"This Unique Looking Dive Watch Will Surprise You......"

Hello and welcome to Just One More Watch. Welcome today to my review of the Drakken Tugela. Drakken are a New Zealand based brand started by a South African, so their watches are a real fusion of a couple of very different cultures. I looked at their Airaki Field Watch earlier this year, today it's to turn up their core model, their Tool Diver. They've been making the Tugela for a number of years and with each different incarnation they have refined the design even further. I've got one of their brand new Double Drab colour variants in for review. Now you saw the pop up? This video is sponsored by Drakken. I will of course therefore leave links in the description of the video to this watch's listing on their website. You'll also find a 15% discount code that only applies to the Tugela. It's not an affiliate code, it's just a discount code. So if you fancy one of these, that brings the price down underneath $400. Now I've got to warn you, if you haven't seen an unboxing of a Drakken before, you're in for a bit of a surprise. Let's flip the camera and get on with it. All right, are you ready for a surprise? Don't worry, it's a good surprise. This made me grin from ear to ear the first time I saw it, and even though I knew it was coming this time, I still got a kick out of it. Drakken are from the Drakkensberg range of mountains that extend the length of South Africa, where as discussed, the owner Michael is from. Drakkensberg in turn meaning Mountain of Dragons, so the Drakken logo is entirely appropriate then. The outer box looks like it's made from recycled cardboard, as does the comprehensive and rather attractive little instruction manual with care, service and warranty information. It's a two-year warranty by the way. Now they have also included a high-quality link removal tool. There's a clue then, the bracelet is held together by pushpins. And there's this intriguing little pouch with a velcro sticker of the model on the front, a couple of pop tabs on the back so you can attach it to your backpack etc if you want to. And when you rip open the velcro, you're met by an intriguing little bamboo handle with the word pull on it. And when you do indeed pull it, out pops the watch and a bonus nylon strap. I have now seen watches presented a hundred different ways. This is definitely one of the most charming. It has contour lines burned into the bamboo as well as the company logo. Drakken's pitch is that these are outdoorsy, all situations watches so again that's very in keeping with the company image. This is the double drab meaning military green dial and military green bezel insert. That bonus single pass nylon is the perfect colour really to match the watch. I think it looks great. Let's kick off with some dimensions then. Rugged outdoorsy watches need some rugged outdoorsy proportions and the Tugela certainly has those. 41.5mm across the bezel, bezel being the widest point it does actually taper down towards the case back. Bang on 14mm thick but with a lug to lug of only 47.6mm to keep things nice and wearable. 22mm between the lug, there is a bit of a taper on the bracelet down to 20mm and then back up to 22mm plus at the clasp. Sized up for my 7 inch wrist it comes in at a suitably beefy 185 grams. We're not quite in Helm Kuraburi territory but we're not far off. Crystal is domed sapphire with AR undercoating, 300 metres of water resistance so a bonus 100 over the normal and the movement is our old favourite, the Seiko NH35. The aforementioned Seiko is hidden behind a very interesting case back, again bead blasted to match the rest of the watch. There are of course a number of specs here including sapphire crystal and the water resistance rating but what I'm most interested in is the picture in the centre. Apparently this is the Tugela river flowing past those Drakensberg mountains. I guess you had to be there. But hey, at least they did something with the case back. The NH35 by the way as I'm sure you all know is a solid choice in a watch at this price. It hanks, it hand winds, it has 24 jewels and a roughly 40 hour power reserve. Case finish, well the case, the bezel, the crown and indeed the bracelet today are all bead blasted 316L stainless steel. It looks coated and it has a similar touch to a coating but it's not, it's bead blasted. The brand name is etched into the side opposite the crown. The case itself is a really interesting mix of angles and curves. Now viewed from the side the main circular case structure flares up and out from the bottom to that upper edge of the bezel. The lugs and the crown guards are angular, they're very much not part of that circular case. They quite deliberately look stuck on. You'll see it again when I swing around to the crown side. The bezel itself flares out and it has that coin edge upper edge for plenty of grip. Female end links, always good to see on a bracelet, they always help out with comfort and fit. And you see what I mean about those crown guards, quite deliberately stuck onto that curved case rather than integrated into it. The crown is a super grippy knurled 7mm number by the way with the dragon dragon printed on the end but printed in lume. I'll show you that later. The bracelet, is it a chunky oyster? I'd be tempted to describe this one as a three link engineer. It probably has more in common with an engineer than an oyster because of the shape of the links, the profile of each of them. End links are female and solid of course, there's enough articulation to keep the whole thing comfortable but not so much that it feels loose or sloppy. Now they are going to change the finish on the clasp so that it matches the look of the rest of the watch I got an early sample sent to me. Six holes are micro adjust though so you are bound to get a good fit. It's a milled scissor, double security pushers and a fold over with the dragon brand name etched into it just like on the side of the case. This clasp looks a bit odd because of the colour but like I said if you pick up one of these for yourself, the clasp will match the rest of the watch. I'll show you the bezel action, standard dive watch fare, 120 click unidirectional. The action is pretty solid, there's no bounce and everything lines up nicely. They don't actually specify on their website but I presume this is a ceramic insert. It does have a nice matte finish to it and it is also fully lumed. Let's have a look at the dial on hands then before I get it on wrist. Here you see a little more of Michael's South African heritage coming to the fore. Those interesting and rather aggressive looking indices are modelled after shapes and images from South African art and he certainly didn't copy them from Rolex did he? Everything's just printed on by the way as I'm sure you can tell. There's an inverted axe-like shape at 12, what look almost like shields or paddles at the 3 and 9 and then triangles everywhere else pointing to the pinion. The date's down at 6 with a printed porthole in a second colour, that being red, that's also found surrounding the minute hand and on the tip of the second hand as well as reminding you what the model name is. It is double branded above the pinion with the dragon symbol and brand name and just the model name and the ubiquitous automatic beneath it. The hands are as aggressive as the indices, swords of course, with a snowflake style second hand and the surrounds to those hands, when they aren't painted red, are painted to look like they're bead blasted to match the case. A very nice touch there. As is the properly colour matched date wheel, it's the same green as the dial. We already looked at the bezel insert, graded to 15, arabics at the 10s and prominent triangle at the top. Overall, it doesn't look like anything else on the market and that is not something you can always say of micro brand dive watches, is it? I promised you lume, here is lume and plenty of lume. X1 grade C3 Super Luminova, that is their best of the best grade of C3, liberally applied to the hands, the indices and all of that bezel insert. When I turn the speed up, you can see it doesn't really fade all that much, at least it is all still perfectly legible by the end of my test and the lume crown with the dragon symbol is just another one of many nice touches. On wrist, it's definitely a larger size watch, you know 41 and a half isn't huge but they've gone with the larger lug width and at 185 grams, you definitely know it's there. Of course, you can remove a chunk of that weight by switching to the supplied single pass nylon. Single pass is a good call here because it only adds a mil rather than two to a watch that was already fairly thick. I'm sure you've already noticed a bit of flecto from that domed sapphire, I guess that's because it's quite thick because of that extra water resistance. You can also see what looks like blue-purple AR rather than clear AR, it's ever present but it's not too distracting. And that's the pocket shot to finish. I would tend to wear a watch this size and weight, high and tight above the knuckle just as I have it here. I prefer it not to rattle around too much but that's just me, there's plenty of holes to micro adjust regardless of how you want to wear it and I know the watch is drab but my shorts today are anything but. Alright, moans and niggles. Look, nothing major today, no deal breakers, but I'm of course going to moan about a few things as I always do. Case engraving. This has long been a feature of the watch. Some people love these, some people don't love these. I'm sure you'll let me know in the comments section your personal preference. At least it's nicely done. The crown is super grippy, almost too grippy if that is possible. If you've got winter gloves or diving gloves or something like that on, you'll be delighted of that crown. But if you've got sensitive fingies, it might be a little bit too harsh for you. And I am reluctant to complain about freebies. I don't think anyone is buying this one because it comes with that nylon band included in the package. It should definitely be considered as a bonus therefore. But it's a bonus that might end up looking a bit tired a bit quickly. This one is showing signs of wear just from being attached to the piece of bamboo in transit. That doesn't generally bode well long term. One final nitpick is the clasp. Not the finish. I already talked about that. Perhaps for the next version of the Tugella, they could change it to an on-the-fly adjustable clasp. They're becoming more and more common at or around this price point. And I think a big heavy watch like this will really benefit from one to make sure that you always got the fit that you wanted. But like I said, that's it. Nothing major. As I suggested in the intro, this is not the first Tugella. They've gone through a number of different versions of this one already, refining the design as they went. Overall, I think that for under a hundred shipped, it's a great watch if you want this style of chunky, in-your-face, aggressively styled micro diver in the Zelos and to an extent the Helm tradition that doesn't look like anything else in yours or anyone else's collections. So there you have it. If you like the looks of this one and the size and the weight of this one, you are unlikely to be disappointed by the Draken Tugella. You can tell this one's gone through a couple of refinements already with Michael adding more and more nice touches with every iteration, including this time, that fantastic packaging. Thanks for making it all the way to the back end of the video. While you're here, you should definitely check out my review of the Araki. Or if you're after a big chunky diver and don't mind a three-year weight, have a look at the Helm Kuraburi. I'll see you again in the next one.