Spinnaker Croft 42 Skeleton Review

Spinnaker is a relatively new brand that first came on my radar with their 2023 collaboration with seconde/seconde/ on the wonderful Fifty Phantoms that was a playful homage to Blancpain's original Fifty Fathoms dive watch from the 1950s. After the initial excitement from the Fifty Phantoms wore off I took some time to look over the other offerings from Spinnaker and was very impressed with their collections.

At its core Spinnaker is only about dive watches and it is very refreshing to see a brand solely focus on one type of watch instead of trying to be everything to everyone. It took me over 20 years of being a watch collector to really appreciate the Fifty Fathoms and I even picked up a 500 Fathoms last year. During this growth of appreciation for the Fifty Fathoms, I have also really started to like the design language of classic dive watches. Since many collections from Spinnaker use the vintage dive aesthetic, I'm naturally a big fan of their designs.



Spinnaker doesn't have a detailed origin story and is part of Darthmouth Brands which was founded in 2013 and runs a few other microbrands including aviation themed AVI-8. Spinnaker is a true standout from Darthmouth and is the group's brand to focus purely on nautical watches. While you don't get the history of a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Rolex Submariner or Doxa SUB, you do get an amazing dive watch at a fraction of the price.

I myself am guilty of owning four and five figure dive watches that I would be nervous to take into the water. Be it for the price of the watch or fear a seal or two might be bad leading to a damaged watch. When dive watches were first introduced by Blancpain and Rolex in the mid 1950s they were intended to be tools and not luxury objects. Adjusted for today's inflation the original Fifty Fathoms would have cost just over $1,000 and the Submariner would have been just over $1,500. Those are much different prices than the $15,000 and $10,000 they go for today respectively.



Looking through Spinnaker's twelve collections of dive watches you see watches ranging in price from $300 to $900 with even the least expensive watch having a water resistance of 150 meters and running on an automatic movement. These watches are much more in line with what a dive watch was meant to be which is an instrument that is affordable, reliable and something you don't need to worry about damaging while diving. At $26,500 the thought of scratching or losing my Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms while diving would probably take much of my attention away from the dive which could be extremely dangerous.

Initially I had some issues getting in contact with Spinnaker so that we could get some watches in to review but through Chris (The Dial Artist) and Romaric (seconde/seconde/) we were able to establish contact with the brand and they have been one of the nicest brands we've had the pleasure to work with.

Recently Spinnaker launched their Croft 42 dive watch with a full skeleton dial and also offered it with a forged carbon bezel. After covering the launch of the Croft 42 Skeleton we reached out to Spinnaker to see if they would be able to provide us with a review watch. Spinnaker said that they could fill that request and a few days later a Croft 42 Skeleton with the black forged carbon bezel arrived.



When the Croft 42 arrived the first thing I noticed was how solid the watch felt. While at 140 grams I wouldn't call the watch heavy, it really has a nice solid feel to it. I'm not a huge fan of bracelets, so putting the watch on an Artem sailcloth strap really made the watch more in my wheelhouse and also removed the weight from the stainless steel bracelet. The watch just feels nice and balanced on your wrist with a hard to describe appropriate amount of heft to the watch head.

The next thing I noticed about the Croft 42 was its stunning forged carbon bezel. I'm a huge fan of carbon fiber and forged carbon in watches and even just having this small piece of the Croft 42 Skeleton being crafted out of forged carbon is a huge plus to me. The bezel is very subtle and most people probably wouldn't even notice that the bezel was forged carbon. The forged carbon is also inlayed with a nice amount of Super-Luminova that lights up all the minute markers. I must also add that the 60 click uni-directional bezel might be one of the tightest bezel I have ever used. It requires a good deal of force to rotate and does so with a great sounding click and absolutely zero back play, which is something I can't say about my 500 Fathoms back play happy bezel.



