This Invictus anniversary edition watch came in a largish box. I assumed the box was stuffed with padding but it turned out that this watch needed its canary-yellow, ribbed stitched leather box. It's massive.  Still, it must be said that the lovely tan suede interior displays the watch quite nicely.

At first I was a bit disconcerted by the size of the watch.  You can get some idea of why by looking at the sizing diagram with the pictures in amazon's  product images.  The second thing that struck me was how heavy it is.  It has a large crystal dome-shaped face made of a material that goes by the trademark name of Flame fusion crystal.  This is a kind of sapphire/crystal combination molecularly bonded in a very high temperature treatment and is almost indestructible.  So if you want to take this watch cycling, it should be safe.

The watch body is stainless steel treated with a gun metal finish.  The face has chronograph stopwatch dials.  What you might not be able to see in the photos is the cool semi transparent mother of pearl finish of the small dial faces and some of the trim. Because it is semi transparent, you can just make out some of the watch's inner workings.  I thought looking at the layers of day and date dials was very cool.

This watch is the first in the world to use the SW 500 automatic watch engine movement.  If you're a watch enthusiast, you probably know what that means.  If not, trust me, it's pretty cool.  If you turn the watch over, you have a crystal back inlaid in the stainless steel body that lets you see the mechanism working inside as well as the spinning counter balance that uses movement to spin the weight.  This means that the watch literally winds up when you move your arm. It's quite fascinating to play with.

Despite being a big it is a beautifully made piece with large diamond inlaid 12  and 6 figures and small 4 clusters of diamonds for 1, 2 ,4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 o'clock.  There is no 6 or 3.  The minutes are clearly marked though the thick dome crystal makes it difficult to accurately tell the minutes.  You have to look closely to see exactly what time it is.

The leather strap fits the molding of the body perfectly and looks very stylish. The strap is leather partly to counter the weight of the watch.  It has a very light buckle that I first thought was plastic.  But if you look at it really closely you can tell that it's a lightly coated metal that makes a very sharp metallic sound.

I would highly recommend getting some protective treatment for the leather before you sweat through the strap too much. It's a gorgeous piece and the choice of leather is very comfortable, but, unless cared for, the leather will eventually dry out from the salt and moisture in your skin and crack.

One last note is that this watch is a real attention grabber. At first I felt it might be a little ostentatious to wear all the time but it has really grown on my husband and I after the initial surprise of the size wore off.

This watch is easy to set.  There are three pronounced knobs on the right hand side.  The top one starts and stops the stopwatch; the bottom one resets  it; the center crown sets the calendar when you pull it half way, with month changing when you turn it anti clockwise and date when you turn it clockwise. Time is set when you pull it a second time and twist.  All very smooth and precise, and just like you would expect from a watch of this quality.

Bottom line: this watch with its interesting, rugged styling can be a really special gift for the right person.  I recommend it.