To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.
1.3K requests
·
Free Returns in USA
Product Description
We teamed up with Glycine to put our own twist on one of the company’s best sellers, the Combat Sub. You won’t find this exclusive version anywhere else.
This is my second Glycine (first a Combat AM Pilot style watch GLO122 that I like a lot as a daily beater). Hence, I've now gone for this submariner Pepsi soda style to go along with my other divers. (I do dive and snorkel a lot when I can).
First impressions are its well made, nicely finished and if it's like my other Glycine more than accurate enough. For the outlay it is really good value and appears far better than offerings from Seiko, Orient, Citizen and other automatic alternatives in this price bracket. Only minor issue with mine was the bezel that was a little stiff to turn, however rock solid and no play, and I'm sure in the water it will turn perfectly. Aluminium insert on the bezel, which worries me slightly as they scratch easily, but typical in this price range.
Only time will tell (sic pun) how well it stands up to daily wear and tear, but it looks like it will perform fine. My serial number is almost the same as cstone's below - I must of ordered before him :) Nice that it is a limited edition watch and has the cyclops date feature. Overall I have no buyer's regret for waiting 6 months and receiving such a fine, affordable, quality watch.
Packaging terrible as most are, the bloody watch needs a bit of packing in the watch box to stop it flying about the cushion doesn't hold it there!!!
Luckily it survived.
Excellent watch I have three other subs. Only niggle is the lug ends aren't polished so using different straps you see an unfinished surface. My other subs this part is high polish. The crown operation feels different too so not sure if glycines altered the movement? Feels good anyway and +6sec
Bezel great if a tad stiffer than the others but quality feel. The Cyclops is superb perfect magnification.
Bracelet is good enough but does feel slightly cheap I've swapped to the glycine meshington.
BranoMine was also not wrapped around the cushion..thought it was just me but now seems rather stupid if it was intended.
I wish the minute hand could be thicker/bolder.
A good entry level Swiss diver with some shortcomings
Overall the Combat Sub and it's "Special Edition" variant here is a great choice for those looking to get a Swiss Made automatic diver in the ~$400 range. There are some gripes and complaints I have with my piece in particular that mean I cannot give it 5 stars in good conscience, but for simplicity I will utilize a bullet point list.
PROS
"Swiss Made" on the dial: There's not very many other Swiss made autos in this price range from brands with as much heritage as Glycine, obviously you can also get some good diver's in this range from the Japanese and Micro-Brands but if you are looking for a swiss watch in this price point you don't have many other options.
Movement: From my research the GL224 is a Glycine-modified ETA 2824/Selitta SW-200, I don't have a timegrapher but mine seems to be running fine somewhere around +5 seconds per day. Pretty happy with the performance of the movement and love the 28,800vph hi-beat sweep.
Bezel: The Bezel is only 60-click but is very solid with nearly no back-play, the watch is extremely thin so sometimes it is difficult to get a good grip on the bezel. I should also mention it was quite stiff out of the box but after a few rotations it started to break in nicely.
Case: I thought the 42 x 50mm size would be too big for my wrist but the lugs have a really nice curvature to them that means it hugs and follows the edges of the 6.75" wrist, whether on a strap or the bracelet. The case is also extremely thin for a diver which means this works well in an office environment (slips under the cuff of a dress shirt nicely) and can be worn on a NATO without adding too much unnecessary bulk. The signed screw-down crown works perfectly and I have no trouble getting it to grip the threads. One minor nit-pick is that when my crown is fully screwed down the Glycine logo is upside-down rather than upright.
Dial: Very nice black dial, it looks matte but does have some texture to it, the hands are nice and legible, I actually like how they didn't subdivide the hour hand to make a mercedes-hand as this would make it look more like a submariner homage rather than a unique design. The dial is easy to read through the flat sapphire crystal but I'm not sure if there is any anti-reflective coating.
NEUTRAL
Finishing: Nice brushing & polishing on the case, no fancy chamfer on the edges or anything like that but still good overall. There is some small dings in the brushing on the bracelet which is quite disappointing but it is only noticeable when light catches it at the right angle.
Lume: The lume on this watch is good, seems to be BWG9 and is initially a greenish-blue when charged and fades to be more blue as pictured. However I put this up against a Seiko "5KX" with Lumibrite and the Seiko beat it in initial luminescence and longevity and it cost just over half what this did so I think they could have added a few more layers of BWG9 to give it more longevity. I have attached an image of it alongside the Seiko for comparison.
CONS
Bracelet: Needs improvement, the links feel well made besides the dings in the brushing on one of the links, only 2 micro-adjust holes isn't very good when much cheaper watches are offering 4-6 micro-adjusts for a fraction of this price, the stamped clasp is perfectly serviceable but I am disappointed to not have a nice milled clasp on this, but I suppose they had to cut corners somewhere. I was able to fit the bracelet to my 6.75" wrist but having an extra micro-adjust or 2 could have resulted in a much more precise fit, not to mention it is very useful on hot days for a swelling wrist or vice-versa. There is also no diver's extension but this is more of a "desk-diver" so I can forgive it for that (if you want to take it diving, just take it off the bracelet!).
