Every KUOE watch until now has been 35mm or below in diameter, so the new Sombrero dive watch at 38mm certainly shakes things up. But hats-off to them, it’s still sprinkled with a healthy dose of the KUOE DNA!
The KUOE KYOTO DNA
Japanese brand KUOE has quickly built an enviable reputation for itself by offering a wide range of appealing vintage-style watches that combine modern refinements and quality with true vintage proportions. I’d loosely describe most of its watches as either dress watches or field watches. However, the new Sombrero compressor-style diver, the eleventh collection to date, is unique in the line-up in that it’s the first true tool watch to come out of the KYOTO workshop.
If you’re not familiar with the KUOE KYOTO brand yet, check out my previous review of the Royal Smith 90-008, where I delve into their backstory a little.
KUOE Sombrero Overview
Firstly, let’s tackle the elephant in the room, the Sombrero moniker! I can virtually guarantee the first thought that came into your head was the famous hat of the same name, am I right?! However, ‘Sombrero’ is in fact taken from the name of a beautiful distant galaxy. This galaxy has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its outer disk, which give it the appearance of a sombrero hat, hence the name.
Five variants of the Sombrero 90-011 are available, and each comes supplied with either a flat link bracelet and leather strap, or a jubilee-style bracelet and leather strap. Whichever option you chose, the price remains the same at £845/€1050. You can choose from black, ivory, salmon pink, or a graduated dial which goes from ivory to black, all of which have black bezels. Or you could pick the green dial as featured here, which has a green bezel. In-keeping with the vintage style watches KUOE is renowned for, all dials have a linen texture and Old Radium coloured Swiss Super-LumiNova. Shipping begins in early January 2025, and with other KUOE watches selling like hot cakes, I see no reason for their latest offering to be any different. But is this watch out of this world, or more of a space oddity?
The Case and Wearing Experience
The Sombrero has a 38mm compressor-style case design with a 45.5mm lug-to-lug measurement and an overall thickness of 12.45mm, or 11mm excluding the crystal. This crowd-pleasing size will look right at home on most wrists. For reference, I have a 7.25-inch and like my watches slightly on the smaller side and found it to be perfect for me. It also worked on my wife’s 6.25-inch wrist and would look good on anything up to 7.5 inches, even bigger if you prefer modest sized watches. The 20mm lug width also means it will be easy to find alternative straps for it.
The traditional three-part 316L stainless steel case comprises brushed and high-polished finishes. Whilst the Sombrero lacks the case engineering required to make it a true super-compressor (true super-compressors use the water pressure exerted on the case to further compress the watch’s gaskets and thus make it more watertight), it retains the styling cues associated with them, such as the twin crowns and internal rotating diver’s bezel. It’s also anti-magnetic to 20,000 A/m (Ampere/Meter), approx. four times the rating needed to be ISO classed as anti-magnetic, but significantly lagging behind famously anti-magnetic watches such as the Rolex Milgauss or Omega Globemaster.
Working from dial side to rear, the gorgeous single-domed box sapphire crystal with flat top rises above the bezel and has anti-reflective coatings applied to the inside and an anti-fingerprint coating applied to the outer surface. The thin external bezel is entirely polished, whereas the lugs are satin-brushed to the top surfaces, with high-polished chamfers that widen towards the tips. The lug tips themselves are brushed. The case sides and lug sides are vertically brushed and have a more defined grain when compared to the top surfaces. It’s an attractive combination, and the vertical brushing on the case sides work particularly well as it accentuates the precise vertical juncture where the lugs attach. The closed screw-down caseback is circularly brushed around the perimeter with engraved specifications highlighted, a sandblaster centre and deep embossing bearing ‘Sombrero, model number and ‘Assembled by KUOE KYOTO’, a testament to the fact that watches are assembled and pressure tested to 200m / 20bar after assembly by KUOE’s own watchmakers in their KYOTO workshop.
The cup-cake shaped, screw-down crowns are located at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock, with the 2 o’clock crown operating the inner rotating diver’s bezel and the 4 o’clock crown used for setting the time. The four o’clock crown is engraved with the brand’s logo. The internal bezel operation is silky smooth and both crowns operate flawlessly and with confidence. The deep grooves and shape of them make them a joy to use.
My review watch came on what KUOE refer to as a flat link bracelet, but I’d describe it more as a half-way house between an oyster style bracelet and a president style bracelet. The link shape is oval but with a flat underside similar to an oyster-style bracelet, but the links are very short, more akin to the president style bracelet. Regardless of what you want to call it, it’s a truly lovely satin-brushed bracelet that complements the watch beautifully. It feels well-engineered, nicely weighted and is extremely comfortable, thanks to the short and fluid links, each of which comprises three articulating sections. The bracelet tapers from 20mm down to 18mm and is fitted with quick release spring bars for easy strap changes and a milled, fold-over clasp with twin security triggers. The clasp also has a four-position sliding adjustment mechanism for on-the-fly resizing, polished bevels, and is engraved with ‘KUOE KYOTO’. Removeable links are secured by single-sided screws.
