Kronos British SBS Satin 200M Military Diver Watch

This is a small review of my Kronos British SBS Satin 200M Military Diver Mod 1 watch. That is indeed a long name for a watch. Why Mod 1? Well I did some changes to the watch, some on purpose, some not. Lets start with the modifications. The first change was the spring-bars. The original owner had the spring bars changed. He had the thicker Seiko spring bars installed. Oh yes, I got this second hand off the Internet.

The modification that I carried out was to replace the movement. I wanted the same movement that powered my CWCs and Precista (military issued) to power this watch. I appreciate that this watch is a homage to the original RN (Royal Navy) Diver watch, but why not. So I had the original movement, an ETA 804.114 replaced. The ETA 804.114, I believe is the basic ETA quartz movement.

Basic specifications:

10.5 ligne, 3.4 mm height

0 jewels

3 hands

I had it replace with the ETA 955.412. My CWC s and Precista is powered by ETA 955.112, but this movement measures 11.5 ligne. This was too big for the watch. As such, I had to use the smaller ETA 955.412. Basically it is the same as the ETA 955.112.

Basic specifications:

10.5 ligne

7 jewels

3 hands

Those were the only modifications that I wanted for the watch. However in replacing the above, I found that the crown and stem tube was damaged. The crown had its thread stripped, while the stem tube had a crack. That would have an impact on the watch water resistant rating. As such, I had the stem tube and crown replaced. The new stem tube was thicker as compared to the old tube. As such, the case had to be reworked to accommodate the new stem tube. After all the work was done, I had the case pressure tested. All passed.

On with the watch.

Collection: Military

Manufacturer: Kronos (?)

Basic specifications:

Functions: Hours, minutes and seconds

Case: stainless steel

Crystal: Mineral crystal

Movement: ETA 955.412 quartz

Water resistant: 20 ATM

Now the interesting thing about the watch is where the watch originates from. I have read that the watch originates from Hong Kong, but I have seen the automatic versions of the watch advertised as being made in Germany. I know that there is a distributor on the Internet that sells/ distributes the watch in Hong Kong. However, there is no mention of the Kronos brand. I have seen other watches with the same markings sold as Kronos watches. Anybody?

CASE

The case is made of stainless steel. It has a brush matte finish. The finish is good but not great. The brushing is a tad light. The case measures 42 mm. The lug to lug is 46.5 mm and the lug width is 20 mm. It is 11.5 mm thick. There are no sharp edges. The case does feel hefty and is big and chunky. I like the case as it well made.

The crown is at the 3 o'clock position. The new crown is screw-down, as is the original. It measures 5 mm in diameter, 2.5 mm thick and it matches the size of the watch. Any bigger and it can overpower the watch. The crown is polished. I tried to look for a brushed crown but could not. The crown is easy to use and has the normal 2 position adjustment. Pull the crown once for the day date quick adjust (which is not used) and pull it out another time for time adjustment. If this watch was made in Hong Kong, then mine is a hybrid as the crown and the stem tube is Swiss made.

The case back is polished stainless steel, as is the back of the case. The case back does not match the rest of the case which is matte. The case back has no markings save for a logo which I believe is the Kronos logo. There are no water resistant ratings, model numbers or anything. The case back is of the screw back design and the watch offers a water resistant rating of 20 ATM (tested).

The bezel is 39 mm in diameter and it is easy to use. It is 3 mm in height and is serrated. The thickness of the bezel provides sufficient grip to rotate the bezel. The bezel is uni-directional and takes 60 clicks to do 1 full rotation. The bezel does click with a positive feel to it.

The bezel insert is a bit thin, but it is sufficient. Sadly the triangle at the 12 o'clock does not align with the triangle on the dial. The triangle at the 12 o'clock has a little pip which is luminous. The print of the numbers and scales on the bezel insert is fair. You can see some loss on the 22nd. minute scale marking in the photograph below.

I like the case and bezel design as it makes the watch look smaller then its 42 mm size. It is comfortable, but can be a bit heavy if fitted with a metal bracelet.

MOVEMENT

As highlighted earlier, the watch came fitted with the ETA 804.114 movement. It now has the ETA 955.412 movement. The movement does come with a calendar but it is not used as there is no date window on the dial. As such, the first adjustment position is not used. The second position is for the time adjustment.

The movement is a basic 7 jewel movement. The movement 'hacks' as should all quartz movement. Unlike the ETA 804.114, I believe the ETA 955.412 is Swiss made. The ETA 804.114 is Swiss parts, China movement. The movement is a 3 hand movement.

