# Steinhart GMT Ocean 1 review



## dj00tiek (May 27, 2009)

*Steinhart GMT Ocean 1 review*​









Before you start reading, know that I am a guy being very critical and seeing room for improvement on lots of points.
My low ratings could be higher in yours opinion! Also know that people have different opinions, ofcourse I tried to rate it fact-wise instead of opinion-wise as much as possible.

*- Steinhart - the brand*
I'm sure almost everyone here knows this but for those who don't, a sum up of information:
The brand Steinhart exists for around ~8 years. Günter Steinhart was the founder, a watch enthausiast who could make work opf his hobby.
They mostly use ETA movements, like many other watch companies. Because of legal issues Steinhart had to rename their brein in the U.S. and choose Defaubre. It's basicly the same brand selling the same watches. The current german team exists of 9 members of which two are watchmakers.

Im not sure all this information is 100% uptodate and current so please correct me if i'm wrong.

*- Packaging (inner/outer box)*

When opening the outer shipment box, the watch outer box was shredded on one side:










The innerbox is made from leather (don't know if its genuine leather):










The hole which is used to close the box with the button, isn't aligned straight.
I would have rather seen a click button behind the leather flap, this looks kinda cheap.
Overall the box doesn't look that cheap but neither looks like a quality box which has been decently finished with detail (My TAG Heuer Carrera box is much nicer).

Inside the box:










Brandname is applied on the inside. The leather pillow is okay. Nothing really special here. The watch itself was packaged in several plastic protection pieces.

Rating: 7.5 - not bad neither good

*- Bracelet*










To be honest, after removing the plastic protection, I was disappointed with the bracelet. It felt cheap. The close piece was not closing right, I needed to push the outer sides to eachother to make it close good.










One thing I like about the bracelet is the inner & outer expanding/opening piece (the pieces in the middle of the picture above). I think it's better then for instande the system Rolex uses. It doesn't have half links.

You can micro adjust the bracelet side by moving the push-pins. It has solid end links, so won't start to rattle or bend over time. It also has screw-in pins which i prefer over push/pull pins.

But overall, it just feels to cheap in my opinion.

Rating: 5 - much to improve

*- Dial/Bezel/Crystal/Cyclops*










As everyone knows, the dial is ofcourse the famous Rolex design. I like the design, even when it's not original, it's such a nice design. The dail is very well detailed, the second/minute/hour/gmt arrows are the famous "Mercedes" arrows. They are silver with white lume (green in dark).

I love the red word "OCEAN GMT" and the red GMT arrow. If these were white for instance it would't have that nice contrast, but you got to like red ofcourse. The date is also nicely finished.

The bezel is also nicely finished, the cola part of the bezel sticks with glue to the bezel itself. You can replace it yourself with a black or pepsi bezel.

What I don't like on the bezel is the shiny out side of the bezel, it's the only part looking a little bit cheap from the rest.

The glass is made of sapphire crystal, so can't be scratched easy and can be cleaned easy. Sapphire glass is the best out there in my opinion.

The Cyclops: Some people like it, some people don't. In general it looks decent, the date is much easier to read, it doesn't look to big nor to small.

Rating: Dial: 8 (due to stolen design) / Bezel: 8 / Crystal/Cyclops: 9.5 / average: 8.5 - (Not higher rated because the design is not original, rest is absolutely fine!)

*- Case/Dimensions/Waterproof*










The case is made of stainless steel and feels decent, well build, and strong. The back states the brand logo, name and 'swiss made'.

On te outer ring it also states the reference number, 21 jewels, the ETA movement number, 300 meters / 1000 feet water resistance, stainless steel and saphire crystal.

The case dimensions on the Steinhart website state: 42mm diameter, and 22mm lugsize.

When measured these are the sizes:
- Diameter on the back & front: 42mm
- Diameter with crown: 46mm
- Lugsize: 22mm
- Thickness: 13mm
- Top to bottom lugs: 50mm
- Crown thickness: 4mm
- Crown diameter: 7mm

The weight according to Steinhart is 190 grams, which should be heavy, though it doesn't feel heavy to me.

