The things that matter (Matterhorn Divemaster 300 review)

It’s been a little while since my last proper update, and that was me banging on about homages. I think before that I was reporting my findings on Bremont. Twas a busy May it seems.

June seems to have flown by, partly because Greg has been tormenting me over on WatchCrunch with the annual One Watch Challenge, and thus I have been wearing one watch for a month before being eliminated for not fulfilling one of his usual cypher-based meme-delivered tasks, and thus I have been very pre-occupied. New watches have not really been at the forefront of my mind, despite the numerous sale emails from AliExpress.

With that in mind, I was doom-scrolling my various shopping grounds and I came upon an interesting proposition: the Matterhorn Divemaster 300, in Forest Green. I was looking at divers, mainly vintage (for reasons obvious), and when drifting through “professional”, and “100m”, “200m”, etc… I came across our 300m-rated friend here.

Upon first glance, in all honesty, I put a pin in it more for politeness, thought “ok”, and moved on. That is not to say this is a poor reflection on the watch, it is not, but it was not what I was really looking for (70s inspired skin divers with a world/city based bezel, or maybe a really cheap vintage Squale-cased affair); also having mooned at a couple of Squale Rambo’s I ended up getting a Lip Duo Boussole imported from a France which currently stuck at customs. But I digress… a modern “diver”/“adventure” watch was not on the list.

Anyway, a few more times back and forth, and I was staring at the Matterhorn. I have been wanting a green diver probably since trying on the new Bremont Supermarine, especially with the green rubber strap, and I keep telling myself I do not need to purchase the green “Mark XX” from Seestern to go with the blue I am (predictably) not wearing. I also quite like the North Edge Challenge Deep Anchor as well, but that might also be ironically. I still might get it, but possibly in the blue. Greg made me laugh – why is the dive watch named after a mountain? Yes… he said a similar thing about the Sherwood Commander, another green diver Kickstarter that caught both Kaysia and I’s attention a year or so ago. I did not buy that, but that was mainly because the logo was too large and ruined the balance.

So… back to the Matterhorn. I got knocked out of the One Watch Challenge due to my own hubris, and bought the Divemaster to cheer myself up. THEN I did my research. Wrong way around, but the price I paid for a brand new watch (advertised) with decent specs seemed a no-brainer.

Information about the Matterhorn brand and Divemaster model is limited, but pretty much consistent. This is a London-based microbrand “inspired by the past for the modern adventurer”. I feel itchy typing that… but it seems that the owner of the brand was inspired by “The Golden Age of Alpinism”, in particular the competition to climb the Matterhorn in 1865 between Englishmen Edward Whymper, the eventual victor, and John Tyndall. It is a decent brand name if you want to go for adventure-themed products, and the logo is quite nice actually… so good job there. The brand was born in November 2019, and the first watch is a dive watch (said Divemaster 300), which was the subject of a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2021.

So far, so standard… not the first brand to start that way, definitely not the last. The campaign asked for £25k, and with 131 backers achieved just over £26k, and received funding (the campaign page is still up…). I know all this because the majority of the reviews of this watch, back in 2020-1, are for a prototype of this watch that was at the start of the campaign. The watch looks very similar, the main exception being it had a date window and NH35a movement, sat around 14mm thick, and had an exhibition caseback despite having very little movement decoration. A large number of the reviews talk about improvements planned for the launch models, mostly referring to a switch to a Miyota 9015 movement for a slight uptick in price: £190 for Super Early Bird. That seems very good value. Browsing the Kickstarter today, there were a lot of Early Bird backers dropping £230 for this watch, which still seems like a good value product.

