Spinnaker Announces a New Version of the Croft
The Croft family of watches from Spinnaker has seen some interesting evolutions over time - as have Spinnaker's offerings in general. Known more for dive watches that are on the large size (42-44mm) housing movements from Miyota and Seiko, Spinnaker seems to be on a bit of a mission to slim down some of their offerings.
The Croft Mid-Size introduced the first (in my memory) 40mm watch in Spinnaker's collection and was very well-received. I own the Elemental colorway and while I have a few quibbles, it's become a fairly reliable everyday unit that sports a healthy 150 meters of water resistance.
The trend towards the small continued with the Spence. Housing a Miyota 9039 high-beat movement, the Spence was the second 40mm watch in their collection and, to top things a bit, offered 300 meters of water resistance and did it with a case that was just 10.9mm thick.
Now, Spinnaker is back with their first sub-40mm watch with the limited-edition Croft 3912. This 39mm diver is being released in two colorways. There is the Storm, which has a deep blue bezel, white indices and hands, and a black dial, while Sea Rust has a brown bezel and black dial, while the indices and hands are a vintage-inspired cream/gilt shade.
Both watches are being released in editions of 75 each and will retail for $600. Spinnaker often offers discounts of up to 25% off so you may be able to snag these for as low as $450.
There are some excellent tweaks to the base Croft line that make the Croft 3912 more attractive, even at the higher price tag. For one, the watch has been slimmed down quite a bit. The full-sized Croft comes in at 14mm thick, while the Mid-Size brings that down a hair to 13.8. The 3912 takes that down even further to 12mm, making this downsized version easier to slip under the sleeve.
The face of the watch has also gone through an exercise in reduction. The bezel has gone from the standard dive bezel with minute and hour markings to one with just a single circular mark at the 12 o'clock position. Both colorways sport a solid-color bezel, as opposed to the the dual-color options available on some of the Croft units like the Elemental colorway.
The Miyota 9039 is a date-less movement so the date window and the attendant cyclops lens that's on the the other Croft variants is not present here. The movement is high-beat, running at 28.800 vibrations per hour to produce a smooth sweeping second hand, something that's also relatively new to Spinnaker, which has often relied on the Seiko NH35 family of movements in the past.
The Croft 3912 will go on sale August 20th for a price of $600. No word yet on whether the many discount codes Spinnaker offers will apply to it.