This was a great opportunity for me, as my YouTube channel has been growing I am getting a few microbrands contacting me to review their products. Many I have said no to for various reasons however when Phoibos emailed me and I took my first look at this watch I could not resist!
I had never heard of Phoibos before but then there are so many microbrands out there and my knowledge of new watches is very little. I liked that they knew of my work on the channel and thought that this watch suited my tastes.
The watch arrived and I was very pleased by the aesthetics especially the dial colour and texture. This watch is based on the look of a diver compressor watch, it has an inner rotating bezel which is controlled by the top screw down crown on the right hand side of the case. Cool feature, we all like a bezel and to have one on the inside is a little bit different to the norm. The bezel action is nice and smooth whilst being easily controllable to use for timing purposes.
The watch is powered by a Seiko NH35 movement which seems to be a staple movement for microbrands and I can see why. It is reliable being a Seiko, its 24 jewel automatic movement which also offers hand winding and hacking. They have good accuracy well beyond their manufacturing specifications.
Lets turn our attention to the dial.
We have applied indices, with a fine minute track which oddly has Roman numerals on it, so a bit of a mish mash with the Arabic numerals on the bezel, that said the Roman numerals seem to blend in and at glancing to tell the time I really do not notice them at all. I can see they are trying to design something different and this is very pleasing to me. Phoibos are a brand with their own ideas and not trying to copy the bigger brands. I can applaud that ethos.
Phoibos name is inspired by Greek mythology and Phoibos meaning “bright shiny things” their logo is an octopus / Kraken, some people do not like this but I personally do. This is a diver inspired watch and their logo gives reference to the sea. You will find this logo applied on both crowns and really nicely on the caseback. I love a good caseback on modern watches as it is amazing the artwork that can be done with modern machining. Here is the Eagle Ray caseback in all its glory.
The watch is made of 316L stainless, 316L is a low carbon content stainless steel which gives it better corrosion resistance and also less chance of retaining magnetism which in a mechanical watch is not desirable.
The showpiece for me though is the colour of the dial this burnt orange burst is just epic and then to give it texture too! now the watch does have different colours if anyone wanted to pick one up however for me the orange is the one to have.
Now for the lume, in modern watches its all about the lume as its a big selling point it would seem. This one manages to glow brightly including the bezel numbers. Here it is filmed over 15 minutes, its hard to capture on video as my camera struggles to focus so the fading of the lume in real life is less than it seems.
I also did a full review on YouTube of the watch which you can watch here:
So before I end this blog with some nice photos of the watch here are some links to Phoibos website.
Europe: https://phoiboswatcheurope.com/
Rest of World: https://phoiboswatch.com/
Here are some shots of this unique watch.
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