Finally the last thing that grabbed my attention during my initial time with the Croft 42 Skeleton was the full skeleton dial. For the Croft 42 Spinnaker picked to use the NH70 from Seiko which is skeletonized from the factory. The NH70 is a nickel plated skeleton movement that is based off of the non-skeleton NH3 movement. Since the movement isn't a ground up skeleton movement only so much of the movement could be removed. What remains is a nice balance between legibility and full skeletonization. The skeleton dial is subtle but it's definitely there and adds some very nice depth to the dial.

Now that we've gone over my initial thoughts on the Croft 42 Skeleton, let's take a look at the technical specifications of the watch. The watch is crafted out of 316L stainless steel and has a case diameter of 42 mm and a lug to lug length of 49.1 mm. The Croft 42 when on the stainless steel bracelet sized for a 7.25 inch wrist weighs 140 grams and at its thickest point is 14.2 mm thick.



The Croft 42 Skeleton has a slightly domed sapphire crystal with applied anti-reflective coating. Under the crystal clear sapphire is another crystal covering the top of the skeleton movement. This crystal has Spinnaker printed on it at 12 o'clock and "Automatic 500FT / 150M" printed at 6 o'clock. Spinnaker also prints an additional minute scale here as well. While I understand the need of having this secondary crystal here to print all of this information on, it would have been interesting to see the additional depth to the movement with it not being present.

Around the outside of the dial you have a white minute track with applied stick and round hour markers. The Croft 42 Automatic also uses partially skeleton hour and minute hands. The hour, minute, tip of the seconds hand and hour markers are all covered with a good amount of lume that glows green in low light.



The dial side of the movement is rather obscured when compared to something like a Diver X Skeleton from Ulysse Nardin but still shows a nice amount of the movement. The balance is probably the most exposed area of the movement which is nice given that is has the most movement. Some of the gear train is also viewable and depending on the position of the winding rotor there are various parts of the dial where you can see straight through the movement.

Moving on is the forged carbon uni-directional bezel. Spinnaker offers the Croft 42 Skeleton with choice of forged carbon, stainless steel or ceramic bezels. In my opinion the forged carbon bezel is by far the most interesting of the three choices. The forged carbon has the more common marbled pattern to it. When used in such a small area as a bezel the forged carbon is rather subtle which is a nice touch. If you look closer at the bezel you can definitely notice the forged carbon though.



Spinnaker also puts a good amount of Super Luminova on the bezel for the minute markers and Arabic minute numerals. There is a red triangle with lumed dot at 0/60 as well. The lume on the bezel is extremely strong and glows a matching green to the lume found on the dial.

The bezel action on the Croft 42 Skeleton is one of the nicest I've played with in recent memory. The bezel takes 60 clicks to complete a full rotation and the bezel is very nice and stiff requiring a good amount of force to move. On rotation the bezel produces a very nice click and there is absolutely no back play. Typically there is some amount of back play to dive bezels but I couldn't detect any from the Croft 42. The bezel also features two rows of scalloping which gives the bezel a ton of grip and I'd imagine it would be easy to operate with dive gloves on.



Being a tool watch the Croft 42 Skeleton has an almost completely brushed finish to its case. The only polished areas are the chamfers and some of the crown. Looking at the profile of the watch you can see that the case and lugs slope down sharply to follow your wrist. This keeps the size of the Croft 42 in check and aids in the very wearable 49.1 mm lug to lug length.

Found on the right hand side of the watch is the large screw down crown featuring the Spinnaker logo on top of it. With the screw down crow the Croft 42 Skeleton aids in the 150 meters of water resistance. The crown has nice scalloping on it providing ample grip. Un-screwing the crown allows for manual winding in its resting position. There is no date on the Croft 42 Skeleton, so I was very happy to see there was no ghost date at position one, but instead pulling the crown out to position one stops the seconds hand a lets you set the time. Pushing the crown back in caused no jump in the minutes hand and allowed for precise time setting. Finally screwing the crown back in required no additional care to line up and screws in easily each time.



Flipping the watch over shows off the screw down display back showcasing the Seiko NH70 Japanese automatic movement. The NH70 beats away at 21,600 (3Hz) and has a power reserve of around 41 hours. Seiko rates the movement as having an accuracy for -20 / +40 seconds per day, but on our timegrapher we saw an accuracy of -1 to 0 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. That is just phenomenal accuracy and among the best results we've seen over the past year.

The Croft 42 Skeleton has a lug with of 20 mm and comes on a stainless steel bracelet. The bracelet has a good taper from 20 mm at the lugs down to 16 mm at the clasp. The clasp has a security flip lock as well as two buttons that need to be depressed to release the bracelet. There are no micro-adjustments but true to being a dive watch features a dive extension for wetsuits. There are a few additional holes on the clasp that can adjust sizing using a spring bar tool. The bracelet is brushed in finish and uses a push pin system for removing links. The construction of the bracelet is a traditional three piece design similar to what you see on Rolex's oyster bracelets. The bracelet feels rather solid and is more than comfortable on wrist.



If you read many of my reviews, you know that I am not a big fan of metal bracelets on watches. For the majority of the time I wore the Spinnaker Croft 42 Skeleton it was on a black sailcloth strap and deployant from Artem. The sailcloth strap really made the watch much more in line with how I like to wear a watch and also drastically reduced its weight. Sailcloth material is also great in saltwater and is similar to what Blancpain pairs with their Fifty Fathoms.

I've been looking for a dive watch to take on trips when I'm nervous traveling with my dive watches from IWC, Blancpain and Jaeger-LeCoultre and I feel the Croft 42 Skeleton would make a great choice for this scenario. The watch is just below my preferred lug to lug of 50 mm but wears nicely on my wrist. I haven't tried the watch on a rubber strap yet, but based on how much I liked it on the Artem sailcloth, I think it would be awesome on rubber. I wore the Croft 42 Skeleton on my daily errands as well as out to dinner and drinks and the watch was a treat on the wrist.



Even with the Skeleton dial the Croft 42 maintains a great level of legibility. The white applied indices and stark white lume on the hands makes telling the time super easy. My typical test is to see how hard it is to read the time at a glance while driving and the Croft 42 Skeleton performed very well. Also like I've said before, having a dive bezel is great for simple timing and I even prefer it to a chronograph when timing intervals less than 60 minutes. You just set the bezel to the current minute and can easily glance down and see the elapsed time.

I forced myself to wear the Spinnaker Croft 42 on a bracelet a few times since it would probably be how most people wear the watch. In that time I did feel the watch was a tad heavy, but then again the only watches I have on a bracelet are titanium and weigh much less. I didn't really get any wrist fatigue but I knew the watch was there. The bracelet never caught any of the hair on my wrist and kept the watch nice and centered. I was happy to switch back to a strap though.



The Croft 42 Skeleton actually received more attention that I thought while I wore it out. I typically don't get any comments about a watch unless it's something crazy like an Ulysse Nardin Freak, but the Croft 42 had a few people comment and ask about the watch. I think that the watch roughly resembling a Rolex sports model and also having a skeleton dial caught people's attention wondering what the watch was. Everyone I showed the watch to only had positive things to say about it and mostly like the forged carbon bezel and the skeleton dial. This is the type of watch you could have fun with and put on a loud color rubber strap and really get a ton of attention with.

The Spinnaker Croft 42 Skeleton with the black forged carbon bezel is an amazing value retailing for only $465. For less than what a strap for some of my dive watches cost you get a fully skeleton movement with crazy accuracy, 150 meters of water resistance and an amazing forged carbon bezel all wrapped up in a handsome overall package. The obtainable dive watch market is rather crowded, so let's take a look at some competitors and see how the Croft 42 Skeleton holds up.



First up we have the Baiting Hollow Skeleton from Islander watch in Long Island. The Baiting uses the same NH70 skeleton movement from Seiko as the Croft 42 Skeleton. It is also crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 42 mm. The Baiting offers an additional 50 meters of water resistance at 200 meters, but anything over 100 meters is overkill for anybody but the most serious of divers. The Baiting has a more traditional bezel than the forged carbon found on the Croft 42 which I prefer. The Baiting retails for just a tiny bit less than the Croft 42 Skeleton at $429.

