Traska Freediver Watch Review

Manufacturer: Traska Watches | Price: $375 USD (€340 EUR, £295 GBP approx)

I initially reviewed the Traska Freediver way back in February 2019 when I first purchased the watch along with when I first made the descision to start writing watch reviews. Looking back, the Traska Freediver was actually the very first review I done. I recently however, got the Freediver back after loaning it to my father-in-law for a few months and decided to have a wee look back at the review I wrote on it. Shocking! Not the watch, the watch is gorgeous, but the actual layout of my review that I wrote and the really piss poor quality images that I had took with an old phone. So I decided to give the review a bit of a refresh and show much better images that the watch most definitely deserves.

Specifications

Dimensions: Case Diameter – 39.7mm, Thickness – 12.8mm, Lug to Lug – 47.8mm, Lug Width – 20mm
Movement: Seiko NH38 Automatic, 21,600vph (3Hz), Hackable, Self Winding, 41hr Power Reserve
Case Material: Brushed 316L Stainless Steel with Polished Accents, Scratch Resistant Coating
Bracelet: Brushed 316L Stainless Steel, Scratch Resistant Coating, Solid End Links, Screw Pins, Milled Clasp
Crystal: Double Domed Sapphire, Underside Anti-Reflective Coating
Bezel: 120 Click Unidirectional, Stainless Steel Insert, Lumed Pip
Water Resistance: 10ATM / 100m / 330ft
Lume: Swiss Super Luminova® BGW9
Crown: Signed, Screw Down Caseback: Screw Down, Unique Serial Number
Warranty: 3 Years Where to Buy: Traska Watches
Options: Dial Colour – Black, Mint, Grey | Bezel Insert – Stainless Steel, Sapphire

Traska Watches - The Company

Philosophy

The inception of Traska was motivated by their vision to create sport watches that enrich the lives of those wearing them. Coupling robust construction with a timeless aesthetic, the results are watches that will last a lifetime and thrive in any environment. Whether you’re scuba diving Darwin’s Arch, rock climbing Half Dome, or diving into the pool to save a drunken party guest, a Traska watch is a companion worthy of any adventure.

Story

Traska are an independent American watch brand with a passion for exquisite detail and a commitment to excellence. Unmoved by the shallow ethos peddled by luxury brands and weary of fast-fashion offerings designed for obsolescence, Traska seized the opportunity to establish a legacy. They craft world class wrist watches that combine classic design and contemporary engineering. Their drive — to inspire those with discerning tastes to seek more from the watch on their wrist.

Traska Slideshow

Case, Bezel & Crown

The case of the Freediver has a diameter of 39.7mm. The lug to lug is 47.8mm and the overall thickness, including the double domed sapphire crystal, I measured in at 12.8mm. The entire case, caseback, coin-edge bezel, bezel insert, bracelet and crown are all 316L stainless steel. The finish of the watch is mostly brushed, with polished chamfered edges along the sides and down over both sides of the lugs. You can also see in the images that the outer and top edges of the coin-edge bezel is also polished. The transition between the brushed and polishing finishing is absolutely flawless.

The Freediver has a water resistance rating of 100m / 10 ATM, thanks to the screw-down caseback & crown. The proportions of the watch, in my opinion, are spot on for my 7″ wrist. The Freediver wears really well on wrist and is very comfortable. The signed crown is also superb and it does look great, there is also absolutely zero wobble when the crown is pulled out at any position. The caseback is quite a simple affair with a lightly etched freediver logo in the middle and various specs around the edge. You will also find a unique serial number engraved here too, which is a lovely touch.

Bracelet

The entire case and bracelet are covered in a scratch resistant coating making it slightly darker than normal stainless steel. It’s not quite as dark as say, titanium, but there is a slight tint overall and to be fair, I like it, it makes the overall aesthetic a little more stealthy. The bracelet itself is 20mm that tapers down to 18mm and back to 20mm at the clasp. Sized up for my 7″ wrist I had to remove 3 links, which was super easy to do with the screw pins for adjusting. There are also 6 micro-adjustment holes to ensure that perfect fit whether you wear a watch below or above the wrist bone. Another fantastic attention to detail from Traska is the perlage finishing on the scissor hands part of the milled clasp.

Movement

The chosen movement is the NH38, a non date version of the reliable workhorse, Seiko NH35. A lot of watch manufacturers choose the NH35 even if it’s for a non-date version of their watches. Thankfully, Traska go the extra mile and use the NH38 for the Freediver. This means no ghost position when using the crown. Excellent attention to detail again from Traska! Checking the accuracy after running the Freediver both on wrist and in my winder, I was rather surprised with it showing an average of just +4.1spd.

Dial & Bezel

This version of the Freediver has a stainless bezel insert and it is of fantastic quality with everything lining up perfectly. The bezel action is absolutely rock solid too with zero back-play. The dial has very neatly applied hour markers with a good helping of lume as do the minute and hour hands. The text and logo are all very neatly printed. I have stared at the dial & bezel for a long time since getting the watch just to see if I can spot any discrepancies. Simply put, there are none!

As you can see in the images, the hour and minute hands are of a very nice sword style. The seconds hand style is great, with a silver finish and lumed arrowhead section around two thirds of the way down the hand. The lume used on the Freediver is the ever popular Super Luminova® BGW9 and it is applied extremely well and very evenly.

Conclusion

An absolutely fantastic watch that ticks all boxes. I can’t find any fault with it whatsoever, it’s just simply a beautiful timepiece. It retails at an extremely fair price and to be honest, in my opinion Traska could’ve sold this watch easily at $450. Additionally, it ships anywhere in the world totally free. The overall attention to detail is second to none and the build quality is simply outstanding.

If I had to nit-pick, I would’ve liked to have seen slightly deeper water resistance, as I know some people who read this review will pick up on the 100m rating. I can totally understand why Traska did this though, as your average diver won’t go much deeper than 30 or 40m at best, and if they do, all of them would be using a diver’s computer. (I know I would). There are a lot of brands out there (including the big major brands) that could learn a lot from Traska Watches. Well done.

Did I mention that the Traska Freediver comes with a 3 year transferable international warranty? Well, it does! That’s extremely rare for a microbrand company, but it just goes to show, how much Traska believe in their own product.

Traska Watches – My first experience of Traska and it certainly won’t be my last with their new Summiteer coming soon.

Design

 10/10

Quality

 10/10

Value

 10/10

TOTAL

 10/10

10/10 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Will Editor, Zaltek Reviews