Vostok Amphibia 120360NK SE

The sun is shining here in the UK this afternoon and I had a few hours to spare so I thought I would take a few pictures and share my thoughts on the Vostok Amphibia 120360NK SE. This is a Special Edition Vostok Amphibia that I purchased from Meranom a few months ago which I haven’t really worn much yet. This is my second Vostok Amphibia in the the 120 case that is in my collection, I bought another one recently for a little light modding and you can see that in my previous blog post. I shared my thoughts about the the 120 case in that post.

Vostok Amphibia 120360NK SE

What most drew me to the Vostok Amphibia 120360NK SE was the sandwich-type dial and the clean bezel. This is my first Amphibia with a clean bezel and, compared to the normal and various aftermarket diver’s bezels, I think it changes the whole look of the watch. It makes it a much dressier proposition. The dial is a very attractive burnished orange colour with a metallic looking finish which gives it glorious sunburst effect. The colours and the finish really dance in the sunlight, something I have no real way of capturing in any photographs. The sandwich dial is a dial with the indices cut out to reveal a second luminous dial underneath. It is probably most famously seen in Panerai watches and was developed after the Italian Navy requested watches with brighter lume. There is a good article about the sandwich dial at the Fratello Watches website. I am not entirely sure how this particular Vostok dial is constructed but I suspect it might not be a true sandwich dial but some sort of variation on it.  Nevertheless it is a very nice effect and and a bit of a change from the standard Vostok dials.

The other main noticeable difference with this special edition is that it features some rather nice sword type hands. These have a black outline and a good bit of lume in the centre and make a change from the standard Amphibia arrow type hands. They are cleaner and smarter in style. The seconds hand is a all white version of the standard standard Amphibia seconds hand. These combine against the dial to make a very nice hand and dial set that is very clean and easy to read. The lume is pretty good too, for an Amphibia!

The Vostok Amphibia 120360NK SE came on a good quality, heavy duty (read stiff!) 18mm 4 ring zulu type strap in a sort of orange-y / brown / green colour which complements the colour of the dial very well. I am guessing the NK suffix of the watch code specifies “Nato Khaki”. The clean bezel really does make the watch look cleaner and smarter than a normal Vostok Amphibia and, I think, if this was on a different strap, something smart, brown and leather perhaps, this could be quite a dressy watch (albeit a little deeper than most). The watch also has the new stainless steel crown to finish things off.

Once again this Amphibia Special Edition seems to have a really good quality finish and look to it. Vostok are producing some really interesting and nice looking watches at the moment and the Vostok Amphibia 120360NK SE looks a lot more expensive that it really is (I paid $134 for it in early 2016). A very good-looking watch and a definite keeper.