No 249 - Sjöö Sandström Landsort D1

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.

#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 30^th 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.

© All pictures by a Watch Flipper's Diary unless noted.

No 143 - Sjöö Sandström Landsort D2

The time has come to present a watch from one of my most beloved brands. Let me introduce the Landsort from Sjöö Sandström. OK, so I’m from Sweden and Sjöö Sandström is a Swedish brand. Of course it makes me a little bias but honestly, Sjöö Sandström does make some incredible timepieces and the Landsort is a unique creation indeed. Landsort is an island in the Stockholm archipelago and not far from it there is an abyss measuring 459m down to the bottom; the Landsort depth – the deepest spot in the Baltic Sea.

I fell completely in love with the Landsort when a friend and I were invited to Sjöö Sandström’s workshop in the old town of Stockholm. From the pictures I'd seen I was expecting something huge but I was really surprised over how well it wore with its 44mm (excl. crown) which mainly depended on the absence of lugs. It is thick but just thick enough to not give it any irregular proportions. During the Q&A I couldn’t help asking why they didn’t flip the case 180 degrees to make it with the crown on the left side instead; a destro version. You can’t avoid noticing that the crown is a rather large detail and when being worn on the bracelet it’s going to torture your wrist. I tried to put it in the nicest way, without being too disrespectful of their newly launched watch, that IF they actually were aiming on making a proper dive watch they should have built it with the crown on the left side. All I got back was “Oh, do you think that would be a good idea? We haven’t really thought of that.” 

Six months later another Landsort was released. The D1. And guess what? It had the crown on the left side…

Finding a used Landsort so close to the release date back in the summer of 2012 was close to impossible. But then suddenly a friend (who had another friend, who had a friend, who had a friend, who apparently knew someone at Sjöö Sandström), who didn’t even knew I was interested in the Landsort, asked me during a watch get-together,  if I by any chance would be interested in taking over this new dive watch he’d just bought but wasn’t very fond of, which just happened to be the Landsort. A crazy coincidence indeed!

#143 - The Sjöö Sandström Landsort D2.

See that rectangle under the 12 o'clock marker? A good example of a visual detail that wasn't centered.

One of the first.

It had a very low serial number which was fun but after a while I got a little suspicious. There were so many details that weren’t precise. What was this? A prototype? Some of the lume markers weren't centered and the bezel felt really awkward to turn. If I’m not completely mistaken it even had 58 or 59 clicks instead of 60. But fine, perhaps I could live with those deviations. I figured it still might be kind of cool to have one of the first ones made and especially if it had some minor production errors. Perhaps this was a future gem? But what I couldn’t cope with was the horrible lume quality. Was this a fucking joke or what? The lume was almost nonexistent. I was expecting this piece to fire up like a Seiko and if not it would at least glow as bright as any other watch with C3 luminova. Boy was I mistaken or what. The indexes might as well have been painted with ordinary white paint. I was almost beginning to suspect I was holding a fake in my hands. It had to go. No question about it. I sold it with the hope of someday buying another one were all those mistakes had been adjusted. 

It was never exposed to more water than this.

I hate being so negative about something so beautiful but I have to express my sincere and honest thoughts or this blog would be worthless and be just like any other blog reviewing watches. I can only hope that Sjöö Sandström use this information to create a better product for their dedicated fans to enjoy and love in the future.

© All pictures by a Watch Flipper's Diary unless noted.