DIAL

The dial is matte black with the MOD design. The dial has oversize hour markers, more so at the 12 o'clock position. The 3, 6 and 9 o'clock hour markers have the Arabic numerals 3,6 and 9. The is a 'T' just above the 6 o'clock marker. I believe this is to indicate the use of Tritium on the dial. However in this case, I think it is more as a 'decoration' to be as true to the original dial. Below the 6 o'clock marker we find the legend 'SWISS MOVT'. This is to indicate that the watch is powered by a Swiss movement.

There no other markings on the dial. It is sterile. The lume of the dial is poor at best. Even after being exposed to the sun for 5 minutes, the lume is bad. The Arabic numerals are not luminous. However I have to say that dial is well made and the application of the luminous material is good and even.

HANDS

The hands are of the military design (sword shaped) and is rendered in white. This does reduce reflection if it was in polished stainless steel. The hour hand is visibly larger as compared to the minute hand. The minute hand extends to the minute marker. This makes reading the time easy. The second hand is rendered in orange and this I think is a deviation from the original. It does make the second hand stand out though.

The hour and minute hands are filled with luminous material as is the second hand. I have to say that the lume of the hands is marginally better as compared to the dial. The hands are well made.

CRYSTAL

The crystal is mineral crystal. The crystal is flush with the bezel. This design aids in preventing scratches to the crystal. It is flat and I believe it does not have any anti-reflection coating.

STRAP

I got the watch without the strap. It is currently fitted with a generic rubber strap with a stainless steel deployment. The original watch would come it a orange zulu strap.

CONCLUSION

This is cheap watch and it does what it sets out to do. It currently retail below USD 100 new. It does look like and is a homage to the RN diver watch. It is well built, strong and durable and at its current price range, I think is good value for money. I was told that it use to be a lot cheaper and many bought the watch to experiment and modify. I like the watch and am considering getting a new one sometime soon.

Kronos British SBS Satin 200M Military Diver Watch Modification, The End

I finally got my watch back from the watch shop. With it the new crown and the new stem installed. The old crown, diameter 5.5 mm, thickness 4.5 mm.

The stem tube. You can see that it is pretty mangled up. This happen during the removal process, but you can see where it cracked.

You can see the gasket inside the stem tube.

Another view.

I peeled back the top part of the stem tube to show where is the crack. It was at the second thread.

The new crown with the stem installed.

Diameter 5.5 mm, thickness 2.5 mm. It is thinner. Unsigned.

You can see the gasket inside the crown. The stem looks crooked, it is as I depressed it into the crown to test the spring-load of the crown. This is the spring load that 'pop' the crown from the stem when you unscrew the crown from the stem tube.

The watch was pressure tested to 20 ATM and it was ok. I am happy. The new stem tube. The gunk you see around it is silicon grease.

There are 2 gaskets inside the stem tube.

Testing the crown.

Now to reassemble the watch. Actually I test fitted the parts earlier and took the watch apart again to clean all the parts, lubricate parts that needs lubricating and cleaning. The following pictures are from the test fit. The test fit looks good.

Now for the complete reassembly. Clean the movement holder and spacer. The gasket is lubricated and the case is cleaned and checked for any debris from the boring to fit the new stem tube.

The new crown installed and checked for ability to screw-down and unlock.

The movement is installed into the case.

The battery is installed. The battery comes with movement.

The movement holder goes in. The movement comes with a battery retainer. If you remember, the movement holder had to modified as in the old movement, the battery is located at the opposite end of the new movement. So a little snip at the correct place and the movement holder fits. As you can see the retainer is now over the battery.

Next, the gasket is fitted. It sits in the groove in the case.

Next the case back is fitted and the watch is done.

The watch is fitted with a locally sourced black 'Mil' spec strap. It originally came with a NATO strap, but that strap is currently fitted to another watch.

Overall, I am happy with the results. It would have been batter if the stem tube was not cracked and the internal thread of the crown was not damaged and the only modification was the change of the movement and spring bars, but as luck would have it.... Oh well, anyway it was an interesting modification. Perhaps I should get the CWC RN diver (which this watch is based on), but for what I paid for this watch and from what I learnt from this modification, it was worth it.

I am currently wearing the watch and it has gone through my non-scientific water resistance test and passed (well it passed the 6 ATM pressure test). So far the battery has not 'popped' out and the watch is running smoothly. I am happy. A review will be done soon.

