Spinnaker SPENCE 300 Automatic IFLW Manta Edition: A Hand-Painted Diver

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Spinnaker has spent the last few years building its identity around collaborations rather than around new calibers. The SpongeBob editions built on the Hass case leaned on a cartoon licence, while the Nessie Pearl Diver and its Loch Ness mythology leaned on folklore.

The formula was always the same: take a known dive case, hand the dial to somebody with a story, and let the story do the selling. It worked commercially, but a lot of those dials were printed graphics, and printed graphics age quickly once the joke or the tie-in cools off.

The SPENCE 300 Automatic IFLW Manta Edition changes the terms. This time the dial is not a print run, it is painted by hand, one watch at a time, by IFL Watches. It is a 40 mm steel diver with 300 meters of water resistance, a Japanese automatic and a $950 price, released in a first batch of 100 pieces on 18 September 2026.

IFL Watches Sells Brushwork, Not Complications

IFL Watches was founded by Karar Aimer and built on an idea most of the industry treats as decoration: the dial as a canvas. Every piece is painted by hand by artists before certified watchmakers assemble the watch, which is the part that usually goes wrong elsewhere. Plenty of “art watches” are art projects with a movement dropped in at the end. IFL’s stated process runs the other way around, with the painting done first and the horological assembly treated as a separate discipline.

That matters here because hand painting introduces variance. Two manta rays painted by a person will never sit in exactly the same place twice, and the coral tones at the bottom of the dial will land differently on each one. Buyers who want a flawless, repeatable industrial finish should understand what they are buying. Buyers who want something nobody else owns get exactly that.

Spinnaker is the obvious partner for this. Its catalogue is built on underwater exploration references, and it has already done ocean-adjacent storytelling with the 4ocean charity collaboration on the Hass or the Drew Brophy collaboration on the Fleuss. Pairing the dive platform with a painter rather than a licensor is the logical next step, and a more interesting one than another cartoon tie-in.

“Underwater Dancers” Is a Scene, Not a Motif

The dial design is called Underwater Dancers, and it shows two manta rays gliding through deep blue water with sunbeams breaking the surface above and warm coral rising from the floor below. It reads as a scene with depth rather than a logo dropped onto a colored disc, which is the difference between an artist collaboration and a licensing deal.

The timing is deliberate. The release lands around World Manta Ray Day on 17 September, and Spinnaker is using it to point at conservation: manta rays are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because of habitat degradation, bycatch and targeted fishing. The brand has not published a donation figure or a conservation partner for this edition, so treat it as awareness rather than funding until it says otherwise. That is a fair distinction to draw, and it is the kind of thing a press release usually leaves comfortably vague.

Artistically it also sits in a different register from Spinnaker’s previous stunt dials. The seconde/seconde/ Fleuss collaboration worked through wit and a single altered element. This one works through composition and color, and it asks to be looked at for longer.

The Platform Underneath Is a Real Diver

None of the art would matter if the watch behind it were soft, and it is not. The SPENCE 300 case measures 40 mm across and 11.5 mm thick, which is genuinely restrained for 300 meters of water resistance, and it comes on a 20 mm steel bracelet. The crystal is sapphire with anti-reflective coating, the crown screws down, the caseback screws in, the bezel turns unidirectionally and there is lume on the dial and hands.

Those are dive watch fundamentals, not decoration. An 11.5 mm profile on a 40 mm case is the part worth pausing on, because most 300 meter divers in this bracket sit noticeably thicker. For context, the Certina DS Action Diver in its 38 mm Powermatic 80 form is the Swiss benchmark for a compact, wearable diver at this money, and this Spinnaker lands in similar wrist territory with a very different proposition on top.

The Movement Is the Least Interesting Part, and That Is Fine

Spinnaker lists the caliber as Miyota’s 9039, the no-date, three-hand member of the 9000 family, and the specification matches: three hands, no date window to interrupt the painting. Spinnaker does not spell out the power reserve or beat rate in this release, so I am not going to put numbers on it here.

And this is where the price has to be addressed, because $950 is well above what Spinnaker normally charges. The brand’s standard collection divers sit a long way below this, and on paper the spec sheet alone does not justify the gap: there are 300 meter automatics with sapphire and a steel bracelet for a fraction of it. Anyone comparing spec lists is going to conclude this watch is expensive, and they are right.

The gap is the labour. Every dial is painted by hand by an artist before the watch is assembled, which is slow, skilled work that does not scale the way printing does. You are paying for hours of somebody’s craft, not for components, and that is a legitimate thing to charge for. It does mean the value case only works if the painting is what you want. If you are shopping on specs per dollar, this is the wrong watch and no amount of storytelling changes that.

What the 9000 series buys is a well-understood, widely serviced automatic with a slim profile, which is part of how the case stays at 11.5 mm. Nobody is buying this watch for its movement, and Spinnaker has not pretended otherwise. The engine here is a competent support act for the dial, and the pricing reflects the painting, not the mechanics.

Read the Release Structure Carefully Before You Get Excited

This is not a straightforward limited edition, and the distinction is worth understanding before 18 September. The first batch is 100 pieces, released on that date. A second batch then opens as a pre-order on 21 September, and it is made to order: production only proceeds if pre-orders reach a minimum of 100 units. If it does, delivery is scheduled for May 2027.

So the final population is not fixed at 100. It could be 200, and the second batch is an eight-month wait rather than a purchase. Anyone buying for edition scarcity should be clear about that, and anyone buying for the painting should not care at all, since each dial is unique regardless of how many are made. The real exclusivity here is in the brushwork, not the edition number.

It also means the honest way to read the second batch is as a funding mechanism. That is not a criticism, it is how a lot of small-run art projects get made, but it does change the calculation if you were treating a pre-order as a guaranteed watch.

Specs, Pricing & Availability

Who Should Actually Buy One

I would buy this one over the SpongeBob pieces without much hesitation. Those were fun and they sold, but they were licensing exercises with a printed dial, and their appeal depends on somebody else’s IP. This is a hand-painted dial on a competent 300 meter diver for $950, and it is the first Spinnaker collaboration in a while where the collaborator’s craft, rather than the collaborator’s audience, is the product.

The buyer this suits is someone who already owns a plain black or blue diver and wants the second one to be a talking point, not a backup. If you want your dive watch anonymous, or you want the most movement for your money at this price, buy a Fleuss 40 from the standard collection and spend the difference elsewhere. And if you are chasing it purely because it is limited, wait for the first batch on 18 September rather than the pre-order, because that is the only part of this release where the number actually means something.

For Spinnaker, this is the more interesting direction. Cartoon tie-ins have a ceiling, and it is getting closer every year. Hand-painted work with a named artist behind it does not.