Invicta Grand Diver Model No. 3044 REVIEW

Quality: It's a solidly built watch, case and band being stainless steel. The band has a smooth, strong clasp, which I like. The crystal is "Flame Fusion," which is Invicta's proprietary brand name for their hardened mineral glass; the way I see it, this is Invicta's main weakness. Now before I go any further, I'd like to be clear: Flame Fusion is ok. It's about 25% harder than regular mineral glass. But what puzzles me is this: Invicta's motto is "Invincible in Detail." So why mess around with an "ok" hardening process, which results in a slightly-better-than-mediocre crystal strength, when you could simply use sapphire to begin with, and thereby achieve true "invincibility"? Having said this, the Flame Fusion crystal performs adequately for the price point of this watch. (This watch is normally $96 on Amazon, but I picked it up on a "limited deal" for $77.) Overall, for this price point, the quality level is excellent.

Dial: Black, matte finish, with raised, painted markers, cream color, with silver trim. These markers strongly resemble those of the Rolex Submariner, because after all, this watch is clearly an SM homage. The cyclops lens has good magnification, maybe x2, or x2.25, which is more than adequate; I normally need reading glasses, but I can see the date on this watch without them. The bezel is stainless steel, which is a very positive point, considering that some companies cut corners by providing aluminum bezels. Overall, the dial of this watch is very well-executed.

Movement: The movement is a no-brainer; it's the TMI iteration of Seiko's perennial workhorse movement, the 24-jewel NH35A. It's a fantastic movement, rated at +/- 20 seconds per day, but since I set my watch 5 days ago (Sun Mar 12, 2023) for Daylight Savings Time, it has only lost, as of the exact moment of this writing (Mar 17, 8:12 pm) about 6 seconds. You just can't say anything bad about the NH35A. It is reliable and rugged, even if it is "old tech." Ya know, there's another term for that: tried and true.

Wearability: It's 47mm wide, and has a lug-to-lug of 55mm. That can be a problem for some folks, I guess, but not for me and my 8" wrists. I love big, chunky watches like this. I don't understand why people complain about the size and heft of big watches like this; being a tool watch, as are all dive watches, it SHOULD have a bit of size and heft. Tool watches should be large, and in-charge. That's just my opinion of course. Your mileage may vary. But I will say that my 11-year old daughter admired my watch, so I got her one, and after taking 4 links out of the band, the watch looks FANTASTIC on her wrist, which is significantly smaller than mine. She is not uncomfortable with it at all; she calls it her "giant bling" watch. (I got her the gold, two-tone variant with the dark violet dial.) She absolutely loves it. So in conclusion, at least for my daughter and I, the wearability is excellent.

Design: This watch, which is an SM homage, won't win any originality contests, but the little, subtle differences are well-executed. I love the little dome-helm diver logo, accompanied by the Invicta logo at the top of the dial. The second hand also has the Invicta wings on its base, which some reviewers have said is "over the top / too much,"; I think those guys are just looking for things to complain about. The same goes for "Invicta" engraved on the left side of the case, and "Grand Diver" engraved on the right side; many reviewers complain about this, but again, why? How many Ford logos are on each truck they make? There are lots of products on the market which bear multiple logos. It's not tacky or gaudy; it's just branding. Get over it. 😎