The new Yema Superman 500 has just arrived and it’s an impressive dive model. French company Yema has been making improvements to the Superman and this limited run of 200 numbered first edition watches is the result.

First of all, let’s hear it for 500m of depth resistance for USD$1190 – that is real value. Try getting a major Swiss brand dive watch with 500m for that price. The Oris Aquis with 500m retails at £3000 for example.

It’s an impressive dial you have to say, beautiful deep blue colour. The plain layout also appeals to us, with the Automatique and France text being minimal, a change from many busy lines of text, such as the Rolex Subs for example.

Then there’s the new bezel and crown stem upgrades;

“The bezel-lock, the Superman’s centerpiece which design was patented a long-time ago, and the crown tube have been redesigned to ensure a smoother operation and that the bezel-lock stays securely in place.

The bezel and the crown have also been redesigned. New micro drilling in strategic areas of the case right under the bezel allows for optimized rotation of the bezel click spring and a more precise alignment of the bezel insert.”

That might not sound like big news. But it comes down to the feel of the watch when in use, plus performance under water. That matters. As NWC noted in a recent You Tube video, some cheap Chinese dive homages have a clunky, stiff action when it comes to screwdown crowns. So yeah, you get what you pay for in terms of engineering smoothness. Accurate measurement of time under the waves is essential, which is why the bezel lock is so important.

The crown and its protective lugs really are impressive too, almost like sculpture. You can tell Yema have really thought about this element of the watch. Interesting that there is 3 bar of water resistance even with the crown unscrewed. That’s down to a new inner tube design, which is an unseen but vital part of any dive watch. If you take a watch apart you often see this thin tube with damage, sustained from cack-handed attempts at screwing it down when not alignned 100% true.

So top tip; always test if the crown has `engaged’ before trying to screw it down, just like threading a nut onto a bolt when assembling a motorcycle wheel or sprocket assembly.

This is one of the best value deep water dive watches on the market in our view.

More here.