Next up we have the Nodus Sector Deep which is also 42 mm and crafted out of stainless steel. The watch does not have a skeleton dial but instead has a jet black dial. The watch is powered by the Seiko NH35 with the same 41 hours of power reserve. The Sector Deep does up the water resistance quite a bit to an incredible 500 meters. The Sector Deep is a more pure purpose dive watch and retails for $599.



Moving on we have the Devil Diver from Bulova which measures in at 41 mm and is also crafted out of stainless steel. The Devil Diver is a legendary member of the Oceanographer family and features a stunning orange dial. The watch is rated for 200 meters of water resistance and is powered by a Miyota automatic movement with 42 hours of power reserve. The Devil Diver is a bit more than the Croft 42 Skeleton at $750.

Finally we have the Aquascaphe Classic from Baltic which is 39 mm and crafted out of stainless steel. The Aquascaphe Classic is more of a traditional looking dive watch and offers 200 meter of water resistance. The Aqauscaphe also runs on a Miyota movement and offers 42 hours of power reserve. The Baltic is a bit more expensive than the Croft 42 Skeleton at $600.



Looking at the above four watches the Spinnaker Croft 42 Skeleton fits in nicely price and feature wise. The Croft 42 Skeleton is almost the least expensive watch and in my opinion one of the better looking pieces. To me the forged carbon bezel pairs excellently with the skeleton movement and results in a great looking watch. All four watches also either use a Miyota or Seiko movement meaning the watches would mostly perform similarly. It basically comes down to personal preference in this segment of dive watches.

So in the end is the Spinnaker Croft 42 Skeleton for me? I'd say even if the watch was a good deal more expensive it would be for me. There are two minor personal gripes I have with the watch, which would be it is crafted out of titanium and is just under 50 mm in lug to lug width. I have an extremely strict set of guidelines I follow when it comes to personal watches and those are two of them. The use of forged carbon on the bezel gives the watch a pass for me wanting my personal watches to feature high tech materials. The 49.1 mm lug to lug is a bit small, but the watch seems to wear larger maybe due to it having decent thickness. The skeleton movement is fun to look at and the example we had in for review was super accurate. The bezel action is also one of the nicest I've experience in a long time. I'm not a fan of bracelets, but with a lug width of 20 mm the Croft 42 Skeleton can be paired with thousands of aftermarket straps. If this watch was crafted out of titanium it would be a grand slam for me.



Would I recommend the Spinnaker Croft 42 Skeleton to somebody looking for an affordable dive watch? I feel the Croft 42 Skeleton is unbeatable for the money and Spinnaker really delivers on what a dive watch should be. The Croft 42 Skeleton isn't super expensive, it's tough, dependable and just a tool dive watch. The skeleton movement / dial adds a bit of flash and reduces some of the legibility of a true dive watch but it would make an awesome desk dive. Spinnaker also offers traditional non-skeleton versions of the Croft if you need a more functional diver as well. In all if you like the look of the Croft 42 Skeleton there really isn't anything I can ding it for to stop me from giving it my full recommendation.

I'd really like to thank Spinnaker for sending us this Croft 42 Skeleton and it has served as a great in metal introduction to the brand. I left this review very impressed with the watch and brand as well. I really can't wait to see what Spinnaker comes out with next and hopefully we get some more of their pieces in to review soon.



For more information about the Croft 42 Skeleton please visit : Spinnaker

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: SP-5134-11

Retail Price: $465

Case Size: 42 mm

Lug to Lug: 49.1 mm

Thickness: 14.2 mm

Weight: 140 Grams (Sized for 7.25 Inch Wrist)

Case Material: 316L Stainless Steel

Bezel: Forged Carbon

Strap: Stainless Steel with Flip Lock Twin Button Clasp with Divers Extension

Movement: Seiko NH70 Japanese Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds

Power Reserve: 41 Hours

Water Resistance: 150 Meters