Zelos Spearfish GMT 40mm

My review of the Zelos Spearfish GMT is, in fact, not at all a review of the Zelos Spearfish GMT.
It is, however, a review of the Zelos Blacktip GMT which I have owned in the foggy dew-hidden past, and of which I have very strong opinions. Falling in love and eventually parting with this watch was one of my very first heartbreaks, and we all know that the first one usually stings the most and remains vibrating at an unbearable frequency in our soul the longest.

For those who are interested in the Spearfish GMT, not the Blacktip GMT, and are getting ready to close this questionable rambling of a review, I say HOLD UP! Please don’t go! I’m in dire need of your sweet attention. My mother spoiled me a little when I was a little child, and now I have validation issues.

Oh, and another thing, the Blacktip GMT is awfully similar to the Spearfish GMT, there is literally one millimeter difference between them, and an open caseback, and a different movement, so okay, they are pretty different, but the wearing experience (which I will talk about once I finish my unnecessary rambling, and because of which I ended up selling my Blacktip GMT) is very, and I mean very similar due to the almost identical cases of these watches.

So! How did the Blacktip GMT wear, or in other words, how would the Spearfish GMT wear?
Well, I can only give a certain answer for the former and a speculation for the latter, and my answer to both is: AWFUL. I know, I know, a very strong word. Let me explain.

The main issue was the unfortunate combination of a thick case, heavy movement, and small, protruding caseback. 13 millimeters isn’t an awful lot, it is regular sports watch thickness territory, but due to the complete lack of ergonomics considered in the making of my Blacktip GMT, it wore a lot more like a 15mm thick watch.
Firstly, the caseback was way too small compared to the whole case, think of it like a one cent coin compared to a quarter dollar coin (US). Because of this and the compact lug-to-lug, and the heft of the case and movement, the watch was top-heavy, it never stayed in place no matter how tight or loose I wore it, no matter strap or bracelet, wearing the Blacktip GMT always felt like an anvil strapped to my wrist. An anvil that takes immense joy out of applying pressure to the most vulnerable parts of my wrist.

Now for the bracelet. The Blacktip is equipped with an H-link bracelet whereas the Spearfish comes on a slightly different bracelet with smaller links that seem to articulate much better. The Blacktip’s H-link was, again, AWFUL.
It had an articulation similar to a badly lubricated door hinge, it was very, and I mean very heavy, the undersides of the clasp (you know, the part where it touches your naked flesh) were sharp as a freshly refined Bowie knife in the 1800s American frontiers, and no matter the otherwise very welcome and honestly expected on-the-fly adjust system, I could never get a good fit on the bracelet. And the cherry on top of all this was the quick-release spring bars, which were of course way too long and way too sharp and pointy to ever leave production without a complete rethinking of the whole system, so the pain coming from the underside of my wrist where the clasp was biting its teeth into me, and the pain coming from my wrist bone, where the top-heavy case was making sure to cause as many microfractures as possible, were both accompanied by the pain of the quick-release spring bars digging into the top of my wrist, like the nails of a dominant, slightly sadistic lady friend, if you’re into that sort of stuff.

It is a real shame, because I adored my Blacktip GMT. I had the teal-colored one, and loved every bit of how it looked. I loved the quality feel of the watch, loved the slightly domed sapphire, the crown action, bezel action, everything. Well, everything but wearing the damn thing.