Invicta Pro diver 8926 Review

10 years ago the watch scene was a beautiful place. You could find a Rolex at retail, SKX's were abundant, and for less than the price of an expensive lunch you could buy an SNK809.

These days finding finding an SNK for less than £120 is nothing short of a miracle, and unless you want to go on Aliexpress you really only have 2 options for a sub £100 automatic dive watch. A Vostok Amphibia or an Invicta Pro diver. 

Everyone has an opinion on the Pro diver, be you in the T3 camp of "uH tHeY CanT Do aNytHinG OriGiNaL" or "Eh its £60 what do you expect?". Let's take a deep dive (see what I did there?) Into the Pro diver and see just how good it is.

First and foremost, the measurements. This watch clocks in at 40 mm in diameter, 48 mm lug to lug and a chunky 14mm depth. The case is Submariner styled with a deep caseback. We have quite a course brushing on the top of the lugs with polishing on the flanks, with "INVICTA" stamped on one side. One thing to note, this engraving fills with dust and dirt quite easily, so make sure you use a toothpick to clear it out. I have the 8926 with the scalloped bezel, as opposed to the 8926OB with coin edge, because the scallope version was £30 cheaper at the time of purchase. The bezel isn't terrible, but it is quite difficult to grip if your hands are sweaty. The scalloped bezel overhangs the case by about 2mm. We have a mineral crystal and a cyclops covering the date window, though it is a bit squinty.

The dial is, interesting shall we say. The dial is a rich black, which I really like. We have a triangle at 12, with batons at 6 and 9. We have circles everywhere else, and a date window at 3. The indeces are really small though, and that can leave the dial looking more spaced out than the time I used superglue to fix a shelf inside a cupboard. The hands are classic dive watch, with a pencil minute hand and Mercedes hour hand. The seconds hand has an invicta logo counterbalance, which is a nice touch. The lume used is good, for about 3 minutes (not exaggerating I timed it last night).

But, for £70 odd, you can't really complain. In the daylight the lume has a yellowish tinge. Above the pinion we have the invicta logo and their name. Below we have a whopping 4 lines of text:

Automatic 

Professional 

660ft-200 metres

Water resistant 

This watch is powered by a Seiko NH35A movement with a custom rotor. When it arrived it was running at about +10 s/d, but I opened it up and poked it and now its running at -10 s/d so go figure.

Now on to the bracelet. This watch is an absolute strap monster, and just begging to be popped on a bond Nato, but if you don't want to, the bracelet is more that adequate. We have solid links, done in the 3 link oyster style, with polished Midlinks and polished side links. We have hollow end links and a cheap feeling pressed clasp, stamped with the Invicta name. female endlinks and 4 holes of micro adjust, so almost anyone should get a good fit.

In conclusion, if you can find this watch for less than £100, pick it up. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

*cover photo is not mine but the lume shot is