Vertigo Diver One V2 42mm

The Vertigo Diver One was my very first serious automatic wristwatch, so it is a tad sentimental for me—but I won’t go easy on it.

Vertigo is an Italian microbrand. They make some cool and originally designed watches, and they utterly and completely fly under the radar. Underrated would be an understatement.

The Diver One is a beautifully designed tool watch—and a proper tool watch indeed (well, not really, but I’ll get to that shortly). It reminds me of the Tudor Pelagos, Sinn divers, Seiko divers, the Squale 1521, the Omega Planet Ocean, and of course the Rolex Submariner all at once.

There are many shortcomings, however, mainly the sizing of this one.

This is a chunky boy—it very obviously gave up on exercise and healthy eating a long time ago. All that pizza, cannoli, olive oil, and pasta really had a crushing effect on its thinness, making it at least 14 mm thick (but it feels more like 15 or even 16 mm on a bad day).

The diameter is 42 mm and the lug-to-lug is 49 mm, and that could be forgiven—but unfortunately, the wearing experience is completely ruined (for me, at least) by the 22 mm stainless steel bracelet that completely forgot to taper even a little bit, making the watch appear larger than necessary and way, way too heavy—almost 200 grams sized up for my 7-inch wrist. The bracelet is nice otherwise, full links, endlinks and a milled clasp, but the lack of taper puts a bullet in every each one of those points.

The bezel is a 120-click unidirectional stainless steel one with reassuring bezel action but without correct alignment. Like a Seiko.

The movement is also just like a Seiko because it is the NH-35. Not much to say about that—it is adequate.

The dial is printed, so no applied indices here, but the printing is nice and the looks are very cool, very macho, very tool-tastic. Lovely.

What is not so lovely, however, is the lume, because it is almost non-existent. It won’t last for five minutes, let alone the night, which is a shame—as a tool watch can’t be a tool watch without proper lume.

The dial is protected by a flat piece of sapphire, big plus point for that.

The claimed water resistance is 300 meters. Everything screws down, and the watch has a very quality, reassuring feel (perhaps due only to the heft, but I think otherwise), so I honestly believe that claim.

When I purchased this one, my thinking was the following:

“I want a proper automatic diver with lots of water resistance, sapphire, and for the best price. All Seiko, Citizen, and Orient divers specced similarly are way more expensive than the Vertigo. Therefore, I’ll buy the Vertigo.”

I quickly realised, however, that this watch was too big and hefty for me, and that I would have been better off with an Orient without sapphire for less money, or a Citizen with sapphire for more—so I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this watch.

It now belongs to my dad, and he really likes it, so much so that he wears it every single day. And my dad is a lot cooler guy than I am, so perhaps my complaints are all due to being a softy.

Anyway, I think this one is worth a shot if you like microbrands and big divers—but I would look for a pre-owned or just generally discounted model for the best value-for-money experience.