YEMA is an iconic French watchmaking company founded in 1948 in in Besançon, where the factory still is. From all the YEMA watches the mots iconic ones are the Superman, a 300M waterproof diver watch released in 1963, and the Spationaute, the first French watch to fly in space in 1982.

The new YEMA Superman Heritage Bronze Limited Edition is based on the vintage Superman Ref. 53.00.16 released in 1970. The Superman Heritage has a 39 mm diameter and 13 mm high bronze case. Yema selected a marine bronze for this watch. This bronze is expected to have a stronger resistance to the formation of verdigris by developing an aluminum oxide protective layer on its surface. The lugs are quite horizontal. 39 mm diameter may seem small for a diver watch, but the watch wears larger than expected, due to the 48 mm lug-to-lug separation. The watch wears amazingly well on a 16 cm circumference wrist.

The bronze case is horizontally satin-brushed along the lugs. In contrast the uni-directional bronze bezel is radially satin-brushed. The hour markers are engraved in the bezel and filled with brown color. A lume pip is located in the bezel at 12 o'clock in a brown triangle.

The watch has a matte fumé blue dial. It is not a light blue color, in most of the situations the dial stays quite dark with a subtle blue color. The visual effect is elegant.

"Y","YEMA" and "SUPERMAN" are painted in white color on the blue dial above the hand axis, whereas "AUTOMATIC" and "990 FEET" are painted below the hand axis.

The dial hour indices are indicated by faux-patina painted markers. These markers adopt a round shape, expect at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock where they adopt a rectangular shape, and at 12 o'clock where the index has a triangular shape. The minute track is painted in white color on the blue dial.

The shiny watch hands are in bronze. The hour hand adopts a pencil shape and the minute hand an arrow shape. The stick second hand has the iconic "shovel" head, which was used in the vintage Superman models.

These three golden colored hands are filled with faux-patina SuperLuminova. The second hand "shovel" head also has an extra painted red spot.

The dial is protected by a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatments.

The position of the 90-click bezel is blocked by a bronze lock placed on the crown. This lock mechanism is reminiscent from the vintage Superman. To unlock the bezel, the crown has to be un-screwed. So the bezel should be adjusted before going under water.

The bronze screw-down crown is protected by crown guards and is signed with the YEMA "Y" logo.

The watch is powered by a new in-house caliber MBP1000. YEMA took two years and spent three million euros to develop this caliber. The self-winding caliber MBP1000 beats at 28'800 v/b and has a 45 h power reserve. This is correct but now many calibers can reach 70 h power reserve. The caliber is expected to hold time with an accuracy better than +/- 12 seconds per day.

The case back is made of stainless steel. This case back is quite prominent. This is in fact a good architecture, because combined with the straight lug design, the skin is not in contact with the bronze case. The YEMA coat of Arms is stamped on the case back. The coat of Arms is composed of a knight helmet placed on a shield with the YEMA "Y" logo. "SUPERMAN", "BONZE", "30BAR", "MISSION MAUBYDICK", "EDITION" "LIMITEE" and the watch number "N°XXX/1948" are engraved on the case back. The Maubydick mission is a collaboration with the Marine Megafauna Conservation Organization (M2CO). The aim of this mission is to study the unique population of Indian Ocean resident sperm whales.

The YEMA coat of Arms can also be found on a medallion placed inside the watch box.

The watch comes on brown vintage-looking leather strap with a signed bronze pin buckle. This is not a high luxury strap but it goes very well with the watch. A black Tropic rubber and blue Navy NATO nylon straps are also given in the package, as well as a tool kit to remove the spring bars.

The hands, the hour indices and the bezel lume pip are luminescent. The lume intensity brighter on the hands than on the indices but the intensity is however fading quite fast.

There are not so many iconic French watchmakers. Breguet of course, but it is now own by the Swatch group, and YEMA, which created the watches for the French astronautes. The recent YEMA models were powered by quartz and ETA calibers, it was thus complicated to ignite interest in a market as competitive as the watch market. But when I heard YEMA was releasing a bronze watch with a new in-house caliber, I knew I had to put my hand on it. Not because it was a Frech watch but because this watch was ticking a lot of my boxes: retro-inspired, 300M diver, in-house caliber, bronze case. When I saw the watch brand new, it was shining so much I found it looked like a full gold watch. The case horizontal and bezel radial satin-brushing is catching the light beautifully. I really love the aspect of the bronze bezel, stunning. If the watch seems to be made of yellow gold brand new, the bronze color turnis into a very nice golden-brown color after few months. Until now the watch is aging very well, I only noticed a bit of verdigris under the lugs. The watch is available in 39 and 41mm diametres. I am glad I had the 39mm. To my opinion this is the best size for a three hand watch with a bezel. The Superman case and hand designs remind me of the retro-inspired Glashütte Original SeaQ, also a charming diver watch. I was not sure I would like the arrow shape of the minute hand. I usually prefer the hour hand to be broader than th eminute one, but I got used to it immediately and found it in fact quite practical. I was also a bit puzzle at first with the painted hour indices. I would have prefered applied indices. In fact YEMA just released a new YEMA Superman bronze with applied indices. However I find the watch with painted indices has the charm of a vintage Rolex Submariner, so I am pleased with it. The fumé dark blue dial looks very cool. The blue color goes very well with the bronze color. The domed sapphire glass is also very cool, I enjoy the optical distotions it is creating. The leather strap does not have the quality that can be found with top-end luxury brands, but it is not bad and its color goes very well with the watch. Of course if you have a Vacheron Constantin Cornes de Vache leather strap, the watch would look even better. There are only few things that bothered me (a bit) with this watch. I don't find very useful the bezel lock. I know it is a part of the vintage Superman design, but it is a bit annoying to have to unscrew the crown to turn the bezel. I also found the lume a bit weak and I measured that the watch was running 15s/day too fast, 3s more than what YEMA was mentioning. The watch looks so great, is so charming and appealing, that these minor points are forgiven. I should not forget to mention that YEMA was selling this watch for only 1'399 euro. That was already a bargain. And when we think that the watch was also proposed on kickstarter at 749 euro... a 300M diver watch, bronze case and bezel, in-house caliber, domed sapphire glass at that price? That was the deal of the year. The YEMA Superman Bronze 39mm Limited Edition is an awesome watch, I am not surprised that the watch is now sold out.