the seven models worth your timerated from 100 to 550 metersIf you have ever typed "affordable dive watch" into a search bar, you have seen a Spinnaker. The brand has been making vintage-styled divers with sapphire crystals and Japanese automatics for over a decade, it names every model after someone from diving history, and it is always, without fail, on sale. That last part confuses a lot of people, so let me explain how the pricing works along with everything else.
Here is everything you need to know about Spinnaker, who is behind it and the six models worth your time.
Who Is Behind Spinnaker?
Spinnaker is not a two-person microbrand working out of an apartment. It is one of a stable of brands owned by Dartmouth Brands, a London-based group with its operations in Hong Kong that also owns AVI-8, Thomas Earnshaw, Nubeo and Duxot. Spinnaker launched in 2013 and is the group's dive watch label, named after the big sail that goes up when a boat runs with the wind.
That structure explains a lot about the brand. It explains how a company this size can run a catalog of several hundred references, drop new colors every few weeks, keep a two-year warranty and still sell most of its watches for a few hundred dollars. It also explains the sales, which I will get to.
The part I like is the naming. Every Spinnaker is named after a real figure from the history of diving. The Fleuss is Henry Fleuss, who built the first practical rebreather in 1878. The Bradner is Hugh Bradner, the physicist who invented the wetsuit. The Croft is Robert Croft, the US Navy instructor who set free diving records in the 1960s, and the Dumas is Frédéric Dumas, Jacques Cousteau's diving partner. It is a small thing, but it is more thought than most brands at this price put into anything.
Where Are Spinnaker Watches Made?
Spinnaker does not say where its watches are made, which at this price usually means Hong Kong or mainland China, and I would not hold that against a $300 watch. What it does say is what is inside. The automatics use Japanese movements, either the Seiko NH35 and its NH34 GMT sibling or a Miyota, with a Swiss Sellita in the bronze Tesei. The Hull chronographs are Japanese quartz. Every automatic gets a sapphire crystal, most with an anti-reflective coating, and the divers are rated from 150 to 550 meters depending on the model.
The bracelets have gotten noticeably better over the last few years, and the beads-of-rice style on the Fleuss is one of the nicer ones you will find under $500. The straps that come in the box are fine. The warranty is two years, which beats a lot of microbrands.
The Classic: Fleuss
Case Size: 40mm or 43mm, Thickness: 11mm (40mm) or 13mm (43mm), Lug-to-Lug: 47mm or 51mm, Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic, Water Resistance: 150m, Crystal: Sapphire with AR (40mm), Price: $305 USD to $500 USD list, usually $189 USD to $329 USD
The Fleuss is the Spinnaker, the one with the cream dial and the big Arabic numerals that looks like it came off a 1960s skin diver. For years it only came in 43mm, which on a 51mm lug-to-lug wears like a 43mm watch. The newer Fleuss 40 fixes that, with a 40mm case, 11mm of thickness and a 47mm lug-to-lug, and it is the one I would buy. Both have a sapphire crystal, 150 meters of water resistance and a screw-down crown, and the 40 comes on a beads-of-rice bracelet that punches well above the price.
There is also a Fleuss GMT at 43mm with a Seiko NH34 and a bidirectional bezel, if you want the look with a second time zone.
The Fleuss 43 lists at $305 USD and the Fleuss 40 at $500 USD, but with Spinnaker's permanent discounts you should expect to pay about $189 USD and $329 USD.
The Halloween One: Fleuss 50 Phantoms
Case Size: 40mm, Thickness: 12.15mm, Lug-to-Lug: 47mm, Movement: Miyota 9039 Automatic, Water Resistance: 100m, Crystal: Box Sapphire with AR, Bezel: White Ceramic, Price: $600 USD (2026 edition), limited to 1,500 Crazy and 850 Quiet pieces
Every October since 2023, Spinnaker has put out a Halloween watch with seconde/seconde/, the Paris studio of Romaric André, who built his name redesigning dials for Louis Erard and Nivada Grenchen. The joke is in the name. The first one was called the Fifty Phantoms, it borrowed the arrowhead marker from the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and put it at every cardinal hour, and it hid fifty lumed ghosts in a black dial. It was 43mm, cost $445 USD, was limited to 670 pieces, and it is the reason a lot of people who do not buy $300 watches know the name Spinnaker.
