The Diver 38 is the one Wren that comes with a date or without one, and the question of which to get comes up in almost every email we answer. Here is the case for each, the one thing that decides it for most people, and why the date disc on a gradient dial is white and not matched to the dial.
The case for no date
Symmetry. A dial with no window is the same from every angle: twelve markers, three hands, nothing interrupting the ring. On a dive watch, where the markers are big and lumed, the window at three cuts into the one marker that would otherwise match the other eleven. Take it away and the dial settles.
Less to do. An automatic that sits for a weekend stops, and when you pick it back up a date watch needs the date set as well as the time. A no-date watch is right the moment you set the hands. For a second watch, or one that gets worn a few days a week, that matters more than people expect.
And less to go wrong. The date mechanism is the part of a movement most often damaged by the owner, usually by changing the date while the hands are between nine and three, when the gears are already engaged. No date, no rule to remember.
The case for a date
You look at your watch to know the time, and about one time in ten to know the date. A phone does both, and the point of wearing a watch is not having to pull the phone out. Owners who wear one watch every day tend to miss the date within a week of giving it up. Owners with a rotation rarely do.
The other argument is practical: a date window is a second reason to glance down, and it is the version most people outside the hobby expect a watch to have. If this is a gift, or a first serious watch, the date is the safer choice.
How to choose
Ask one question. Is this the watch you will wear most days, or one of several? The everyday watch should have the date. The one in rotation should not, because it will be reset more often than it is read. Everything else is taste, and both are right.
If that still leaves you stuck, go without. The dial is the reason you chose the watch, and the no-date version shows all of it.
Why the date disc is white
This is the question behind the question, and it deserves a real answer. Every Wren diver dial is a gradient, lighter at the center and darker toward the edge. The date window sits at three o'clock, which on a gradient dial is right where the color is changing. A date disc printed to match the dial would match one spot and miss the rest: right at the inner edge of the window and wrong at the outer edge, or the reverse. Print it in the dial's base color with no gradient and you get a flat patch of color inside a dial that is anything but flat, which reads as a mistake rather than a match.
So the disc is white with a black numeral. It reads instantly, which is what a date window is for, and it looks deliberate rather than almost matched. If you would rather not see a window at all, that is what the no-date version is for.
The rules of living with one
If you go with the date, two habits. Set it in the afternoon, never between nine at night and three in the morning on the dial, because that is when the date mechanism is partway through its change and forcing it is the single most common way a movement gets damaged by its owner. And set the time first past twelve, so you know whether the watch thinks it is morning or night, then set the date, then bring the hands to the right time. It takes thirty seconds and the watch will do it for ten years.
Questions people ask
Is a no-date watch better? Not better, cleaner. The dial is symmetrical and there is nothing to set after the watch has stopped. The trade is that you look at your phone for the date.
Why is the date disc not color matched to the dial? Because the dial is a gradient and the window sits where the color changes, so a matched disc would be wrong on one side of the window or the other. A white disc is legible and does not pretend.
Can I change my mind later? The date and no-date versions use different dials and movement configurations, so it is not a swap. Choose at purchase.
Which Wren models come without a date? Only the Diver 38, and you choose at checkout at no difference in price. The Diver One and Diver One Titanium are no-date only. The Diver 38 Mad is the exception the other way, date only; exactly one no-date Mad exists, and my niece has it.
What time is safe to change the date? Any time the hands are between roughly three in the morning and nine at night. Mid-afternoon is the easy rule.
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