Chase-Durer

Chase-Durer Men's 246.4BB7-XL-BR Special Forces 1000XL Black Ionic-Plated Underwater Demolition Team Watch

• Precise Swiss-quartz movement
• Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal
• Solid 316L Black PVD coated stainless steel case and matching bracelet; screw-down crown case back; unidirectional bezel with 0-60 and 360 degree compass markers

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Powered by precise Swiss quartz movement and constructed for superior durability, the Chase-Durer Men's Special Forces 1000XL Black Ionic-Plated Underwater Demolition Team Watch features a black-ion-plated stainless steel band that joins to a black-ion-plated stainless steel case with a screw-down caseback. A unidirectional, black-ion-plated stainless steel bezel offers white compass markings and Arabic numeral and stick minute markers. Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal coating on the dial window protects a black dial that displays three subdials, luminescent square hour indicators, luminescent hands, white stick minute markers, and a date window at the four o'clock. Super-Luminova illumination and a tachymeter round out the many features of this timepiece. This watch is water resistant to 984 feet (300 M).

The Chase Durer Story

FOR THOSE WHO KNOW WATCHES

    Formed a decade ago by Hollywood film producers Brandon and Marianne Chase, the company structure was based on the need for realistically-priced, top quality Swiss Watches specifically directed to the needs of professional pilots, both civilian and military. The design process began after months of consultation with all categories of flyers. It was only after this research that the precision timepieces went to the drawing boards, then to prototype testing and finally into production.
 
    The reaction to the CHASE-DURER "look" and to its functionality, ruggedness and dependability was instantly acknowledged by the aviation world. Not only were their most important needs incorporated into the watches, but CHASE-DURER created a pricing structure that raised eyebrows within the industry by eliminating the exorbitant profits demanded by other companies making similar (though not as attractive) timepieces. "Prices for top quality Swiss Watches include thousands of dollars of profit on each watch for the manufacturer and this is simply not necessary," said company founder Brandon Chase. "There is no need to go beyond fair pricing for top quality to maintain our company's success and our customers' support," said Chase. Today, thousands of military and commercial pilots in many nations covet their CHASE-DURER Watches. Hundreds of unsolicited rave reviews are on file at the CHASE-DURER offices. Repeat buyers are counted in the thousands. Following their success in the aviation world, CHASE-DURER entered into another form of military timepiece, the ultra-rugged SPECIAL FORCES Underwater Demolition Team Chronograph series. Again the company met with officers and enlisted men from Special Forces units and, before long, the unique SF 1000 was born.
 
    Since the creation of its first watches, CHASE-DURER has spread its wings and created an entire collection of quality Swiss watches that enjoy the very special "look" and pricing that continue to be the buzz of the industry. The Collection is the largest Chronograph selection of Military, Special Forces, Pilot, Racing, Diving and Ladies' Sport Watches available. The range is complete, from moderately priced models to diamond and 18K gold models. Scores of different choices have been designed to satisfy the needs of discerning watch buyers in every field of endeavor, offering a wide selection of features within a popular price range.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001GQ1TQ6
• Item model number: 246.4BB7-XL-BR
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,655 in Watches (See Top 100 in Watches)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great watch at a great price, February 26, 2009

By 

J. C. Sanders "Histomage" (Oklahoma City, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chase-Durer Men's 246.4BB7-XL-BR Special Forces 1000XL Black Ionic-Plated Underwater Demolition Team Watch (Watch)

I've actually wanted one of these watches for several years, but wasn't willing to cut loose with $800-$900 directly from Chase Durer. At $599, this watch is a bargain. It's easy to read above the surface and underwater and, if you dive, that's obviously a real plus. This watch is also very rugged without being too heavy. I highly recommend this product.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Watch, October 5, 2011

By 

Friedrice - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chase-Durer Men's 246.4BB7-XL-BR Special Forces 1000XL Black Ionic-Plated Underwater Demolition Team Watch (Watch)

This is an amazing watch. I got this watch as a gift but never wore it until recently. I love the functionality of the watch and its features. It is dead accurate and for the most part dependable so far. This is my daily watch and I am very careful with this watch, just like many aspects in my life. I enjoy collecting watches and own some Tag Heuers, Omeaga's,Invicta's, and a Rolex. I wanted a watch that I could wear daily and not worry or gripe if I accidentally hit a corner on rare occasions. I wanted a quartz movement because automatic watches, no matter how expensive they may be, will loose time if they are not wound daily or worn. I know some people may have disagreed with that statement but that is one's opinion. I wanted a Swiss movement and company that was not just created yesterday. I wanted a watch that I could dive with but not to do the extreme depths of saturation diving. I like how versatile this watch can be with just about any attire. My biggest and only complaint is how the paint will wear and eventually show on the links and clasp area. All watches will scratch even my Rolex. It is my opinion that this watch will show more wear and scratches because of the black matte finish compared to a stainless steel bracelet. I just wish that it didn't because I love the all Black matte finish. I am confident that the watch will pass in a rugged and durability test but as a far as the finish, it would fail with how easy it is to scratch the clasp by simply typing on the keyboard. Overall this watch is great. I am seriously debating on buying another one to keep as a spare because I really really enjoy wearing every it day, minus that it is a scratch magnet.

