My Eastern Watch Collection: Damasko DS30 - Excellent Legibility and Blends Naturally Without Excessive Wrist Presence, A Review (plus Video)

German watch brands have always intrigued me. The likes of Sinn, MeisterSinger and others have some design features that I find interesting and useful. Damasko is no exception.

I was first introduced to the brand many years ago. The unique Damasko’s proprietary ice-hardened steel compound used for its watches impressed me immensely. Nevertheless, I never got down to search to get one for the collection. To be honest, the pricing was too rich for my budget. Recently, I noticed that a low-entry level DS30 was available that fit my budget. Moreover, a special Christmas sale pricing made the offering hard to pass.

The Brand

As this will be the first watch under the Damasko brand to join the collection, I will introduce the brand in detail.

Damasko was established in Germany in 1994 by Mr. Konrad Damasko. The brand's unique value preposition was several. The first was the creation of a proprietary ice-hardened stainless steel case. The second was a patented free oscillating balance wheel coupled with a poly-crystalline silicon spring. These materials are insensitive to magnetic fields and resistant to any damage caused by pressure and temperature changes. More importantly, the timepieces are extremely accurate too.

To ensure the brand have a commanding lead in the area of watchmaking, Damasko watches have their own high-precision in-house movements.

Due to their innovative nature, Damasko watches are generally priced at a premium when compared to other watches.

The Series

The DS30 series is a set of Damasko models having three-hands, a date complication and using a generic automatic movement, the ETA2824-2. These simpler features allowed the brand to priced this series to a level that would be more palatable to more customers. Currently, there are seven models under this series. These are:

DS30 Black dial White seconds hand EUR1,210; RM4,701	DS30 Blue Black dial Blue seconds hand EUR1,210; RM4,701	DS30 Green Black dial Green seconds hand EUR1,210; RM4,701
DS30 Yellow Black dial Yellow seconds hand EUR1,210; RM4,701	DS30 Ocean Blue dial White seconds hand EUR1,265; RM4,909	DS30 OBO Blue dial Orange seconds hand EUR1,265; RM4,909
DS30 Grey EUR1,265; RM4,701	* The information about the series was obtained from Damasko website: www.damasko-watches.com/ The EUR prices as per the main website. The RM prices as per Gnomon's website.	Note: On Gnomon's website there is an option for a bracelet but that will be an additional RM590. On the main website the bracelets are sold separately for EUR770.

If given the option, I would choose the DS30 Green. Unfortunately, the only one currently available is the DS30.

The Watch

Pricing was the major stumbling block for this brand. The use of exotic materials and in-house movements put its price point at a premium level. Thankfully, Damasko has decided to offer a more affordable option in the form of the DS30 series.

What makes a Damasko watch unique? The primary one is the material used for the watch casing. The DS30 casing is made in-house and is the second model for the brand to be using what Damasko calls “Deutscher U-Boat-Stahl” which translates to be Germany Submarine Steel (or U-Boat steel, for short). The U-Boat steel is a high strength alloy steel and used extensively in the construction of German submarines and navy ships. The bead-blasted submarine steel makes it strong and highly scratch and corrosion resistant. The uniqueness of the steel can be easily discerned from its dark titanium grey color, unlike the more typical 316L steel used on most watches. Moreover, the steel is quite anti-magnetic, thus eliminating the need for an internal anti-magnetic system and hence a slimmer profile.

From what I can gather from reading old review on the DS30, the current DS30 is slightly different than the initial DS30 which only had a 100 meter water resistance rating. The newer DS30 has a new case design that pushed is water resistant by 100% to 200 meters. Measuring in at 39.0 mm wide with an overall lug-to-lug length of 46.5 mm, the watch is well sized to most wrists. Coupled with a height of just 9.95 mm and a lug width of 20.0 mm, this is a flexible watch for all occasions. Moreover, with a casing weight of just 56 grams, wearing the watch for extended period will not be taxing to the wearer.

The matte black dial plus the Damasko signature cross hair design gives a simple and unambiguous, yet contrasting effect. The bold rectangular indices are painted on with white SuperLuminova™ C1. The main hands are similarly decorated, covered in the same white luminous paint for the hour and minute hand, with the seconds hand painted in matched non-luminous white.

There are only three lines of texts and logo on the dial. The logo and the brand are on the upper quadrant while the sentence 'Made In Germany' in on the lower quadrant. All texts and logo are printed in white. This makes the watch one of the only few watches out there that only have two contrasting colours which definitely aid legibility.

I truly appreciate Damasko for not placing the date aperture where the 3:00 hour marker is. By not replacing or even truncating the hour marker, there is symmetry to the dial which I appreciate. Nevertheless, if there is one wish I can make is to have a no-date version of the DS30 (an option is to get the DK30 but this comes with an in-house movement that bumped up the price considerably). I don't find the date complication of much use nowadays. I was made to understand that the date disc is custom made by Damasko. Kudos to them but personally I can't see what's unique about that date wheel compared to other date wheels.

Protecting the dial is a flat sapphire crystal with dual anti-reflective treatment. The edge is beveled and is raised just slightly above the fixed bezel. A point to note is the special gasket used, a patented Viton® o-ring gasket resistant to UV radiation that keeps the sapphire crystal in position. The same gasket system is also used in other parts of the watch such as the crown and case-back.

Legibility is stunning. The minimal texts and the straight lines make it simpler to read the time. I have to admit after looking at the watch for sometime, I now know why Damako took the effort to custom made the date wheel. The edge of the date aperture and the background of the date wheel merged seamlessly. Unless you look using a magnifying glass, you would not noticed the aperture. Everything appears to be on one flat surface.

The signed screw-down crown is located at 3:00 and partially protected by a pair of shoulders tabs. The crown is equipped with Damasko’s permanent lubrication cell that ensures for the smooth operation and lubrication of the shaft and gasket. Moreover, screw-down crown tube has been screwed into the casing which facilitate maintenance in the long run.

The screw-down solid case-back is devoid from any graphics apart from some texts relating to the watch. Underneath is case-back is the tried-and-tested ETA2824-2 automatic movement. There is no issue with this movement.

For a watch collector and knowing Damasko has their own in-house movements, the goal is to acquire examples of such models. In my case, it took me a long time to decide but in the end, I decided to go for the level-entry offering from Damasko. The combination of pricing and the fact that this will be the first model of the brand in the collection guided my decision on the DS30. Who knows what the future shall hold 😁

Paired with the casing is a vintage mocha leather strap with signed bead blasted steel buckle. The strap is connected to the casing via the 20.0 mm lugs with pass-through lug holes to ease strap replacement. I was surprised how soft and flexible the leather strap when I first got it. Generally, it will take a few days of wearing to 'season' a leather strap. However, it this case, the leather strap was just perfect out of the box.

Unfortunately, nighttime legibility is average. Although the spaces where the SuperLuminova™ C1 was added was sufficiently wide to apply a good amount of paint, the illumination is still pale in comparison to the illumination by the Japanese LumiBrite paint.