The sequels have kept the fifty ghosts and changed everything else. The 2024 edition moved to the Fleuss 40 case in magenta, 1,776 pieces at $445 USD. The 2025 edition went steel grey with a scalloped bezel and only 47 ghosts on the dial, the other three being hidden on the case and the rotor (they called it the 47+3 Phantoms). The 2026 edition, which went on sale in October at $600 USD, is the cleanest yet, with a white dial, a wavy white ceramic bezel meant to look like a bedsheet ghost, and a Miyota 9039 instead of the Seiko. The Crazy edition, 1,500 pieces, prints its ghosts in color. The Quiet edition, 850 pieces, hides them so they only show up under the UV torch that comes in the box.
Two things to know. These are the Spinnakers that actually sell at list price, and the first batch of each one has sold out fast enough that Spinnaker now opens a second made-to-order batch for a week afterward, which is its way of calming down Instagram. If you want one, buy it the week it comes out and do not wait for a discount that is not coming.
The Compressor: Bradner
Case Size: 42mm, Thickness: 14mm, Lug-to-Lug: 50mm, Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic (NH34 in the GMT), Water Resistance: 180m, Crystal: Sapphire with AR, Price: $370 USD list, usually $269 USD
The Bradner is a compressor-style diver, meaning the timing bezel sits inside the crystal and is turned by a second crown at two o'clock. It is the design that gives Spinnaker its most distinctive watch, with a textured dial, an internal bezel in a contrasting color and a case that is a little slab-sided in the way compressor cases always were. At 42mm and 14mm it is not small, but the 50mm lug-to-lug keeps it in check.
The Bradner GMT adds a Seiko NH34 and a 24-hour inner bezel, which makes it one of the few compressor-style GMT watches you can buy for under $300.
The Bradner lists at $370 USD and the Bradner GMT at $490 USD. The going prices are about $269 USD and $259 USD, which tells you how much the list prices mean.
The Small One: Croft
Case Size: 39mm (Croft 39) or 42mm (Croft 42 and Pioneer), Thickness: 13mm, Lug-to-Lug: 47mm, Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic (NH34 in the GMT), Water Resistance: 150m, Crystal: Sapphire with AR, Price: $270 USD to $445 USD list, usually $149 USD to $229 USD
The Croft is the entry point to the brand and the line with the most variations. The Croft 39 is the one to look at. It is a 39mm diver with a 47mm lug-to-lug, a sapphire crystal and 150 meters of water resistance, and the GMT version with the Seiko NH34 is about as cheap as a mechanical GMT gets with real specs. The Croft 42 is the same watch for bigger wrists, and the Croft Pioneer is the stripped-down 42mm version that is usually the least expensive automatic Spinnaker sells.
The Croft 39 GMT lists at $445 USD and the Croft Pioneer at $270 USD. Expect to pay about $229 USD and $149 USD.
The Serious Diver: Dumas
Case Size: 44mm, Thickness: 15mm, Lug-to-Lug: 48mm, Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic, Water Resistance: 300m, Crystal: Sapphire with AR, Price: $400 USD list, usually $239 USD
The Dumas is where Spinnaker stops doing vintage and starts doing tool watch. It has an octagonal case with a wide, flat bezel, 300 meters of water resistance and a screw-down crown, and the dials are usually sandblasted or heavily textured. It is 44mm, but with a 48mm lug-to-lug it wears shorter than most 42mm watches, which is the trick octagonal cases pull. If you want a Spinnaker that looks like it could take a beating, this is it, and there is a GMT version as well.
The Dumas lists at $400 USD and usually sells for about $239 USD.