Steinhart states the watch is 300 meters / 1000 feet waterproof. This is the same as the Rolex Submarine. The Rolex GMT II is only 100 meters waterproof. I don't know if they use the same testing methods (Steinhart uses DIN), probably the GMT II can do much better then 100 meters. Most general dive watches for this money are rated 100 till around 300 meters waterproof. The Omega Planet Ocean can do 600 meters, but costs 7 times more. The Rolex Deepsea can do 3900 meters (4000 isnt used because 4 is a bad number in some religions), but you pay 18 times more. Ofcourse there is much more to a real Rolex, I'm just putting some numbers out. For this Steinhart watch, I am very satisfied with 300 meters.










Rating: Case: 8 / Dimensions: 9 / Waterproof: 8.5 / average: 8.5

- *Movement*

I am owning this watch for 5 days now. Since then, the ETA 2893-2 has been running slow between 2 and 3 seconds. It's to early to give a conclusion yet, but i can say its running great since then.

The ETA 2893-2 movement has 21 jewels, is automatic and runs at 28,800 bph. It has a 42 hour power reserve.

Rating: 8

- *Service*
- Ordering/Shipment/Packaging/Service
After ordering on the Steinhart website and directly transferring money through paypal, i didn't hear anything for more then 24 hours, so i figured to email them and ask that the order status is. They replied after some hours and after 48 hours of paypal transfer i received a shipping email.

They use the german DPD shipment system, I never heard of them before but I live in the Netherlands (next to Germany, where Steinhart resides). The DPD website states: a normal order from Germany to the Netherlands takes aproximately one or two days. With me, it took five days (with a weekend in between, they don't deliver on saturday and sunday).

Alltogether it took seven days, which isn't that long if you aren't critical, but i'm just used to faster shipment and think there could be things improved here. They should offer a faster delivery system which DPD also offers. It would also be nice to be able to login at their website and be able to see the status of the order, so you don't have to email them and they don't have to respond to emails with such questions.
The outer box was shredded on one side, it should be seen while packaging and exchanged for a new box. Nothing to comment on the outer packaging from DPD, this was just fine.

The originel watch I orderred was the black one, but I also wanted a pepsi and cola bezel with it. The first time i asked this in an email there was no respond to the question, the second time there was, but they didn't knew what 'cola' ment. Nevertheless I explained this and they offered to send those two to me for 15 euros a piece, which is pretty nice. When I got the watch there was an extra cola bezel in the packaging. Later on i received the extra cola and pespi bezel. I guess this is a communication fault in their system and nothing on purpose (because I didn't receive any words on this by email).
Rating: 6.5 - improvement needed/wanted

- *Summary*

I won't take the ratings packaging and service into account, because in the end it's about the watch itself. The average of the other sections sum up to an average of: 7.5

*Since i am not using the stainless steel bracelett but a real nice bond nato strap, this would sum up to an average of: 8.34, thats also about how happy I am with this Steinhart!*

To my honest opinion, this is the best "homage" (if you may call Steinhart homage) there is. Considering the price of 390 euros, you get much watch for the money!

And on that bombshell, I end with some nice pictures!




























Thanks for reading!


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## Chromejob (Jun 18, 2010)

I dunno, you give them low points for service, but they sent you extra bezels (or just bezel inserts?). Sounds like attentive, personalized service to me. I appreciate when companies do that. You also didn't mention what day (of the week) you placed your order. Generally, one business day is acceptable, but not on the weekend. 

Also, you said the dial design is "stolen." We need to get over this. The world of dive watches is not just "Submariners, Fifty Fathoms, and rip offs." Not so, the two 1950s designs are so classic, and so established, that a company offering versions of this with high quality movements, cases, and bracelets is not "stealing" anything. The design is over 50 years old!

I had an older (Pepsi) GMT-Ocean 1 for a day or two before returning to the seller, I thought the bracelet was pretty good compared with a heavy, solid-link Seiko bracelet I have. The "weak link" was the clasp, on the one I had in hand, someone had clearly yanked it hard (caught on something? hung from from a helicopter skid?), bending it a bit. It had been repaired, worked ok, but a bit crooked. I suppose a 10/10 bracelet is one in which the entire clasp is solid as the links, with the understanding that it's intended to withstand trauma while closed. 

