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Varius Seek
Over the last decade or so, I have embraced titanium watches. At a point in time, I felt titanium watches were too lightweight and lacked the heft I associated with a solid tool watch. Heft does not mean quality, though, and titanium watches have come a long way, and I tend to prefer them these days. Enter the Varius Seek, a watch that blends modern material with old school microbrand diver styling, and brings it all together with a Swiss movement and 300m of water resistance. Of course, it has a sapphire crystal and ceramic bezel insert, and for now, two colorways, black or white, and fortunately, Varius sent along both for me to check out. These are great-looking cushion case divers, but they don’t come cheap at almost $1100.
Specificiatons
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42mm Case
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48.5m Lug to Lug
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13.4mm Thick
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22mm Lug Width
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130 Grams
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Grade 2 Titanium Case
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Grade 2 Titanium Bracelet
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4.5mm Sapphire Crystal
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Ceramic Bezel Insert
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Sellita SW200-1 Movement
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300 Meters Water Resistant
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Swiss Made
Price $1090 USD
https://www.variuswatches.com/
Varius is a new brand, but the owner has launched a brand before, well, at least he tried. Pancerna was a very different brand with a watch that was all original and a modern take on a pilot watch, which unfortunately never made it to market as their crowdfunding campaign was not successful. I think the biggest problem had nothing to do with the watch; rather, the timing was unfortunate as it was in the height of the pandemic, and people weren’t exactly looking to plunk down money to fund a new watch. Understandable, but a shame as I did like that Pancerna a lot.
The Varius Seek goes in another direction. This case design isn’t exactly new, as not only has it been used by many other brands (not an exact case but in style), most notably would be Doxa. In the microbrand world, the Ocean Crawler Core diver is very similar, but there is another brand that launched a few years ago with the Boken Nomad. That case is identical in every way, and it turns out there are a few others I have found using this same case, crown, bezel, and bracelet, as it is what you call a catalog case. Now unlike those other brands, where the dial legitimately look identical with excpetion of the brand names, Varius did change up the hands on the dial, speically the hour an minute hand, and of course the font as well, so while the case may be the same, it doesnt look and feel like just another copy.
So yes, the Varius Seek is not an original case design, but I feel for some reason this is looked down upon these days where whereas going back to the late 2000s and even in early 2010s, this was a lot more common, and enthusiasts didn’t seem to care as much. Maybe it was just due to the period, or maybe it was the pricing, but there were a lot of brands back then using the same cases, from many different factories, whether they were Hong Kong factories, German ones like Fricker, and many others.
These days, everyone wants every watch to be original and to be very inexpensive as well, and that’s just not always possible. I have myself in previous years made comments in my reviews that mirror that, and looking back, that was misguided. At the end of the day, it comes down to what touches they add to it, and do I find it attracitve. In the case of the Varius Seek, I do find it very attractive, I love this case design and always have, and I like the different handset as I prefer it to the syringe hands on the Boken and others, which of course is just personal preference. I will say I do wish Varius did a little bit more.
Yes, the dial font and writing are different, and the hour and minute hands are different, but that is it as far as the changes. The chapter ring is the same, the bezel insert, and of course, everything else. I do love the overall look that is the Varius Seek, but the reviewer in me, the guy who nit picks everything, wish they went with a different bezel insert, maybe differnet font, do a matte ceramic, or something as simple as a no date or changing the date placement to the 6 o’clock position.
That said, the dial is amazingly legible, those hour and minute hands are not only distinct but large and easy to read, and overall it’s a very clean and legible dial. I also love the contrast from the all black with orange accents to the stark white version, though I would love to see ( if possible) what the white dial would look like with the black bezel insert.
Speaking of bezels, I love the bezel edge grip; it’s large, and the bezel raises up off the case and allows for a good purchase, even if you have larger hands, and it is a 120-click bezel. I find the bezel assembly to be lacking. It’s not a sloppy bezel by any means, and I never found the bezel to be off where I put it when wearing it, but I do wish the turning feel was tighter. It just feels too smooth and loose to me.
The crown on the other hands feels great, large and easy to grip, and I didnt experince an issue at all wiether setting the time or screwing back down into the case. Of course, like a lot of dive watches these days, this is a 300m water-resistant diver, yet it lacks a helium release valve, something this reviewer is glad to see. Yet, one thing that is present that I didn’t expect is the exhibition case back, showing off the Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement.
Normally, a 300m tool-style all-brushed titanium watch would have a solid case back, but Varius chose to show off the movement. The glass here, though, is mineral, not sapphire, and the movement is not decorated at all, instead, you have just the logo etched into the crystal.
The Varius Seek is all titanium, Grade 2 titanium, including the bracelet, so it makes the whole package pretty lightweight for a 42mm dive watch. It still has some heft, though at 130 grams, so it won’t feel like a feather on your wrist, though much less than a steel counterpart would be. Like I said in the intro, though, I love it, as I get the size I like, without the heavier weight.
On my 7 1/2 inch (19.05cm) wrist, it wears fantastically. I love the width, length, and overall height, and the weight allows me to notice it’s there, but not in a way that it feels like a brick on my wrist. Keep in mind, I love a lightweight G-Shock these days, so you can understand why I prefer all titanium on a watch such as this.
The bracelet could use a few upgrades, though. Its a pretty standard 3 link design, no issues theres, but its very old shcool in that it lacks screw adjustment for the links, this is a friction pin set up, and the clasp is a flip lock push button style, no dive extenion and more imprtatly no on the fly tooless extesion clasp that so many brands are using. If it sounds like I am spoiled, I am, as are most of us, and if you want to compete in the current market, you need to upgrade the components. It all works as it should, though, and even includes half links on the bracelet to help obtain a great fit.
If you hate bracelets (many do), Varius does offer FKM rubber straps in a few colors for an extra $30. These are pretty standard straps, again in a design we have all seen before, but include a titanium buckle and quick-release pins. They are 4mm thick, and the website says they should fit up to a 9-inch wrist, but I woudl say it’s more like 8 1/4 inch. The bracelet has quick-release pins as well, and unlike a lot of brands, I will say they feel more solid than many, and it’s easy to switch between strap and bracelet, and they have a good, solid click and feel to them.
Lastly, we have the lume, which for some will be the most important. Believe it or not, for some collectors and enthusiasts, lume is a make-or-break deal when it comes to purchasing a watch, and for the Varius Seek, the lume may be a deal breaker. As you can see, it’s very strong on the hour, minute, and second hand tag, but on the applied indices, it’s lacking. It needed a couple more layers of lume to match up to the hands, and while you can see the time in the dark because of the hands, those hour markers will fade altogether after an hour or two.
While I think that a few tweaks to the Varius Seek could have been done to make this a home run, this is their introductory model. Matter of fact, only 250 in each color has been produced and there may be 2 other colors produced eventually but Varius states on their website they have a lot of other models and designs they want to produce, so I assume this one is what it is, thoguh maybe they will take a few things I mentioned here, and upgrade them if they do the new colors.
I do love the look, though. This is just right up my alley when it comes to a dive watch, and it does remind me of those original old school dive watches from 15 years ago, and enjoy how it looks and wears on my wrist. The price may be hard for some to swallow, but like all things these days, nothing is cheap, and in fairness, the Boken Nomad was this price 3 years ago. So it’s all relative.
Varius
