No matter how many divers, GMTs or chronographs I look at, I always seem to end up coming back to watches like this.
Simple dial.
Classic proportions.
A bit of vintage charm.
Not sure why.
What's the watch style that keeps pulling you back?
Lately I’ve been experimenting with a more military-inspired direction for one of our vintage divers.
Specs are still pretty straightforward:
But instead of going with the usual black dial + black NATO setup, I tried going full olive:
The idea was to make it feel less like a modern dive watch and more like an old military field diver/tool watch.
Personally, I think the black bezel keeps it from drifting too far into “fashion watch” territory, but I’ve stared at this color combo for so long now that I genuinely can’t tell anymore if it actually works or if I’ve just gotten used to it.
Curious what other watch nerds think:
Lately I’ve been experimenting with a more military-inspired direction for one of our vintage divers.
Specs are still pretty straightforward:
But instead of going with the usual black dial + black NATO setup, I tried going full olive:
The idea was to make it feel less like a modern dive watch and more like an old military field diver/tool watch.
Personally, I think the black bezel keeps it from drifting too far into “fashion watch” territory, but I’ve stared at this color combo for so long now that I genuinely can’t tell anymore if it actually works or if I’ve just gotten used to it.
Curious what other watch nerds think:
Outside of the T023, we think the SHY027 deserves a bit more attention too.
Compared to the T023, the SHY027 has a noticeably different feel on wrist. The more compact 39mm case and Mercedes-style handset give it a more vintage, old-school tool watch vibe overall.
We recently took some real-life photos and filmed a small unboxing/wrist-roll video for it, and honestly the gilt details look much better in natural light than we expected. It has a lot more warmth and character in person.
There’s also the sister model, the SHY028, which swaps to snowflake hands and completely changes the personality of the watch.
Curious what people here prefer on a BB58-style diver:
Mercedes hands or snowflake hands?
If anyone here owns either model already, feel free to drop some wrist shots in the comments.
More details:
Outside of the T023, we think the SHY027 deserves a bit more attention too.
Compared to the T023, the SHY027 has a noticeably different feel on wrist. The more compact 39mm case and Mercedes-style handset give it a more vintage, old-school tool watch vibe overall.
We recently took some real-life photos and filmed a small unboxing/wrist-roll video for it, and honestly the gilt details look much better in natural light than we expected. It has a lot more warmth and character in person.
There’s also the sister model, the SHY028, which swaps to snowflake hands and completely changes the personality of the watch.
Curious what people here prefer on a BB58-style diver:
Mercedes hands or snowflake hands?
If anyone here owns either model already, feel free to drop some wrist shots in the comments.
More details:
Hey everyone,
From time to time I see people mentioning slow replies or not-so-great after-sales experiences. I’ve seen those comments and have been following up on them.
Today I just wanted to ask directly —
have you run into any issues when buying from our website?
Feel free to say anything openly.
Right now I’m personally handling the emails on our official site.
On weekdays I usually try to clear everything the same day, weekends can be a bit slower.
We’re based in China, so there can be some time zone delays.
That said, it’s something we still need to improve.
If you sent an email and didn’t get a reply, feel free to send it again — sometimes messages do end up in spam.
I don’t post here much, but I do read regularly.
I keep track of the feedback, and anything we can improve, we’ll work on it step by step.
Honestly, I just want to get these small things right, so it feels more comfortable buying from us.
Also, I’m currently trying to find reliable watchmakers in Europe.
If you know anyone good, I’d really appreciate the recommendation.
We already have a partner in the US and it’s been working well.
If we can get something similar in Europe, after-sales would be much easier without needing to send watches back to China.
If you still have an unresolved order issue:
You can email sales@thornwatches.com (with your order number)
or just comment here — I’ll go through them one by one.
(Official website orders only: thornwatches.com)
If you’ve had a bad experience before, feel free to say it directly.
I’ll read everything.
And I really appreciate you helping us make THORN better over time.