Let's be honest, we all spend too much time looking at watches. Day after day, it's a constant barrage of small round devices with three hands showing us where we are at any given moment in Earth's rotation. It can get a bit monotonous and inevitable. But from time to time, a brand comes along with something new and fresh to shake you up and grab your attention. Something unusual enough to be interesting, but not so unusual as to become absurd. Reservoir is one such brand, and we're going to take their Hydrosphere dive watch to the sea and test its strength at depth.
HISTORY
All Reservoir watches, created in France in 2015 by former banker Francois Moreau with the aim of offering a creative and accessible alternative to luxury watches, draw inspiration from dials and gauges of the past, from racing cars to airplanes, and they all share one common feature: retrograde minute and jumping hour complications. For those unfamiliar with the retrograde complication, it means that the minute hand returns to zero after completing the count of minutes, rather than continuing around in a perpetual circle. This allows the 60-minute hand to occupy less space on the dial and create more creative configurations than a continuous circle.
In the design of Reservoir, the minute hand counts time clockwise over a 240° radius until it reaches the 60-minute mark, where it magically jumps back to zero and begins the process again. At the same time, the hour mark - an Arabic numeral on a disc, displayed through a slightly magnified cyclopean aperture at the '6 o'clock' position - instantly moves to the next hour. This is a pretty unique and interesting way of telling time, and certainly unusual in the watch world.
The watch we're diving with today is the Reservoir Hydrosphere, the brand's offering for diving. And it's not just a Hydrosphere, but a bronze Greg Lecoeur version, created in collaboration with award-winning underwater photographer. Greg and Reservoir teamed up to release a limited series of bronze Reservoir Hydrosphere watches with a vibrant blue dial reminiscent of the sea colors. As a very pleasant bonus, buyers of this limited edition of 50 watches were offered half a day of diving with Greg Lecoeur in the Port-Cros National Park in France last September. It's nice to see brands and their ambassadors personally interact with their clients in this way, and hopefully other brands will take notice. This day undoubtedly created lifelong memories of the watch, and isn't that the point of such watches? Thank you to Reservoir and Greg Lecoeur for making it happen.
FOR EVERYDAY LIFE AND BEYOND
Like other watches in the Hydrosphere collection, this is a tool watch with a 45 mm diameter and 15 mm thickness, designed for use and abuse. Of course, within reason. The watch has a perfectly spherical shape that fits the tool theme and is entirely made of bronze (except for the stainless steel case back, as nobody wants a patinated wrist). The dial is beautifully blue, with a small Greg Lecoeur signature at the '3 o'clock' position - a nice and subtle way to indicate the collaboration without shoving it in your face. The dial also features fully luminescent numerals every 10 minutes and indices every minute. The minute track is adorned with red, green, and blue sections at 20-minute intervals, similar to how it might be done on a fuel gauge to indicate different levels of tank fill.
The power reserve indicator is a thin curved strip at the '6 o'clock' position with a white dot that moves along a blue/green/red track and shows approximately how much is left of the 37-hour power reserve. In the center of the dial, there is also a small rotating disc serving as a running indicator. Knowing that the watch is running becomes very important when timing underwater.
Speaking of power reserve, let's go below deck to the movement. The retrograde minute and jumping hour complications are made possible by a patented 124-component module created by Reservoir and assembled in Switzerland; it is used in all the company's watches. This module is powered by an automatic ETA 2824-2 movement, which is the most reliable and proven movement these days.
On the wrist, the Hydrosphere watch looks much smaller than its 45 mm size might suggest. It's not small by any means, but probably more like a 42 mm watch, largely thanks to the complete absence of lugs. A beautiful royal blue NATO strap is held in place by a small buckle fastened to the case with two screws. You can remove the screws and buckles to immediately attach the included black rubber strap, but given the integrated nature of the strap system, you will be limited to rubber or any 22 mm NATO strap. Fortunately, there are hundreds of varieties of such straps.
