Review: Marin Skin-Diver

I’ve been longing for a white-and-black watch. Note the color order there. I wanted a watch with a clean white dial and black accenting. I don’t need texture or sunburst finishing or pops of color. Just simple white and black. You can imagine my excitement, then, when I first that the Marin Skin-Diver. Could it be that someone had finally answered my prayers?

That someone is Justin Walters, and while he insists he never heard my prayers, he has built a watch that appeals to me in its simplicity and execution. Always a tinkerer, Walker cut his horological teeth in Kansas City, where he learned to repair watches at a small shop. Nowadays, he spends his working hours doing cool things at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and toils away his nights sketching future designs for Marin Instruments. The Marin Skin-Diver is the first fruits of those nocturnal endeavors and it’s not just a good skin diver—it’s a great diver.

The overall stakness of design hits you immediately, the simple grayscale color palette. On top of that, though, you’ve got a splendidly pared down bezel and a well-executed combination of elementary school shapes on the dial.

The Case

The Marin Skin-Diver has the exact case you’d expect. Almost dead flat with sharp edges and a mostly brushed finish, the skin diver style is designed for heavy use. It’s all big, flat surfaces, with polished sides and blocky crown guards. The squared-off lug box is a signature of all skin divers. The crown is slightly undersized within the guards, the latter of which can catch on your finger while using the former. For production, this is being remedied by thinning the guards and increasing the crowns size slightly.

While the watch is rather flat in its profile, there is a very subtle curve, which helps it wear well on the wrist. Honestly though, it’s the modest proportions and the flared strap that keep it tame. The dimensions are such that only the smallest wrists will have issues, and the strap creates a seamless silhouette as the watch-to-strap transition leads to the wrist. As for the bezel, I love the design and when dry, it’s a dream to use. However, wet usage suffers due to how thin it is and the fact that coin edge bezels almost always afford poor grip. Thank God I don’t actually dive.

The Dial

What a dream of a dial. In my fantasies about white-and-black watches, I’ll admit that I mostly imagine no lume—just a white dial with black markers and black hands. That’s really not tenable on a dive watch (or any tool watch, I suppose), so I’ve made allowances here. There’s a lot of basic geometry going on here, with triangles, squares, and circles all intermingling to create a balanced, legible dial. (So you know, it’s also available with a black dial.)

While they don’t detract from the watch in any way, there is a variety of fonts that I’m sure the more design-minded amongst you will dislike. By my count, there are at least three fonts, maybe more. It’s not unheard of, and frankly I like the solitary use of script for the water resistance, as it plays as a knowing deviation from the rest of the design. It’s almost an acknowledgment of the watch’s vintage roots.

The white date frame is such a nice, unexpected touch. Given the black framing of the lume plots, you wouldn’t blame Walters for doing the same with the date, but instead he’s gone the other direction, which allows the date text itself to stand out in the sea of white, while still highlighting the window (which is perfectly placed, mind you).

The lume is mostly good. I say that because while the hands don’t have brightness issues, the slivers of lume make it so they seem dim next to the larger applications of the hour markers and the bezel, which is entirely lumed to wonderful effect. Ultimately, the watch remains legible in low-light, but I do wisht here was a bit more balance.

The Rest

The caseback on the Marin Skin-Diver is kept simple, just as the rest of the watch. A couple of specs and edition numbering, with no gaudy embossing. Note the quick-release tabs on the rubber strap, which along with the drilled lugs, make for easy swaps.

The Skin-Diver comes with two straps: a ruthlessly comfortable rubber with a branded steel buckle that maintains the clean angularity of the case, and a Maratac Zulu (single-pass) strap. The latter’s sandy shade looks good enough on the white, but I imagine it looks even better with the black dial. In any case, it’s comfortable and secure and I definitely only realized it was included as I was packing the watch to ship it back.

From a design perspective, this checks just about every box for me. It’s clean, simple, and legible. I appreciate more complex designs and when brand’s use texture and depth, etc, but I also realize with design, it’s much harder to do less than to do more. That’s what Walker has achieved with the Marin Skin-Diver (and with the upcoming Marin Fieldmaster, which you should check out on the brand’s site). The watch is an exceptionally modern take on a decidedly old style of watch, and it delivers almost perfectly.

You can learn more about the Marin Skin-Diver and the brand at Marin Instruments website.