The watch also comes supplied with a good quality, supple, German leather strap in brown with curved ends and a brushed buckle bearing the KUOE logo. The strap colour varies depending on dial you opt for, but I felt that fitting the brown leather strap to the green dial variant gave it a bit more of a retro look. My only minor criticism is that even with the curved ends, the leather strap does leave quite a gap between it and the watch case, and a lot of the case is visible between the lugs. Thankfully the case is well-finished even between the lugs so it’s not a big issue, but a slightly thicker leather strap or better placed strap holes on the case could possibly help minimise this.
The case and bracelet are well-designed with good ergonomics and proportions, making it a comfortable watch and one that’s very easy to live with. There is a high standard of finishing across the board with precise transitions between finish types. Other than very minor criticisms with the leather strap, it’s difficult to find anything to complain about here!
The KUOE Sombrero Dial
I have to say, when I unboxed the Sombrero, I was somewhat surprised by the dial as it was not quite what I was expecting from having looked at the brand’s own website images. In real life the linen texture is much less prominent, more uniform and has a darker, bluer hue. I must admit I was slightly disappointed as I would have preferred it to be more like the website photos suggest. It’s a similar story with the colour-matched inner rotating diver’s bezel which is more metallic than I was expecting. I think a more subdued, matt and subtly textured finish would suit the watch better.
The sloped inner rotating bi-directional bezel has engraved minute markings filled with old radium coloured Swiss Super-LumiNova. There is inverted triangle at 12 o’clock, a mix of small and large hash marks for the first 15 minutes, Arabic numerals for every ten minutes and hash markers for every five. There is a white printed railroad track running around the permitter of the main dial, with small markers for every fifth of a second and larger ones for every whole second. ‘Japan Made’ is printed within the railroad track, either side of the six o’clock marker.
The brushed steel applied hour indices are a mix of baton-shaped markers with chamfered inner edges, and Arabic numerals for the 3, 6, 9 and 12 with accompanying shorter batons. The applied indices have a nice depth to them and are again filled with old radium coloured Swiss Super-Luminova. The brushed steel sword-style hour and minute hands are filled with the same lume compound down their entire length, whereas the seconds hand is a simple needle shape with lume pip and circular counter-balance. If I’m being really picky, I feel that the minute hand could be just a tiny bit longer. The full brand name is printed in white between the pinion and 12 o’clock marker, and there are three lines of text beneath the pinion, comprising ‘SOMBRERO’, ‘Water Resistant / 200m’ and ‘Anti-Magnetic 20,000 A/m’.
Despite my observations about the dial not quite matching my expectations, it has to be said, this is still one gorgeous dial. I love a compressor style dive watch anyway, so I might be a bit biased, but to me KUOE has got the design bang on with the Sombrero dial. The old radium coloured Swiss Super-LumiNova complements the green dial beautifully and is also surprisingly powerful. The mix of applied batons, Arabic numerals and sword handset just all work really well together. Legibility is excellent, and I love the fact there is no date window to interrupt the balance and symmetry.
The Movement
The KUOE Sombrero is fitted with the Miyota 9039 movement, a premium Japanese automatic movement from Citizen. This movement is almost identical to the popular 9015 movement, except that it does not have a date complication and has a slightly lower hand stack height. With no need for a date wheel there is only one position on the crown. Simply unscrew, pull out and set the time, screw back in. The 9039 has an accuracy rating of -10 to +30 seconds per day (23º± 2ºC), nothing exceptional, but decent enough. It has a 42-hour power reserve, it’s hackable allowing you to set the time precisely and you can hand-wind the movement. The beat rate is 28,800bph/4Hz so the seconds-hand sweep is smooth. Overall, the 9039 is an excellent movement, with reliability and robustness being its strongest points, making it a good choice in a watch such as this.
Final Thoughts on the KUOE Sombrero
The sombrero is a phenomenal choice if you’re looking for a smaller-cased compressor style dive watch and it’s good to see KUOE venture into new territory. Without exception, until now all KUOE watches have all been 35mm or less, could easily be mistaken for genuine vintage watches and couldn’t really be considered true tool watches, so the Sombrero is a brave move for the brand. Whilst you wouldn’t really mistake the Sombrero for an actual vintage watch, it certainly blends vintage with modern in such a way as to not abandon its ethos or scare away loyal customers. Most compressor style dive watches of the 1950s-1970s were sized between 36mm and 42mm and one of the most iconic, the original 1960s Longines Legend Diver, had a 42mm case diameter, so the Sombrero with its 38mm case very much errs on the side of modest proportions. However, in terms of aesthetics, the Sombrero sits squarely in the middle of vintage and modern. The sapphire crystal, vintage-toned luminescent compound and linen dial bring the vintage, whereas the level of finishing, reliable automatic movement and modern refinements such as quick release bracelet and adjustable clasp far exceed vintage counterparts and ensure it will be a robust and reliable workhorse for those with an active lifestyle.
Besides my observations about the appearance of the dial, there’s very little to complain about with this watch other than the price, which is getting up there for a microbrand watch using a Miyota movement. However, the wise and well-informed watch enthusiast knows that a watch is often more than the sum of its parts, and that’s certainly the case here! Plus, it’s worth remembering, especially if you’re in the UK, that KUOE’s prices always include import duties and customs charges, so the price you see is the true price you pay!
The Sombrero is well designed, refined, tough, wears well and just looks awesome. KUOE has barely put a foot wrong since Kenji Uchimura founded the brand just four years ago, and the Sombrero certainly looks to continue that winning streak!
