Duzu Diver 4.0 Watch Review

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Duzu Diver 4.0

Wayne from Duzu has always created distinctive-looking watches, with design inspiration taken from oceans and landscapes in Western Australia. For his latest release, the Duzu Diver 4.0, he wanted to have a watch with a broader appeal. At first look, because of the snowflake-esque style hour hand, and the rectangle and square markers, it does resemble a Tudor Pelagos. Yet, this isn’t just some catalog Tudor copy as the case takes inspiration from previous Duzu models and while the dial has a familiar layout, it’s loaded up with Duzu DNA. This is also the first model from Wayne with a 40mm case with hopes it will reach a wider audience. These are going up for preorder soon (most likely end of February 2025), and I was lucky to get my hands on the bead-blasted pre-production model. These will start at $379 during preorder and sell for around $550 once in stock.

Specifications

• Case: 40 diameter 316L stainless steel

• Lug width: 22mm

• Lug-to-lug: 46.5mm

• Overall thickness (incl. crystal): 14.8mm

• Overall thickness (excl. crystal): 12.8mm

• Weight: 185 Grams

• Crown: 7mm diameter screw down

• Bezel: 120 click uni-directional with matte ceramic insert. 

• Crystal: Domed sapphire with AR coating

• Dial, Hands, and Bezel- BGW9 lume

• Movement: Miyota 9015 automatic

• Water Resistant: 300m

• Available in Blasted, Brushed, or DLC finish

Preorder pricing starts at $379

https://www.duzuwatches.com

If you haven’t seen or owned any of Duzu’s previous watches, you may look at this 4.0 and think, this is a more traditional design. Well, Duzu generally isn’t about the norm, and his previous watch models have had some crazy designs, designs I’ve generally liked. They were also much larger watches, and while 40mm is not the 37mm size so many brands are doing these days, it’s much smaller and more wearable than his previous designs.

That said, this isn’t exactly a normal 40mm, as the case with the domed crystal comes in at 14.5mm thick, though the case itself comes in around 12.8mm. The lugs are also 22mm and with a non-tapering bracelet and combined with a watch case that I measured from 10-4 at 41mm, this doesn’t wear like your standard 40mm watch.

Now these days so many watch collectors are divided on size, and like anything else, it’s all subjective. Some Duzu loyalists will find the Duzu Diver 4.0 to be too small, and others will find it still too large as they prefer 39mm and below. I find it perfect if I am being honest, as it has a relatively short lug to lug and I like that it wears slightly smaller than a 42mm, yet it doesn’t look small on my 7 1/2 inch or 19.05cm wrist. More on fit and the bracelet in a bit.

Sizing out of the way, we get to the real attraction of this watch, which to me is the case design. Watches, even dive watches with crown guards usually have very similar case sides, but this 4.0 deviates from that and the non-crown side bellies out quite a bit, which Wayne says mimics the non-crown side of his Duzu DW-D3, the dual crown diver from last year.

The crown side takes inspiration from the DW-D2 Coral Bay, but as you can see both are inspired and not just a rehash of both of these previous models. The crown guards are normal-sized compared to the massive ones on the DW-D2 and the case is carved out leading up to those crown guards. I love the look, which reminds me of the Timefactors Dreadnought, one of, if not the original microbrand diver.

And yes, the dial and the bezel insert do take inspiration from the Pelagos but par for the course with Duzu they put their spin on it, and at first, I wasn’t sure what to think about these dial markers, as I’ve never seen anything like them. They are rounded squares and rectangles, with a triangle at the 12, and for whatever reason they kind of remind me of chicklets, at least the squares ones do, but for those who are old enough and remember Bonkers candy, they remind me of that as well. Yes, they look very candy-centric to me for some reason.

The dial is uncluttered, with no novels above the 6 and while I think it would have been better to leave the date off the dial altogether, Duzu did a good job with adding a small indice behind the date window. The dial itself is matte black with low reflection and the hands and indice outline a stark white.

To match the dial, the bezel insert of the Duzu Diver 4.0 is also matte, but this is not aluminum, but rather a matte ceramic insert. We all have our tastes but I do wish more brands would use matte ceramic inserts. I think gloss ceramic looks great on certain watches but sometimes it just ruins the look of an otherwise toolish dive watch.

Both the crown and bezel have a great amount of grip, easy to grasp and use, and the bezel has a great feel to it. It’s a 120-click bezel and it just ratchets around so easily, while also staying in place, and considering this is a pre-production piece, I am quite impressed with how good the bezel feels. If you use your bezel as a fidget tool, you will like spinning this one. If you need a dive watch to time anything, it will do the job as well.

Inside is a Miyota 9015, and the rotor isn’t as loud as it is on many watches that use this movement, I am guessing the case back is a little thicker, or maybe everything on this case is a little thicker, deadening that sound. The case back is bellied as well, not flat, and includes some pertinent info as most case backs do, matter of fact, this is where you find the model name as opposed to the dial. The slightly rounded bellied case back really feels great on the wrist as well.

Not only is the H, U, or HU link bracelet 22mm, but it doesn’t taper at all, which adds to this overall larger than 40mm feeling. It’s easy to remove via quick-release pins and sizing is a breeze due to the screws in the links. It also includes an old-school clasp and ratchet extension. I call it old school because brands started using it about 15 years ago, and nowadays brands use a much slimmer and sleeker hidden push extension clasp. I like both, as I feel both have a different purpose. This one while on the large side and a little intrusive, can act as a dive suit extension as well as giving you the ability to loosen or tighten up the bracelet in small increments. Most of the newer ones aren’t dive extensions at all.

As mentioned, this is not the final product, and this one was a little short for my wrist. Fortunately, I was able to put the extension all the way out so it could fit my wrist, but just barely. It seems either Wayne or the manufacturer forgot to put all the links in, as a watch like this should be able to fit an 8-inch wrist easily. It was a shame as it could get pretty tight on my wrist from time to time if the heat was cranking, so I couldn’t wear it for long periods. That said, I like how it looked on my wrist.

Lastly, we have the lume and that’s something Duzu always nails. This Diver 4.0 is loaded up with lume on the indices, hands, and bezel, and it’s all BGW9. This example was easily readable 6 hours after going to bed, and the only area where I think could use some improvement is the second hand. It’s just a thin coating of lume on the stick, instead of having a lume tag that is filled with lume.

Some folks are going to look at this Duzu Diver 4.0 and not see anything but a Pelagos homage, and that’s unfortunate. Yes, that snowflake-style hand is hard to ignore, but this is so much more than just another homage in my opinion. Yes, Duzu could have gone with a different handset and/or indices, they could have gone completely original like their past models, but then again, would that appeal to a large audience? Probably not.

This is going to be one of those watches people love or hate. I wouldn’t exactly say I love it, but I do like what they did here. These days with so many watches looking alike I am less concerned about the handset and its resemblance to Tudor and appreciate all the other details Duzu has done.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss when this model launches, sign up for the Duzu newsletter and follow them on social media. At this time, the launch date should be the end of February 2025, but like anything, things can change.

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