Why we build with titanium

Titanium delivers the optimal balance of performance and feel.

MINUS-8 watches are built to be ultra-reliable and extremely comfortable on the wrist. Achieving these goals starts with selecting the best quality materials available in the market. We have designed, sourced and built with both 316L stainless steel and Grade 2 titanium over the last 10+ years, but titanium continues to exceed our manufacturing expectations and has become our preferred material. It has proven to be the perfect metal to craft a watch that can thrive in any environment and handle everything you throw at it, while also delivering a premium wrist-feel.

Working with titanium enables our team to deliver well-balanced watches that are both strong and comfortable.

Titanium is renowned for its toughness and for its corrosion resistance. Not only is it one of the strongest metals out there, but it is also lightweight. This unmatched combination of durability and comfort make it the perfect base material for achieving our vision of designing and building a collection of go anywhere, do anything timepieces that seamlessly transition in any environment. 

Ultra-tough: Titanium has a better strength to weight ratio than stainless steel. All of our watch designs are built for all-day, everyday use, so they have to be strong enough to hold up anywhere you might take them. Building our cases and bracelets with titanium ensures each watch is ready for the elements. We also coat every titanium watch with a layer of PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition), for an added level of protection.

Corrosion-resistant: We build mostly dive watches, so working with titanium is an absolute no-brainer. It is more corrosion resistant than almost every other watch material out there. Our philosophy is that you should never have to think twice about bringing your watch into water. Whether it is an intense workout, a swim in the pool, or a 20ATM dive, we want our timepieces to be worn worry-free and titanium is proven to hold up and to be an extremely dependable material.

Lightweight: We want our watches to feel substantial on the wrist, but not so much that your wrist feels weighed down. Titanium is 40-45% lighter than stainless steel, but still feels like it could run through a brick wall with you. That’s what we love so much about it. After years of building with it, we think it delivers the perfect combination of feel and toughness.

Some watch lovers out there swear by stainless steel, and we get it, it’s a classic, dependable material. We’ve manufactured a lot of watches with stainless steel in the past (most recently with the fixed-lug Field 1S), so we know it makes an awesome watch and we don’t have plans to completely abandon it. However, for now, titanium is a priority for us.

What do you think? Do you want to see more titanium timepieces from us? Or more of a balanced offering between stainless and titanium? As always, I love to hear from you, so reach out to me anytime (care at minus8watch dot com). I personally handle all the customer inquiries, so that’s the best way to get in touch with me. 

As always, thanks for coming along on this ride with us!

-Mike