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With the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT, the Swiss manufacturer promises an attractive watch at a fair entry-level price. Is the world timepiece with the two-tone bezel worth it? I took a closer look at the timepiece with quartz movement for you and tested how much quality you get for 368, – euros!
Davosa in the Uhrenlounge
To get to know Davosa and its Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT, the watch was kindly provided to me by the online portal uhrenlounge.de. The Uhrenlounge of Aika Jewelers from Dresden is specialized in online sales of watches from well-known manufacturers such as Oris, Tissot, Hamilton and Seiko. As the Uhrenlounge is also an authorized dealer of Davosa watches, you will find a generous offer of timepieces of the Swiss brand in the online store. As always, all important links can be found at the end of the review. If you have any questions about watches, the competent customer service of Uhrenlounge is at your disposal.
How much watch do you get for an entry-level price?
Admittedly – Davosa was a name that was did not really came to my mind until now. I simply had little contact with the Swiss brand, which was founded in 1987 and whose prehistory began more than 150 years ago in the Swiss watch capital of Biel. Since then, the Hasler family can look back on an eventful history. With Davosa, mechanical watches of the company made a successful comeback in the late 1980s.
The Vintage Diver collection is part of an extensive model range that offers Swiss watches in different price categories. The quartz watches are a loving tribute to the first professional diving watches. Equipped with a classic hexagonal stainless steel case, illuminated indices and the characteristic diver’s bezel, the timepieces offer everything that watch fans love about diving watches. My test model today: the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT with reference number 163.500.90. With its two-tone bezel, it is perhaps the most iconic model in the collection.
Thanks to its moderate price of 368 euros, the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT should be especially suitable as a “first diver’s watch” for beginners, right? A watch review shall give the answer…
The Unboxing
As part of a four-watch shipment from Uhrenlounge (stay tuned!) the Diver lies on the table in front of me still packed in a box. I take off the lid with the characteristic Davosa star logo and set aside the info brochure and warranty card. The Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT itself is a diver’s watch in a surprisingly compact format and at first glance it reminds me somewhat of the TAG Heuer Aquaracer GMT Pepsi, with which today’s test watch otherwise has little in common except for the color scheme of the bezel. The classic design, with a stainless steel case and functional dial, dispenses with gimmicks or innovations and pays tribute to the first diving watches of the early 20th century with timeless beauty.
Qualitatively, the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT makes a surprisingly good impression – as far as one can judge such a thing at first glance.
The Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT on the wrist
Brachiality and clunkiness are far from the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT. With its case diameter of 39 millimeters, the vintage diver fits any wrist, which is why I wouldn’t call the timepiece a designated men’s watch. In addition, there is a height of 13.5 millimeters, which gives the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT harmonious proportions.
The fact that you can wear a classic diver’s watch in a stainless steel look anytime and anywhere actually goes without saying. There are few other watch designs that look so versatile, sporty and classy on the wrist. This also applies to the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT, which you can wear without hesitation in your everyday job, at a meeting or at the pool.
The case of the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT
Let’s take a detailed look at the compact case of the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT. Its shape, reminiscent of a hexagon, is typical of the diving watches of the time and has lost none of its beauty to this day. The stainless steel used is scratch-resistant and guarantees the Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT longevity. Visual accents are set by the surfaces, which were both polished and satin-finished in the manufacturing process.
The necessary water resistance is ensured by the screw-down crown and the six-fold screw-down case back. Davosa specifies the value of water resistance with a maximum depth of 100 meters. That’s certainly not record-breaking, but should easily be enough for most of us in everyday life. Swimming is not a problem. In addition, it’s worth remembering that the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT is first and foremost a watch that takes on the look of old diving watches and is not designed to set new bests.
The specifications are neatly engraved on the caseback, which is emblazoned with the star-shaped logo including the manufacturer’s lettering in the center. It is also found on the crown, which is easy to operate thanks to the fluted sides. Those who really want to take the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT snorkeling or diving will be grateful for the crown protector, which prevents the crown from interfering with or damaging the back of the hand.
I like the classic curvature of the mineral crystal, which protrudes slightly above the bezel. You can notice the attention to detail here. The mineral crystal itself is scratch-resistant, but much lighter than sapphire crystal, which is used in high-priced models.
A reliable quartz movement
Inside the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT with the reference number 163.500.90 works a quartz movement from the Swiss manufacturer Ronda. The Ronda 505 has a battery life of an enduring 45 months. Its popularity in so many quartz watches of different brands is explained by its reliability and accuracy.
The Pepsi bezel explained
THE design element of the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT is its bezel, which strongly resembles the logo of the American beverage giant due to its distinctive two-tone design (even though the colors red and blue are reversed). From the Pepsi bezel, you can immediately tell that the Vintage Diver is a true GMT or world time watch. While the red half represents the day (6am-6pm), the blue half represents the night (6-6pm). World time is read with the eye-catching red GMT hand. To set any second time zone, either the GMT hand or the bezel can be rotated.
Unlike GMT bezels, the bezel of the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT can only be turned counterclockwise and not both ways. Thus, it can also be used as a diving rotating bezel, which indicates the remaining time under water. In manufacturing, Davosa relies on lightweight aluminum. In the test, the clicks snapped cleanly into place.
Dial and bracelet
In addition to the GMT hand, minute and hour hands as well as a central second hand indicate the easily readable time on the black dial. Its design is subject to functionality. Unusual and special are the indices, which are represented by squares, rectangles and a triangle at 12 o’clock, but I like them. Their retro cream color starts to glow in the dark thanks to a coating of Swiss Super-Luminova. I was very happy about the use of this “brand illumination”.
Lastly, let’s take a look at the functional stainless steel bracelet, which stands out with its “rice bracelet” look from the typical three-link bracelets. The folding clasp has an integrated diver’s extension, which can even be used to extend the bracelet by several inches to fit over any wetsuit.
Wearing comfort during my test period was more than decent. Alternatively, the watch is also available with a brown leather strap; but then under the reference number 162.500.95.
My conclusion about the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT
How good is a Swiss diver’s watch from the mid three-digit price segment – this question appealed to me from the very beginning. And I have to admit that I was quite skeptical at the beginning. Unfounded, as it now turns out at the end of this watch test. The Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT is a watch that not only beginners and newcomers to the watch world should take a closer look at. With good quality and a timelessly beautiful design, Davosa shows that you don’t always have to dig deep into your pocket to wear a high-quality wristwatch on your wrist.
In the Uhrenlounge store, the Davosa Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT currently costs 368 euros. All important links can be found below. My final thanks once again to my partners at Uhrenlounge for making this review possible!
More about Davosa and the Vintage Diver Pepsi GMT
Here you can find the watch in the store
More watches from Davosa at the Uhrenlounge
TAG Heuer Aquaracer Pepsi GMT Review
