New old stock feeling with vintage aesthetics – The Octo 3003

In watches, there are vintage re-creation that really stuck with you. The only issue is that these pieces usually have the look but not the feel. Even if the sizing is right or the aesthetics, there is a lot in the whole process that is missing.

Since I have being reviewing watches, I have never seen a brand committed to inject these feelings to their users, everyone is so focused on the watch itself that they forget the experience side of the before mentioned process, this is when I came across Octo.

Octo as a brand has been around since the 60s and their Swiss made watches are a threat to see when they are found in the darkest corners of eBay. Just like many brands after the quartz crisis, Octo seized their operations and now, with the help of a group of enthusiasts, we have the new iteration of a once great brand.

We have seen this setup before, someone buys a name and decides to continue a legacy, but the main problem is that they do not fully respect what the brand was all about, they inject their vision and potentially destroying what made them great.

We can safely say that this is not the case with the new Octo. The Hong Kong based house is fully committed on not only continuing the design cues that were left in the 70s but also provide that whole experience when it comes to acquiring the watch.

Staying on this point, not only you get to choose the serial number, but also how much you want to pay for it, you are truly acquiring one-of-a-kind watch,  that simply cannot be replicated.

Coming to the watch itself, today we are looking at their 3003 World Timer. A complication that is not only inaccessible for most of us mortals but also lost in today’s watch sports hype. The attention to detail from the guys at Octo is amazing, not only they mimic the design cues from the 70’s but they also merge it with the high quality of today’s manufacturing process.

Join us to discover a watch that reflects what truly means to be vintage. Let’s begin.

The specifications

The first part that you need to achieve that vintage feeling is size. Somehow, we have lost this art quite a bit, everything became bigger, larger but not in the 3003. At 38mm in diameter with a lug to lug under 42mm, the watch wears perfectly as a unisex piece. The wedge stainless steel case is all brushed, a polished bezel houses that tall acrylic crystal giving a nice dose of warmth and distortion.

The dial is probably where the time was well spent. The colour scheme used is also quite unique, we can see different shades of turquoise, dark blue mixed with silver and a beautiful serpentine hand with a magenta tip, somehow it all works well.

Inside the chapter ring you can find the heart of the complication: 24 cities that connected with the top crown in order to rotate. There are also small applications of superluminova, and the inflated dots around the dial complete the whole vintage vibe to perfection.

The stick hands match well with the brushed silver almost champagne dial which has the invisible branding at 12, quite a lovely detail. The triple applied markers are something else under macro which is a testament on how well made is the 3003.

As an engine, we can find a Japanese Ronda Quartz movement, quite accurate and avoids using a seconds hands, no ticks, very classy.

 On the wrist

There are a few things to highlight regarding on how this watch feels on the wrist. The thinness is one of them. If you take the beautiful acrylic crystal we mentioned previously, the watch is under 7mm, razor thin, it wears flat with tons of presence.

The 18mm lug width makes space for a very old school folding link bracelet, it is not only solid in construction but also it is very good looking. The thinness is what got me on it and mainly because it reminds us as those 5-digit Rolex references with higher tolerances, sure it might sound exaggerated but is not like those bracelets from the crown are hard to beat. That said the Octo 3003 metal used feels better machined, the clasp very simple but tight in their tolerances, not only making it secure but also light and compact, a winner in my eyes for this kind of watch.

I wore the 3003 mostly at the office, it feels great with a nice sweater and shirt, it is elegant, but it is also funky in a good way. I can imagine that it would look at home with jeans and shirt, but I feel that this complication, is mean to be classy, a tad more casual, at least for me.

Another good point for the watch is that it can be worn by any gender, is not a watch that has dimension that has dimension that can scare a reader. The 3003 is easy to wear for any person who decides to go on this journey, the shape is sharp and

masculine while the softer tones of the dial could be perceived as gentler, is a good balance and I am all up for it.

Concluding thoughts

To me the 3003 is a rare watch because Octo-Time managed to tackle one of the big issues to use this type of watches: a world timer needs to be set all the time. Just like a GMT, a WT is painful to use and in the case of the 3003 with the quartz movement, feels like a blessing. It hard to get your head around the fact that a watch with this amount of information displayed can really be an everyday watch, but this is to me what the guys at Octo achieved with the 3003, a democratization of a very expensive complication.

The whole experience of owning a vintage watch (apart for the scariest service part) is usually a good one, it is based on nostalgia and uniqueness. Octo managed to recreate this whole experience avoiding the issues that older watches can bring, a feeling closer to a new old stock adventure. This success is mainly because of the techniques they have used, the materials and also the buying process. To choose something unique in price and also numbered is a rare thing, especially when everything feels so massed produced nowadays.

If you are in the market for something special (there are not many left), this 3003 could be a good addition to any collection, in fact, it could be your first and last watch, something that can express uniqueness and flair and at the end, aren’t we all looking for that analogue refinement? I still wonder, why people wear an apple watch?

The 3003 is available under very limited numbers starting at 472 USD

For more information please follow https://www.octo-time.com/category/3003