Escudo Ocean Seacrest Silver Inox and Rose Watch Review

When the Escudo Ocean Seacrest Chocolate Bronze passed through the Oracle Time office last year I was sad not to be able to spend more time with the piece. Fortunately, I’ve been able to spend a few days with the latest additions to the Ocean Seacrest collection, the Ocean Seacreast Silver Inox and Silver Rose.

The two watches are essentially recolours of the existing range featuring white dials and silver mirror bezels. Off the bat we should talk about the bezels because they’re kind of crazy. Mirror polishing is a type of finishing that is not necessarily uncommon in watchmaking but neither do you see it all the time. The most famous example of the technique is Grand Seiko’s Zaratsu polishing, which is also known as black mirror polishing because it creates such an intense shine that it can appear black.

A similar effect has been achieved with the bezels here. They are physically silver but more often look black or white, shifting depending on the angle you look at them and the lighting conditions of the space around you. As a side note, that also makes them incredibly difficult to photograph – we had to delete many images where you could see the camera being directly reflected in the bezel. When I wear either version of the watch, I often find myself absentmindedly staring at my wrist and shifting it in the light as the colours move like an optical illusion.

I should also probably specify that the difference between the Silver Inox and Silver Rose editions comes down to the accent colours. The Inox has a silver coloured bezel ring, crown and hour markers while the Rose is bronze. Additionally, the Inox has white lume and the Rose has beige. Picking between the two is difficult. I naturally found myself gravitating towards the Inox the most because I like the neutral monochrome aesthetic. But on the occasions that I did pick the Rose, it stood out more on the wrist and drew attention.

What initially attracted me to the Ocean Seacrest was definitely the dial and in particular the distinctive shapes of the hour markers. The arrow heads at the cardinal points look great and the complexity of their shape is balanced by the simplicity of the circles in between. It feels like a compass or piece of nautical equipment ready for seafaring adventures. Which with 200m water resistance it would be well suited for. It’s also no accident because the Escudo brand is based on the shared history of Great Britain and Portugal as naval powers.

Hidden behind the solid steel caseback is the Escudo Calibre 1488, which uses the Sellita SW200-1 as a base. It only has a 38-hour power reserve which proved a little problematic considering I was trying to juggle two watches over the span of a few of days. If you want to regularly swap between a couple of 38-hour reserve watches then investing in a watch winder is a good decision. Of course, if you just have the one then it’s less of an issue. Plus, having a Sellita base movement means it’s more accessible and easy to repair since it’s fairly common.

In terms of price, the Escudo Ocean Seacrest Silver Inox is £1,450 while the Ocean Seacrest Silver Rose is £1,650. A slight difference in price for the slight difference in materials. Ultimately, the two new watches are good additions to the collection, they’re bright, intriguing and distinctive. However, I can’t say that they’ve scratched one specific itch that I’ve had for a while, which is to see a brand new model from Escudo. Whether that’s another dive watch or maybe something a little different like a field watch, I feel like Escudo has a lot of potential and I want to see it.

​Oracle Time 

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