Ikepod revisits their first diver watch – the Seaslug, and introduces the next generation of their diver watches – introducing the Ikepod Seapod.
Commentary based on Press Release.
New: Ikepod Seapod
Retail prices for the Ikepod are:
- S001 Zale 1 450 CHF / 1 350 euros / 1 650 USD
- S002 Jacques 1 450 CHF / 1 350 euros / 1 650 USD
- S003 Francois 1 550 CHF / 1 450 euros / 1 750 USD
Date of availabilty 25 September 21.
The Seaslug was the first diver watch from Ikepod. This watch was launched in 1996 and had a quirky case which looked like a bowl, with the curved face as the case back, and the flat top surface as the dial. The watch had an interesting index design which reminds us of water drops. The rehaut was steeply sloped. And the dive markings were engraved on the unidirectional rotating bezel. The bezel itself is nearly flush with the crystal, and sits completely over the top of the case middle. The lume of the day was Tritium.
The new Seapod is a development over this quarter century old Seaslug design. The rebirth of the Ikepod was released with Emmanuel Gueit as the designer. The next model, the Megapod was designed by Alexandre Peraldi and this latest Seapod is degined by Fabrice Gonet.
Three models are released, all in 316L stainless steel cases with one in a black PVD steel case. The base steel model is available with orange accents or with blue accents.
The orange accented model is the S001, and is inspired by Zale Parry, a famous lady diver who co-invented the hyperbaric chamger.
And the blue version is the S002, inspired by famous French freediver – Jacques Mayol, who was featured in the French movie – Big blue.
The black PVD version is known as the S003, and is inspired by Francois de Roubaix, a pioneer of French electronic music, who died during a dive in 1975.
All models have the unidirectional rotating bezel and is water resistant to 200m. The crown is screw down, and the diameter is a rather large 46mm, with a sapphire glass top crystal, and a see through back crystal in mineral glass.
In our view, the design is moderately inspired by the Seaslug. Gone is the bowl like structure of the case, but rather the case is more like a smooth pebble, rounded on both sides – with smooth, gradual curves. The bezel now gracefully curves away from the crystal instead of being flat and level to the crystal.
Otherwise, the dial design remains similar. The quirky indices remain, but now infilled with SuperLuminova instead of Tritium. The hour and minute hands are also infilled with lume. The bezel of the S001 and S002 feature only one lume dot on the bezel, while the S003 features lume on all the bezel markings. Interestingly, the lume is not on the seconds hand, and thus the Seapod does qualify for ISO certification as a diver watch. Ikepod tells us that they have done so because that the seconds hand are very similar in length, and they only chose to lume the minute hand so that it could never be mistaken for a minute hand during a dive.
The movement used is the Miyota 9039 movement with a power reserve of 42 hours. The strap is a silicone strap in orange, blue or black with ardillon buckle.
