Helm Miyako arrived early! 🌊

After a year and 2 months on the waiting list, I was finally able to purchase the Helm Miyako, which I mostly forgot about until getting an email stating that I would soon be able to buy one.

Once I got the email, I ordered one and it arrived today despite the expected delivery date being Thursday. Thanks to import taxes, the 380€ price was brought up to 470€ or so.

Design

I think it's a really well designed watch. I like the case with a brushed top and glossy curved sides, and the sapphire bezel insert really fits the aesthetic of the watch.

The dial also looks great with a layered design, complementing the slightly curved crystal well. Everything seems properly aligned and the indices look great.

The attention to detail extends to the handset, too, as the circular counterbalance of the seconds hand overlaps the Helm logo in such a way that the H fits inside the counterbalance perfectly.

When it comes to the colour, I opted to go for the blue version as the grey one looked boring and I am now very happy with that decision. The watch straight up looks black under low lighting and under inside lighting, the blue is very dark. Far darker than it is in the images, where I have a desk lamp right in front of the watch.

One strange design decision is that the lume on the dial and bezel are different, but the difference is far more subtle in real life than images would suggest, although it is definitely noticeable under good lighting. It also means a slight brightness difference under dark.

Additionally, the size of the date window is a common complaint with this watch. In my testing so far, it is usable, but hard to read when it comes to 2-digit numbers.

Oh, one more thing: the caseback also has the wave texture, which is cool:

Build quality

Hard to speak properly about this with such limited time, but I have made some observations.

The finishing feels pretty good, but not really superior to other stuff that I have.

It also feels really solid (and heavy af), so I have confidence in it. It's also an ISO certified diver (yay!, but I don't plan on diving).

People also love to complain about the bezel being hard to turn, but I don't agree. It's not the loosest bezel ever by any means, but I wouldn't call it hard to turn. Maybe I just have different standards for this (I do have experience with an Invicta Pro Diver in which the bezel was literally too tight to turn with my hands).

There is a very small amount of backplay and the action feels good, but nothing that stands out to me as special.

One minor issue is that the crown needs to be pressed down more to get it to the threads than on any of my other watches with screw-in crowns.

Movement

It's my first experience with a Miyota 9015. So far my experience is very positive as it ticks more smoothly than NH35s, etc, and when adjusting time, the hands don't jump around as much as they do on NH35s or my Nomos. We will have to see about accuracy.

Bracelet

Like the watch, it is damn heavy. finishing matches the case with brushed top and glossy sides.

Unfortunately uses male end links, but they point quite far down, so it is very much wearable despite that.

The clasp is fine. Small with 4 micro-adjust holes. Locking action is of great quality, but no special features.

The watch arrived on a nato, which feels of good quality, but is very stiff and does the second pass in such a way that it creates a lot of bulk when used under the wrist. Thus I use the bracelet instead.

Overall

My impressions are positive so far.

To end it, here's a wrist shot: