Reply With QuoteNice review! The El Buzo is a great looking watch it's too bad it was only a limited offering.
Hi everyone,
Following on from my two previous posts about my collection (here and here), I would like to present my latest acquisition - a rather rare Crepas El Buzo.
I say "acquisition" deliberately, because this was always a bit of a grail for me and damn was it hard to find... As you may know, Crepas is a Spanish microbrand and the El Buzo (The Diver) was one of their first watches, the whole design decided upon through a groupthink process done by a bunch of diver watch enthusiasts on the big Spanish watch forum Relojes Especiales and made in a limited edition of just 333 watches. Often that kind of collective decision-making doesn't end well, but this a perfect example of how it can work and end up with something rather special.
These watches occasionally surface for sale in the U.S., at rather high prices compared to what they originally sold for, I don't think I've ever seen one for sale in the UK, and it seems the majority are still in the hands of Spanish owners, so I placed a WTB on the R.E. forum and waited. A couple came up for sale, some discussion using Google Translate (ugh!), but the owners preferred a sale within Spain - can't blame them. Eventually a very nice gentleman on the forum living in Luxembourg responded, and a long process ensued of him driving to Belgium, handing it over to a relative of mine, me waiting a month, then finding someone to hand-carry it to me here in Kenya. He was really a great guy to deal with, international transactions are always more difficult for both parties, but this one went very smoothly. Phew! It finally arrived...
The EL Buzo is a 500m chunky diver with GMT function (ETA 2893-2) and twin crown internal and external rotating bezels, enabling 3 timezones (the outer black is a normal external bezel, the inner white internal bezel is controlled via the top crown). Specifications are: Bezel Diameter 43mm, Case Diameter 44mm, Crystal Diameter 32.5mm, Thickness 16.5mm, Lugs 22mm. I read that they actually over-specced it as when they sent it for testing in Germany it withstood 800m without leakage or other issues.
I had decided I definitely needed no less than a 500mm diver because I occasionally get raindrops on my other watches and once splashed a few drops on one of them after taking it off for the shower. I figure it's better to play safe, right? No, I have no need at all for such an over-engineered beast of a watch, but I just always loved the twin-crown design...
Some people don't like microbrands like Crepas, but I was very impressed indeed with the quality of my Tactico TC2 (Tactico is a branch of Crepas) and the EL Buzo surpasses even that. The attention to detail on this thing is amazing as is the finishing quality, it's one of the best I have seen.
Things in particular that stand out are:
- 5.05mm very thick sapphire crystal
- Sapphire bezel
- The twin 6.5mm signed crowns with the propeller design on the main crown matching the caseback.
- The 3D shark/propeller engraving on the caseback is stunning
- The quality of printing on the dial and its design is very fine indeed, the plongeur hands are nicely done, and the "invisible" GMT hand (black hand with white tip) works very well.
- The brushed case is heavy, chunky, and just oozes quality in my opinion.
The whole package is rather impressive - the watch comes with a rubber strap with signed deployant, gorgeous steel mesh if you like that kind of thing (I don't), Orange & Black NATO strap, tools, and even a spare dial in orange and set of different hands - should you prefer that. I prefer the black dial, you can see the orange dial and hands here. At the time, there was also an optional package of orange rubber strap and steel bracelet I believe - mine didn't come with that and I'm not a bracelet person anyway so I was fine with that.
My plan was to wear it on a NATO strap but when it came down to it the watch is so chunky anyway that I felt the black rubber strap with deployant was the better fit. Of course this watch is just screaming out for an orange or maybe green Isofrane, I'm just not sure yet if I can pull that off....
Going back to that attention to detail, let's take a closer look at those twin crowns and caseback as they are really one of the nicest and unique features of this watch:
OK, so that ends my mini-review of this rather rare slab of engineering. As you can probably tell I am rather chuffed with this watch :-)
Have a good day everyone...
Last edited by occamsrazor; 19th June 2016 at 16:31.
Nice review! The El Buzo is a great looking watch it's too bad it was only a limited offering.
I really like he GMT hand which is almost invisible... great balance between functionality (for diving) and design...
Thats a very sexy watch!
The clasp appears to be etched,given the case back and the detail on the crowns it would have finished it off niceley it that had been raised.
