H2O Orca Update

I received this email from Clemens yesterday regarding my preorder of the H20 Orca:

Dear H2O Fiends and Pre-Order Customer,

H2Os first intention is to achieve the highest level of esthetic quality and technical perfection. With the new H2O ORCA series we have developed with our in-house engineer in Germany an outstanding technical solution accordingly to our company guideline "CUSTOMIZATION is EVERYTHING". All H2O ORCA parts and products have to meet the above criteria.

On Monday, 1st of October, we received the mass production sample of the different dials, but unfortunately the black dials have an imperfection. Not instantly notable, but the dial background color was not changed to the deepest black available as per our request. In result the very dark black sapphire inlay and dial color are not matching perfectly in terms of darkness. The dial together with the surrounding inlay are the face of the H2O ORCA watches and we could not except the color difference. We have decided to prioritize a perfect product with the best possible appearance over keeping the expected shipment schedule.

Together with the dial manufacturer the production of the corrected sample dials will be handled prioritized and we will receive the corrected dials around 15.-16.10.2012 for final approval. Within 3-4 weeks the new dials will be available and the assembly of the watches starts.

UPDATED DELIVERY SCHEDULE:
We expect to ship the H2O ORCA unhardened AND hardened versions END of NOVEMBER together at the same time!
We will use the remaining time to get all parts, like outer cases, bracelet and stainless steel inlays, hardened as soon as possible. We started already the hardening process for 300x stainless steel inlays and will continue with the bracelets, which will arrive in the middle of this month. The watch boxes, leather straps, Hex screw driver and most important, the movements, are already in our company.

I have attached an image of the dial / sapphire inlay combination which shows clearly the difference in the black shades.

IMPORTANT: The improved dial will be as dark as the sapphire inlay in the final product. As soon as the new dial arrives I will supply new images by email.

We are very sorry for the late delivery, but we prefer to launch the H2O ORCA with the quality and design you and we are expecting from H2O. The ORCA series received perfect testimonials from three WUS/WATCHFREAKS/WATCHGEEKS forum members already and we will even exceed them with our final product.

Here are photos of the issue and what it should look like (prototype):

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Looks a bit better than your typical BOUTIQUE diver...

Cool that they are perfectionists like this, and making things right.

Thanks Mark ! ..Nice job H2O !

Ordered this one! Cool Grey Dial, Orange/Black Hands, Sapphire 15 Min Bezel (Type 1), Hardened Case & Bezel, Double-domed Sapphire Crystal, Hardened Bracelet