Here are some keys notes that I would suggest to anyone who is interested in this watch:

Pros:
It is very stylish in a suit.
It is stylish in a casual attire.
It is built well and has a very nice sapphire crystal glass.
It is a heavy watch for thus who like watches with some weight.
It is a big face watch display for those who like them.
It is 300 meters water resist compared to watches that are more expensive or the same price.
It has a Swiss quarts movement.
It has a cool black matte finish.
It has lum that glows for more then 10 mins
It has a expanded divers clasp built into the bracelet.

Cons:
It maybe too heavy for some people.
It maybe too big for some people especially if they are use to watches with a case of 40-41mm. This Watch is 44mm on the Chase Durer website specs.
It does not glow as long as some of my other watches such as my Rolex submariner , Omega seamaster, Tag Heuer Aqua racer, and Invicta Subaqua III. The lum is average but not exceptional for the price.
Dull Matte Black Finish requires you have to be a careful if you would like this watch to be perfect. This is a scratch magnet if you are not careful. The Black ion plating paint will chip and show the steel underneath over time. Chase Durer does not sell a replacement bracelet for this watch so you will need to either replace it with an after market or purchase a new watch. Do not expect this watch to be black and perfect because all watches scratch on the clasp and bracelet.
It is not an automatic and requires a battery change every 2-4 years.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is one tough watch!, October 18, 2011

By 

Kixum (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chase-Durer Men's 246.4BB7-XL-BR Special Forces 1000XL Black Ionic-Plated Underwater Demolition Team Watch (Watch)

SF1000XL UDT

This is a review on the Chase-Durer Special Forces 1000XL Underwater Demolition Team Watch (or UDT for short).

Summary:
Pros:
Part of the primary function of this watch is how it looks. It's designed to look like a military application timepiece and this watch achieves that goal. The watch has a great black finish and there's TONS of information on the dial. It looks military, it feels military (the sucker is heavy), and it works military.
In terms of operational features, this watch is essentially a regular watch and a stopwatch. There is a tachymeter on the dial and a rotating compass bezel for those who think that it's needed. It's waterproof to 1000ft and according to information gathered on the internet the movement is truly rugged and can handle some significant beating.

Cons:
Battery replacement will require that you go to a Chase-Durer dealer or, mail the watch to Chase-Durer, or go to a jeweler that knows how to replace a battery in a dive watch. In addition, it's difficult to know what the service is like for Chase-Durer. There are many conflicting reports on the internet concerning this aspect of the company. In addition, the specific watch I received has issues (sticky button (almost doesn't work) and the 12 hour hand is slightly off a couple degrees). This watch is also quite heavy but this should be expected for such a "tough" watch.

Recommendation:
If you want a military looking timepiece, this is the watch for you. It keeps very good time and seems to be quite rugged (as designed). Be prepared to be spending significant bucks for a battery replacement (on the order of $50 to $60) and be ready to have something on your wrist which is a little heavier than the average watch.

Review:
The watch has seven hands. There is the standard hour and minute hands. Then there are three small hands which are on three small separate displays. The first display is a 12 hour dial and is used to show how many hours have passed since the stopwatch has been started. A second dial represents the 10th's of a second. When the stopwatch is stopped, the hand will rotate to show the resulting tenths of a second. The third dial has a half red and half yellow face. This dial is has the actual second hand used for the regular watch keeping function. The last two hands are a red second hand on the main dial and a white hand directly underneath the red second hand. The red second hand counts seconds when using the stopwatch feature and the white hand counts minutes.
I actually prefer a watch to have a full size rotating second hand for time keeping. This watch does not utilize the full size second hands for regular time keeping but rather uses them for the stopwatch feature. While this is very practical when using the watch in the stopwatch mode, it is a little weird to see the second hand sitting still during regular time keeping mode (which is what this watch does on my wrist 99.9% of the time).

