A year ago, I was looking for a big crown Sub homage in the $400-$600 range. Unfortunately, what was available at the time mainly comprised of watches that were $250 and below, or $800 and above. I didn’t want a Tiger Concept 5508 or a Ticino Sea Viper because they were too cheap, and even if I could find a Mk II Nassau, I didn’t have the money for it. There simply weren’t any big crown Sub homages in that $400-$600 sweet spot.
Then I stumbled upon Roland Kemmner’s eBay page (erkahund), and I saw that he had produced a batch of “007” watches. To my knowledge, there were three versions available:
- Gilt hands and print, full minute track, no-date, cursive logo, sans depth rating text, SuperLuminova BGW-9, ETA 2824-2 movement with solid caseback
- Silver hands and white, full minute track, date window at three o’clock, chevron/reverse-Heuer logo, depth rating text, SuperLuminova BGW-9, NOS Harley-Ronda movement with exhibition caseback
- Silver hands and white print, no-date, chevron/reverse-Heuer logo, depth rating text, “old radium” SuperLuminova, ETA 2824-2 movement with solid caseback
These watches were produced in a limited quantity of 200 and for $550, the watch satisfied what I was looking for:
- 39mm diameter, 13mm thickness, 48mm lug-to-lug, 20mm lug width
- ETA 2824-2 movement (movement grade undisclosed)
- Double-domed sapphire crystal with blue AR on the underside
- SuperLuminova on hands, indices, and bezel pip
- 60-click uni-directional bezel, aluminum bezel insert
- 200m WR, screwdown solid caseback and screwdown crown
- Fully brushed case, polished chamfered edges, drilled lugs
- H-link bracelet with diver’s extension
- “Made in Germany”
First thing to notice about the watch is the color of the lume. We have all seen watches with so-called aged lume that looks more like baby vomit than old radium, but in this case, Kemmner did a fine job. I do not know if this “old radium” SuperLuminova comes straight out of the box with this shade of color, or if this shade of color was achieved by mixing different pigments of SuperLuminova; either way, it looks great and sensible.
Second thing to notice about the watch is how three-dimensional and blue the double-domed sapphire crystal is. Vintage purists may be upset that this 6538 homage does not have an acrylic crystal, but I absolutely love the depth and colors that the sapphire brings to the watch. Yes, even with the AR, reflections are quite prevalent on this watch, but it doesn’t bother me at all. I prefer to have a domed sapphire crystal with blue AR on 95% of my watches.
Have you noticed the hands? They are almost perfect. And they are polished beautifully. I am sick of seeing vintage Sub homages with Mercedes hands that are too small, too short, or are of the wrong proportions. Mk II makes the perfect Mercedes hands, while this Kemmner comes in second place. Why second place you ask? Well, the hour hand is about one millimeter too long. Yes, one millimeter. Aren’t we watch nerds a fun bunch to hang around?
The bracelet is superb, especially given the price of the watch. Unlike a vintage Sub which has a riveted Oyster bracelet, the 007 comes with a fully-brushed H-link bracelet that has double-sided screws, solid endlinks, half-links, micro-adjustments, and a diver’s extension. The bracelet is machined well and is surprisingly lightweight, making it a pleasure to wear on the wrist. Drilled lugs are always a plus too.
The lume on this watch is fantastic. It is thickly and evenly applied and lasts for hours. I would say it is comparable to the lume on a Seiko SKX. I was expecting much less performance from this type of lume, but I was wrong. An interesting note is that I suspect the lume is hand applied; by looking very closely, you can see that the circles are not perfect circles and the rectangles are not perfect rectangles. So yeah, the lume is probably hand applied. Or it’s just crap quality. But it doesn’t matter, since this stuff is impossible to notice unless you’re a nerd like me.
On the wrist, the 007 wears bigger than its 39mm diameter suggests. I have flat 6.5″ wrists that can accommodate a maximum of 50mm lug-to-lug, and the 007 fits perfectly. After wearing my Seiko divers for few days and then putting this thing on, I am always pleasantly surprised at how thin it wears. I wish my Seiko divers were this thin.
After owning this watch for a year, my only complaints revolve around the bezel. The click spring broke, so the bezel doesn’t click or “ratchet” anymore. Also, the lume pip seemed to have sunk a tiny bit, and the black aluminum insert is beginning to look slightly green in the sunlight. The watch has a two-year warranty, and Roland Kemmner has communicated with me to fix the ratcheting problem, but I am just too lazy to send the watch all the way to Germany to get it fixed.
Overall, I have no regrets purchasing this watch. The 007 presents itself as a rather uncommon Sub homage and is a joy to wear. However, as we are all familiar with, there comes a time when tastes change, and I find myself wearing this watch less often than I have before. Maybe it is time to move the 007 on to a new home. Yeah, I think I will.
-CTC
uninterrupted time 