The Very Capable And Accessible Yema Sous Marine Collection

Yema has been on a mission to reinstate itself as a proper French watchmaking outfit, bringing back design from the past and even introducing French-made proprietary movements in the process. It does all this, and a bit more, with a surprising level of accessibility as prices rarely go over the EUR 2,000 mark. In fact, most of Yema’s watches go for less than half that, as we’ve seen with the Urban Traveller and Urban Field collections. The brand is mostly known for its Superman dive watch, which is a genuine historical icon. Now though, Yema presents a more modern yet still very utilitarian diver. Called the Sous Marine, it has very decent specs all around and is equipped with Yema’s proprietary mechanical movement.

The case of the Sous Marine, new to Yema’s portfolio, measured 40.5mm in diameter and 12.20mm in height. The lug-to-lug distance is a very reasonable 46mm from end to end, meaning this will very likely be quite a joy to wear. The design is relatively simple but it serves a purpose, as the Sous Marine destined for a life of heavy use (and abuse, possibly). The robust construction includes a unidirectional rotating bezel with a coloured aluminium insert (black, blue, green, orange or yellow), a sapphire crystal on top and a solid caseback around the back. The crown is protected from any unwanted jolt or bump by a pair of crown guards.

The dial for the Sous Marine is made up of multiple levels and can come in black, blue or green tones. The black dial is always matched to either a black, orange or yellow bezel while the blue and green dials are matched to blue and green bezel inserts only. The white outer flange is sloped and has a dotted minute flange with triangular indications at every 5-minute interval. The applied hour indices provide excellent legibility, especially given the large indices at every third hour and a good dose of Super-LumiNova all around. On the inside of the indices is a recessed ring, also for the hours but now with Arabic numerals. The innermost section of the dial is finished with the brand’s logo, the name of the watch, the fact it has an automatic movement and the indication it’s water resistant to 990ft, or 300m.

Working away diligently under the solid caseback is Yema’s proprietary YEMA2000 calibre, which is made and assembled in France and serves as a replacement for off-the-shelf automatic movements like the ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200 series. This movement runs at a rate of 28,800vph and offers a running time of 42 hours when fully wound. It has also been regulated in 4 positions to run within -10/+10 seconds of deviation per day, which puts it ahead of the type of the ETA and Sellita it’s meant to replace in terms of accuracy.

The new Yema Sous Marine collection comes on either an FKM Viton® rubber strap that’s colour-matched to the bezel insert, or a stainless steel Beads of Rice bracelet with a folding clasp. Retailing for EUR 890 on FKM Viton® rubber, or EUR 990 on the Beads of Rice bracelet, the new retro diver is priced rather sensibly. It’s available for pre-order as of August 24th of this year, with delivery scheduled to commence towards the end of September 2023.

For more information, please visit Yema.com