriptive because U-Boat offers many variations of the Darkmoon. This nomenclature says it all: the watch measures 44.8mm in diameter, sports a grey dial, and has a stainless steel case. The model that U-Boat provided me with was the Darkmoon 44 MM Grey SS. I was happy that U-Boat sent in one of the latter to write this hands-on review.
#U BOAT WATCH SERIES#
For aesthetic reasons, U-Boat uses oil-filling in two of its model series - the Capsoil and the Darkmoon. While Type 5 probably could be marked as a dive watch, Type 3 uses oil-filling’s enhanced readability and appearance for design purposes only.
#U BOAT WATCH HOW TO#
Excellent examples of how to use the augmented readability that oil-filling provides are the Ressence Type 3 and Type 5. With the UX, Sinn still has an oil-filled dive watch in its catalog.īesides providing a relatively easy solution to increase the pressure rating for diver’s watches, oil-filling brings another phenomenon - improved readability and appearance. Equivalent to 5,000 meters, that would be much more than sufficient for any human-worn dive watch anyway. Despite depth ratings up to 12,000 meters, however, it became clear that the quartz crystal contained in a movement could not withstand a pressure of more than 500 bar. The examples mentioned above were aimed at solving the problem of pressure and depth ratings of diver’s watches. Image source: Chrono24 Oil-filled watches
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