Spinnaker Watches Review: Are They Any Good?
If necklaces, rings, or headbands are more likely to appear in a woman’s wardrobe, men tend to pick up a watch every time they need to accentuate their appearance.
Spinnaker is already well-known in the watch world with their breadth of various collections. Yet, this advantage can also be a major disadvantage as it may turn choosing the best for you into a daunting job.
Thus, we’ve trawled Instagram comments, forums, and Facebook threads, combined with our own experience using watches, to compile this Spinnaker Watches review.
It will discuss the three eminent aspects of this brand’s products and refer you to the three best Spinnaker watches you should have in your closet.
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Overview of Spinnaker Watches
Spinnaker is a Hong Kong-based watchmaker who crafts cost-effective timepieces with a heavy emphasis on nautical and yachting inspiration, hence their brand logo and name.
All Spinnaker timepieces are hewn from hard wearing 316L steel, and Spinnaker sources all its movements from third-party Japanese manufacturers, such as Seiko, Miyota, and Hattori.
The diverse and broad array of dive watches has made the company a good following in the watch market.
And with the idea of borrowing archetypal stylistic traits and cues from other reputable watch brands, the Hong Kong enterprise has succeeded in catering to a large audience.
In fact, for quite a few budding enthusiasts, a Spinnaker may well be their first decent watch.
Spinnaker Watches review
Is Spinnaker Watches a good brand?
For any watchmaker, we’ll determine if it’s a brilliant choice by looking at the three main factors: material quality, design, and movement. Spinnaker is no exception in this case.
Material Quality
If you check through all Spinnaker models, you’ll notice that the company puts emphasis on both detail and overall quality.
They use stainless steel for the case and pay a lot of attention to its thickness, giving the timepiece an industrial and heavy-duty feel, whereas the lugs designed for hiding behind maintain a streamlined and sleek feel. Something for surviving at sea needs to show off these features.
Most Spinnaker watches come with scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, and surprisingly, we didn’t notice any distortion or glare.
For the strap, you’ve got a choice of stainless steel or leather. We particularly like the leather option as it’s very soft against the skin. Some models feature a Milanese mesh band instead of a stainless steel bracelet, which is flexible, thick, and gives a stable feel.
You’ve also got sapphire crystal for the front dial while mineral crystal has been used for the exhibition case back.
Design
In terms of design, Spinnaker has created a dial that, for us, scores the absolute mark. Different models come with different dial colors, but that of the one (the Blue Dumas) we bought shows off a mysterious blue color which looks superb when we photograph it.
We’re real fans of Spinnaker’s dials – they have taken the place of Seiko as my recommended affordable dive watch manufacturer after the Japanese brand’s well-publicized QA nosedive of late.
Spinnaker watches share the multi-layered construction in common and look great with everything lined up (at least after I put the bezel back to 12 O’clock after taking the wrist shot!)
The hands are more of an acquired taste. We don’t think the light blue minute hand offers enough contrast and would have preferred a black outline or something a little bolder.
The big change in new Spinnaker timepieces, apart from the dial colors, moves away from a mesh bracelet to a proper jubilee-style offering. It's a solid link, with solid end-links and an excellent milled clasp with a double-lock mechanism.
The negatives? Some customers said that their watches feel a bit stiffer and “scratchier” than usual bracelets. A few felt like they needed a bath in baby oil, yet others felt silky smooth out of the box.
Movement
Most Spinnaker watches share the same case dimensions and thickness and appear pretty bulky compared to other models we’ve used. However, we think they carry their weight quite well.
Big watches can be unbalanced and uncomfortable, but these watches look fine on our 7.5-inch wrist, and they wear really well. It’s the usual Seiko NH35 movement with Spinnaker’s signature black rotor – which we don’t really care for, but we wouldn’t mark the watch down for it.
From the brushing on the faceted case sides to the crisp knurling on the crown, the finishing is good. Spinnaker watch cases are always well made, and there’s literally no exception.
The part we enjoy the least is the bezel. It’s a little stiff at points, which make it hard to use – and the luminous paint on the markers looked a little blurry to us compared to the crispness elsewhere on the watch. It’s the same as that of the previous watch, so the different feel must be down to build tolerances.
Spinnaker Watches Best Sellers
Below are the three best watch models at Spinnaker that will touch you with expert designs and sophisticated details:
Spinnaker Dumas Blue Yonder - $400
The Blue Dumas is one of our favorite luxurious automatic watches and also Spinnaker’s most popular model.
The eight-sided, angular tonneau-shaped stainless steel case measures in at an imposing 44mm across and 16mm thick, and features both brushed and polished elements that give it a good amount of versatility.
The bulky case isn’t all show and no go, however, offering an impressive 300 meters of water resistance, decent robustness and a functional uni-directional rotating bezel with mineral crystal inlay.
The case is capped on its front with sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating, and the Dumas also benefits from a display caseback that shows off the movement – Seiko’s NH35.
This self-winding caliber serves up respectable accuracy, date complication, 24 jewels, an operating frequency of 21,600 vph (3Hz) and roughly 41 hours of power reserve.
All of the Dumas watches, of which there are seven different dial/bezel color combos, come equipped with a sporty-looking Milanese-style steel mesh bracelet with deployant clasp. Priced at less than $400, the Dumas presents as a great option for anyone interested in getting into dive watches or just a good weekend/tool watch.
Spinnaker Hull Fumee Black - $235
The list of the best luxury watches for men can’t be complete without this powerful timepiece. Utilizing a case that some will find quite similar to another famous nautically themed watch, the Spinnaker Black Hull Fumee is available as both a three-hander and chronograph.
The cushion case can be had in a number of different finishes, including a brushed steel, steel with black ionic coating, or steel with a gold ionic coating.
All the cases measure 42mm across and range from between 12mm and 15mm thick, depending on whether you go for the time and date or chrono option.
Those cases are also fitted with a mineral crystal glass that’s been given an anti-reflective coating, and depending which model you go for, have either a display or solid caseback.
The three-hander automatic variants of the Hull Fumee score Seiko’s aforementioned NH35 movement. It can be had on a number of different leather/textile straps or a tri-link steel bracelet.
This is another solid weekend/tool watch, and if you’ve always been a fan of Panerai but don’t have the five-figures needed to scratch the itch, these watches are a very cost-effective alternative.
Spinnaker Spence Sea Green - $650
When it comes to design, the key elements of the Sea Green Spence are all fairly standard. The dial follows the classic Submariner layout, and it’s paired with a simple broad arrow handset.
However, Spinnaker has added a few extra touches that make the design feel fresh. All these things help the Spence to feel familiar whilst not being too derivative of any specific watch.
The resulting design is both simple, attractive, and legible without looking boring. Often watches like this can look very similar to one another, but I think that Spinnaker has done a great job of putting a bit of a spin on a classic dive watch styling.
In addition to being very thin, the steel case is 40mm across with a lug-to-lug measurement of 48mm. These dimensions are an ideal sweet spot for most wrists, and it means that the Spence doesn’t feel too big or too small.
The takeaway
While clothes and shoes physically take up more space in your closet, accessories are important details to complete each outfit.
If price is the thing that gets in your way to bringing the desired Spinnaker timepiece home, don’t forget we’re listing Spinnaker Watches discount codes that can help lower the cost you have to pay for.
Overall, we love how Spinnaker makes its watches stylish and functional at the same time. The way they look and the way they wear - we’re so addicted that we just forget all the minor criticisms (we always have when reviewing a brand or product). We can say that we wholeheartedly recommend the Spinnaker watches.