Diving on the cheap
I seldom think about my Vostok Amphibia 420 when I count the diver's watches in my collection. Actually I seldom count my diver's at all as they are not my favorite type of watches. Nevertheless I realized that I'm not being fair by omitting it since it's a real diver's watch with proven credentials.
The reasons why I'm forgetting about it are partly due to its size. Based on the 420 case this is the smallest Amphibia currently sold and it wears more like an Explorer rather than a Submariner.
It's also colorful, which is not usually associated with diver's, and this lead me to realizing that I never bought it as a diver's - I bought it because it was small, cheap and cheerful.
I'm not diving anymore, and it's been years since I really needed a watch with a serious WR rating, but the blue dial with the SCUBA dude going bloob, bloob, bloob on the dial, taken together with the quirkiness of Vostok, and topped with a price that made a sandwich expensive by comparison, are the reasons why I bought it on a whim.
And I'm not sorry. The 420 Amphibia is a blast to wear and the (in-house!) automatic movement has proven itself to be reliable and trouble free.
It's far from perfect. I could fill whole pages with reasons why these watches are terrible, but neither am I perfect nor am I striving for perfection - this is why cats were invented after all.
I'm a big fan of watches that are interesting because they are either unique, have interesting features, well designed or simply offer a great value for their price.
More from Catskinner
The 420 cased Vostoks are my faves of all of their models! 👍
The scuba dude on a dial is just such a fun touch that makes me smile when I see it in photos.
Not only are they cool and inexpensive, their also actually original instead of just copying Rolex.
The 420 cased Vostoks are my faves of all of their models! 👍
I see that you kept the original bezel. I changed mine with a Seiko SKX Pepsi insert.