Spinnaker Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary Malachite Review

It is refreshing to see a brand focus solely on one style of watch as opposed to trying to create something for everyone's taste. Spinnaker is such a brand that only manufactures dive watches and really excels at what they do. We recently had the chance to review their Croft 42 Skeleton and left the review with a great respect for the watches Spinnaker creates.

Spinnaker is a relatively new brand when you look at the grand scale of horology where some brands are hundreds of years old. Instead of charging their customers for their heritage, Spinnaker rather is determined to deliver the best dive watch possible at an extremely reasonable price. The watch we are going to review today really drives home how much of a value Spinnaker watches are.



Spinnaker has a core collection of twelve series of watches with many that pay tribute to oceanic explorers and divers. Each series has their own distinct look while some pay homage to vintage divers of the fifties, others have much more contemporary designs. Today we're going to be taking a look at a model from Spinnaker's Hull collection which draws inspiration from vintage cushion shaped divers.

The watch in question is the Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary Limited Edition. There are three things about this particular watch that sets it apart from the standard Hull pieces from Spinnaker. First up is the case is crafted out of titanium as opposed to the stainless steel cases seen in the general Hull collection. This makes the 42 mm watch incredibly lightweight, especially when compared to a stainless steel version.

Next the Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary forgoes the standard stainless steel bezel found on the standard Hull models and replaces it with a bezel made out of bronze. The bronze hue is stunning and really provides a nice contrast to the matte grey of the titanium case. Not only is the bezel beautiful, but bronze is incredibly resistant to corrosion form seawater, which is perfect for a dive watch. Given time and exposure to the elements and even being touched the bronze bezel will also develop a unique patina over time.



Finally the last piece of the watch's namesake is Lapidary. If you are not familiar with the term, lapidary is the art of cutting, shaping and polishing natural stones. In the past stone has been used for watch dials but the barrier of entry was set to only the highest end timepieces. For this release Spinnaker picked four different stones to craft dials out of with those being Tiger Eye, Onyx, Turquoise and Malachite. Each stone gives the watch its own unique look, our favorite was the Hull Lapidary with the malachite dial. One of our young twin daughters is named Jade, so we have been a bit partial to malachite dials recently. Even though jade and malachite are vastly different stones, malachite does carry the general look of jade.

When the Hull Lapidary arrived the first thing I noticed about the watch was just how lightweight it was for being a larger watch. On our scale the watch weighed in at 98 grams with the rubber strap and stainless steel pin buckle. I'm used to lightweight watches since most of my personal watches are crafted out of titanium, ceramic or carbon, but most of my pieces are still well over 100 grams. I find anything under 100 grams pretty much feather light. Looking at the watch you expect it to be a hefty piece given its proportions, but that goes right out the window as soon as you pick the watch up.



Next the bronze bezel and screw down crown really grabbed my attention. Although I've been in the watch industry for 20 years and collecting for over 25 years I really haven't had much experience with bronze watches first hand. Of course I've seen a million of them online and maybe handled one or two briefly, but I had never spent much time really looking at them. When new, as in the case of the Hull Lapidary, the color almost resembles a much richer hue of rose gold. I would also assume most people looking at this watch in new condition would think it was gold as well. The color is honestly mesmerizing and even grabbed my attention before I got to really looking at the Malachite dial. It would also be very interesting to see how the bezel ages over time and develops its own unique character.

Finally the thing that really stopped me in my tracks was the green malachite dial. Of the four stones used for the Hull Lapidary the malachite variant sold out first followed by the tiger eye and turquoise. It's really no surprise to me that the malachite sold out first due to how dynamic the stone is. The malachite displays striations that go from a pale green all the way to a deep jade hue. Even more interesting is that every malachite dial will be unique to each watch due to the nature of cutting natural stone which is not uniform throughout. Even though the malachite version is sold out, I would imagine that Spinnaker will look at using this stone in future releases based on how popular this watch was.



Now that we've gone over my initial thoughts about the Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary, let's take some time to go over the technical specifications of the watch. The watch has a case diameter of 41.8 mm and a lug to lug length of 49.6 mm. As mentioned before, the Hull Lapidary weighs 98 grams when on its rubber strap with stainless steel pin buckle. At its thickest point the watch is 15.3 mm tall. These dimensions are near goldilocks dimensions for me as well. Those with much smaller wrists might find the watch a bit oversized, but honestly dive watches are meant to be large.