Cyclops magnifier: The Cyclops magnifier is a very polarizing feature, some people love it and others hate it. I think it is a fine feature if executed correctly but I'm not sure how I feel about it in this case, when looking at the magnifier off the wrist it appears to be slightly misaligned but I think this may be on purpose to make it easier to read when glancing down at your wrist as it is a different angle than looking at it straight on. Personally I think they could have done without it and gone for a nice domed sapphire crystal rather than flat but that is just my opinion.
Drop: The watch arrived packaged poorly off the pillow but the box was at least well protected. I'm not sure what the policy is since this is a "Special Edition" and Drop may not be an AD but I expect a stamped and dated warranty card with this purchase which was not included. The Drop page says "Glycine's 2-year warranty" is included so I suppose you would simply need to contact Drop or Glycine with your proof of purchase for any issues.
Value: While I believe this watch is good value for the price, I think you can get a better price for the standard-model elsewhere and not have to wait several weeks for your order to ship. So if you are not interested in ordering on the the "Special Editions" I would recommend first checking elsewhere as I have seen them for roughly $50USD cheaper than what was listed on the last drop.
Overall I think this is a great watch and would purchase it again.
I like Glycine Combat Sub diver watches, I have a Bronze and another steel bracelet with the tactical style numeral dial - both great: so unless there was a real problem, this was always going to be a good review. This one is just about perfect, I wanted a cyclops - this one is fabulous, even better than the one fitted on my 2020 Seiko Alpinist. I wanted the 50/50 Pepsi Soda look - check. A black dial with large lumed
search
search
indices - check. I wasn't expecting a great bracelet based on other comments, but this one is really well made; okay so the links have push pins, no problem; at less than $1000 I didn't expect double sleeve linings etc. and the clasp is pretty good. Lets face it this is not a Rolex Sub Mariner, and at $275 it will never be. But notwithstanding the great price I paid, this watch as a whole is extremely well finished and looks awesome. It punches well above it's weight.
Nothing like the picture and feels like seiko. Disappointed. I know for the price point I shouldn’t be expecting much but nothing like the picture. Utter disappointed I waited 6 months for it.
I have both as well. I was thinking the bezel will be similar to the matt finishing of Tudor GMT, but it isn’t. As for the case, i thought it looks like the same matt finishing as the Sinn U1 on the picture. It is more like satin finishing. I guess I set my expectation high. Q-timex is a great watch btw.
I took out 3 links. Now I can see it on my average size wrist and it looks quite contemporary. Bigger than what I’m used to.
My only gripe would be that the sapphire isn’t curved but flat. In the illustration it is curved. A bit of a letdown. Also the bezel is a bit thinner than the illustration.
a couple of weeks later...
running well, maybe a bit fast at 10 sec per day.
Let’s see what it does in a year.
The strap is loosening up a bit but it is a bit too sharp. I wonder how it will age if it will soften up. I guess I could have the links edges dulled.
If you turn the Bezel to 3 o'clock or to 6 , ,9 etc, you can get a whole different look, try it.
Overall I’m overly struck by the fine quality of this watch.
PlattThe thinness is one of the top features of these combat subs not many similar watches are like this. Most sit tall and wear differently. Sets them apart from the rest 👍
An good watch, but lacks one of the good qualities of the original steel bracelet design.
This is a good watch, but lacks (i.e. is missing) one of the good qualities of the original steel bracelet design. I own several Glycine Combat Sub watches and some with the original steel bracelet. The original steel bracelet came with a milled (i.e. solid steel) clasp but the Drop + Glycine Combat Sum "Soda" came with a stamped (i.e. flat sheet of steel) clasp. This was disappointing since I thought that it would have been a milled (i.e. solid) clasp like the original steel bracelet instead of the cheap stamped (i.e. flat) clasp. I did not noticed this or was not clear from the rendering pictures that were posted on the Drop website. I know that sometimes you have to cut cost somehow but It would have been true to the original steel bracelet design to keep the clasp as milled instead of stamped.
Waiting,waiting. Explanatory emails- coming soon, more emails telling me its coming.
I decided to wait and see. BOOM, its here- ordered Nov 2019- delivered 2020, yep you guessed it, November.
I knew it was "special" order from Drop- I was prepared to wait.
My 1st Glycine & not disappointed. Size for me at 42 is good ,watch wears light and comfy. I can see this being worn often. No complaints from me regarding this piece , it all seems good- let's wait & see !
Pins a bit sticky when resizing, need patience and a big hammer, haha !!!!!