Today I’ll be taking a look at the 2022 edition of the TRASKA Freediver, quite a popular microbrand dive watch, which I’ve been wearing pretty well exclusively now for the past week.
If you’re unfamiliar with TRASKA, it is an independent American watch brand based out of Florida, founded by Jonathan Mack in 2017. The company’s success to date was largely built off the back of their first Kickstarter campaign for the original version of this very watch back in early 2018, which was fully funded in just a few hours.
This is the fourth iteration of the Freediver and, as you might expect, this model comes with a number of welcome refinements over its predecessors. The most obvious of these being a significant redesign of the handset and dial, undertaken with the aim of improving legibility. The lumed minute markers on the ceramic bezel insert are now also fully graduated, giving you better precision when timing dives or whatever you’ve next got in the oven.
The Freediver comes in four different colourways: Carbon Black, Stone Grey, Arctic White and what I have here, the company’s signature Mint Green. All colourways are available in date and no-date variants. While likely not the most popular choice, I opted for the date complication on my unit as I find myself neglecting watches that are time-of-day only.
Going over the specs just quickly, the case for this one measures in at 40.5mm across, 48mm lug-to-lug and a thickness of 10.5mm, which is quite slim for this style of watch at this end of the market. I’m not sure how but my collection has come to include far too many watches with odd lug widths, so the standard 20mm here makes a welcome change.
Powering this one is a Japanese Miyota 9000 series auto, a solid high beat movement with a 42-hour power reserve.
The sapphire crystal here has a generous layer of anti-reflective coating and is boxed style double domed, though the dome is incredibly subtle and could be mistaken as flat on first glance.
The water resistance rating on this one is a perfectly acceptable but uninspiring 200m.
With the specs out of the way let’s focus in on the design. The 316L stainless steel case is a well-executed but fairly simple, mostly brushed affair, with just slightest hint of polish along the chamfered outer edge of the drilled lugs. The black ceramic bezel is a highlight for me here though, there is a slight amount of back play but the action is fantastic and it looks great. The substantial coin edge feels fantastic and the engraved ceramic is very well done and has a healthy application of lume. Turning to the dial and, yeah, I think this one really does come together quite nicely. The trapezoidal hour markers and hands match perfectly and the white, black and mint colour scheme on the one I have is really rather pleasant. It has also proven to be extremely legible in all lighting conditions, making the redesign a successful one I think.
I received a question from a subscriber asking my thoughts on the circular date window at six O’Clock and it does seem like a bit of an odd choice, why not just go with a trapezoidal window? Perhaps the designer felt the circular date portal, along with the lollipop seconds hand and circle top lume pip helped to offset the sharper angles prominent throughout the rest of the design. I’d still like to see what a different approach might look like but I feel it mostly works as is, and it is honestly growing on me more as time goes by.
The signed, screw-down crown is large and plenty grippy, making time adjustments a breeze.
Quite a few microbrands have come out with some pretty wild case backs in recent times, not so here though with the back being surprisingly sterile, engraved with just the core specifications; possibly a decision made to keep the watch as thin as possible.
The bracelet here is a good one; very well finished, solid end links, screw pins and an excellent clasp. I had to remove three links for my 6 1/2” wrist and had no trouble getting a comfortable fit thanks to the four holes of micro adjust.
Here’s a quick lume shot for those curious what it looks like after dark. The lume here is BGW9 Super-LumiNova and there’s a good amount of it, making for a healthy glow.
There really isn’t a lot to complain about this one, the main thing that somewhat bothers me is the rotor whine seemingly inherent to Miyota movements. Here’s a quick sample of what I mean… On wrist it’s only notice in a very quiet settings but when you do catch it it just sounds a bit cheap, making my wish TRASKA had have opted for a different engine. Not a deal breaker by any means, just something to be aware of if you’re looking to pick one of these up.
Overall I’m very happy to add this one to the collection, I love the colour and clean design of the dial. I think the asking price here of $600 USD is very reasonable for what you’re getting. You can really tell this is a design that has been honed over time, with very few weak points.
For more information see TRASKA's website.
