Scurfa watches

[gaopa]

If anyone is looking for a good inexpensive watch, I can recommend the Scurfa.

Scurfa watches are designed and manufactured by/for a professional diver in England. There are three models. Here is a link to the site.

www.scurfawatches.com

I have all three models and like them. Cheers, Bill P.

[Uncle]

I just bought this Scurfa second hand as a rough beater - It was nearly new and I have to say I am absolutely blown away by the value for money - retail for this is £124 =IF you can find one. You get 300mts, surgical stainless, Ronda Quartz, Sapphire,

It's got an interesting Rolex related background to it as well. Paul Scurfield, the founder and designer is a professional saturation diver in the North Sea with nigh on 30 years experience. The North Sea for those of you who are not familiar with it, is the centre of European maritime oil and gas production. It is a rough and inhospitable place at the best of times. Saturation divers on the 'rigs' have a reputation for being 'nails and huge respect for taking on a highly dangerous and challenging job.
Many Royal Navy divers go into saturation diving after they leave the service. Back in the day (until the early 1980s) the RN Diver Service issue watch was a Rolex Submariner (as most of us know). After this they issued a diver by CWC who had the contract until recently - you can still buy their version:


They now get the Citizen Eco Drive Professional Diver (retails at about £150-£200). The MOD now has all its contracts with Citizen and Pulsar - the Eco Drive means it is essentially a non service item. Bad luck on the divers though!

Anyway - around 10 years ago when we started to realise that ex Navy Issue Rolex Submariners were rather nice, the huge inflation in the value of this classic watch suddenly made using it for work too risky for the many ex Royal Navy divers who were now saturation diving - imagine the pain of seeing your prized Rolex sinking into the Abyss when you'd been counting on it to pay for your daughter's wedding? However, at the time the CWC was out of the acceptable price range for saturation divers looking for a tool and the plastic cheapo diving watches simply weren't up to much cop and certainly not in the North Sea. Now I am not a saturation diver and I don't know why but Paul decided that there was a gap in the market for a high quality professional diving watch for saturation divers which did not break the bank and wouldn't result in financial ruin if lost or smashed. Hence thew Scurfa was born.

Paul appears to have little interest in making a huge amount of cash from his watches - he has them made in small batches and it is very tricky to get hold of one unless you are fortunate enough to be on the site when Paul has a new batch in and before they sell out - which apparently they do within a matter of a few days.

I've got several divers including a Submariner, Black Bay, a Seamster and a number of 'micro' branded ones as well as a couple of panerai clones (yes I'm afraid I am mortal). However, I can honestly say that the quality of this watch for £124 is absolutely staggering and certainly considerably better than some of the brand names out there. Paul could quite easily charge considerably more for this watch than he does.

Scruff appears to be a part time venture Paul does in his spare time when he's not working as a commercial saturation diver. The photos and videos of the Scurfa Diver One being used in the North Sea give it instant and huge credibility and make us scuba chaps feel awfully inadequate !

check it out
http://scurfawatches.com/videos

As I am unlikely to ever be a saturation diver I felt a bit sheepish buying one of these even second hand - fortunately I found a chap who was also feeling inadequate about wearing one in the office and I was able to get him to part with it for considerably more than the retail value simply because I have never seen one for sale on Paul's site as they always disappear quickly and who can blame him for prioritising professional saturation divers over middle aged desk bound snorkelers like myself!!!

Anyway - made up I have one of these - it's a million times better in the flesh, has a 40mm case which is quite unobtrusive whilst being very clear to read. I will be using mine for dingy sailing and to wear in the boat building shed at home / doing the gardening etc and all the other jobs where a moment of inattention results in a watch being sent to Switzerland and a huge bill followed by an argument with the insurance company!!!

There are loads of 'divers' out there but very few who have such DNA or which have replaced the Submariner in the environment that watch was developed for.

[Hendrikus]

Reviving this thread! I have recently bought a Diver One from Scurfa. Absolutely incredible watch for the money (£220). The story behind the brand is very cool too - highly recommended if you want a true beater, or actually a watch to dive in (as who actually dives in their Submariner..?) ...

[www1990]

I snagged one of the bell diver one automatics that they put out.

Super nice value for the money. It's by far the cheapest dive watch i've ever seen with a legitimate ceramic bezel on it.

Cheers

[mgsooner]

I think I’m going to take the plunge on a Diver One when the MS20 model is released. Titanium this year apparently!

I’ve been looking for a bullet proof tool watch to wear this upcoming summer to take some of the “heat” off of my Sub and Scurfa looks to fit the bill perfectly. No fuss quartz, 100% brushed case, far better proportions than Seiko.