We, humans, love a good story, about ourselves, and often embellish the truth so that it is more catchy and will attract your attention and perhaps, if we do a really good job, generate a few emotions. And the internet and social media give us access to an unlimited supply of audience members which pushes too many people to hype up their story, make up tales from invisible fairy dust and non-existent facts, adding dramatic background music and Hollywood-like camera angles to give us the impression that whatever they are saying is actually crucial to mankind’s well-being. This need to be seen by others and incapability of seeing others* permeates through our niche creative corner of the world as there is a lot of bullshit going around in horology. For there is more merit for a brand to say We just like watches and wanted to create our own than to claim My great-grandfather was a watchmaker in Lelocle and I wanted to honor his legacy by creating my own brand. In the same vein, it is better to say We are lume nuts! 

And as it is the case with everything else in life, the simpler our goals and intentions are the better we will fair because the more genuine we will be. As the world of watchmaking stands today, too many micro houses of horology invent difficult-to-ingest and harder-to-digest hyped origin stories to give themselves too much credit where none is due, and to justify that we ought to pay Roman-like attention to them and remove too many dollars from our bank account to slide them into theirs. If a few people get together and decide Let’s make the most affordable lume monster on the market today then they simply ought to do that and say so instead of disguising their true intention with a make-believe storyline. All of these meanderings lead us then to speaking about Phorcydes, a Hong-Kong based microbrand which opened and quickly closed its doors in 2020 on account of COVID, and reopened them again in 2024, whose primary leitmotiv is to craft watches which are defined by exceptional luminous performance. Simple. 

And already I will affirm they have succeeded, as the proof is in the PH-4C (V2.0.) 

*These hype gurus generally do not give a rat’s ass about you. 

Specifications 

Over here on Mainspring we bask in reviewing watches made by microbrands for a reason that has been discussed multiple times basically each week the magazine has been in existence: they make very good watches available to us, whether they were created from the simple desire to share their personal vision for horology (which is not the same as creating a fake narrative as discussed above) or to add interesting designs to the market, or to offer high-value timekeeping devices we can all afford to buy. Phorcyde’s falls into the third category for the PH-4C (V2.0) will only set you back $219 USD on the beads-of-rice bracelet as presented here, a meager sum of money for which you get excellent general specifications (as we’re about to see) microbrands are known to typically give us, but also something unique no other micro houses of horology has ever done: indeed one the best luminous performance on the market globally-speaking, and most likely the best one at the below $500 USD price mark, as far as our experience can tell. 

In order to achieve this goal—a deceptively simple one as mentioned in the introduction, for which Phorcydes earns my respect since they are so genuinely straightforward about it and did meet their target—the brand had to create its own manufacturing processes and blends of luminous powder in order to achieve such superlative nighttime legibility. Phorcydes didn’t find contentment in figuring out how many layers of luminous compound they could print one on top of the other, which visually would have resulted in hour markers resembling crumbling towers of fluffy pancakes, but instead concocted a technical recipe to mold markers into high-density luminous blocks which charge quicker, glow brighter, and last longer than most other luminous technology I have ever seen in the past six years of reviewing microbrands’ catalogs. Let alone for $219 USD. The key then is in the manufacturing process: Phorcydes creates special luminous powders which solidify into high-precision custom-made molds which are hand-finished and applied. 

They call it Hyperglow technology. 

As far as I can tell, their technology is different from Christopher Ward’s GloboLight where a ceramic-based compound is blended in with the luminous powder and molded into markers (as we saw with the Sealander C63 Extreme GMT,) and differs from the 3D printing technology Vaer uses (as we saw with the C4 Tactical Field Solar.) From my non-scientific observations, Phorcydes’ luminous blocks appear as refined and as well-finished as Christopher Ward’s for they are endowed with the same visual density and height while Vaer’s are a little transparent and shorter, should that make sense. In terms of day-time hue, Phorcyde’s markers have a muted-white color whilst Christopher Ward’s are veneer-white, and I cannot compare Vaer’s markers since Phorcydes and Christopher Ward use X1-based powder which glows blue and Vaer C3-based powder which glows green. As we will see later on, the Hong-Kong based brand offers multiple versions of the PH-4C (and numerous iterations of skin divers) and I opted for the full-blue luminous spectacle. 

The last thing that should be said about luminous technology—and I never thought I would ever type so many words on this topic—is that no two super bright watches are made equal: even though the “why” and “how” are mysterious, Phorcyde’s lume blocks glow brightly through the night (they claim for at least 8 hours) but they do so sharply, meaning that it is actually easy to read the time in the middle of our nocturnal life, while with other extremely bright timepieces, the markers appear fuzzy and are difficult to read. In any case, the PH-4C (V2.0) is actually more than its incredible luminous technology for it is also a capable diver based on what follows: a stainless steel case measuring 39mm in diameter, 48mm lug-to-lug, 12.5mm thick (including the crystal,) and coming with a 20mm lug width. A screw-down crown and screw-down case-back give it 200 meters of water resistance. The crystal is a domed piece of sapphire with clear inner anti-reflective coating. And the movement is a PT5004 (4Hz/38 hours of power reserve.)

