The microbrand scene has somewhat exploded in recent years with new companies springing up all the time and while certain manufacturers, like Studio Underd0g and Christopher Ward, have placed themselves at the head of the scene, there are still smaller companies that are able to generate a bit of buzz amongst all the noise. Malaysian microbrand Revelot (Reveh-LOT? Reveh-LOW? Revenge of the Nerds?) are one brand that seems to be capable of standing out.
They regularly release new ranges of watches with interesting revisions and limited editions peppering the schedule too and, from what we can see, they tend to sell out pretty quickly. There’s definitely a degree of hype around this company and its their Seamaster-esque Hexmariners that seem to be leading the charge.
The original Hexmariner launched, via Kickstarter, back in late 2021, and came in two main types. A textured crystal dial with various colour schemes (say no to ‘colour way’) or the blue-ish grey meteorite. Both were gorgeous, for sure, and they were fully funded in just seven minutes. As the ‘R11 Hexmariner,’ this was Revelot’s eleventh model, so they already had a name and reputation, but even so, the demand for an affordable dive watch from them was clearly there. And the 42mm case size was right for most people, although on the border of excluding some thinner-wristed buyers.
However, it was the Hexmariner v2 that really got everyone excited, thanks to its wide choice of dial textures and colours, with the hexagonal mosaic mother-of-pearl pattern dials stealing the show. Indeed, to this day, it seems that the blue and purple mother-of-pearl variants are the two that best hold their price, if people are prepared to even part with them.
That’s where we bought in, picking up both the blue mother-of-pearl and the yellow Luminova versions. They didn’t add many fundamental improvements to the original. Revelot kept the same design language when it came to the cases, but made the masterstroke of offering a choice of sizes: the original 42mm and a new 39mm version, further opening up the number of potential buyers (specifically me). And while they were great watches, especially for the price, we did have some niggles with them. Nothing ruinous but the kind of things you’d hope they’d improve with later iterations.
The v2s kept the v1’s annoying display caseback. Annoying because they both had a design stamped over them that blocked the view. The yellow Luminova’s full-lume dial was surprisingly dim (especially when compared to the impressive retina-melting glow of their Terra Fortune limited edition) too. And most ruinously, the steel bracelet was a bit of a let-down. The adjustable clasp failed on our blue watch and they both used pins instead of screws. They were also just a little bit bitey on the skin too. That said, we would have kept hold of the blue one, maybe switching it over to a leather strap at some point, but then the Henry Archer Tesseract came along and started styling on anyone else in the blue mother-of-pearl market.
There was still life, and a ton of potential, in the Hexmariner brand though and Revelot announced the v3 last year to a customer base ready to gobble them up like Pac-Man after smoking a fatty boombatty. And while it appeared, on the surface, to be more of the same, Revelot had clearly listened to the feedback about the v2. So, let’s dig in deeper and see what Revelot have for us this time around.
Your first impressions might make you think this is more of the same, but with new colours and textures. Sure, they’ve added guilloche options and lost the crystal dial ones. They’ve also added some new stone options, such as marble and amazonite. But it’s the mother-of-pearl options that most interested us. Despite its popularity, the blue version has gone now. Purple remains, albeit with a fume effect where the dial gets darker towards the outer edge. It looks great, but the black bezel of the watch kind of detracts from the effect. It was the same on the purple v2.
However, there are now two new mother-of-pearl colours. Black, which looks smart but isn’t exactly going to get the party started, or the fume ‘Blood Red’ which leapt off of the webpage like Spider-Man and landed on the finger I use to click ‘Checkout.’ This was a day one pre-order, and so there was a wait of five months to finally get our hands on it, and we’ve been living with it for a week or so now.
The unboxing is nice enough, but nothing remarkable. You get a fairly nice box, a card for authentication and a little tag on a string. Mercifully, the xenomorph-strength clingy plastic wrap didn’t seem to be as aggressively applied as before, which meant we could actually free the watch from it without resorting to our usual multitool knife and scissors.
Once you get it in your hands, there’s an immediate, and very satisfying, feeling of quality. We’ve handled a lot of watches recently, including a couple of digitals, and this feels impressively solid right away. It’s the same weight as the v2 (150g on the bracelet), but there’s no rattle to it. Indeed, this is maybe the first watch that matches the feel of our 2003 Tissot PRS200. You can use many adjectives – solid, sturdy, quality – but for us, it just feels legit. Immediately, you think ‘oh my. Revelot aren’t playing around on this one.’