Fast forward to today, RRP is seemingly £299, although slashed to £249 on the brands website. I paid much less (but we will get to that…). The watch specifications are as follows:

Forest Green, Ocean Blue, or Volcanic Black colourways

41 mm 316L steel case 

47mm lug to lug 

12.8mm thick

Screw-down crown

Stainless steel bracelet, and quick-release clasp with micro adjustments

Optional side-plate

120-click uni-directional bezel, with a knurled finish 

Miyota 9015 automatic, with 42 hour power reserve (optional date window)

Anti Reflective Sapphire Crystal, with AR Coating

300m Water Resistance rating (tested)

BGW9 lume on applied indices and bezel

and, do you know what, that is pretty standard-fare for a micro, but reasonably priced at £249. You also get a rubber strap to match the colourway you choose, a branded watch tool, a leather case, and instructions…

So, the proof of the pudding is in the eating:

That is the first impression. I usually do not go on about boxes and packaging, but what turned up tickled me, in a good way. A black card sleeve has circular cutaways, revealing the model name… nice touch. Slide the sleeve off, the brand logo and a sturdier magnetic-clasp cardboard box with a shinier finish. Crisp, concise, clean… I’m not paying for the packaging, but at the same time, I am not feeling like I am been taken for a mug.

Open up the box, and you see the leather travel wallet. Seems ok. I like it. Slightly distressed, a little scratch on the back, but looks fine.

Open up the wallet, and behold… our watch.

First impression… I uttered “nice”. I did not need to say much else. Most of the parts were in the plastic, watch back had the sticker, but the watch crystal seemed to be lacking a protective sticker. Is that standard? I do not know. Was it an issue here? No, it looks to be in great condition.

Watch: check. Bracelet: check. Tool: check. Pouch: duh. Instructions: … no. No warranty card, or anything else with some spiel. I might be ok with that, everything else was pretty much as I expected, no drama.

First thing is to look at the bracelet. Looks good, not anything particularly amazing in terms of appearance, but very functional, solid enough, comfortable as you would expect. Branding on the clasp, subtle, but does not make the watch feel like it cheaped-out on branding, but the clasp is pretty standard, so it is not the most breathtaking of experiences. Micro adjustments are real… this will please many people. Having tried it loosely, I could have it as an option, but I immediately swapped it into the tropical green rubber FKM.

Rubber strap seems soft enough, but sturdy. The buckle has the brand logo etched on, so that is a nice touch. I did find the fastener slightly wonky and stiff when trying to position it through the holes, and had to bend it back into place a little. Probably just a localised issue, where the strap has rattled around the pouch. When fixed, it looks ideal. Wears well.

I suppose I am starting to run out of steam now…

It is fine.

Fine is an understatement… apologies, it is a good watch, especially for the price. The bezel does the job, the dial is not riffing off much else (ok, the numerals could be borrowed from a Railmaster, and it is a pretty standard layout). The side plate does seem to give it an element of class, I struggle to think of many watches in this price range that have one. Hi-beat movement is a nice touch. I know that Ridge recently had a titanium Miyota-powered field watch for around $250 US that you could not get over here, but this is equally good value on paper. 300m water resistance is very hard to find at this price range.

It would be quicker to state what I do not like:

The grooves of the screws on the side plate do not line up.

Green and red contrast on the dial is not brilliant; in some light conditions it is difficult to read the red text or see the minute markers in the first fifteen.

My bezel is a little stiff, and the grip is not the greatest with the knurled finish. What looks good does not also equal what is practical.

Finishing of the case behind the bracelet could be better, and the case seems to have areas where the finish also could be better: my side plate has an unbrushed lens which could be due to rubbing on the bracelet in the travel case.

Miyota rotor noise is not as bad as the 8xxx series, but at times it is noticeable. Perhaps better dampening could have been adopted in the case, or perhaps it is just a Miyota problem.

Rubber strap buckle fastener was misaligned (as mentioned above). One does not like bending things back into shape before they are worn.

The watch strap tool for accessing the lugs via the drill holes was bent. Works, but not a good look.

All of these are minor irritations. Minor. This is an excellent watch, but I cannot pretend that I do not have any quibbles. The watch is an excellent proposition at the price, and the fact that I paid almost less than half of that price makes this a steal. Would I recommend it? I would, but this watch has me asking a lot of questions…

The Kickstarter was fully backed by 131 backers at just over £26k. That works out at £198 a watch over that 131. Obviously, costs will not be that high, and there will have been more made. In 2024, there are still Forest Green and Ocean Blue models (no Volcanic Black) for sale on their website. What this would imply is that it was a limited run, backed just enough, and ultimately economically viable. Anything else sold would be pure profit, which would explain how I could get mine through a brand affiliate at such a low price. My watch has the number 168 below the Matterhorn logo on the caseback, which I would wager is the “serial number” here, meaning a very low production run. For such a decent watch, why has there been little uptake?

