Not counting this Invicta Men's 1435 Russian Diver Silver Dial Rubber Watch under review, I wear three watches.

One is a real diver's watch, a Citizen.  The second one is my everyday watch, a Casio G-Shock that does everything and even uses a radio receiver and the atomic clock to keep perfect time and a solar panel so the battery never needs replaced.  The third one is the watch, a Lucky Ladybug, that I wear on KCMO Habitat for Humanity construction sites.

I wish to compare these three watches to the Invicta 1435, so you should go now to look at the four photographs I uploaded to the Amazon detail page to see what I'm talking about.

Photo #1: The product under review compared to my diver's watch
Photo #2: My remarkable everyday watch
Photo #3: My construction watch
Photo #4: My construction watch lying on top of the Invicta 1435, which is kind of funny

Now that you've examined the four photos, first let's dispense with whether the Invicta model 1435 is, as advertised, a "diver" watch.

NOT A DIVER'S WATCH

This model is specifically designated as a diver's watch, one of hundreds of models Invicta makes that are so designated.  I'm not sure whether this is an inside joke or Invicta really wants to sell this to divers, but as a diver's watch it is greatly lacking.  It is said to be water-resistant to 100 meters (~328.084 feet), but my real diver's watch (see Photo #1) is water-resistant to twice that depth (as is my everyday watch, shown in Photo #2, for that matter).  Now I'm not saying many divers will find themselves over 300 feet under water (100 feet is quite a considerable depth) and say to themselves, "Dagnabit, I want to descend another 50 feet but that'll void my watch's warranty."  If you're that serious a diver and someone offered you this Invicta watch for free as your diver's watch, you'd not only laugh you'd positively pay hundreds of dollars not to have to use it.

-- My real diver's watch has a rotating bezel and an alarm, both of which can be used to let you know when you're out of air and neither of which this model 1435 has.

-- My real diver's watch has brightly luminous hour markers and hands and the zero spot on the bezel; you apply light and they absorb it and then emit it, in a process called photoluminescence, and they do it well.  The Invicta watch uses something called Tritnite, which doesn't work nearly as well as whatever a real diver's watch uses (possibly called Tritium).  Even after hours of exposure to ambient room light and then some intense bombardment from a high-decibel flashlight positioned directly on the crystal, just moments later in a dark room the hour markers and the hands of this watch are barely visible.

-- My real diver's watch has bands that are as simple as they can be, which means less cleaning after a dive than the Invictas', which feature these two purely decorative metal cylinders sunk into each band.  These, along with the chain that connects the stem cap to the case, are all just begging to get gunked up with algae and kelp and squid ink and shark phlegm and whale hairs.

-- My real diver's watch has a back that is sealed to the case with six screws (as is the back of my everyday watch, for that matter), and if you want that case opened to change the battery you're required to send it to the manufacturer so they can do it properly because of all the gaskets and other extras that make this a real diver's watch.  The back of the case of the Invicta is rotated open by anyone with the proper wrench; you don't have to be a jeweler or a watch repairman, you can be Suzee at Wal-Mart.  I'm not sure this is a knock against the Invicta, but it's noteworthy.

Having bragged so much on my real diver's watch, which even features a depth gauge, which is what that blob on the left side is, as you can see from Photo #1 (which the Invicta doesn't, duh), I should point out that my real diver's watch is not by any means a particularly good one by today's standards.

So if the model 1435 Invicta compares so poorly to my middle-of-the-road diver's watch, it is barely a diver's watch at all.

For this I subtract one star out of five but, as you'll see, I do not subtract any other stars.

Second, if this is not a diver's watch, then what is it?  It is exactly and nothing more than a fashion statement whose excuse is that it tells time.

TELLING TIME

Speaking of telling time, the 1435 gained approximately one second in a mere two and a half days, which works out to (365.25 / 12) / 2.5 = 12.175 seconds per month, which is pretty bad.  In a year you're going to be early to your appointments by 2 minutes 26.1 seconds.  On the other hand (ha) my Lucky Ladybug (shown in Photo #3 and Photo #4) gains only 1.33 seconds per month.  So, compared to that, the Invicta 1435 under review is more than 9 times less accurate than a joke watch that cost $5.

Anyway, if the Invicta 1435 wristwatch is nothing more than a fashion statement, it is really good at it if that translates to "more is better."

SIZE MATTERS

Let's discuss sheer weight first, then we'll move on to dimensions.  This model 1435 is heavier than you might think.  My real diver's watch, which is a brute you could literally drive over many times in your SUV without harming it functionally or even cosmetically, weighs in at a whopping 110 grams.  My everyday watch weighs 67 grams, and my Lucky Ladybug construction watch weighs a mere 11 grams.

The product under review weighs over 190 grams (6.75 ounces).  This watch is so heavy that you could wear 17 of my Lucky Ladybugs (see Photo #4) and still not be hefting around as much mass as one Invicta 1435.

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TRY THIS

Here's a fun thing to do if you've never done it before, or a fun thing to show a kid who's never done it.  Stand in a typical doorway, one around 30 inches wide.  Starting with your hands at your sides and, keeping your elbows locked, raise your arms out to the side till the backs of your hands touch the two door jambs.  Now simply press outward, as though you're trying to push the jambs away from you.  Do this for a pretty long time, at least 30 seconds, and press pretty darned hard.  The longer and more forcefully you can strain the muscles in your arms, the better.  When you're just about worn out, simply step outside the doorway and relax your arms and observe what they do.  If you've really never done this before, stop reading right now and do it now.

