I'm going to tell you the good and the bad about the Spinnaker Croft to help you decide if this is the watch for you.

Disclaimer: To start this review, I have to disclose that Spinnaker sent me this watch. I do not have to give it back. I'm not required by Spinnaker to create a positive review about it and I will try my best to be as unbiased and as critical as I can be.

If you're not yet familiar with Spinnaker, it's a watch brand based in Hong Kong that makes affordable dive watches. They're pretty well known in the watch community because of its affordable prices, good specs, and original designs.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been wearing this Croft in Vintage Silver. For the first few weeks, I wore it on the leather strap it came with. Afterwards, I swapped it for an aftermarket stainless steel bracelet.

Before I share with you my thoughts on it, let's go over the specs first:

  • Case Diameter: 43 mm
  • Lug-to-Lug Length: 51 mm
  • Case Thickness: 14mm
  • Lug Width: 22 mm

The crystal is sapphire with anti-reflective coating. It also has a round cyclops date magnifier. The dial has a silvery gritty texture which goes from light silver in the middle to darker silver in the edges. The gold tone applied hour markers look like thick discs.

It has a 120-click unidirectional bezel with a matte aluminum plate and gold-tone bezel edge, matching the hour markers and the hands. 

The case is made with brushed stainless steel with polished chamfering.

This particular silver variant came with water-resistant black leather straps so you can actually go swimming with it. I've gotten the straps wet from heavy handwashing but I haven't tried any prolonged water exposure so I cannot vouch if the straps will survive a long swim.

The Croft is powered by the Miyota 8218 which has a sub-seconds portion at 4 o'clock. It's an automatic movement which runs at 21,600 beats per hour and has a power reserve of 42 hours. It doesn't hack, but it does hand wind.

Lastly, I have to highlight that the water resistance is just 150 meters, not 200 meters. With this WR rating, you can take it swimming but you can't take it for hardcore diving.

Next let me show you my thoughts on the Spinnaker Croft. 

First, the positives:

1. It's a good looking watch! The dial has a lot of details that make it look like a lot of work went into it. The case is also well-finished and it has this polished chamfering which I think is a nice detail. Overall when it comes to appearance, it looks good and it feels hefty like a more expensive watch.

2. It has good bezel action, much better compared to the Spinnaker Cahill. It's easier to turn, there's no back play, and the bezel is aligned. 

3. The lume on the dial is good. I actually don't have a lot of experience with lume but my two Spinnaker watches so far have the strongest lume.

Next let's go over the negatives:

1. I know I just said that the lume on this is good, but unfortunately, there is no lume on the bezel. I've seen other videos where there's lume on 12 o'clock. However, this one doesn't have it. Perhaps it's a one-off problem specific to the one I received. 

2. While I did say that it's a good looking watch, I'm not a fan of cluttered and asymmetrical dials with sub-seconds anywhere else than six o'clock. But I do get that it's a limitation of the movement. Because of the sub-seconds at four o'clock, they forced the text at eight o'clock which makes the whole dial look cluttered. 

3. Similar to the Cahill, the Croft uses a non-hacking movement. Personally I'm okay with non-hacking, but if you need the hacking function, this watch isn't for you.

4. As someone with a wrist size of 6.25", it's a little too big for me. While I think I could still rock it if it were my one and only watch, it wouldn't be my first choice because it's too much wrist presence for me. I think this would be suitable for people with a wrist size of 7 inches and above. 

5. When I was wearing it on the provided leather strap, I had such a hard time putting it on and taking it off because it was so thick such that it felt like wearing it was a chore. Because of that, I ordered an aftermarket stainless steel strap. The wearing experience was much better after that. If you want to get this watch, I recommend going for the bracelet option instead.

So those are my thoughts on the Spinnaker Croft. Overall, it's a good looking watch but it doesn't suit me that well. It's a little too big and a little too cluttered for my taste.

However, Spinnaker did just release a beautiful mid-sized Croft at 40 millimeters with a cleaner dial layout. I think the new mid-sized Croft would have been a better fit for me. When I saw photos of it on the Spinnaker Instagram, I was smitten with the blue and red bezel one. 

If you found this review helpful, please consider using my Affiliate Link with Spinnaker.

SPINNAKER CROFT (Affiliate Link) -  By using my affiliate link, I earn a little commission at no extra cost to you. You can also use "EVE15" for 15% off discount on full-priced items.

If you have any thoughts on the Spinnaker Croft let me know in the comment section below.