U-BOAT CAPSOIL DARKMOON – Return of the poor?
The U-Boat Capsoil series was officially released in November 2018. They just released the second iteration of this concept called Darkmoon. This new series adopts a more concise approach and lower entry price, but looking at it, we can’t help thinking of other oily timepieces-because in the watch industry, there is nothing new under the sun or under the moon (watch brands like the moon, especially It’s the dark side for some reason).
U-Boat’s new oil-filled Darkmoon watch is easier to obtain.
“CAPSOIL goes beyond the boundaries of traditional design, combining innovative functions with retro-style lines. The oily liquid flows into the dial, making it an absolute dark black, surprisingly magnifying the pointers that seem to flow freely without glass. Vision.” -U Boat
The battery-powered movement can be seen through the exhibition-style bottom cover. Nevertheless, U-Boat seems to have heard criticism about it being a quartz watch, and the newer model has a solid back cover and does not run the second hand (making it less obvious, it is a quartz watch).
The movement is a 2-hand Ronda 712 movement with a battery life of approximately 60 months. The dial of the Capsoil/Darkmoon model has red text on it, which says: work between 0/+60 degrees Celsius. Interestingly, the Ronda technical sheet lists the operating temperature of the 712 as 0-50°C.
U-Boat fake has a bubble.
We learned from implementing the DIY oil-filled model that results can be achieved without bubbles, but this requires additional time and precision. U-Boat said that they deliberately left a bubble under the crystal so that the oil could be seen floating around. Maybe production scalability was part of their decision to leave the bubble, or maybe it was because the bubble proved that there was indeed oil in it.
The bubbles work well with the borderless curved crystal, but it’s a bit like Panerai’s inverted cyclops floating under the crystal. Some people will like it very much, while others will be annoyed by the idea of strapping a spirit level to their wrists.
The original Capsoil part had a door on the box at 3:00 with the words Unscrew to Fill Up on it. It remains to be seen whether the bubble will get bigger or smaller over time, and how “filling up” will affect it. What we do know is that when you send your watch for a new battery, your local watchmaker probably doesn’t want to touch it, so please be prepared and heard that it must be returned to U-Boat for repair.
Either way, we like how U-Boat incorporates foam into the marketing logo of the Capsoil and Darkmoon series.AAA replica watch
The oil-filled series has a 44 mm 2-pin model or a 45 mm chronograph. None of the models have a date. They are shipped out on a 22mm lug width vulcanized rubber strap with the U-boat CAPSOIL text. The black dial has “Old Radium” Super-LumiNova luminous on the hands and markings.
The case can be steel or black DLC. Although the price mentioned above starts at US$980, this is for the DARKMOON steel model with mineral crystals and 50m water resistance (reference number: 8463). For comparison, DLC chrono (reference: 8109/B) is priced at US$2,290, with sapphire and 100m waterproof rating.
Overall, the Darkmoon watch looks interesting and worth a try. Explore the Capsoil collection here, and the new Darkmoon Watch here.