Phoibos has grown quite a bit in the affordable watch arena since 2014 with their designs and very affordable prices. The brand mainly uses Seiko or Miyota movements, sapphire crystals, 316L Stainless Steel, and fantastic lume across their line while being in that $300-$500 price range. The watch I am going to diver deeper into will be their latest model the Kraken which retails at $450 directly from Phoibos and is one of the more bolder designs for the brand. As usual I wont be writing to much in depth about style or the materials as that is all subjective and viewed easily elsewhere, but what kind of quality Phoibos has offered in their latest release.
Specifications
REF.: PY033E
Dial: Sunray Champagne
Caliber No.: Miyota 9015
Case: 316L Stainless Steel
Band: 22mm 316L Stainless Steel
Clasp: Three-fold clasp with push button release and dive extension
Glass: Double Dome Sapphire Crystal with 3 layers anti reflective under coating
Water resistance: 300M
Case size: 41mmX50mm (Bezel 42mm)
Bezel: 120-click unidirectional stainless steel bezel
Crown: Screw-Down Crown
Lume: 15 layers Super-LumiNova BGW9 and C3 on hands and indices; BGW9 lume pip at 12H on bezel
Warranty: 2 years
Origin: Made in Hong Kong
Looking at the dial everything up close you can see a lot of brushing was used from the dial, indices, hands and even the date window.
Moving up close on the dial the logo is done well and rather crisp. The hands are machined brushed and normally not to my liking but they do catch the light, but are relatively low grade. The same can be said for the indices. The lume does appear to be evenly applied on the hands and indices and are cut decently for a watch in this price range.
The date wheel is where I have the biggest issue with the watch. You can clearly see up close that Phoibos just repainted the date wheel that came on the Miyota movement. Even from a distance with the naked eye you can see that there is something off with date wheel. Now it's nice that they decided to alternate between red and white but in this case just doesn't work well with the dial and colors chosen. Perhaps other color dials may be better match the red/white date wheel.
The bezel does lineup well with no back play. The black coating around the bezel markers is filled nicely however it's very rough on the inside. Wearing the watch often it will most likely pick up a lot of debris inside the markers.
The crown is solid and easily to manipulate. The phoibos logo is done relatively nicely.
The outside case is solid with thick brushing on the sides. I do feel like they should have done a thinner more fine brushing on case sides.
The caseback is solid and screwed down well howevrr I feel like they should of went with a different image and something a bit more intriquite in design.
The bracelet is fully brushed with screw pin links for easy sizing. The bracelet conforms well to the wrist but those with oddly shaped wrists find it wearing slightly off.
The divers clasp with extension is nothing new here from Phoibos. They just need to get the engraving of the Kraken a bit smoother and rounded off so it's not so sharp.
I was excited to get this watch in to review and see what Phoibos has changed with its newest release. I think from looking at this watch is they did too much too soon without thinking things out fully and cutting corners in quality. It packs a lot of cool features and sounds good on the specs but it's just spread to thin throughout the watch.
The date wheel is probably the most disappointing element in the watch. They should be well aware of something like this and there's no excuse to cut corners so badly. With some brands cutting corners like this we should hold and make them accountable at even the lowest price range. If it's something like this today it may be something else tomorrow.
Overall it's disappointing to see something like this coming out from Phoibos with a decent following behind them they need to do better. With the watch retailing at $450 I probably wouldn't pay that much knowing what I have found in the up close details.