Erebus Origin Watch Review | Jody’s Secret Project Revealed!
99% of YouTuber products are hot garbage. If they’re not an outright cryptocurrency or NFT scam, they’re usually generic, dropshipped items with a logo lazily stamped on.
Things get a bit more interesting when the YouTuber is a well-renowned specialist in that same product category. That’s very much the case with Jody from the channel Just One More Watch. Over the last seven years, he’s uploaded hundreds of wristwatch reviews and gradually become one of the largest watch creators on the platform, accruing almost 300,000 subscribers to date.
But it seems Jody wasn’t satisfied with simply reviewing other people’s watches…
As you can guess from the blog title, he’s made his own. Introducing Erebus Watches.
On paper, this seems like a great idea. A watch expert making his own watch…the chances of it sucking must be quite low, right? I mean, his hard-earned, trustworthy reputation would be ruined if this were a scam…eti. Why would he risk it?
Well, it’s an old maxim that big bucks can change a man. Is this his way of cashing out using his YouTube audience? Are he and his business partner, Mr P, just desperate for their own Movado buyout?
To find out, I’ll be giving a brief review of the Erebus Origin, which is the launch watch in his collection. I say brief, as he wants my thoughts before the preorders conclude, so I’ve not had my usual long stint with them. Nevertheless, we’ll look at the specs, the design, and how it compares to other offerings on the market, to see if it can hold its own even without the YouTuber endorsement.
Price
Now, I’m on friendly terms with Jody, but I’m sure he wants my honest thoughts on these to inform future releases. As such, I’ll do my best to provide a no-filter perspective. After all, the preorder price of $299 is a fair chunk of change for me or you to spend on a little-known watch brand, regardless of how it performs.
Packaging
The Erebus watches arrived in packaging that piqued my interest. Now, they shipped in these clamshell boxes, which may ring some bells if you’re a repeat viewer of my channel. Indeed, we’ve seen this packaging before. The Sugess and San Martin watches I reviewed from AliExpress both shipped in identical, or near-identical, containers. According to Jody, these boxes were simply for long-distance transport of these prototypes, as is evident from the inclusion of the far prettier branded box, which has space for two watches.
Nevertheless, it got me wondering about the origin of this Origin. After all, these lads will surely be working with some sort of far-east manufacturing partner, as I doubt they’ve acquired their own watch factory overnight. I wonder who they went with?
Case Design
I became even more intrigued when I first laid eyes on the Origin in person. Immediately, the case echoed the finish of that on the titanium Phoibos Apollo. The brushing is extremely fine, providing the watch with a comparable satin-like sheen. That said, this watch is stainless steel and not titanium. That probably makes sense for a first-time watchmaking venture, and at least there’s no gimmicky case terminology in play.
The shape and layout are very familiar to most dive watch owners, though the Origin has a slightly more angular shape than most, highlighted by the crown guards and the additional beveled edges. Now, these aren’t your traditional high-polish chamfers. Instead, these sections appear to house a slightly finer or differently angled brushed finish, making them appear marginally more reflective than the rest of the case. They don’t advertise this as having a coating, and unsurprisingly, as with most other steel watches, a few small bumps and scratches have already made their way onto the surface.
Watch Bracelet
Still, the case is decent-looking and sharp overall. I’d say better than most big brands at this price. Similar can be said of the bracelets. These absolutely smokes the likes of Seiko or Orient. Now, there are two available, a flat link and a curved link. Visually, I’d say I prefer the curved link option, however the flat link conforms much better to the arm, with greatly increased flexibility, making it the obvious choice for those with smaller wrists. That said, when we cover sizing in a moment, you’ll see that’s of little importance.
The bracelets are nicely finished, with brushing that closely matches the case, but it’s the clasp that’s impressed me the most. Gone are the days of frustration over insufficient micro-adjustment holes. Here, Erebus has used a clasp that uses a concealed diver’s extension to effectively provide several steps of adjustability when the concealed button is pushed. This system isn’t quite as good as some others I’ve tried, given you can’t slacken it while on-wrist. However, it’s more than adequate, especially at this price.