Thanks for the review and pics ... I was thinking of getting their OceanBLACK, but the GMT-Ocean still beckons. Wish Steinhart still offered it in 39mm!


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## dj00tiek (May 27, 2009)

Thanks for your reply 


Chromejob said:


> I dunno, you give them low points for service, but they sent you extra bezels (or just bezel inserts?). Sounds like attentive, personalized service to me. I appreciate when companies do that. You also didn't mention what day (of the week) you placed your order. Generally, one business day is acceptable, but not on the weekend.


You can't really rate service on a one men view. Though I wanted to point out the things that happend. Also the extra bezel in the box was probably a fault of their own, so in the end it's not a good thing because they didn't knew what they were doing, they didn't sent one bezel to much on purpose. This propable would be a communication failure which is never good in any company.



> Also, you said the dial design is "stolen." We need to get over this. The world of dive watches is not just "Submariners, Fifty Fathoms, and rip offs." Not so, the two 1950s designs are so classic, and so established, that a company offering versions of this with high quality movements, cases, and bracelets is not "stealing" anything. The design is over 50 years old!


I don't see TAG Heuer/Breitling/Rolex/etc steeling any designs 
Steinhart didn't design this watch theirselves without having a detailed look at their neighbours, so it's definitly "stolen" imo.



> I had an older (Pepsi) GMT-Ocean 1 for a day or two before returning to the seller, I thought the bracelet was pretty good compared with a heavy, solid-link Seiko bracelet I have. The "weak link" was the clasp, on the one I had in hand, someone had clearly yanked it hard (caught on something? hung from from a helicopter skid?), bending it a bit. It had been repaired, worked ok, but a bit crooked. I suppose a 10/10 bracelet is one in which the entire clasp is solid as the links, with the understanding that it's intended to withstand trauma while closed.


Well, i owned about 25 watches in my life of which some were cheap quartz ones, they all had a better more solid bracelet then this Steinhart bracelet. Even Swatch/Police/Guess makes them better imo. By the way I would rate my TAG Heuer Carrera bracelet 9/10, it's pretty close to a 10, but doesn't have an option to extend with warm weather.



> Thanks for the review and pics ... I was thinking of getting their OceanBLACK, but the GMT-Ocean still beckons. Wish Steinhart still offered it in 39mm!


My pleasure!


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## por44 (Dec 21, 2007)

Just wondering - why you didn't mention the Grovana connection in the history?


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## dj00tiek (May 27, 2009)

por44 said:


> Just wondering - why you didn't mention the Grovana connection in the history?


Enlighten us?


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## edwinwalke (Aug 9, 2010)

por44 said:


> Just wondering - why you didn't mention the Grovana connection in the history?


What does that have to do with the price of eggs????


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## gigi_cro (Mar 17, 2010)

i don't think 1 should buy a homage watch and then mention "stolen" design.. apart that and being IMHO being a little to harsh on a 390 euros watch i appreciate the effort on this review..
nice pictures and really really nice combo with those nato's! 

and nice tag 2!


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## gigi_cro (Mar 17, 2010)

i don't think 1 should buy a homage watch and then mention "stolen" design as a negative side of the watch.. apart that and being IMHO being a little to harsh on a 390 euros watch i appreciate the effort on this review..
nice pictures and really really nice combo with those nato's! 

and nice tag 2!


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## 818Guy (Mar 18, 2008)

dj00tiek said:


>


Where did you get that red and black Bond nato-zulu-military, whatever you want to call it, strap?

I like the red and black combo but I've been searching the 'net for it (in the USA) but can't seem to find that color combo.

Thanks for any info.


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## edward015 (Mar 17, 2011)

818Guy said:


> Where did you get that red and black Bond nato-zulu-military, whatever you want to call it, strap?
> 
> I like the red and black combo but I've been searching the 'net for it (in the USA) but can't seem to find that color combo.
> 
> Thanks for any info.


here man..
ZULU Strap.Red James Bond Heavy Duty ZULU Nylon Strap


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## Sizzla (Oct 18, 2020)

My 2nd Steinhart with a Barton nato strap.


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