Eerie, eh?

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Anyway, you take my point.  I predict that if you wear this watch continuously for a few weeks, till your arm muscles have adapted to its weight, the instant you take it off your arm will rise up in the air.

The watch is heavy not because it is so jam-packed with features inside the case, it is heavy just for the purpose of being heavy.  It is designed to appear -- and to be -- massive.  It is designed so that every so often you as the proud owner might find yourself succumbing to requests to remove it so others can heft it, which is something you can't say about most watches.  (The problem here is that the two band keepers are so tight relative to the band that removing the watch is surprisingly and eventually distressingly difficult, as is replacing it, whether on your wrist or even someone else's.)

I just timed myself, and it took me 12 seconds to remove and replace my everyday watch; with the 1435 it took 58 seconds, nearly 5 times longer.  Also, it's kind of embarrassiing looking so inept.

If the Invicta 1435 weighs in heavily, it also speaks volumes.

It is huge in all three dimensions.  According to my measurements it is 52 millimeters across the face, whereas my everyday watch, which I regard as garishly huge but worth it because it's so tough and so packed with features inside the case, is only 45 millimeters at its widest, which makes the 1435 more than 15% wider.  When you add in the width of the 1435's extraordinarily long and thick stem, another whopping 10 millimeters, you get a total lateral width of 62 millimeters, which makes the 1435 nearly 38% wider.

In terms of area, a circle 45 mm across occupies 1,590 square mm whereas a circle 62 mm across occupies 3,019 square mm, or 90% more.  This enormous size certainly grabs people's attention, but it also makes a difference to certain items of clothing you might wear.  For example, wearing the model 1435 I literally cannot don my leather motorcycle jacket without tearing the cuff.  The only other choice is to remove the watch, don the jacket, and re-apply the watch, which as you now know is a slow process.  Not only that, in cold weather I'd regret having my wrist exposed.  And of course I'd have to perform that process in reverse whenever I wanted to doff the jacket.  Furthermore, two of the pairs of gloves when I ride, which have gauntlets, simply do not fit over the Invicta 1435.  Yet furthermore, no normal Oxford shirt with long sleeves will fit over this watch unless they're really loose, so this might not be your first choice of watch if you're being interviewed for a job as the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James or a pharmaceutical salesman.

The Invicta is approximately 16 mm thick, or 0.63 inches, which is also about 5/8 of an inch (and which is also 0.009402 smoots, in case you were wondering).  My everyday watch is pretty close to that (15 mm) but, as I say, it offers many practical features, including solar-powered battery charging and a light that illuminates the watch face for two seconds at a poke.  The ONLY practical feature the 1435 offers is telling you the time of day as long as it's not dark where you are.

In terms of volume, a cylinder 52 mm across by 16 mm high occupies 33,979.46614 cubic mm, whereas a cylinder 45 mm across and 15 mm high occupies only 23,856.46921 cubic mm, which makes the Invicta 42% more voluminous than my brutish everyday watch.  The formula, as if you didn't know, is as follows:

= ((PI * ((52 / 2) ^ 2) * 16)  -  (PI * ((45 / 2) ^ 2) * 15))  /  (PI * ((45 / 2) ^ 2) * 15)
= (PI * 676 * 16) - (PI * 506.25 * 15)  /  (PI * 506.25 * 15)
= (PI * 10,816) - (PI * 7,593.75) / (PI * 7593.75)

= (33,979.46614 - 23,856.46921) / 23,856.46921
= 10,122.99693 / 23,856.46921
= 42.43292181%

And this doesn't count the outsized stem, which as a cylinder 10 mm high and 5 mm in diameter adds another 196.35 cubic millimeters.

CHAIN

In addition to being huge and heavy with a gigantic stem, the product under review sports a chain that's about 50 mm long that connects the screw-on cap of the stem to a tab on the case.  It's true that without the chain you are more likely to lose track of where the stem cap is, but the fact this is the first wristwatch I have ever seen in my whole life with a chain makes me wonder whether it's necessary.

I also have to wonder whether the chain will eventually get caught on something and deform or fall apart, which would likely result in one of two responses: (1) Have it repaired by a jeweler and wait for it to need repair again or (2) just tear it the rest of the way off (which would still leave this little tab attached to the case that will still no doubt collect kelp and navel lint and so on).

SUMMARY

The largeness of this Invicta Men's 1435 Russian Diver Silver Dial Rubber Watch both in terms of weight and size, not to mention its unexpected chain, make it a conversation piece, like a nose ring or spiky hair or a tattoo but a lot more quickly reversible.  It fairly screams, "Hey, look at me.  I'm hip."

This is a watch which, if you want to wear it at all, you will probably want to wear where other people are around -- at bars, at parties, or just out on the streets.

This is a watch you will wear not because it's practical -- and certainly not because it's a diver's watch as it claims to be -- but because you want to draw attention to your wrist and thus to yourself.  If that's your purpose in choosing a wristwatch, this one will definitely get the job done.