When I wrote the piece about the Landsort D2 I just briefly mentioned the D1; the version with the crown at 9 o’clock. Already when they announced this watch I realized that it was going to be
inevitable for the two of us not to cross paths one day. When I saw the D2 for
the first time the D1 was actually all I could visualize
in my head, so to me the D1 is really how the watch should have looked from the start and the fact that it eventually was produced the way I wanted it was simply amazing.
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| #249 - The Sjöö Sandström Landsort D1. |
I bought this watch new. That rarely happens but once I do purchase something brand new there usually is a rather special occasion going on. I was saying to myself that IF this watch was as good as I hoped it was going to be, then it was going to be a keeper. I absolutely loved its looks. The clean steel gray dial, the orange second hand, the bezel insert in Tungsten. I still love its looks. As a matter of fact I love it so much that looking back on my old pictures of it just makes me want to go and buy a new one immediately! But then, to wake me up from my daydreaming, reality hits me hard in the face. How could I forget?
Almost everything that disappointed me about the D2 had been fixed with the D1. The D1 felt much more solid in a whole other way. It was just one minor detail that still wasn’t perfect. The lume (in fact a rather major detail in my book). This time the lume was actually there but the glow wasn’t nearly as strong as I’d been hoping it to be. Why? WHY?! The product specification says super luminova and perhaps it is but in a very thin layer. I wore the watch for a while but it was a love/hate relationship. My perfect watch wasn’t perfect and it simply didn’t work out.
Last year at one of Sjöö Sandström’s pleasant events they sometimes host at their workshop I couldn’t help bringing
up the topic regarding the lume for discussion. How else would I ever receive
an answer to this big mystery? The explanation I got from
Kristofer Johansson (sales director and partner at Sjöö Sandström) caught me a
little off guard. He told me that they were well aware of this and
that it was an intended design. They didn’t want the lume to glow too bright. I
couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It wasn't a design flaw. They were doing this on purpose! It contradicted all my own thoughts about
which criteria’s a dive watch must fulfill. Anyhow, I was pleased by the
honest and detailed answer I was given, even though I didn't agree with him, and I also felt he took the opinions I
shared in the matter with great seriousness. Will it lead somewhere? Hopefully but probably not.
Giving critique it’s nothing I do because I like to be mean. I do it because I
think it’s important and fair. A company that manufactures great products can
only benefit from listening to their customers opinions and hopefully it will
lead to even better products in the future. I really value the Landsort highly and
I would even go as far as praising it as one of the coolest and unique dive
watches made of all time BUT, not until it has been given what it deserves; a proper lume treatment. I keep imagining the Landsort to light up like the Grands Fonds from ZRC. Just the thought of it gives me goosebumps. A Landsort like that would just kill.
2016 was the year of Sjöö Sandström’s 30th anniversary and
they announced that three new watches were going to be released during that year.
I’d been picking up bits and pieces from different rumors and I was sure that
one of those new watches was going to be a dive watch. I wasn’t sure if it was
going to be an updated version of the Landsort or a new creation but it didn’t
matter because I knew it was going to be exciting either way. But no new dive watch was ever released during the
last year. Huge disappointment! I can only hope that they’re planning something really good to come
and I know that once a new dive watch will be announced I’m going to be super thrilled.