Kronos British SBS Satin 200M Military Diver Watch Modification Update

Well it has been some time since I started the modification and had the problem. Well I thought I update the status of this watch and the modification. To update those not familiar with the background of this watch, I started this modification to replace the movement. During the modification process, I found the stem tube was cracked and the thread in the crown was damaged.

Since this watch is not the standard watch that we find sold everywhere, locating a replacement stem and crown is not easy and I am still searching. I did find a replacement stem tube but the crown that came with it is very very small. The search continues and I will bring updates as and when I do locate the replacement parts.

Kronos British SBS Satin 200M Military Diver Watch Modification (Part 1)

This is my modification of the Kronos British SBS Satin 200M Military Watch (no date, orange second hand) Part 1. Why? We will see later. I got this watch very cheap from the Internet (used). I will not go into a review of this watch at this time as this is about my modification to the watch. However the basic specifications:

Case: stainless steel

Size: diameter 42 mm, height 13 mm, lug width 20 mm

Crystal: Mineral

Water resistance: 20 ATM

Photographs: Military Watches Mall

One modification carried out by the previous owner was to replace the spring bars with thicker Seiko spring bars. I had a look at the spring bars and they are very solid and secured on the watch. I thank the previous owner. It does give me some comfort when wearing the watch with the 1 piece Mil spec strap.

This was is fitted with the ETA 804.114 quartz movement. I understand this is the basic ETA quartz movement.

Basic specifications:

10.5 ligne, height 3.40 mm

0 jewels

3 hands (120/70/20)

Date with quick set (unused as this is the non date version of the watch)

The watch with the case back removed. You can see the movement in the watch and the white movement holder. The design of the movement holder is interesting as there is a tab to hold the battery. The movement is ETA, but China movement with Swiss parts.

Why change the movement? Well I kind of like the quartz movement that drives the British military issued CWC and Precista. Since this watch is a homage to the British RN Diver watch, why not fit it out with the same movement. Additionally I like the fact that there are 7 jewels in the CWC/ Precista movement. The problem is that the CWC and Precista is fitted with the ETA 955.112 movement which is 11.5 ligne. Finally found that ETA has another movement in the 955 series, the ETA 955.412 movement. It has the same diameter as the ETA 804. However it is thinner, but should not pose a problem as I can fit it with a thicker battery.

The movement, ETA 955.412. Note the hour wheel on the outside of the movement case (about the 3 o'clock position).

The bottom plate.

The top plate.

Now that I have the replacement movement, the modification can proceed. First, remove the battery, then the crown. The out comes the movement and dial. Note that dial is held in position via friction to the movement. You can see the dial feet at the 6 o'clock position.

The case and the case back.

Other parts of the movement. At the 1 o'clock position, we can see the stem. The longer stem is from the new movement. We will need to trim the stem down to the original stem (shorter one). We can see the crown at the 4 o'clock position. It is of the screw down design. We can see the battery and the white movement holder. The gold wheel is the hour wheel of the new movement and the black crown is also from the new movement. It also acts to protect the tip of the stem.

Mount the movement on the movement holder to facilitate the removal of the hands.

Don't forget to protect the dial.

The hands, removed from the movement. The hand size: 120/70/20.

The dial side of the ETA 804 movement. Notice that it comes with the date wheel. The hour wheel seems integral with the movement.

The dial.

Next is to install the dial to the movement. The ETA 955 uses the modern dial fastener. You can see this at the 5 o'clock position. The fastener will swing into position and cut into the dial feet and hold it in position. The hole you see at the 9 0'clock position is the case screw hole. It is to hold the movement to the case. We will not be using this as we will be using the white plastic movement holder.

Now to refit the hands. The new movement and dial on the movement holder. Don't forget to protect the dial.

The hands installed. Reinstall the stem to check that the hands do not hit each other or bind. I also refit the battery to check that the second hand does not bind and can do 1 full rotation.

Remove the stem and refit the movement into the case.

It fits perfectly. But something is not right. The movement holder. The tab is not over the battery slot. Another view.

A small modification to the movement holder and problem solved. Now the tab is over the battery slot.

This is where the modification comes to a halt. Why? Well I decided to inspect the case. I found the internal thread of the crown slightly damaged. This is not good, as this may mean that the stem tube on the case may be damaged. On closer inspection, I found that the stem tube is cracked. This is not good at all. Well, it is off to my friendly neighbourhood watchmaker and see what can be done. Stay tuned for further updates.