New watch brand John Isaac Geneve is serving up some more than decent timepieces that play Frankenstein with some of your favorite brands. They seem to particularly like playing house with Patek Philippe and Franck Muller, though JeanRichard makes an entrance pretty often. The brand’s debut collection features a range of pieces for both men and women. Their diver is called the Rough Sea and comes in three dial colors.
Each of the brand’s watch cases are elliptical in shape. They bring to mind the iconic Patek Philippe Ellipse watch. Though the Rough Sea case is more Patek Philippe Aquanaut in design with some JeanRichard Diverscope in the mix. You can see more of the Diverscope in John Isaac’s Grand Prix chronograph watches.
The mixture of design elements and famous watch styles is rather satisfying actually. Seeing those Franck Muller numerals (that actually originated before Franck Muller was around. I recall seeing them on early 20th century Patek Philippe watches) mixed with Patek elements and sport themes is neat and something I wouldn’t have considered myself. While those numerals are more present on John Isaac’s other pieces, you do get it for the 12 o’clock indicator on this watch.
In a steel case that is water resistant to 50 meters the Rough Sea is 35.5mm wide but taller than it is wide so it does not feel so small. Though this is a medium-sized watch. As you can see in the “lifestyle” shot that John Isaac provides, the watch is certainly not in the family of massive dive watches. Some of you will love this, others wont. With 50 meters of water resistance this is strictly a desk (or dinner) diver watch. You shouldn’t really be doing more than washing your hands or dishes with this on (more like Tame Sea). Actually, that is a bit of a shame as it would be nice to have this nice looking dive-style watch be more activity suited. Then again, most logical people would retort with the fact that something like 1-2% of people wearing dive watches even take them underwater.
Crystal is sapphire and there is another sapphire crystal on the caseback of the watch showing off the movement. In this case that is a Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic that is said to have some decoration. The term they use is “deluxe” which could mean anything. The textured dial is appealing and I like the integration of the internal rotating diver’s bezel. Sporty orange is used for the hour hand, while all the hands and hour numerals are applied with LumiNova lume (no SuperLumiNova?). Dial styles are black, blue and gray. While I like the black dial version best, it might be wise to get a blue or gray version as the black minute hand might blend in too much with the black dial causing legibility issues.
The lugless case design is attractive and I overall like the style of the watch. It works well and is polished in its look. John Isaac matches the Rough Sea with a buffalo leather strap with folding clasp. They also provide an additional rubber strap, which should go well with this look. Price for the John Isaac Rough Sea watch 1,990 Swiss Francs and you can get them online via their website.