Lorier Hydra GMT SIII – $599
- model: Hydra SIII
- size: 41mm diameter, 46mm lug-to-lug, 12.2mm case thickness + 2.4mm dome crystal, 20mm lug width
- movement: Made in Japan Miyota 9075 automatic movement (True GMT = independent “jumping” 12-hour hand)
- water resistance: 200m
- crystal: Dome Hesalite
- etc: drilled lugs for easy bracelet/strap change outs. 20mm bracelet at lugs tapers to 16mm at clasp. Includes microsuede travel pouch, mini screw driver (for bracelet adjusting), polishing cloth, and tube of “polywatch” to buff out any potential future crystal scratches.
- also worth noting: As this is both a diver and a GMT watch, they used two colors of lume: Bright blue Superluminova BGW9 on the bezel, inner dial, hour, minute, and seconds hands… Green C1 on 24-hour track outer dial and GMT hand.
It’s (good on) a plane! (GMT movement)
It’s an horological submarine! (200m water resistance + dive bezel)
It’s SUUUUPPPPPPER HYDRAAAAAA.
Usually when a watch (or anything else) tries to be all things to all people all at the same time, you end up with something that looks like the car Homer Simpson designed. But the Hydra is the opposite. It’s complex but it’s truly classy. It’s cool and it’s versatile. And with travel and swim season coming up quick, it could be the one watch many pick up and wear with everything, everywhere. From a suit and tie to a big event, to swim trunks and flippy floppies at the beach.
41mm diameter on a 7.5″ wrist. “Presence” with balance.
The only wish is that they one day make it in the same black and gilt color scheme their 38mm Neptune comes in. But then you’d imagine one model starts to cannibalize the other.
At 41mm it’s a step up in size from the Neptune but it’s still relatively subtle for a 200m dive watch which also happens to be a GMT. With a case thickness of 12.2mm + 2.4mm dome crystal, it’s not point-guard sleek, but it’s not a hulking mustard reaching giant either. The bracelet and clasp are on the slimmer side, so that helps keep bulk under control. It’s not a razor thin dress watch, but it’s not supposed to be either. That doesn’t mean it can’t be dressed up. Not that you’d wear this with a tux, but pretty sure Mr. Bond’s shirt cuff wasn’t always smoothly sliding over his dive watch.
Flat link bracelet is one of the best in the business at this price. Fits up to 8″ wrists.
20mm tapers to 16mm at the clasp which has three micro adjusting holes
Lorier’s bracelet design continues to be the best in the business at this price point. It feels nicely solid with its slim flat links with rounded edges, solid end links, screw pins, AND the lugs on the case are drilled. That makes for immensely easier strap swap outs, and little to no struggling with a spring bar tool. Pop a poker tool in one end (or even a paper clip) to dislodge the spring bars/take the bracelet off. A fingernail can sometimes do to depress the spring bar enough to get it back on. May the wristwatch gods hear our prayers: make. more. drilled. lugs.
12.2mm + 2.4mm dome crystal = dive watch proportions.
Drilled lugs = much easier for bracelet/strap swap outs.
As it’s a dive watch with 200m of water resistance, the crown screws down. The bezel is of the 120 click uni-directional variety, and it feels (and sounds) definitive and snappy. No wishy-washy-wiggly uncertainty between snaps.
Running off Miyota’s “premium” 9075 movement, the big triangle hour hand “jumps” independently forward or backwards an hour at a time when you rotate the crown in 2nd position. That’s also how you adjust the tonal date wheel at 6 o’clock (by speeding the hour hand backwards or forwards). The super subtle and unobtrusive GMT hand is done up in red with a lumed diamond at its tip, and takes 24 hours (naturally) to make one full spin around the dial. The 24 hour outer dial is also subtle.
The main color (center of dial and bezel) is called “Admiralty Gray.”
Think slate gray w/ blue undertones, which can lean blueish gray in some light conditions.
What really shines is the lume. Or in this case… lumes. (Pretty sure the plural of “lume” is lume… not lumes. RE moose/mooses and all that.) Lorier has used two, distinctive colors of lume for the Hydra. Bright blue on the dive bezel, inner dial, hour, minute, and seconds hands, green on 24-hour track outer dial and GMT hand. Each function has it’s own corresponding color. Brilliant.
The Hydra’s very smart two colors of lume.
So it’s two watches in one, it’s versatile enough to be worn with a suit and tie, or a swimsuit and nothing else, it’s got a nice automatic movement working away inside, and it looks great both in daylight as well as under the cover of darkness. And they’re charging six hundred bucks for the Hydra. That’s a price most style-enjoying people would consider reasonable. It’s also a price that watch nerds would call downright cheap.
Slim markings on the dive bezel. Slim red GMT hand.
Clearly there’s lots going on, but everything is getting along.
That’s a hell of a package.
Long live the Hydra, and long may Lorier continue doing what they do.
They’re quite good at it.
