If you are wondering what an Oggin is, it is a British nautical slang term for the sea or ocean which was possibly derived from a mispronunciation of “ocean” or the slang term “hogwash”. Thanks to AI for that, the rest of this review is the less artificial and much less intelligent me.

Back in March of this year I reviewed the “Daily Beater” field watch and concluded that ‘this is the best value watch I have ever seen. Stunning!’ Since then it has only been worn less than my year 2000 Omega Seamaster which has an unusual advantage over any other watch. My wife bought it for our 25th wedding anniversary and when I got the extract from the archives from Omega it turned out that its production date was the exact date my son was born. No watch is beating that one.

However, the fact that the £79 “Daily Beater” has been on my wrist so much is testament to the quality you get regardless of the low price. It’s very comfortable, charming in a variety of ways and is ridiculously accurate, under 5 seconds slow since March which equates to 0.625 seconds out per month.

The Oggin is the follow up and is designed to bring more toughness, or toughicisity if you write for Hodinkee, to the experience while retaining an ultra-low price point, superb accuracy and a sense that you can do whatever you want with it. This feels like only part of the story though.

The packaging

On the main product page the packaging is described as “crap” and it really is. A bag type thing, a watch wrapped in some plastic stuff and the other bits. It’s minimal in the extreme, but this is how you should want it to be. Watch boxes, fancy manuals and other novelties sit on a shelf doing nothing and, crucially, add to the cost of the product. You do not need anything aside from the watch, but there is more than just the watch in the “crap” packaging.

An extra black nylon military strap is included which has sandblasted hardware to match the watch case plus there is a pair of spring bars thrown in. Mine had three spring bars in the package, but I’m not going to send the extra one back- not my fault if people can’t count. Update: I have now been advised of the following- ‘I include three in every order as I know how easy it is to ping one across the room…’ Nice touch.

This is a decent setup because the tropical strap that is installed on the watch has quick-release bars so you have everything you need in the “crap” packaging. To get two decent straps bundled is an excellent for the overall price.

We have reached the point in this burning world of ours where “crap” is a good thing and I commend NOTO for doing this. It saves us money and is more planet-friendly.

I would encourage you to look at the product page to understand what this watch is about and why it exists. There is no sense of some of the pretentious nonsense you read from other brands, particular those who are pretending that they have a history that does not exist.

The watch industry is 90% bullshit. I have discovered this by owning more than 100 watches in my time, by reading too many books on the subject and by learning how to service mechanical watches.

It is refreshing to see the approach from NOTO which removes all of the marketing BS and just concentrates on the product. I also love the ‘water watch’ description, that feels novel to me and this gets me on side straight away.

The sizing

On paper the sizing of this watch looks like a sweet spot for me and my 7.25 inch wrist. 11.4mm high, 41.5mm diameter and a relatively short 46.15mm lug to lug works well. It just seems to sit right and the sides of the case are cleverly cut to reduce the height visually while the underside of the watch remains well hidden.

Strangely, my wife can wear this watch and it does not look silly. She is tiny and her wrists are very slim, but it still works and this is likely down to the lug to lug measurement. It’s like an old British Mini which could be driven by short and tall people with equal comfort, whether by luck or design this does make the watch more flexible and potentially appealing to more people.

I don’t know how heavy the watch is, the product page does not say, but after some scientific analysis on my part I would describe it as ‘light’.

Intermission

As I was writing this I noticed that there is a lifetime warranty included (aside from the battery of course). That’s ridiculous in a world where Christopher Ward is lauded for offering 5 years and the most you get from many brands is 2 years. For context, Rolex and Omega offer 5 years and they cost somewhat more than the Oggin, like 75 times more.

The movement

I have a strange affection for the Seiko VH31 movement because it fools my brain into thinking that any watch using it is not a quartz offering. The 4 ticks per second bring a sense of the mechanical to it and I would go as far as to say that the resultant stutter is an added bonus because this makes it feel even more vintage.

Accuracy is crazy in this movement (see my timings to date below). This has been replicated on other VH31 powered watches I own and my faith is high when I see this listed in the spec sheet. None of this should be the case because this is not an expensive movement at all, but boy does it seem to work consistently no matter what watch it is in.

Note: the app I use to measure accuracy, Watch Spring, requires manual tapping on the screen at a certain point so it is likely that the watch is even more accurate than the above numbers show.

I should also note that the hands stay still when I am changing the time which is absolutely crucial. What I mean by that is that when I have set the time and I push the crown back in, the hands do not jump at all. You may have experienced this phenomenon in cheap watches that you have owned in the past and it is very frustrating because accurate time setting becomes a lottery. And when you are using a movement as accurate as this, stability in the process is needed to make that accuracy worthwhile.

The build quality

You may think that 200 metres of water resistance is expected in a ‘water watch’ and I would agree, but I don’t tend to think of water resistance in those terms. I think of it as needed for when I am on land and that makes sense because I have never dived in my life.

Millions of people buy dive watches, thousands of people dive. They are in reality desk divers or at most daily watches that owners like because of the way they look on their wrists.

I see a decent water resistance rating as indicative of how well a watch will manage dust, weather extremes and so much else that the environment throws at us. 200 metres is really very good and if you tried to dive that deep on your own, at least the watch would survive to be placed in your coffin. The screw down crown really does help to offer this rating, but there is more to it with tight gaskets, excellent machining and so much more needed to create such a cocoon for the movement to live within.

