Circula SuperSport Review

Before we start, let's be clear - I am not a reviewer. I am, in fact, to reviewing what Taylor Swift is to space exploration.

I've actually been meaning to do one of these for quite some time but I've consistently felt that any review I do would be as useful as a bullet-proof garden gnome.

It is then, entirely up to you as to whether or not you waste 10 minutes of your life reading the rest of this gibberish or go and do something more worthwhile... like watching the kettle boil.

With that cleared up, it's on to the "review"

Firstly, the background.

I bought this watch after talking to the brand owner Cornelius at the World Time watch event in London back in September 2023. Cornelius was engaging, smart and enthusiastic. In a world where an extrovert can be described as "an individual who stares at someone else's shoes in a social gathering" this was most refreshing.

He was so engaging in fact that he managed, that day, to sell three watches to our little WC crew. @Guvnor64 and @Stricko were the other two.

I bought the SuperSport which is a genuine super compressor with 300m of water resistance. It's difficult to describe what makes a watch stand out from a very large crowd, but this one did. After a few minutes of hand-wringing and internal debate around "do you really need it" and "do you think you might have a problem" I pulled the trigger. I paid Cornelius ~£700 and the deal was done.

The watch itself arrived in the post a few days later.

Now, the aforementioned @Guvnor64 has already done a fine job of reviewing this watch's bigger brother. It's well worth a read

https://www.watchcrunch.com/Guvnor64/reviews/circula-divesport-titanium-petrol-dial-review-295414

I'm not going to reinvent the wheel and tell you all about Circula as he's already done it far better than I would. Suffice to say here that they're an independent German microbrand.

So, what about the watch? There's quite a bit going on here so I'll try and summarise it as best I can.

The case is 316L stainless steel with a variety of different finishes. The sides are vertically brushed, the top is brushed from lug to lug and the bezel has a mix of polished flanks and circular brushing on top. It's all done pretty well and the transition between the different finishes is crisp.

The lugs are quite short and stand proud of the top of the case which I think makes things a bit more interesting to look at.

As is the way with supercompressors there are 2 crowns. The screw-down crown at 4 o'clock does all the usual stuff. It's nice and chunky and is embossed with the Circula logo. The logo is lumed with Super-LumiNova® C3X1 (crap lume shot below) and there is a brass band (not the kind from Yorkshire with trumpets and trombones) inlaid around the crown, both are nice touches.

The crown at 2, which isn't screw-down, controls the internal diving bezel. It's embossed with the traditional supercompressor cross-hatching. This one isn't lumed... bah!

The unidirectional, internal bezel has 120 subtly audible and rather satisfying clicks. There is a generous application of C3X1 here also. The lume pip triangle at 12, the 10 and 20 markers are all yellow and the minute track dots are filled yellow too. In contrast, the markers at 30, 40 and 50 are white and the minute track dots are not filled. There is a slight niggle here however. The lume in the yellow section does not shine as bright or last as long as the lume in the white section.

There are three dial colours to choose from, each of which comes with a colour coordinated tropic style rubber strap. Pictures below courtesy of the Circula website...

Petrol (The one I chose)

Blue

Black (Shown on the bracelet option if that's what floats your boat)

The dial itself is really interesting. The green isn't too... green and the sunburst effect is subtle. It's a sandwich dial with the indices and the inner ring both cut out. I particularly like the rabbits teeth index at 12.

The indices are filled with Super-LumiNova® BGW9, as are the hands. With the dive bezel sporting C3X1 there is a nice two tone effect to the lume.

The hour and minute hands are brushed and segmented. They line up with the inner track and outer track indices pretty much perfectly. The needle second hand is painted yellow in line with the general theme. The tip of that second hand is white and lumed. The date is at 6 o'clock and, as should be the case, is colour coordinated to the dial.

The crystal is a very slightly curved double dome sapphire with double anti-reflective coating on the inside. It's a nice one.

The caseback has a divers helmet. It's quite a shiny one and some people like a shiny helmet. There are also some waves to help provide context. I wonder if their field watch has a tractor and a ploughed field. 🤔

The movement is a Sellita SW200-1 Elaboré. This means it's one up the stack from the standard SW200-1.

Standard – adjusted in two positions; accuracy of +/-12 sec/day up to +/- 30 sec/day

Special (Elabore) – adjusted in three positions; accuracy of +/-7 sec/day up to +/- 20 sec/day

Premium (Top) – adjusted in five positions; accuracy of +/-4 sec/day up to +/- 15 sec/day

Chronometer – COSC criteria

Dimensions-wise the watch is 40mm in diameter, 46.5mm lug to lug and 12.5mm in height. Lug width is 20mm. It wears very well on my 7" wrist.

All told I think this watch is not far short of brilliant. There are niggles; the lume on the dive bezel and the rather mundane and obvious caseback, but they are minor.

I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for a well made, well specced supercompressor from a brand who seem to be very much on the up.