The Hull Lapidary has a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on it. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the green malachite stone dial. On the malachite dial Spinnaker uses 3D hour markers coated with "vintage" Newlite which is meant to mimic old radium lume. The appearance is yellow during the day and lights up brilliant green at night. There is a triangle marker at 12 o'clock and a partial bar maker at 3. 6 and 9 o'clock have a full bar hour marker while the other hours get round markers. There is also a bronze border around each hour marker which really makes them pop. A black backed date window is found at 3 o'clock and integrates nicely into the hour marker.



Spinnaker uses an oversized arrow hand for hours and a sword hand for minutes. The running center seconds hand has a round counterbalance as well. All the hands are the same bronze hue as the hour markers and are covered with the same "vintage" lume.

Finishing off the dial is the bronze Spinnaker branding at 12 o'clock. At 6 o'clock is the "Automatic 660 FT / 200M" text as well as "Limited Edition" text at the bottom of the dial. Finally there is a minutes track printed in off-yellow around the edge of the dial.



The craft of lapidary is extremely niche and as far as watches are concerned not seen often. The heyday of stone dials was the 1970s and 80s where high end brands like Piaget and Rolex would periodically release versions of their timepieces with these dials. After this period stone dials fell out of favor until over the last decade brands started using cut meteorite for their dials. This trend woke up the use of natural stone for dials and recently there has been a resurgence of brands using stone for their dials. It's still very rare to see brands using stone dials and Spinnaker is just one of a handful currently offering them in their watches.

To form the dial a Lapidarist will take a specialized saw, most often using a diamond tipped blade, and cut the stone into the rough desired shape. Next they will take various abrasive wheels and discs and start removing excess stone until they get close to the target size and shape needed for the dial. As they get closer to the shape needed they will use finer and finer grits to be more precise. Finally the Lapidarist will polish the stone with diamond paste or cerium oxide to get the final product that is highly reflective and lustrous. As you can imagine this is a very time and work intensive operation that only skilled workers can achieve. In modern times machines can aid Lapidarists in their craft, but a human eye is still needed to complete the task.



The look of the finished malachite dial is just stunning. The green stone varies in color from extremely light green all the way to a deep jade color and even black. The natural striations in the stone give the dial a very unique organic look to it as well. Looking at the press pictures of the Hull Lapidary Malachite you can easily see its dial is vastly different from the dial on our review piece. Like I said earlier, each dial is unique and the difference between these two watches really points that out. I've always been a huge fan of natural stone and in our last two houses I've really nerded out over picking unique and beautiful Onyx and Marble for our kitchens, bathrooms and fireplaces. I'm not sure what it is about natural stone, but it's just something that can't be replicated by manmade materials.

Moving on from the dial you have the bronze bezel which is actually antique bronze-plated stainless steel. The bronze gives the bezel a rich and timeless look, almost resembling a rich rose gold. As the watch ages and is exposed to the elements the bezel will also develop a unique patina to it. While the bezel is uni-directional and features a lumed top point there are no markings on the bezel. Typically dive watches have minute markers to keep track of dive times, but they aren't absolutely necessary.



If you look at one of the most famous dive watches of all time, the Ocean 2000 by Porsche Design and IWC, there are no markings on the bezel except for the lumed point. While this doesn't meet official dive watch standards, it was still used by the German navy for their elite divers and the watch even was rated to an astonishing 2,000 meters of water resistance. Not having markings is a departure from the norm but also keeps the bezel much cleaner looking. The bezel requires a decent amount of effort to turn and has very little back play. Also the sharply scalloped bezel provides ample grip and gives off a nice click when turned.

The case of the Spinnaker Hull Lapidary is completely satin in finish that makes it look like a serious tool watch given the grey hue of the titanium. Combining the look of the case with the stunning bronze bezel and malachite dial gives the watch a unique look I've never really seen before. The bronze and malachite give the watch a luxurious look to what would otherwise be a very targeted tool watch aesthetic.



Looking at the profile of the Hull Lapidary you can see the lugs curve down fairly aggressive making sure the watch will fit a wide range of wrist sizes even given its near 50 mm lug to lug length. The right hand side of the watch features oversized crown guards that nearly block the entirety of the bronze crown. The crown is nicely scalloped like the bezel and features Spinnaker's logo on its top.

