This Affordable American Watch Brand Turns Back the Clock with a Cool Retro Diver

In just a few short years, Jack Mason has gone from mall-brand fashion watch to enthusiast darling in one of the quickest and most stunning turnarounds in modern watchmaking.

While already possessing a strong catalog filled with GMTs, tool watches, pilot’s watches and everyday watches, Jack Mason still has a few holes to plug. The most obvious is the brand’s lack of a dedicated dive watch, with its only diver being the kitted-out Strat-o-timer Titanium Diver GMT since the discontinuation of the Hydrotimer.

But that changes now, as Jack Mason has not only launched a pure dive watch, but an ultracool, retro, dual-crown stunner called the Palmera Skin Diver.

Jack Mason

Skin deep

The Palmera’s spec sheet reads like a check list of must-have features for a modern retro-themed watch. The stainless steel case is refreshingly compact, measuring 39mm across, 47mm from lug to lug and just 10.8 mm thick with a 20mm lug width.

The dial has a matte finish for better visibility, with applied indices featuring polished surrounds. The handset is bold and vintage-inspired, consisting of an arrow-shaped hour hand, pencil minute hand and red arrow-tipped seconds hand. Jack Mason’s Texas Star logo is applied underneath 12:00, and just two lines of dial text appear above 6:00.

Jack Mason

The case boasts a Super Compressor-inspired design, with two crowns and an inner rotating bezel underneath the sapphire crystal operated in both directions via the crown at 2:00. The bezel is fully marked with its triangle made of Super-LumiNova Grade A BGW9. The same blue-emission lume formula also fills the hands and indices.

The watch has a solid screw-in caseback, helping to ensure the watch’s 200m water-resistance rating. That’s right, 200m. Despite being called a skin diver, the Palmera is a legitimate diver and is not limited to snorkeling like a traditional skin diver.

Jack Mason

Beating away inside is the La Joux-Perret Calibre G101, a Swiss-made automatic that’s gaining popularity among microbrands thanks to its combination of value and quality. It boasts an impressive power reserve of 68 hours, beats at 4Hz and is regulated by Jack Mason to +/- 5 seconds per day.

The Palmera includes a black Tropic rubber strap, plus your choice of steel bracelet: either a three-row Oyster style or a dressier 7-link affair, both of which feature an anti-scratch hardness coating, as does with the case.

Availability and pricing

Jack Mason has gone with a new release model for the Palmera that it’s calling Born & Raised. It’s essentially an internal crowdfunding platform, where orders are placed directly on Jack Mason’s site, unlocking models for production only when a minimum threshold is reached. This allows the brand to keep overhead low by more accurately measuring demand, letting them focus more on quality control.

At launch, there are two colors available, a black dial called Ash and a bright orange one called Ember. So far, more than 50 watches have been reserved. At least 150 are needed for production to commence, and once 200 reservations are logged, the community will get to select a third colorway.

Anyone ordering through the Born & Raised format also gets a hefty discount. The future retail price of the Palmera is set at $1,349, but if you reserve now, you’ll pay the “Founder Price” of just $1,049.

Jack Mason

Jack Mason Palmera Skin Diver

Specs

Case Size	39mm
Movement	La Joux-Perret Cal. G101 automatic
Water Resistance	200m

• $1,049 at Jack Mason
  $1,349 (22% off)

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add Gear Patrol as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.

Related Topics