I suspect this could be down to a number of reasons, be it deliberate for a first watch to test the market, which is smart. It could be due to the amount of advertising – not really seeing much in the wild would suggest it was a few reviews up front, one YouTube video, and Kickstarter itself. This is fine, BUT, it is a good product, and could this have done better with some more hype? Who knows… maybe the backstory is a little too hackneyed these days? It is a “branding” with potential, and if the industry plays towards “adventure” watches capturing elements then this is a smart platform to run from: Adventure, Alpinism, a Swiss mountain, cool London-design… someone has played a blinder here.

What I do know is this… for less than £300 you have a superb watch. Sub £500, micro, and divers is a hugely saturated market, so standing out would be difficult… and perhaps that is the problem. Are we all just bored now? Do we just have a case of a superb watch that fails to capture the imagination because it is just different enough it does not fall into the most basic of tropes? It is not a Fifty Fathoms homage, or a Submariner clone, or mimicking a military watch… perhaps that is too spicy for vanilla tastes? Or… is a blue, green, and black “adventure”/“diver” just a “meh” offering, even with the specs at this price? Do people even know what they want? I would argue they do not when something like this should really be selling by the hundreds, or sold out.

I would argue this watch is not a standard paint-by-numbers release either. Looking at the Kickstarter updates, and factoring in the pre-release watches that hit the reviews, the product was tinkered with numerous times to get the final model right: Miyota 9015 swapped in for the NH35a to reduce thickness, added AR coating on the glass, exhibition caseback dropped for solid steel to reduce thickness again… this is a product that demonstrates a level of passion, or care, and then compare this to something one of the micro-conglomerates churns out on the regular. I own three pieces by a certain, popular, marine-themed dive watch microbrand, and all three have various quality issues ranging from fucked bracelets to misaligned bezels and dial details. I have very little to moan about here, I am really being a dickhead complaining about what I have done.

I know we can all get NHxx powered steel tool watches with decent water resistance and good specs for under £100 on AliExpress, which is both a blessing and a curse in equal measures. I think when a micro tries to push that envelope a little we need to celebrate that, and when we find something that does something well we need to run it up the flagpole, because everyone benefits: the buyer, the brand, the market. I would rather everyone buy something like this instead of a Fifty Fathoms clone with an NH35, or a Grand Seiko homage GMT, it feels much more responsible.

I do not know what the future holds for Matterhorn. We are half way through 2024, nearly three years after the launch of the Divemaster 300, and whilst it is a solid offering I doubt many of you would even have heard of it without it being thrust onto your radar. There are two being worn on WatchCrunch in the WRUW archives, and one of those is this one. It is not prolific – and it should be, with what you get. That second watch, when/if it drops, will be important for a lot of different reasons. Can the brand build off a solid start? What will this watch be? Will it be safe or will it try to stamp out a little identity that has been tried here? Will people back it? Will anyone care?

Greg often says that he and I possess a rare skill, by which we can trawl through endless vintage and find those diamonds – the Swiss jobber with a decent movement, still running, and relatively smart. The watch you would go “ooh… bet that cost a lot” and it cost less than a meal for two. Inadvertently, I think I have translated that to modern watches. At £249, this watch is a steal. For the price I paid, I beat the bank.

Whatever the answers to the above, I will care… this Matterhorn watch matters to me, and more than I thought it would when I clicked on the button to buy it after a bad day. This watch represents what I think can be achieved at the micro level, at genuinely good value, and what people should want and expect. If you demand better, you should get better. If you offer better, you should be rewarded for that. I feel that somewhere along the line, we have all just settled. It is why I sing the praises of brands like Vero… and why I am watching the next moves of Matterhorn anxiously.

What the brand does next will be of interest to me… and in the meantime, looking for a diver/adventure watch? Have you looked at the Matterhorn Divemaster 300? It’s damn good.