Thanks, it does work well doesn't it? You get the GMT functionality but without cluttering up the dial. In most light you don't even see the black part of the GMT hand. That said I also like the orange GMT hand on my Speedbird III GMT. But I guess to use the two extra timezones that you get with the double bezels it's necessary to have the hand reaching the outside of the dial, and the solution they came up with works pretty well for that.Originally Posted by carvass
I have yet to handle one, but from the photos I see it seems that Crepas (and Tactico, their sub-brand) are definitely among the better made of the micro-brands.
And the LE El Buzo looks very nice. Spanish forums do well at their forum watches, I had the FdR Pleamar, which was also lovely.
Dave
i was going to say the same, i like the gmt hand: very unobtrusive and still functional and a useful complication. maybe more functional than some standard gmt hands which can seem out of place on a diving watch- not much chance of it affecting telling the time quickly/being confusing at all.
very nice caseback too
Yes I guess you are right on that point, although it doesn't bother me. The mesh clasp is slightly different - more engraved than etched, albeit fairly shallow. The mesh is really nice to be honest, the ends fit the lugs perfectly, but I just find metal straps/bracelets not my style.
I think I'm going to try it on a thick leather strap next. Or an Isofrane maybe.
Yes, the Spanish forums have produced a whole bunch of decent watches. Something "just works" over there, and the forums are so active. But I don't speak Spanish which renders taking part in a "project" a but too hard. The Pleamar was very cool, agreed, though from what I understand there were a bunch of glitches and long delays in the production process, although the final result was good. Crepas always seems to deliver though. Their new L'Ocean looks pretty cool and am sure it will be high quality, though just not my style, it's a bit of a love it or hate it design. The Type RE also looked not bad, though a bit too polished for my liking. The Tektite and Le Grande were other good results for Crepas, but too big for my wrist I suspect. For me, the El Buzo is about as large as I'd go. This is it on my 6.75" wrist - it's chunky but the relatively short 49mm lug-to-lug for its size makes it quite wearable.
Last edited by occamsrazor; 2nd April 2014 at 19:06.
What a Beauty! from the domed crystal,signed crowns to the art work on the back.
I will have to have a look at Crespas and tactico.
Thanks for sharing
Enjoy!
Look really nice on a Havana Toshi
Nice grab. Crepas does outstanding work and El Buzo is a prime example.
Very nice, a bit of a bruiser. Love the strap/deployment.
wow, bit of vintage/modern combo. Really nice one
sooo, they thought Doxa 750GMT case looks great and Ploprof 600 dial and hands too...lets ''invent something unique''
it is a great looking watch though
Some photos of the EL Buzo on a new leather strap made by Steveo Straps, in a new thread here...
Just looked again and the depth rating in Spanish only might have been better.
Excellent review!....I have a TC2 and looking for a Cayman (also scarce, although not as much as El Buzo), Crepas watches are really well designed and the fit/finish exudes quality.
A great write up of a close-to-perfect execution of a forum design project. It amazes me that you still have people here who will nitpick it to death.
That looks great. I'm surprised that the approach adopted for the GMT hand isn't more prevelant. If only it was 40mm, but 50mm is too big for me. However the design and execution is really appealing and the combination of diver and GMT works as well as Eddie's Voyager for me. Have I not read the thread throughly after an evening meal out, or is the movement not mentioned?
"The EL Buzo is a 500m chunky diver with GMT function (ETA 2893-2) and twin crown internal and external rotating bezels, enabling 3 timezones (the outer black is a normal external bezel, the inner white internal bezel is controlled via the top crown). Specifications are: Bezel Diameter 43mm, Case Diameter 44mm".
Fair enough. Far too good an evening with friends before posting. 44mm still on the large side for me however. Decent movement. It still looks good as a complete package and it's a shame it was such a limited edition.
Hi... just a heads-up to any potential El Buzo buyers... there was a scammer on the Watchuseek forum using my photos to offer this watch for sale (same serial) via private message to people who had posted a WTB for an El Buzo. The potential buyer reached out to me and I confirmed I still have mine and it isn't for sale. The scammer, who said he was from Colombia, has since been banned on WUS I'm told but I figure he may try elsewhere so just wanted to alert anyone looking to buy.
That's a great catch.
I'm really impressed with most of the Crepas designs that I've seen.
They appear to be really well built and one of the better of the many dive-watch micro-manufacturers.
Just a pity that they're so thin on the ground and difficult to source.
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