The CWC Royal Navy auto diver – it’s a watch I’ve owned for quite some time, but never really thought I’d review – until I realized the significance it had and what a milestone it represented in my collection.

All (or most) enthusiasts on the beginning of their watch collecting journey fall in the so-called value trap – they judge watches based on their cost and specs. “Ooh, this one has a Swiss movement for the cost of a Seiko” or “This one has a sapphire crystal and ceramic bezel insert” and so on. While I was caught up in the value-chasing phase, something caught my eye – the CWC diver.

And to my mind back then, this watch didn’t make any sense. Sure, it has a sapphire crystal, but it also has an aluminium insert, a run-of-the-mill Sellita SW200 (with a ghost date, no less!) and it costed how much? There were tons of watches out there that were a “better deal” or that offered better value. The prices on the used market weren’t much better either – it seemed like people were more than willing to pay an unreasonable amount of money for the specs it offered. What was the catch? I wondered.

Then I started reading on its history – how the company was created specifically to cater to the needs of the British military and how they were still independent today. How the watches were supplied to the Royal Navy and how they managed to keep the design basically unchanged, since the ‘80s. How they’ve stuck to the fixed strap bars, even if that undoubtedly had cost them more than a few customers.

The seed this watch planted in my mind begun to take root and grow. I started appreciating it despite its shortcomings. I loved the story it was telling. Simply put, I was smitten. And when you are smitten, all logic goes out the window. When I finally pulled the trigger and the watch arrived and landed on my wrist, suddenly everything started to make sense.

I realized that this hobby of ours wasn’t about what was the best value of what offered the best bang-for-buck – it’s about what puts a smile on your face when you glace down at your wrist. A watch is more than a sum of its parts; its value isn’t represented by the manufacturing or retail cost – the real value is what that watch means to you. Wrist watches stopped making sense financially ever since we had the ability to tell time with our phones and they shouldn’t be judged on the same merits as other things we buy in life because we need them. We don’t need watches, but we love them anyway. And therein lies the key difference.

One other thing this hobby is about is – the community. And CWC has the nicest, most die-hard group of people as their fanbase. People helping complete strangers find parts for their vintage watches and repairing them, people selling their pieces for a loss just a get a fellow enthusiast they never met in real life get their dream watch… I’ve seen it all and it made me fall in love with watch collecting even more.

I still enjoy it very much – the 42 mm case (wears like a 40) is a dream on the wrist, that basic Sellita makes it slim enough to make it disappear while you’re wearing it (and not lose any sleep because of the service cost, when the day comes), the aluminium bezel insert will only make it age more gracefully when it picks up scuffs and dents and the fixed bars make it a great excuse to wear all the single pass straps you have lying around.

This CWC diver completely changed my view on this hobby and my approach to collecting watches. Gone were the days of chasing value propositions and inflated specs no one ever needs anyway – I was now hunting stories and lore; I was chasing that smile when I looked down at my wrist. I stopped using logic for my next purchase and started listening to what my gut was telling me. It made me enjoy this hobby even more and I have this watch to thank for that.

Pros
– Great design that stood the test of time
– Oozes with history and heritage
– It makes you wear a pass-through strap

Cons
– Has a ghost date position (gasp!)
– Might be difficult to get due to small production runs
– You might get the urge to get another CWC (almost no one I know has stopped at one)

Quality
78

Style
99

Value
62

Wearability
85