It has a been a hectic couple of weeks, with my second eldest daughter graduating grade school up in Menlo Park and our annual street event, Fiesta del Sol happening this past 5 days preceded by a PuristsPro dinner up in Santa Monica Memorial Day weekend. I have been waiting patiently, as has a good friend and collector up in the Bay Area, for my Catalan friends from Barcelona to deliver the Oceana. I think I ordered the first one 2 years ago and took a deposit back then, with the "estimated delivery" of about 4 months…it has been a "Bit of a buggers muddle" as my very English ex-army Col. of a Grandfather used to say!

Well, as these things on occasion end up taking "a bit" or sometimes "a lot" longer to actually arrive on our shores from Europe, I have to say this was the longest wait. In fact I even offered to give my friend his deposit back, as I felt rather embarrassed at the length and continued excuses from Barcelona as to why we still didn't have a watch. Since ordering the watch, it has changed in case material from steel to grade 5 Titanium, which to give Dani (from Pita Barcelona) credit where credit is due, was offered at the original steel pricing to this patient fellow. As he is one who takes the long view, has patience and has a few other watches in his stable I might add, he went the distance and tomorrow will receive his Oceana Ti 2000! All I can say is it was worth the wait, as I have a couple for stock, and I am thrilled to have these great dive/sport watches in Solana Beach. I do have to say that as these Independent Watchmakers rely on outside suppliers for certain parts, in this instance the complicated case, I do have appreciation for why it sometimes takes longer than originally anticipated, and add to this the tiny quantities involved with these guys as opposed to the big brands, one can see why they might not receive the full attention of the supplying company!

The technology involved on the patented case and patented "Time Setting Mechanism" is quite something and those of you who are engineering types will find it fascinating how they use magnets to set the time. As you can see in the following pictures, Pita Barcelona uses no traditional winding crown and stem. This is a feature of all their watches and lends itself perfectly for a dive watch, as this is usually one of the main areas of concern for watchmakers when designing a dive watch for a good water resistant seal. Available in two executions, one a rather amazing 2000 meter depth rating, plenty of leeway here for your casual scuba diver, the next is a bit of a "Just because we can" watch, with a 5000meter or 16,404.2feet depth rating!!!

The human body would have long given up trying to remain in its current form at 5000meters, but this watch will and to give it kudos where no other dive watch can, the hands can be set underwater if necessary. Actually, as I think about this last feature, I'm not sure why one would want to be able to adjust the time once submerged, but if you feel the need you can with this watch! Now it isn't the deepest rating for a dive watch, but it is certainly up there without using a silicon type of liquid filling with a quartz movement like several of the ridiculously deep rated watch. Bell & Ross comes to mind at around 11,000 meters!!!!

So to the pictures, and I just want to say even with my new camera and borrowed professional macro lens, it is a bear to photograph owing to the domed acrylic crystal with no AR(anti-reflective) coating…well here goes, not my usual caliber of pictures! :