DIVING
Before we submerge the Hydrosphere watch in water, let's talk about the timing function bezel. You might think: "Hey, there's no way this bezel can time properly, given the retrograde complication and all that!" And you, sir or madam, would be right. To address your most astute remark, Reservoir applied a little clever trick with the bezel. There are two separate time tracks, painted in red and blue. If your dive begins before the 45-minute mark in the hour, you simply read from the red track, and if it starts after the 45-minute mark, you switch to reading from the blue side after the retrograde jump. If this sounds a bit confusing, it is, and it is, frankly, my only real gripe with the watch.
The bezel has only pips for timing up to 30 minutes, which is practically useless in modern diving, where dives usually last 45 minutes or more. Also, both scales, red and blue, have only the number "15". This means you have to count forward or backward from 15 to understand where you are in the timing, and when you have to jump back and forth from the red scale to the blue and before and after the retrograde jump, it can get a bit confusing. If my quick Photoshop mockup is correct, it could be arranged so that the bezel times up to a full hour, regardless of where you start, using the double scale and repurposing the bezel area currently occupied by the word "Hydrosphere".
I understand the design considerations, and the bezel looks very cool, but in a dive watch, I always prefer a little more clutter if it adds functionality. As it stands, the only way to time a dive with the Hydrosphere is to start the dive right on the hour, or just set the watch an hour back, losing the ability to tell the time. Neither option is ideal. You can, of course, use the Hydrosphere for timing decompression stops or any other short underwater intervals, but as a timer for a full dive, it falls a bit short.
Ignoring the bezel issues, this is a serious kit. I wore them on the NATO strap, and they were very comfortable and secure in the water. Both the NATO and rubber strap fit well on my small 16 cm wrist, but there is enough leeway to easily wear them over a wetsuit. Diving is where the Reservoir's design language really sings. Between the boats that take us to the deep blue and all the gear we wear before diving, diving is a whimsical story of gauges and measuring instruments, and the Hydrosphere fits into it perfectly. Just don't put it in the engine room of an old boat, or you'll never find it again.
Underwater, the watch looks fantastic, evoking a steampunk sense of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" or "Captain Nemo's Underwater Adventures", if anyone remembers that old cartoon. To be honest, I think this is the kind of underwater world all divers would like to live in, secretly or not so secretly. The world of diving of years past, a world of minimal equipment and maximum exploration and wonder. I dare say that the Hydrosphere is the only modern dive watch that belongs to this world, and that is high praise. Bronze fits perfectly into the vintage maritime motif and looks like a fitting kit with a steam gauge, sextant, or marine chronometer, and the blue dial blends in with the color of the sea.
With a few small changes to the bezel, the Hydrosphere would be on a very short list of my only, permanent dive watches. They will never replace a dive computer in the 21st century, but they have all the necessary elements of whimsy, nostalgia, and modern toolset in the right amount to make them an absolutely happy underwater companion.
AVAILABILITY AND PRICE
The Reservoir Hydrosphere Greg Lecoeur Limited Edition watch will be released in an edition of 50 pieces. Its price is 4,850 euros, and it is still available for order on the brand's website.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS – RESERVOIR HYDROSPHERE GREG LECOEUR LIMITED EDITION
Case: 45 mm diameter x 15 mm height – bronze case with satin finish – unidirectional ceramic rotating bezel with dual scale for reading time at different dive depths before and after the retrograde minute hand returns – sapphire glass with AR coating – stainless steel case back – helium release valve – screw-down crown – 250 m water resistance
Dial: blue sunray matte finished dial, white indices, cyclops lens on jumping hour window – luminescent material on all indicators
Movement: Base ETA 2824-2 with 124-component in-house module on top for display – automatic – 28,800 vibrations/hour – 37-hour power reserve – retrograde minutes, jumping hours, running indicator (in the central position), and power reserve indicator
Strap: black rubber strap screwed to the case and additional blue NATO strap included, attached with bronze fittings
Availability: limited edition of 50 pieces
Reference: RSV03.HY/330-32.GL
Price: 4,850 EUROS