Chronographs by their very nature require fairly busy looking dials with sub-dials etc. which kind of goes against the grain of how a pure dive watch's dial should look - clean and simple, but I have to say that this is one of the tidiest looking chrono dials have seen in a while.
There are two sub-dials; a 30 minute counter at 12 o'clock and a 12 hour counter at 6 o'clock. ALPINA have kept text and dial markings to a minimum. What there are, are functional and sober-looking and the layout is well-balanced.
The circular 'professional' hour markers, perfectly contrasted against the black dial, the scrolling date wheel in black (these are starting to really grow on me) and the legible handset with the minute hand in red, so that it is easily distinguishable from the hour hand; all working in harmony!
The 44mm Stainless steel case has a water-resistance of 300m. It features a screw-down crown and caseback and a unidirectional rotational divers bezel with an elapsed dive-time scale. The bezel insert is very glossy; it has the look of ceramic or Sapphire, but it is in fact polished black PVD coated. The bezel markings are luminous.
On the reverse side of the watch there is a Sapphire crystal exhibition caseback, which affords a view of the inner workings of the ALPINA AL-725 automatic chronograph caliber, a feature that is not found on many professional dive watches with 300 meters of water-resistance. The AL-725 has a power-reserve of 46hrs.
The watch comes one a black rubber divers strap with a secure folding buckle. It is supplied with an additional nylon divers wetsuit strap, but can also be fitted with a 'Milanese' steel mesh bracelet or more traditional Alpina 3 link sports metal bracelet.
Each watch is presented in a uniquely designed gift box, which includes a model scuba diving tank.
In summary, I think Alpina have done a cracking job with the new Extreme Diver 300 Chrono. A highly covet-able dive watch that is both sophisticated and functional looking. It ticks all the right boxes for a professional diving instrument and has just enough presence to earn an admiring look or two!
Check out ALPINA's latest sailing model, the Sailing Yachttimer COUNTDOWN . . .
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