Unscrewing the crown allows for manual winding of the automatic movement in the resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one lets you set the date and pulling the crown out to position two sets the time. Also when the crown is in position two the seconds hand is stopped allowing for precise time setting. Pushing the crown back in results in no jump of the minutes hand and screwing the crown back in doesn't require any extra care to line up the crown to get it to catch. The screw down crown also aids in the 200 meter water resistance of the Hull Lapidary.



Flipping the watch over shows off the screw down titanium display back. Through the crystal you can see the Seiko NH35 automatic movement topped by a black Spinnaker winding rotor complete with the Spinnaker logo. The movement isn't elaborately finished, but this is a dive watch so that would be slightly out of place. The NH35 is rated for 41 hours of power reserve and beats away at 21,600 bph (3Hz). Seiko quotes the accuracy of the NH35 as being -20 to +40 seconds per day, on our timegrapher the movement showed an accuracy of +4 seconds averaged out over several positions. That result is extremely impressive for even chronometer certified movements.

The Spinnaker Hull Lapidary has a lug width of 22 mm and comes with a green silicon strap. The strap is extremely flexible and required no break in to be very comfortable. The strap tapers down to 20 mm at the spinnaker branded stainless steel pin buckle which matches the hue of the titanium used on the case. The strap also has quick release spring bars to make swapping out straps a snap. The dark green of the strap really goes great with the other green hues found on the dial as well. If you did want to change the strap, 22 mm is a pretty standard strap width and you have thousands of aftermarket straps to pick from.



I along with most of the watch collecting world love dive watches, so it was no big ask for me to wear the Spinnaker Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary as my main watch for a week's worth of activities. First the Hull Lapidary is just a few millimeters smaller than my preferred lug to lug length of 50 mm, but in all honesty I really couldn't tell. The watch fit my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area just perfectly. The silicon strap kept the watch centered on my wrist and it never favored one side over the other.

For the most part the watch paired just fine with my typical dress of a black t-shirt (or hoodie) with shorts (or sweats) and sneakers. I was a bit worried about the green strap clashing, but with how dark the green used on the strap is, it never did. I can see the Hull Lapidary being an awesome summer watch when things warm up a bit as well. The watch would look crazy on a white rubber strap for sure.



Wearing the watch out to dinner and drinks along with running boring errands like going to FedEx and the grocery store was a pleasure with the Hull Lapidary. The watch's low weight of under 100 grams made sure I never had any wrist fatigue while the watch was on and for the most part I never really noticed it while wearing it. The watch also passed my legibility test of trying to tell the time at a glance while driving very well. The yellowish old lume markers and hands contrast well with the green malachite dial and make time telling a breeze. The oversized markers and hands also help nicely with this as well.

The Spinnaker Hull Lapidary is not a wallflower of a watch, if you wear it out it will get noticed. The stunning bronze bezel paired with the brilliant green malachite dial really draw peoples' eyes to it. Also a green strap isn't too commonly seen, so when you combine all three of those elements you have one standout of a watch. I had a few people comment and ask about the watch and also showed it to some friends of mine. Everyone only had nice things to say about the watch with the bronze bezel, malachite dial and lightweight case being the most commented on details. One thing that blew everyone away was the price of the watch.



If you would ask me to guess the price of a watch that was crafted out of titanium, had a bronze bezel and malachite stone dial my guesses would have been very far off from the price of the Spinnaker Hull Lapidary. If the watch was from one of the old guards of Swiss watchmaking I probably would have guessed $20,000 minimum. If the watch was from a newer brand I would have said around $5,000. Neither price is anywhere in the ballpark of what Spinnaker is asking for this watch. The Hull Lapidary retails for an extremely unexpected $425. You are getting an obscene amount of watch for that price, it's no wonder why three of the four colors have already sold out so soon after the release of the watch. Each color was limited to 200 pieces and they just flew. Now would be a good time to take a look at some other watches that offer similar features to the Hull Lapidary and see how the watch stacks up.

First up we have the Essence FortyThree from Formex which is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 43 mm. Like the Hull Lapidary the Essence also has a stunning green malachite dial. The Essence is more of a sports watch and has half the water resistance at 100 meters. The Essence does use the innovative Formex suspension case and is powered by the chronometer rated Sellita SW200-1 with 41 hours of power reserve. You don't get a titanium case or bronze bezel and the Formex is also a good deal more expensive than the Spinnaker at $1,750.