This is my first experience of this caliber, so far so good. 

Design 

Even though, as we know too well on Mainspring, it is impossible to put a price tag on design, sometimes microbrands give us something rather pretty to look at irrespective of the technical composition of their watches or the prices at which they sell them. In other words, they tend to be visually creative and give us the chance to wear something different from most of what we see online and occasionally in real life. But other times, those brands focus on value to offer the most extreme versions of it it’s humanely possible to achieve, and that is what many of us are actually looking for. The Phorcydes PH-4C (V2.0) is different and interestingly so: at first quick glance, it is a straightforward homage to 1960s/70s skin divers a couple recreations of which we’ve reviewed on Mainspring—the Wolbrook Skindiver 38 Date White Lume and Le Forban Brestoise Deep Black—which is fine since there isn’t one brand that can claim they were the first. And on second observation, the PH-4C does something rather special: it modernizes the genre. 

You see, the two aforementioned brands that make skin divers, alongside Airain, Glashütte Original, and others I cannot think of right now, are regarded by their fans as being the creators of this style of underwater exploration device. However, no one can actually corroborate these claims and it doesn’t really matter (for the purpose of this argument) since none of them have actually brought a lot of visual innovations to this format of skin divers. But Phorcydes did, perhaps unintentionally, by combining their Hyperglow technology to this genre’s codified dial layout and case design. In other words, the applied lume blocks are so tall (600% taller than most printed luminous compounds according to the brand) that they endow the dial with an ultra-modern vibe we had yet to see on this style of dive watch. And the blue-glowing X1-based variant of the dial I opted for, on account of the blocks’ muted-white appearance, creates the most delightful monochromatic aesthetic I am particularly charmed by and which I hadn’t seen before. 

As I hope the photos will show, the depth on that dial is, to be it simply, extreme, since the lume blocks are so tall and for they are pinned, slightly recessed, and glued onto the matte black canvas from which all time-telling elements pop. And everything else you see on it is pretty much your standard skin diver affair: a small pencil-style hour hand, a large arrow-shaped minute hand, both equipped with Hyperglow blocks, and a thin seconds hand equipped with a lumed lollipop element. All three are polished. Then a simple minute track where the individual minutes are indicated by way of thin white hash-marks, and rectangular lume blocks marking the one-hour increments. A special word of appreciation further goes to the branding and dial literature printed in a dark grey color on either side of the pinion which gives the PH-4C (V2.0) an almost military appearance. Lastly there is the case that is also standard but perfectly well executed, endowed with hairline polished chambers, a 6.6mm knurled crown, and massive crown-guards.

The Heart of the Matter

Whenever I hear of a new microbrand (new for me, not necessarily for the market,) it typically takes a bit of research to figure out what it is all about—what it claims its raison d’être to be and what it actually is. With Phorcydes, I instantly understood the brand’s leitmotif after seeing just one photo of the PH-4C: to craft watches which are defined by exceptional luminous performance as it says it wanted to do and as it does. Their goal was simple, genuine formulated and clearly explained, and as we now know, they have succeeded and perhaps fared much better than they had anticipated. Although I don’t rate luminous performance, I have reviewed hundreds of watches that claim to have excellent nighttime legibility, but the PH-4C (V2.0) blow all of them out-of-the-water irrespective of their specifications (the luminous technology they use) and the prices at which they are sold. Based on the photos of the Christopher Ward C63 Sealander Extreme GMT I shot, and which was at that time the best lumed-timepiece I believe had ever reviewed, I would say that the Phorcydes fairs as well as it does if not better. 

But beyond the PH-4C’s excellent luminous performance, we should not forget that it is also an excellent tool watch and a robust skin-diver-like dive watch, as we briefly saw in the Specifications section, which will only set you back $219 USD. And a lot of forgetting I am guilty of having done for their are a few additional specifications I never mentioned, which speaks to how lost one can get looking at the Hyperglow’ed dial: the crisp 120-click bezel seems to be made of a brushed steel inlay and although it isn’t equipped with lume blocks, all markings are generously lumed and better so than most divers I’ve ever reviewed; the beads-of-rice bracelet is equipped with quick-release spring-bars, screwed links, and a tool-less micro-adjustment mechanism other similar spirited skin divers do not offer. Thus the value you get for your $219 USD was multiplied 10 folds just right there. And again, Phorcydes was created from a simple goal and did a superb job with the execution as we saw today. 

Conclusion 

Don’t overthink it, just get yourself a PH-4C (V2.0), you will thank me later. This will be the best $219 USD you have ever spent on a microbrand as it offers more technology and value than any other AliExpress special I can think of. And the funny thing is that Phorcydes used to be on the Chinese online platform but decided to conduct business directly from its website so that it can better manage after-sales service, a positive point that ought to be mentioned. Lastly, there are indeed many versions of the PH-4C (V2.0,) too many to list here but which include different dial colors, lume colors, bracelet/strap options, date and no-date variants of the PT caliber, and Phorcydes even offers several versions of a skin diver. But I believe we just looked at its best version, humbly saying. 

Thanks for reading.