“Extremely dissapointing hand lume. I've wanted an Islander for ages. Ever since Mark put out the Ameriquartz SKX clones several years back (sadly discontinued before I got the chance to pick one up.) I enjoyed watching Mark's YouTube video, and his chats and collaborations with TGV hoping for an affordable quartz Islander diver option. I have a 28 watch collection predominantly Seiko Solar Quartz, Citizen Eco-drive and Seiko Mechaquartz movements. Grab & Go is important to me. So when Mark recently announced Islanders collaboration with Duxot for a subby homage that bore the Islander Light House. In some color waves that filled certain niches in my wardrobe. I decided to finally scratch my Islander quartz itch and support an American Company rather than expiriance the slightly dirty feeling I usually get when ordering one of the Aliexpress VH-31's. (Yes. I know the Duxot's are not American watches.) Initially, I was quite impressed with the Brown Duxot/Islander. The case workmanship was great. The, flat non-AR, quartz crystal had vert good transparency and was not cloudy as you sometimes see in the sub $200 range Chinese quartz. The lack of AR was not at all a problem and the watch was very legible even in bright sunlight. The bracelet was pretty meh, but I expected that having watched the video's about the watch. I never intended to keep it on the bracelet anyway, but rather to immediately put it on Straphabit Tan Tropical or Blushark Coyote Ridge FKM. Which worked with the brown perfectly for my Fall earth tones purpose. Like I said. I wanted to love my first Islander. Where my reveiw leaves the rails and drops to two stars is...The lume. Lume is important to me. I buy dive style watches because I live a outdoor lifestyle that demands my timepiece be tough, water resistant and legible after dark. Unfortunately, the Doxot/islander Atlantica Electronic's lume is abysmal. The markers are barely adequate and the hand lume is just terrible. The lume is very much like the low ebb of Pagani Design or the low end Casio Analog lume that degraded into unreadability in 10 minutes. I took 4 other Subby Homage watches from my collection, x2 Addiesdive, x1 Steeldive, x1 Watchdives and the Duxot/Islander and in my lume test the Duxot/Islander came in dead last and it wasn't even close. I'm going to keep the watch because I've already altered it and I do have a couple of watches around just for wardrobe look rather than functionality but I can't in good consence give the Duxot Islander more than two stars.”
“The watch is awesome in person and it is really cool that the watch is powered and reliability of while looking like a mechanic. Great buy for the price for sure!”
“As a native Long Islander (who no longer lives there) I like to support a local business. I've been into watches my whole life, so I'm not some flipper or collector. I just buy what I love. I own several Islanders; some I've modified, others just to wear as is. Honestly, this was just a Black Friday impulse buy b/c the price was so inexpensive. But the quality is there! Just a nice casual dive watch. I particularly love brown, when you see countless others just being typical black. The brown adds another dimension to the piece that sets it apart. I put it on a rubber strap and I've been wearing it about 5 straight days now. If you're just starting your collection this would make a great first piece.”