It is possible to get the watch to show a second time zone using the stop watch feature but it's a little tricky to get it to work. In order for the watch to show the time in a second time zone, first you must pull out the primary button to the first position (unscrew it then pull it out one click). You can then set the 12 hour stopwatch hand to the desired time in the zone you want it to represent. For example, if you want it to show that it's 5:00 in another time zone, keep pushing the small top setting button until the 12 hour time keeping hand travels to the 5 position. Then, once that has been set, you have to wait for the regular time to reach the top of the hour and start the stop watch. The stopwatch is in essence keeping the time for the second time zone. This means that you have one chance every hour to get the watch to start tracking a second time zone. It's not too hard but it is a little bit of a pain. It also means that you need to remember to set the 12 hour hand to the correct time zone that is associated with the time when the watch reaches the top of the hour. It also means that the stop watch minute hand will be following along with the regular minute hand. It's a little weird but it works. I find it quite useful when I am traveling.

Another "military" aspect to the watch is that it's brutally simple. As an example, the minute hand is directly geared to the second hand and responds exactly as you set it. If you set the minute hand to be directly aligned with the minute markings when the second hand reaches zero seconds, the minute hand will then track minutes with the second hand correctly. However, if you have the minute hand pointing between the minute markings when the second hand reaches zero, the watch will continue to track that time delta. Therefore, if you want the minute hand and the second hand to be aligned, you must take care to set the watch appropriately.

This watch is heavy! It's really made of a metal case with a metal band and it's got a lot of real metal in it. I thought that my Oceanus was a heavy and large watch. After wearing the UDT for two weeks, I put on my Oceanus and I thought I had forgotten to put a watch on! I have gained a lot of respect for a watch which is light and thin. However, the UDT is supposed to be rugged and tough and the case is pretty dang beefy and that's what it's supposed to be. It may be a con so to speak but it is a feature of the watch that should be expected for something that's supposed to be super tough.

The specific watch that I received has three particular problems with it. First, the top button does not work very well. It sticks pretty badly and requires a lot of work to get it to do what it should. Second, the 12 hour hand is off by about 2 degrees. Now I realize this is a nitpick but dang it, I paid a lot of money for this watch and it should be better than this. Third, the band is hard to release when I want to take it off. It takes a little bit of wrenching to get the band to release. There are several other reviewers which discuss similar issues. Given that the difficulty with the customer service that is also on the internet, I am quite reluctant to send the watch in for work so I'm simply going to live with it.

The links in the watch band are all the same size. There are no "half links" in the band. The band is a little to big for my wrist and adjusting the band must be done in full link steps. I don't think I can take a full link removal and get it to still fit so that's a little bit of a problem.

According to the internet research I have done, Chase-Durer has a very strange track record for customer service. The information I have read from a wide variety of websites would indicate the customer service is VERY bad or VERY good. Almost everything I've read is very biased one way or the other. As a consumer, the bad is what sticks out. Issues range from poor customer service when on the phone with Chase-Durer to having the watch become damaged when sending Chase-Durer the watch for a battery replacement. Given this type of information, I'm reluctant to send the watch in for work to Chase-Durer. When the time comes for a battery replacement, I will have to do some searching to determine what the smartest course of action should be.

The watch is battery powered with an advertised life span of three years (although some people on the internet report five year life spans). This watch has many design characteristics of a diving watch which means that opening it is hard, if you open it, the seal will almost surely need replacing, and closing it will be hard. All of those things mean that the average dude should not open this watch. The general consensus when researching this watch is DO NOT OPEN it yourself.

The result is that if you want to have the battery replaced, you're going to have to take it somewhere. Also, depending on where you live, access to a Chase-Durer dealer might be a little difficult so you might need to send the watch to someone in the mail. For me, this is not a positive thing because I paid a lot of money for this watch and that means I want to retain control over it. When it's in the mail, it can get lost, and when it is being worked on by somebody I don't know in a place far far away, some potential fool can gouge the back of my watch with a case wrench, dork up the seal replacement, and return my watch in beat up condition without my ability to observe and manage the result. Reports on the internet have several of these kinds of stories. In addition, the cost for this service is expensive (more than $50 according to some websites). So, if you're comfy mailing your watch off once every three years and taking the risk the watch will get damaged for a $50+ pricetag, then you're going to be just fine. If you're not like that, be aware there is some liability associated with a battery replacement.

Objectively, there probably have been tons of people who have had 100% successful battery replacement with no problems at all but they don't complain so we don't know what the success to failure ratio is. Unfortunately, the number of issues that I have discovered surrounding battery replacement is somewhat of a concern for me personally.

Until I need a battery replacement though, the watch is performing very well and I'm enjoying it a lot. I think after I bought this watch that I would have really preferred seeing one in real life first and I also would have preferred talking to a dealer about it before I bought it. I don't have buyers remorse yet but there's still that daunting moment in the future when I have to have the battery replaced.