Again, for the price this is a hugely impressive specification which should offer lots of confidence to the wearer. The materials used throughout feel considered and the finishing is of a decent standard. I haven’t got out a zoom lens to check for Japanese craftsmanship, but I would not expect to see that, and my eyes are not good enough to see it anyway.

This is part of removing the bullshit I guess. Do you really need to spend £1,000’s extra because a watch has absolutely perfect finishing that you cannot see? It is an area that has never bothered me- I want a watch that is very well made, is accurate and which looks and feels good to me. This is why I wear an Omega rather than a Rolex. They are both very well made, but I genuinely do not like any of the current Rolex line up in terms of how they look and I remain convinced that if the ‘Rolex’ logo was not on them they would not sell well at all. And of course there is the hype and deliberate strangulation of production that makes so many flock to the authorised dealers to be in the game.

A double domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating is another surprise. The coating is decent, but when it is domed it is hard to avoid all reflections.

The caseback is sweet and the MIL SPEC imagery is a nice touch. I rarely get excited by casebacks, but it does the job (200 metres remember) and should be easy to remove when you need to change the battery which would be expected to be every 2 to 3 years. Tip: buy a tool for a few pounds and change the battery yourself- never go to a jeweller.

The click!

When I am testing a new dive watch, sorry water watch, the bezel feel is super important. It may not actually matter much in terms of usability, but it does affect how well made a watch feels.

The bezel click on this watch is superb(!) and it lines up perfectly with the markers. There is no play either when it is not being turned which is about all you can ask for from any bezelled watch. It feels more precise than my Omega and better than other +£1,000 dive watches I have used in the past.

There is one perceptible part that is noticeable and that is the lightness of the bezel itself. It is quoted as being a 316L stainless steel bezel with an aluminium inner ring, but boy does it feel light. I genuinely don’t know if this is a downside or not. I’m confused by the sensation. Update: the bezel can move when caught by a sleeve- I have noticed this three times so far which is unusual.

The design

The build quality and design of the Oggin are way better than expected at its price point, and the sandblasting helps enforce a more consistent sense of design throughout. The utter lack of shine is a huge benefit in this watch because it is a tool and it sure does look like one.

Of particular note is the case shape which is not symmetrical. Look closely and you will see that the right-hand side bulges out a little to avoid the need for crown guards. I didn’t notice this on the first day so the effect is subtle indeed. It’s actually seriously impressive how well the crown screws in to form part of the case shape and to be completely protected while the lack of symmetry adds some extra character to the footprint.

The dial is busy, there is no way to not see that. Minute markers surrounding hour markers surrounding 24 hour markers is a lot in a fairly compact space. It fills the space well though and makes the lack of branding on the dial acceptable. I usually hate sterile dials that lack a logo or brand name, but you could not fit a logo in here without causing a traffic jam of information. Do we need the 24 hour markers?

The busyness of the dial actually causes one downside I have found in this watch and that is the lume.

Take a look at the image above. The two colour lume is amazing to look at, but I have found that it rather dominates the lume on the hands. There is so much going on that the outer markers, gorgeous plum colour by the way, take away the ability to easily focus on the hands. Maybe it’s just my eyes, but I have found it hard to see the time clearly in total darkness.

There is one final thing about the design that grabbed me after a couple of days and I finally realised why I like the look of this watch so much.

It kind of looks like the love child of the Omega Baby Ploprof (left) and the Omega Pre-Bond quartz (right). I adore the design of both these watches and didn’t expect to feel a similarity from a £129 watch. The Oggin is not a homage, it is its own design, but the care and attention to the detail throughout is exceptional.

Anything missing?

There is nothing missing from this watch. A date window would be problematic due to the space constraints, but I would like the lume on the hands to be stronger than everywhere else. One thing I would like to see would be a compatible metal bracelet, also sandblasted, that fits the case perfectly. This may be difficult to pull off because of the way the lug spacing is cut out, it is cut very close to the bezel, but if it could be done the aesthetics of this watch would be even sweeter than they are already. Sandblasted bracelets seem to be non-existent currently, but a titanium finished bracelet gives a sense of what it could look like-

Conclusion

I feel that I have written too many words to describe the experience of what is ultimately a budget dive watch, and I feel uneasy using the term ‘budget’ because it only applies to the cost. The watch feels like a complete product and it looks great on the wrist, and I am sure that it will last for an extended period of daily wear in all sorts of conditions (lifetime guarantee!). I may sound overly enthusiastic about it compared to other watches I have reviewed in my time, but there is a very good reason for this.

The watch world is dominated by expensive watches from massive brands who have to charge a lot of money because of the huge marketing budgets they need to survive and the networks of retail establishments they sell through, the retail commissions are big. Every now and again a watch comes along that shows how much a really good watch can cost when all of the bullshit is removed. The Oggin is one of those rarities and so was the Daily Beater before it.

I’m starting to become a fan of these offerings from the NOTO store and look forward to what is coming next. More details about the Oggin are here.

Full disclosure

I was given this watch at no cost by NOTO. There was no reason for me to review it or any request to write something, but I went ahead anyway. I always, to the best of my knowledge, write my thoughts honestly and always have whether they are positive or negative.

On the lives of Bailey, Maggie and Violet (pictured below) this review is 100% made from my own thoughts. And I love those three dogs very much indeed so want them to live forever. If only they had a lifetime guarantee as well…

Categories: Watch Reviews, Watches