Review: Tutima M2 Seven Seas S

It’s no easy task making watches in Germany’s Glashütte region. You’ve got neighbors like Nomos, Glashütte Original, A. Lange & Söhne, and Moritz Grossmann (all of which are independent brands, just like Tutima). They all make exceptional watches—how do you compete with a Lange Tourbograph Perpetual? You could do what Tutima does and make useful watches made to be worn. While Tutima offers top-notch dress watches, it stands out from the rest of the Glashütte gaggle with its sports and tool watch offerings: it has an expansive roster of fliegers, chronographs, and divers the other brands lack.

With robust cases and unique styling, Tutima’s M2 series features the blocky tonneau case for which the brand is perhaps best known. Released in 2021, the Tutima M2 Seven Seas S takes the classic titanium case of the M2 Seven Seas and recrafts it in steel (hence the ‘S’) for a more substantial offering with a slew of exciting dials. Among those dial offerings, the yellow dégradé stands out, and lucky for you, that’s just the model I’ve got for review. Let’s dive in.

That dial just explodes at you every time you see it. In addition, there’s a softness to the case and a smooth continuity created by the case and strap combination.

The Case

The profile of the Tutima M2 Seven Seas S offers a deceptively smooth look against the top-down appearance, which is almost uniformly brushed and conveys the watch’s functional design. The crown nestles perfectly in the guards yet remains accessible and easy to operate. While quite comfortable on the wrist, it the watch is unavoidably chunky—though it doesn’t wear near its 44mm diameter, it’s a presence nonetheless. The strap both mitigates this, by extending the silhouette of the case down and around the wrist, and amplifies it, by being as thick as the case where it meets the lugs (so you know, there are also 40mm models, albeit with slight design differences). One almost hidden element of the case is the subtle bezel shroud: there is a slight rise in the case at its corners, around the bezel, creating a track of sorts, within which the bezel rotates.

While my high school girlfriend and I were together, her mom was in a relationship with the father of another girl who went to our school. The relationship seemed perfect: he was incredibly nice, she finally seemed happy. Then she broke up with him. She said she was always waiting for something to go wrong; she couldn’t trust how well everything was going. There wasn’t enough tension. That’s a bit like the bezel on the Seven Seas S: it’s easy to use, it’s easy to grip, there’s no backplay. But it rotated just a bit too easily; a bit more tension would make it perfect. (That said, I wouldn’t break up with this watch for that lack of tension.)

The Dial

There’s no denying that the highlight of the Tutima M2 Seven Seas S is the dégradé dial. It’s also available in blue, red, green, and black, but this is by far the most exciting offering (and why would you get a boring black dial when you’ve got those other options?). The gradient shifts from yellow to green to black in the length of an hour marker, and it gives the dial an added richness that a solid yellow dial would lack.

The high polish of the large hands and faceted markers make legibility excellent in any condition. Even corner-of-the-eye glances while driving are easy. As always, I appreciate the polished date frame, given the alternatives. The red seconds hand gives the watch even more pop, though I think this dial would be able to stand on its own.

It looks like an avocado. There, I said it.

Delightfully even and bright, the lume charges quickly and uniformly. There’s no fancy footwork here, just strong lume exactly where you want it.

The Rest

This is a rather lovely execution of a simple graphic. The embossed and polished ship isn’t overly ornate and doesn’t try to make a scene; it’s just a pleasant accent that you can see if you happen to be changing straps. As you can see, the strap has pocks and recesses which allow it to breath a bit while on the wrist. (Underneath the caseback is the Tutima 330 caliber, which is just an ETA 2836-2 with a Tutima-branded rotor.)

The Tutima M2 Seven Seas S hybrid strap is quite comfortable, and I like the way it widens to continue the lines of the case. The rubber keepers offer a nice contrast, and it’s a nice touch that while they both float, the keeper nearest the buckle rest between notches. Properly sized, though, the deployant buckle dug into my wrist to the point that I had to remove the watch (especially in the summer heat). The issue was the central hinge, which rubbed against the bone of my 7-inch wrist; if you have larger (or less bony) wrists, it likely won’t be an issue. As far as swapping straps, I didn’t even bother: the lugless case would look extra-chunky with anything else. There is a lovely H-link bracelet available, however, and I always recommend going with the bracelet; in this case, you’d get a bracelet that echoes the softness of the Seven Seas case and has a more comfortable folding clasp.

The brands of Glashütte have a tendency to be a bit staid in their designs. For some, like Lange, this seems to be related to tradition and heritage more than anything. For others, like GO, it seems to be more of a choice (though it is branching out!). Tutima, however, doesn’t just have a wider range of offerings than its compatriots, but one filled with exciting designs that seem to relish the idea of being a little different.

The Tutima M2 Seven Seas S may be heftier than its titanium siblings, but the added contrast of the case finishes and the far more exciting dials more than make up for it. While I’d obviously go with the bracelet, the watch has a reliably robust feeling balanced with an almost 1990’s round aesthetic and a big pop of color. I’m here for it.

You can learn more and find your closest AD on the Tutima website.