The Thin One: Spence 300
Case Size: 40mm, Thickness: 11.5mm, Lug-to-Lug: 48mm, Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic, Water Resistance: 300m, Crystal: Sapphire, Price: $650 USD list, usually $339 USD
The Spence 300 is the one that got the most attention when it came out, and for good reason. A 40mm, 11.5mm thick diver with 300 meters of water resistance is a hard combination to find at any price, and Spinnaker did it for a few hundred dollars. It is the brand's cleanest design, with a plain dial, a ceramic-look bezel and none of the vintage affectation, which makes it the Spinnaker for someone who does not want their watch to look like a Spinnaker. For those of you who have been through our list of dive watches under $1,000 looking for something thin, this belongs on the shortlist.
The Spence 300 lists at $650 USD and usually sells for about $339 USD.
The Deep One: Piccard
Case Size: 45mm, Thickness: 21mm, Lug-to-Lug: 52mm, Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic, Water Resistance: 550m, Crystal: Domed Sapphire with AR, Price: $550 USD list, usually $299 USD
Named after Jacques Piccard, who rode the Trieste to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the Piccard is Spinnaker's deep diver. It is rated to 550 meters, it has a domed sapphire crystal thick enough to see from across the room, and it is 21mm tall. That is not a typo. It is a watch for people who want the most watch, and at 45mm and 52mm lug-to-lug you should read our guide on how to choose the right watch size before you order one.
The Piccard lists at $550 USD and usually sells for about $299 USD.
Are Spinnaker Watches Good?
Yes, at the price you will actually pay. A Seiko NH35, a sapphire crystal, 150 to 300 meters of water resistance and a two-year warranty for $200 USD to $350 USD is a good deal, and the designs are more interesting than most of what sits at that price on Amazon.
With that being said, there are a few things to know going in. The list prices are not real. Spinnaker runs a discount of 30 to 50 percent almost all the time, so a $500 USD Fleuss 40 is a $329 USD watch and you should judge it as one. Do not pay list, and do not feel like you got a steal because you did not. The sizes also run large. Most of the lineup is 42mm to 45mm, and the thick cases on the Bradner, Dumas and Piccard wear every bit of it, so the Fleuss 40, Croft 39 and Spence 300 are where I would start. And this is a volume brand. New colors arrive constantly, limited editions are not that limited, and the finishing is what you would expect for the money, which is to say fine, not special.
If you want a vintage-styled diver with real specs for the price of a nice dinner, Spinnaker does that as well as anyone. If you want something that feels like it was made by a person with a point of view, you are shopping in the wrong catalog, and that is fine too.
How Much Do Spinnaker Watches Cost?
Spinnaker watches list at $235 USD to $650 USD for the regular lineup, with the bronze and Swiss-movement Tesei models going higher. What you will pay is a different number. Here are the list prices and what the site was charging when I checked:
Hull quartz chronograph: $235 USD list, about $139 USD
Croft Pioneer: $270 USD list, about $149 USD
Fleuss 43: $305 USD list, about $189 USD
Croft 39 GMT: $445 USD list, about $229 USD
Dumas: $400 USD list, about $239 USD
Bradner: $370 USD list, about $269 USD
Bradner GMT: $490 USD list, about $259 USD
Piccard: $550 USD list, about $299 USD
Fleuss 40: $500 USD list, about $329 USD
Spence 300: $650 USD list, about $339 USD
Fleuss 40 50 Phantoms (2026 edition): $600 USD, sells at list
Where should you buy one? Spinnaker's own site is the easiest answer, since that is where the discounts live and it ships to the US. The brand also sells through Amazon and through retailers like Watch Gecko and a long list of department stores overseas. The thing to know is that prices move around constantly, so if the color you want is sitting at a good number, there is no reason to wait for it to drop further. It will also come back around.
All-in-all, Spinnaker is the brand I think of when someone wants a second or third watch for the beach, the boat or a trip where they would rather not worry about it. Buy it on sale, which is always, and enjoy it.the Phantoms are the one place in this catalog you will find it.
