Craig Karger is a rare example of a critic bold enough to put their money where their mouth is. After achieving editorial notoriety in the watch community with Wrist Enthusiast, he founded the watch brand Wren in 2023.
Two years in, Karger teamed up with another notable horological voice, his podcast co-host Ben Cook of Ben’s Watches, to create an eye-catching version of the Wren Diver One. It was dubbed Magma for its traffic-cone-orange dial with a fumé fade, and now the incendiary dial is back with a tougher, cooler blacked-out case and bracelet.
The Diver One Obsidian is more of an upgrade than a sequel. It reproduces the orange sandwich dial from the Magama, with its deep red fade inspired by cooling lava and white frames around the dot-and-triangle hour track windows.
Visible through the top dial plate is the “black lume” from Super-LumiNova, which has more of a charcoal shade and fittingly glows like embers in the dark. Matching lume is set into the white frames of all three hands.
The orange dial is encircled by the same black ceramic bezel insert, marked with a white count-down track containing numerals at 15, 30 and 45. The coin-edge unidirectional steel bezel frame is now black, contrasting the glossy ceramic with a matte finish.