Next up is the Zodiac Compression Diver Black which is crafted out of black DLC stainless steel and has a case diameter of 40 mm. Like the Spinnaker and Formex watches, the Zodiac also features a green malachite dial. The Zodiac is powered by the Swiss Technology Production STP1-21 which I don't know much about but has a 40 hour power reserve and automatic winding. Like the Hull Lapidary the Zodiac is also a dedicated diver and has 200 meters of water resistance. On the black DLC stainless steel bracelet the Compression Diver Black is much more expensive than the Hull Lapidary at $2,295.

Moving on is the Mako 300M GMT Malachite Timekeepers Edition from Zelos. This watch has a 40 mm diameter and is crafted out of stainless steel. The watch is rated for 300 meters of water resistance and swaps out the dive bezel for a GMT bezel and features a GMT hand. The watch also has a green malachite dial and is powered by the Miyota 9075 automatic movement. The Zelos does lack the titanium case and bronze bezel and still costs more than the Spinnaker at $649.



Finally we have the Louis Erard Excellence Petite Seconde Malachite which is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 39 mm. The watch also features a green Malachite dial and runs on the Sellita SW261-1 automatic movement with 38 hours of power reserve. The Excellence is much more of a dress watch with only 50 meters of water resistance. The watch comes at a hefty price of $3,250 which is multiple times more expensive than the Hull Lapidary.

As you can see from the above four watches, the Spinnaker Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary really shows how much of a value it is. None of the above watches is less expensive and none really offer much more feature wise. The Formex does have a very interesting case design with their suspension case, but you are giving up titanium for stainless steel for three times the price. None of the watches offer an in-house or manufacture movement either and the Seiko NH35 showed some great accuracy in our tests. The Zelos did offer the addition of the GMT function, but once again it isn't done in titanium or have a bronze bezel. There really isn't much extra offered from these pricier watches that would convince you to pick one of their pieces over the Spinnaker when just going by specs and pricing.



So in the end is the Spinnaker Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary for me? I really don't see how it can't be since it checks so many boxes and is delivered at such a low price. I'm not a huge fan of stainless steel watches and the Hull Lapidary being crafted out of titanium is a huge win. Sure it is under 50 mm lug to lug, but just by a hair and also my viewpoints of watch sizing are dated with today's trend of smaller watches. Also the bronze bezel gives the watch a very unique look and is unlike anything in my personal collection. Speaking about unique, the malachite dial is just the icing on the cake. If the watch just had a standard dial and kept the titanium case and bronze bezel it would already be a winner. The addition of the malachite dial just seals the deal for me.

So would I recommend the Hull Lapidary for somebody looking for a unique timepiece? Of course I would, the only problem is that the malachite version is sold out. The onyx dial is still available at the time I'm writing this though. With how quick the other three variants of the Hull Lapidary sold out, I'd probably order the onyx dial sooner than later since it will probably be sold out in the very near future. The onyx dial might actually be my second favorite dial choice in the collection as well. It's a lot more stealth than the other three stones but still has some very nice detailing to it if you look closely. It could almost pass as a non-stone dial from distance, but pops when you're close enough to get a good look at it.



Like I said earlier, I wouldn't be too shocked if Spinnaker did Lapidary versions of watches in their other collections with how popular this release was. So if you're a huge fan of the malachite dial used on this sold out Hull Lapidary, hopefully in the near future there will be other Spinnaker models featuring the stone. Once again with how fast these watches sold out, you will probably need to be ready to order as soon as ordering opens up.

I'd really like to thank Spinnaker for sending us the Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary to review. This is the second watch we've reviewed from the brand and now I have even more respect for Spinnaker than I had after reviewing the Croft 42 Skeleton. The amount of watch Spinnaker can offer for such a low price is just insane. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine getting a titanium watch with a bronze bezel and stone dial for under $1000, much less $500. Spinnaker delivered that in spades. Spinnaker also just released their Tesei Forged Carbon series with one model featuring a full carbon case with injected lume. I'd really love to review that piece next if possible, let's see if we get lucky.



For more information about the Hull Titanium Bronze Lapidary please visit : Spinnaker

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: SP-5145-02

Retail Price: $425

Case Size: 41.8 mm

Lug to Lug: 49.6 mm

Thickness: 15.3 mm

Weight: 98 Grams

Case Material: Titanium

Bezel: Bronze Coated Stainless Steel

Strap: Green Silicon Strap with Stainless Steel Pin Buckle

Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date

Power Reserve: 41 Hours

Water Resistance: 200 Meters