What was your first watch? Not your first mechanical watch, not your first nice watch, but actually your first watch. If you’re around my age, I’d hazard a guess that it was probably something fun. Neon Shark watches, bright G-Shocks, and outdoorsy Timexes were the thing on my playground growing up, and it’s a recipe that still works just as well approaching (or beyond) 30 as it did approaching 10. All this is to say that colorful and waterproof is a recipe for success, and one brand that really gets this is Vero.
I don’t exactly remember the first time I crossed paths with a Vero, but I do remember the minty green dial standing out against the stark black bezel, and that I found myself pretty taken with their line of colorful dive watches from the get. It’s an interest I haven’t really shaken, and one only compounded by the latest iteration of their signature dive watch, the Open Water, now in a 38mm case.
The big headline here is a series of subtle refinements to the Open Water model, all of which add up to a stark evolution of Vero’s flagship diver. To look at the new Open Water 38 in isolation, one might be hard-pressed to call out many of these changes but put the old and new models next to each other, and the difference will be clear.
The most visually dramatic of these changes is the shift from a black DLC finish on the bezel to a boldly colored Cerakote treatment. A stark black bezel has been a key visual hallmark of the Vero Open Water, so moving away from that is a bold choice, but it seems to have paid off here, and the new Cerakote options lend the Open Water 38 a different feel, without sacrificing any of the brand’s identity.
Besides the bezels, the most obvious change to the Open Water 38 is the case size, which has been downsized from 41mm to a more modest 38mm. With the smaller media-blasted stainless steel case comes a proportionally reduced 46.5mm lug-to-lug, and an ever so lightly thinning of the case, with the Open Water 38 measuring 10.75mm thick as compared to its big brother’s 11mm case height. The Open Water 38 also sees a slight reduction in lug width, sporting an 18mm span.
The Open Water 38 also gets a redesigned and updated bracelet with all the fixings. Seriously, this bracelet has everything collectors love to ask for in a watch bracelet, including single-sided screws, quick-release spring bars, female end-links, a reasonable taper, and (thanks to Nodus’s NodeX system) on-the-fly quick adjust in the clasp. It’s a genuinely meaningful update and one that demonstrates how serious Vero has been about listening to the feedback of their customers.
Like its predecessor the Open Water 38 is powered by a Sellita SW-200 automatic movement which is regulated to +/- 5 seconds a day, and offers a 38-hour power reserve. Also like the Open Water 41, the Open Water 38 remains, despite its smaller case, water resistant to 200m.
The Open Water 38 is available, to begin with, in two versions, an off-white option called Cove, and a vibrant volt yellow called Swell. Each come with 12-hour bezels, and carry the Cerakote treatment found on their respective bezels over to the dials, ensuring a perfect color and texture match.
The Open Water 38 is available today from Vero for $795 and will be shipped in batches over the next month or so. Vero