The dial is, of course, the star. Revelot take good photos, and cameras can lie, but this dial has an immediate, undeniable appeal. A hexagonal mosaic pattern of deep reds that coalesce to form a gently shimmering surface that catches the light in various ways. It looks great, static or moving, and passed a couple of early ‘oooh’ tests. One from this reviewer’s wife and the other from a co-worker who was wearing a Rolex GMT worth more than all of the cars I’ve ever owned. Deep red mother-of-pearl is undeniable. The blue and purple of the v2 were nice, this is deep and meaningful sex for your eyes. Three Michelin star eye candy.
As difficult as it is to move away from that pattern, let’s take a look at the other details. You’ve got the same chamfered sword hands and chunky hex-shaped indices as before, and that’s a good thing, as it gives you plenty of legibility. We described the look as ‘classy and angular’ last time, and nothing’s changed here and the text details on the dial remain unchanged from the watch’s very first iteration.
That is to say, you get Revelot’s small top-down watch crown logo and their brand name written in small capital letters in the top half of the dial. Small, inoffensive and just a much better name than so many microbrands from that part of the world. Revelot, as a word, is so much nicer than Hroudland or whatever names these microbrand manufacturers create by pulling out random letters of Scrabble tiles.
The bottom half of the dial has plenty of text, but it’s all small enough to not be an issue and besides, the Hexmariner has always been broadly-inspired by the Rolex Submariner and those things have half a novel on their dials. Here we’re limited to ‘HEXMARINER’ and ‘AUTOMATIC’ in capital letters and then the Submariner-esque-but-shallower ‘660ft = 200m’ water resistance details. The watch also has a date complication, which is a simple white-on-black one. We’re happy with that, as colour-matched date complications can sometimes be hard to read if you suddenly wake up and realise that you’re fifty or something.
Also unchanged is the neat little chapter ring which marks out seconds in groups of five and the steep inner bezel which has a brushed-but-shiny polish and ‘REVELOT HEXMARINER’ engraved in a loop five times, leading up to a ceramic bezel, in a complementary deep red shade. This has the classic Submariner configuration of a symbol at 0/60 (a diamond as opposed to the traditional triangle), minute markers from 0-15 and numbers at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 with lines at the intervals between. And this, of course, rotates, unidirectionally anti-clockwise, as you’d expect. We’d prefer that everyone gave up the pretence of taking these watches diving, though, as we’re much bigger fans of countdown bezels since reviewing the Golby Coastal. It’s nice and clicky though, and if you do fancy risking your life in up to 200m of water, this should, in practise, help you to avoid decompression sickness, especially with the grippy knurling to ensure your hand doesn’t slip when rotating. Miss us with all that, though. This watch is just as effective in the snack aisle at Lidl.
With a diameter of 39mm and a lug-to-lug of 44mm, you’d think this would be just as subtle and stealthy as any number of smaller microbrand watches from last year, but it has a real presence on the wrist. The thickness is 13mm (which includes the slightly raised sapphire), but, for some reason, it just feels a bit more showy. Maybe it’s the ostentatious dial or the red bezel making it pop. Maybe it’s that comforting weight. But this doesn’t feel like a watch that is hiding away. It feels like a watch that is ready to be seen and felt. It’s comfortable, but it doesn’t melt away like some other watches seem to, and we like that.
The case shape is the first hint of any kind of change. It’s a similar shape to the v2, and while it is mainly finished with a brushed polish, some of the sharper edges are now chamfered and polished to a shine. It’s subtle, but it’s beautiful and reminds us of a similar finish on the San Martin SN0148. That extra level of design that you might not even notice the first time you inspect the watch.
Flipping the watch around, you get the next improvement. Revelot did something a little inexplicable on a lot of their previous watches. They’d put in a display caseback but then cover it with an unnecessary design. We just didn’t get it. It wasn’t like the design on the back of the v2 was even nice. It was like having a beautiful back garden behind your house, but then putting an ugly wire mesh over your window. Well, finally, Revelot have done away with that nonsense and not a moment too soon.
The new, uncovered caseback window shows off the TMI NH35 automatic movement, which is undecorated, save for the fluted gold-ish rotor. It looks great, though, and, sure, it’s the sort of thing you won’t look at very often, but we’ll take a display case over an engraved closed one any day. Finishing off the back of the case are a few engraved details, though. 316L steel, 200m, sapphire glass, Swiss lume and R12. All right there, like a handy spec sheet for reviewers. Thanks for that, Revelot.
