Vero Open Water 38 – Swell

Note: this product was provided for review.

I really like what Vero is doing, they aren’t another brand slightly tweaking iconic watches, or anything of that nature. They approach watch design with a clear path of doing something different. The Open Water 38 line hits a really sweet spot in the market: a popular dive style watch, in a much more wearable case size.

The Swell edition I was sent adds to this, coming in with a color you don’t see in a watch that often.

It’s fun, easy to wear, and quite good.

Specs

Here’s the specs from Vero:

Media Blasted 316L Stainless Steel Matte Finish Case

200m Water Resistance

60 Click Unidiretional Cerakoted 12 Hour Bezel

Super LumiNova Hands and Indicies

Sapphire Crystal with Internal AR Coating

38mm Diameter

10.75mm Case Thickness

46.5mm Lug to Lug

18mm Lug Width

Swiss Made, US Assembled

Sellita SW200-1 Automatic Movement w/ 38hr power reserve

Regulated in house to a finer accuracy than +/- 5 Seconds per day in six positions with a lower delta rate than Swiss and American Railroad chronometer standards.

Single Screw Links

Female Endlinks (quick release bracelet)

Adjustable from 5″ to infinity

NEM (Nodus Extension Module) Micro Adjust Clasp

The sum of all this: it is one hell of a watch spec for this price category. There are not many watches with that level of regulation, and I can’t think of any that come in under $1,000. The entire setup reads like a “what if we made a very wearable watch, with really well thought out features, materials, and movements”. That is what you have here. The only two things I can think worth mentioning:

18mm isn’t as common a lug width, it’s small. It looks fantastic with the scale of the watch, but it’s unlikely you have straps of this size kicking around.

The 38hr power reserve is on the barely OK with me end of things, but the regulation done to this movement removes any possible complaint I could have.

As with the other Vero watch I reviewed, this is well executed, finished, and all that. It feels like a $2,000-3,000 watch from the specs and materials alone.

Wearing It

I need to preface this section with an odd series of events that happened when I got this watch — which almost led to a complete loss of the watch. The first thing I do with any new watch is peel off all the protective film and slip it on, so I can see what adjustments I need to make. For the first time ever with a bracelet watch, no adjustments were needed. So I wore the watch for a day, and then headed to the airport with this watch the next morning.

At the airport, I did something I rarely do, I slipped the watch off my wrist and dropped it in my bag through security. I pulled the watch back out to put it on post security, and found the bracelet dangling free on one side. As in, the screw between two links was simply gone.

I think this is a fluke. I checked every other link and nothing was loose, but clearly the screw on one single link was not set all the way, and came free. Luckily I took it off, otherwise the watch would have most certainly dropped from my wrist at some point, and maybe even been lost. I also am certain, had I needed to size this bracelet, I would have caught this. Luckily the watch comes with quite a few extra links, so I grabbed another screw and have had zero issues since. It’s a one off, but it did happen so I am noting that. I am not sure what the make of it overall.

I am, however, exceedingly happy to report that this is a fantastic watch to wear. The lime/yellow color of the dial and bezel is nearly day-glow bright, and certainly fits the bill of “neon”. It’s striking, but not over powering. Generally it is quite fun, and gives a very high level of legibility to the watch.

The case sizing is exceptional, and spot on. It wears small, allowing the cuff of all my shirts to easily fall over it, while never looking small when you face it up to check the time. It’s balanced both in wear, and aesthetically.

I’ve found the movement exceptional on this, and did not realize the level of regulation this watch had until I went to write this, and once I saw that, it all made sense. I am so used to less expensive watches having atrocious levels of regulation that it was actually noteworthy that I wrote “keeps really good time” about this, before knowing that it was regulated tighter than most chronometers are.

I love that this has a 12hr bezel instead of a traditional elapsed time bezel. As this is a very useful feature, instead of needing to adjust the time on your very well regulated watch when you are taking a quick trip outside your TZ, you can move the bezel to offset, giving you two time readings simultaneously. It’s not as intuitive as a GMT, but it’s equally effective once you get used to it.

I’ve talked a lot about the case and watch, but the bracelet is worth talking about. A single screw for the links. Quick release from the case. A tool-free micro adjust on the inside of the clasp. A milled clasp with a squeeze style release. The bracelet alone could cost you the entire price of this watch from some of the bigger brands. It’s exceptionally well done. Aside from that fluke of an incident with the links, the only issue I’ve had with the clasp is that it does take slightly more attention to secure when putting on the watch than I am used to. This might ease with use, but maybe 25% of the time I don’t fully engage the lock on the clasp on my first try.

The matte finish on the watch does show patina, as you can make out in some of the images. It shows what is commonly referred to as “snail trails”, very light, often wider, mark across the finish. This is fairly common on all watches, and it’s especially apparent on most matte finishes like this. If that type of thing bothers you, it will happen on this watch.

Something I often notice with smaller tool watches is that they can start to feel like they are not durable simply because we psychologically associate “bigger” with “stronger”. This watch walks that line well. The bezel has a good amount of surface area, pulling up the visual facing size. The case is thin, but very solid. The tactile experience gives you confidence of durability throughout. It feels solid, it doesn’t feel or look like a toy, it feels very modern but with more vintage/classic case sizing.

Vero also needs credit for two things which seem simple, but are astonishingly rare in watches these days:

The dial is insanely clean. There’s the logo at 12 o’clock, and a small water resistance rating (and labeled as 20 ATM at that, instead of 200m/656ft) at 6 o’clock. The rest of the dial has plenty of text free space to breathe. I don’t know who at Vero did this, but I’ll buy them a Scotch if we ever meet.

The second is the 10 year warranty on the watch. I’ve already touted the value proposition of this watch, and that’s all before you take this into account. The warranty is straightforward and is passed on to even second hand buyers. I can’t think of a better warranty in the industry.

That’s the thing with this watch. There’s so many simple, kind, well considered things with this watch that you will not even think about. Because when this watch is on your wrist you smile and go about life. You don’t worry about it, you didn’t spend that much, it keeps absurdly good time, and the warranty is right there for you should the worst happen.

It’s all good.

Overall

I love this watch, and I love what Vero is doing. This could be a $2,500 watch and I would likely tell you that it’s very solid buy. At $795, I question why you don’t own one already. I honestly could not pick the color of Open Water to request, nor the size of the case — because I like them all. This ‘Swell’ model is fantastic, and I am very glad it’s what I was sent.

Without caveat, this is an excellent watch.

Buy here, $795.