This is a custom made dive watch for Thomas Styron. The watch used for basis of the modification was a stock Zeno 300m dive watch from Eddie Platts. It was styled after the Blancpain and Blanford dive watches, the latter which was already subjected to frankenization for Bill.

Thomas wanted to transform the military style aspect of the Zeno to a true military issue form. We started out by removing the NAVY Seal Trident logo on the caseback. Then, the shiny stainless steel case was sand-blasted to make it non-reflective.

The bezel and crown were also subjected to the sand-blast; these were previously too cumbersome to do, but my watchmaker, Mr. Chung, found a professional metal finisher that could sand-blast just about anything. The resulting matte case made the watch look more stealthy.

The original dome shaped plastic crystal was simply beautiful, so I had left the crystal as it was.

Some of you may notice that the gigantic bezel ring is reminiscent of Ruhla Hybrid No. 3 for Rich. It clicks counter clock-wise and the luminous marker at 12 burns quite nicely.

Zeno came with a non-hacking ETA 21-jewel automatic with quickset date, calibre 2846. Mr. Chung fitted a hack-level so that the second hand would stop for precise time setting. Then, a custom made British MOD dial for dive watches was installed. The date wheel was removed in the process as the MOD spec does not include the date feature, as is common for most military issued timepieces.

Zeno's shiny metal second hand did not balance well with the design of the dial and white edged minute and hour hands. It was instead replaced with a straight white colored second hand. The circle 'T' mark above 6 o'clock marker on the dial denotes the use of tritium for luminescence, as specified by MOD, but in reality, a non-radioactive compound (probably Zinc Sulfide or Luminova) was used on the dial. I would have to speak with the dial manufacturer for the precise compound used, but the color looks similar if not identical to the one applied on the original Zeno hands.

When the watch was completed, a 20mm sized black NATO strap was fitted. It went well with the MOD dial. The matte finish of the case made the watch look like it was light-weight but in fact the watch is very heavy.

I am very pleased with the result of the latest hybrid. It is something of a mixture of Blanford, CWC, with a touch of sterile Ruhla hybrid. Enjoy the photos, and click them for detailed view!