The side of the watch remains the same as the v2 with a signed crown and a crown guard, keeping those ‘is it a Rolex’ squints going if you’re suitably far enough away. The logo on the crown, as with the bezel, has applied lume, and, of course, the hands and bezel are coated with BGW9 Swiss Super-LumiNova Lume. It does a good job, offering decent night-time visibility, and it keeps going long into the early hours too. Without the lume on the bezel, you might struggle to orient it at night so it’s good that that’s not an issue.
As a whole, it’s an absolutely gorgeous watch, albeit one that doesn’t offer a ton of surprises. Revelot already have a history of making great, colour-rich dials with interesting textures and the watch itself is now on its third iteration, but it’s very much a slow evolution rather than a revolution. It’s great, but it does feel like this dive watch is treading water a little (arf!).
That can’t be said for the bracelet, though. If the v2s had a weakness, it was that rubbish bracelet, and so we’re happy to declare that Revelot have finally got that licked. Aside from the Glide-Lock mechanism feeling a bit more secure (we’ll report back here in a few months if that changes) and them finally switching from pins and collars to screw links (thank you, Jesus/Allah/Buddha/Hendrix), the watch just feels better engineered. The links feel closer, tighter. There’s less in the way of unwanted articulation, less pinch. It feels great and wears securely.
It’s one of those watches where we’re not interested in swapping it out for a strap any time soon. The bracelet upgrade is a success and feels like part of the whole package. An important part of this watch’s overall appeal.
Going back to the movement, the TMI NH35 is just a Seiko NH35 (TMI being short for Time Module Inc, a subsidiary of Seiko, which is distributed to microbrands and modders). It’s a perfect match for the Seiko version with the 21600 beats-per-hour sweep, hacking seconds, hand-winding and a power reserve of 42 hours. It’s nothing particularly special, but it’s a workhorse, known for reliability, and it’ll be cheap and easy to service when the time comes. It’s a 24 jewel movement too, referring to the artificial jewels used to reduce friction and wear in movements. It’s cheap, but it’s not bottom-of-the-barrel, and it’s proven to do a good job although you can expect mixed results when it comes to overall accuracy with these coming in at -20 to +40 seconds a day. However, if you’re rotating through a collection of watches, like we are, this becomes meaningless as we’re always having to wind them up. But if this is your one and only, you’ll need to adjust now again, much like any automatic.
For the price, £338.22 (we paid £270 as an early-bird price and managed to swerve any import taxes for once!), it’s a bit of a no-brainer. This is one of the best-looking dive watches we’ve ever seen. However, that is cheap, and that’s where things get a little squiffy. We detected just a couple of minor issues. The first is that the screw-down crown isn’t quite right. When you unscrew, there’s normally that point where you know you’re clear and can pull out the crown to adjust the date and time. This particular watch’s movement doesn’t want to let go. It just takes a tiny bit of jiggling to get there, but it’s an extra step and one that ruins the morning routine just a little. You just want to wind and go, but the watch insists on telling you that it’s cheaper than it looks. Your mileage will probably vary, but these watches are made in small numbers and so it’s the sort of thing you think they’d detect in the factory.
The other issue is that the indices aren’t applied perfectly. It’s close. It’s almost perfect, but some of them are just fractionally out. It’s not even a millimetre, but it’s definitely off. And when the main one affected is the one at 12 o’clock, you can’t help but be slightly annoyed. But that’s affordable automatics for you. If you want perfection, you’ve got to pay more, and we’re just not looking to shell out thousands of pounds on a watch.
Overall, though, it’s hard to complain. This is a solid watch, but one that is almost outlandishly pretty. And in a world dominated by black and blue watches, it’s nice to have one which leans into red hues. Everyone talks about Summer watches, but this might be the best Autumn one out there.
The ‘Ten Watch Box’ Verdict: So, will it hold down a place in our ten watch display case? For now, definitely. It’s pushed out the Tissot PRS200 (mainly because that’s just getting a bit too old now) and it’s adding some real drama to the collection. However, those niggles above have pushed it from being an absolute sure thing and now it’s in the top ten but not in the top half. If any really good watches come in, this could find itself being relegated one day. It won’t be for a long time, though, and, if you get a perfect one, we’re pretty sure you’ll love it as much as your own children.
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: Unfortunately, the entire Hexmariner v3 range is currently sold out but even limited run Revelots sometimes find a way back into stock. However, it is sometimes just one or two, so you need to keep an eye out. However, it’ll be worth setting up an eBay alert too if you’re super keen to get one.
Brand: Revelot
Model: Hexmariner v3
Style: Diver
Case Size: 39mm
Movement: TMI (Seiko) NH35
Material: Stainless Steel
Band Width: 20mm
Band Type: Bracelet
Price Paid: £270 (early bird price)