REVIEW - Steinhart Ocean 39 Metropole: Yay or Nay?

The (hopeful) FINAL installment of my two-years journey to find a suitable daily driver to replace my aging Seiko 5 arrived yesterday; the Steinhart Ocean 39 Metropole in sunray Blue.

As far as I know, I’m the second person on the internet to make a post about the Metropole in sunray blue and the third to actually review the watch, so let’s dive in!

The Metropole is a standard steel sports watch featuring drilled lugs, a screw down crown, 100m of water resistance, a domed sapphire with AR coating and female end links. The bracelet has a friction-lock clasp with a safety latch.

The dial is a beautiful dark blue that just shimmers all the time. The Metropole comes in loads of dial colors, with both matte and sunray finishing.

The 39mm case is exact same one from their Adventure 39, and it’s basically a crown guard-less version of their common 39mm dive watches. This is the biggest watch I’ve owned; I normally wear 36-37mm watches, but I knew I had more real estate on my wrist to accommodate a larger watch.

It looks larger on camera (as does every watch), but in person it wears true to size and looks good in the mirror. The lugs don’t overhang my wrist. It takes some getting used to, regardless.

Now I’ll address the elephant in the room. This is a homage to a few different Rolex models. Does the watch use design elements from Rolex? Yes, of course. Is it a direct 1:1 copy of their current/past lineup? No. And because I’m not even comfortable spending more than $1K on a watch at this point in my life but I love the simple design of Rolexes, I’m pleased with the Metropole. It’s completely okay to settle sometimes if you love the watch, folks. Nobody besides random men on the internet will judge you for it, I promise.

Frankly, I bought this sort of on a whim. I went through and sold or returned:

- a white C63 Sealander in 36mm

- TWO Islander Brookvilles

- a Traska Commuter

over the course of a YEAR before landing on this watch. I was so close to buying a Steinhart Ocean 39 Marine Black (Tudor Submariner 7021/0 homage), but I couldn’t get past the matte black dial. I personally find them lifeless and boring. The Metropole’s gorgeous sunray dial caught my eye and I was enthralled. Even though it didn’t have the date function I originally sought, I didn’t care. It looked too good and I already have a dress watch with a date.

What was the kicker that really made me snag this one up? The Metropole uses a Swiss Sellita SW200-1 elaboré grade movement. For a watch that costs just over $500. What a value!

I have a 6.5 inch wrist and it wears wonderfully. It has more presence and heft compared to the other watches in my collection, and as my new daily for the foreseeable future, that’s all I want.