Bezel & Lume
In terms of function, there’s another area that, surprisingly, is even better. Here’s a clue…
That’s the look of a satisfying bezel action. I have to say, this is one of the very best bezels I’ve tried. The noise, the feeling, the absence of backplay…man, why isn’t this the standard? Heck, even the grip is great, not a single ounce of slippage there.
At night too, you’ll see this is fully lumed, and in fact the lume in general is awesome. That’s right, Jody, you can put that quote on the front page of your website if you want.
Movement
Under the hood supposedly lives the Seiko NH35a. In my quest to see it, I nearly broke my wrist while attempting to remove the back, ultimately to no avail. Honestly, I think I’d need an IED to crack this open, meaning the 20ATM water resistance rating probably holds water (or I guess, rejects water). This is a good movement, probably the best that Jody could reasonably attain, so props to him for not cheapening out with a noisy Miyota 8000 series or worse.
Watch Crystal
He also didn’t cheapen out on the crystal. I’d have been shocked if he’d opted for anything less than this AR-coated sapphire, given the stick he’s dished out to other brands for offering mineral at half a grand. This is about as good as it gets, and the coating is great; one of the most legible sapphire crystals I’ve looked at this year.
So, on the spec front, this is a home run…assuming Jody doesn’t just run off with your money. Outside of generic “homage” watches, you’ll struggle to find a better-built watch at this price, the Origin feels like it could take a good old Scottish pounding. Size-wise, it’s also a crowd-pleaser, with a short 47mm lug to lug, paired with a 41mm case size, 40.7mm bezel and a reasonable 12.6mm thickness. It’ll probably fit most of you watching, despite being too large for me.
Design
That said, the overarching reason why people buy watches is because of the way they look. If the watch doesn’t look good, or at least half-decent, most people just won’t buy it, me included. I want to be able to put the watch on and think: “This is a really cool little thing, this!”
Now, visuals will always have an element of subjectivity to them; you may love the way the Origin looks. But me…to be honest, I’m not 100% feeling it. I mean, it’s not hideous or anything. It’s not an Invicta!
But all the same, it’s not exactly drawing me in. The design has its high points, for instance, the dial has an interesting texture, the date wheel is neatly integrated, and the main logo is far from the most obtrusive. At certain angles, it looks nice. It’s also available in a whopping eight colors at launch, which gives you a wide breadth of options. My favourites are the yellow and teal versions.
However, the Origin still feels a bit too vanilla for me to consider buying one. It’s hard to pin down, but the overall look feels quite predictable and safe with square markers and plongeur hands forming a style that I feel like we’ve seen many times before.
I get what they’re going for here. It looks like a stretched-out Tudor Pelagos FXD, but the proportions and final results aren’t as cohesive or enticing.
If I had to assign blame for this gripe, I think, in large part, the bezel is the fall guy. This black one is used across most of the colors, and while the lume and action are spectacular, the look isn’t so much. It’s too busy for my taste, with the numbers tightly crammed between the markers. The typeface itself isn’t doing anything for me, either. I typically prefer bezels that specifically complement or support the dial color in some way, but these bezels don’t do that and look off-the-shelf as a result.
Watch Logo
I also think the positioning and size of the logo could be improved. If both logos need to be present, I’d rather have a smaller icon and larger text, rather than the other way around. What you’ll find on many of the most beautiful watches is that logo text sits dead-centre between the pinion (where the hands connect) and the bottom of the 12 o-clock index. Not always, but usually.
Here, the icon is so large that the “Erebus” text sits uncomfortably close to the pinion, resulting in an imbalanced appearance despite the watch boasting a great degree of symmetry.
Final Thoughts
For a first attempt, though, these two bugbears are minor in the grand scheme of things. These Erebus Origin watches are a heck of a lot better than what I could probably come up with, and they’re well-made watches for $299 USD. Apparently, after the preorder window, these are going up to $329 for the bracelet versions, and even at that price, they’re a solid choice that should form a good platform for Erebus to build on in the future. That said, as with all microbrands, the resale value of these won’t be nearly as good as the big brands, so just be sure before taking the plunge.