April 5th, 2023 | Words and photography by DAHTT
A 300 metre diver from Smiths.
This Smiths is an affordable alternative to the Tudor Black Bay 54.
I recently purchased this Smiths Commander as a gift for my father. He repairs Smiths clocks so has some affinity with the brand. For many years he's worn a Japanese quartz watch but has recently been asking questions about mechanical watches and had briefly mentioned looking at some Smiths.
More modestly sized dive watches reminiscent of early, mid century examples are becoming increasingly trendy. The every popular Tudor Black Bay has over the years been decreasing in size, originally starting out as a 41mm watch, we've seen a reduction to 39mm and most recently a 37mm version met with a rapturous reception.
The Commander slots right in-between the two smaller Tudors, measuring in at a sensible 38mm with a very agreeable lug to lug of 45mm.
Whilst the Commander might share similar proportions to the Tudor, it occupies a price bracket more familiar to watches from Seiko. Despite being incredibly affordable though, the Smiths offers 300m of water resistance. It is without doubt a seriously capable dive watch.
The Commander impresses elsewhere too, sporting a ceramic bezel, unheard of in this price range, as is a scratch resistant sapphire crystal.
As with many of their latest offerings, Smiths seems to be able to provide specifications and materials as we see here, which are well beyond what similarly priced watches from other brands offer. In fact, you'd have to spend a considerable amount more money to find all of these attributes elsewhere. The Tudor Pelagos is the first I can think of, but you can add a zero to the price to get the same "on paper" spec's.
Of course, finishing is where the difference is. The Smiths is closer to a similarly priced Seiko in that respect.
The movement here is a Miyota 9039, 24 jewel automatic, featuring hand winding and hacking. It offers a useful 42 hours of power reserve and managed to do so without reducing the beat rate from 28,800 bph, which makes for a wonderfully smooth sweeping second hand.
The 9000 series is a workhorse movement. It's not flashy or beautifully decorated, but it is tried and tested. Simple and reliable. It'll be cheap and easy to service when the time comes.
Protecting the movement is an anti magnetic cage. This is a less technical approach to anti-mag' than using a silicone hairspring, and it's the first real glimpse we have of Smiths working within a budget. The result is a slightly chunky 14mm thickness overall.
The lume provides a real treat. It's liberally applied Superluminova, which is both bright and long lasting. Not only that, but it's applied to the bezel too. Again I'm reminded of Tudor watches costing ten times as much.
It's hard not to love this watch. 300m, anti magnetic, workhorse movement with superb lume, wonderfully proportioned from a historic British brand.
A final note, about those wonderful proportions. By reducing the bezel thickness, Smiths have managed to make the dial circumference 28mm. For some context, that's the same as on a 40mm Rolex GMT master.
It's that sort of thinking and all of the aforementioned spec's which make this watch an absolute winner for me.