A Swedish brand founded in 2015 took the Swiss Made certification, eliminated the middleman, and built a dive watch that doesn't imitate anyone. The Tusenö Shellback V2 costs under $800 USD and doesn't owe its design to any classic.
For decades, "Swiss Made" meant one thing above all: price. Tusenö changed that equation quietly. Founded in Gothenburg in 2015, the Swedish brand operates without authorized dealers: it sells direct, ships globally, and has its own showroom. The Shellback V2 is the second generation of their flagship diver.
Tusenö quietly changed that equation.
Founded in Gothenburg in 2015, the Swedish brand operates without authorized dealers: it sells directly, ships globally, and has its own showroom in the city where it designs. Its watches are Swiss Made certified because their movements are manufactured in Switzerland, as certified by Swiss law, not because someone decided it as a marketing ploy. The result is a watch with European credentials and a microbrand price tag—and that combination is, today, one of the hardest arguments to ignore in independent watchmaking.
The Shellback V2 is the second generation of its flagship diver. And that's where that argument becomes most concrete.
From the Swedish Coast Guard to the Geneva Motor Show
Tusenö's story begins with a more rugged timepiece: the Blackwater, a starkly designed diver's watch that the brand delivered to the Swedish Maritime Rescue Society—a volunteer search and rescue organization—for field testing. The watch worked. This precedent isn't just for show: it gave Tusenö something few independent brands have in their early years: a real-world use case with real consequences.
In 2021, the original Shellback arrived, evolving from the Blackwater with a contemporary sandwich dial and the updated "The Guiding Light" logo—the sector lighthouse engraved on the caseback and molded into the crown. In 2024-2025, the Shellback V2 appeared, refining every aspect of the timepiece without losing what made it work.
Today, Tusenö has customers in more than 70 countries. Without a single authorized dealer.
What makes the Shellback V2 different: a design that doesn't copy anyone
The market for dive watches under $1,000 USD is full of undeclared homages. You look at the dial and you see the Submariner. You look at the bezel and you see the Fifty Fathoms. You look at the case shape and you see the Sea-Dweller. It's not illegal, and in some cases, it results in perfectly competent watches, but the exercise reveals a lack of originality.
The Shellback V2 has its own argument.
The most visible is the sandwich-type dial construction: the dial has two layers, with the hour markers as cutouts in the upper layer that reveal the lower layer, coated with Swiss Super-LumiNova BGW9 in grades A and X1. In the dark, the dial doesn't just glow—it radiates. Tusenö applies luma to absolutely everything: hour markers, hands, bezel, and the minute track around the outer perimeter. The level of light coverage is unusual at any price, and noticeably strange below $800 USD.
The hands are a signature design: an exclusive Tusenö design in dark gunmetal gray, with the hour hand sweeping over the "SHELLBACK" name printed in an arc above 6 o'clock—a detail reminiscent of the 2012 Tudor Black Bay, but here it's deliberate, not coincidental. The seconds hand has an orange tip with a lume aperture. The sapphire crystal is double-domed—an uncommon option in this price range—with an internal anti-reflective coating.
The crown is large, screw-down, with the "Guiding Light" symbol molded in relief. The solid caseback bears the same engraved logo. These are the details that separate a brand that prioritizes identity from one that simply specifies components.
The Specs That Matter
40mm diameter stainless steel case, 47mm lug to lug, 11.9mm thick without crystal (approximately 13mm with crystal). Combined finish: brushed surfaces with polished bezels. Optional 1200HV black DLC coating available with black or white dial versions.
The 120-click unidirectional rotating bezel features a ceramic insert—polished black or blue depending on the version—with an engraved 60-minute scale filled with lume. Water resistance: 200 meters.
The movement is the Sellita SW200-1 in Elaboré grade: adjusted in three positions for ±7 s/d (maximum ±20 s/d), 28,800 vph, 26 jewels, 38-hour power reserve. Date at 6 o'clock.
20mm stainless steel bracelet (tapering to 18mm), flat top finish, screws instead of pins, tool-less fine-adjustment clasp. Quick-release rubber strap included.
Price: approx. $749–$799 USD (check at tuseno.com).
Context that validates the argument:
A Seiko Prospex automatic in stainless steel costs around $400–$500 USD. A Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight starts at around $4,250 USD. The Shellback V2 fits in between with a sandwich dial, double-dome crystal, ceramic bezel, and Elaboré movement—a combination that Fratello, aBlogtoWatch, Monochrome, and The Calibrated Wrist have consistently described as a level of finish that doesn't exist elsewhere.
The Shellback V2 enters this space with advantages that are hard to replicate: a sandwich dial with full luma, double-domed crystal, ceramic bezel, Swiss Elaboré-grade movement, and construction that publications like Fratello, aBlogtoWatch, Monochrome, and The Calibrated Wrist have consistently described as having a level of finish unheard of at this price point. That's not noise: it's a sign.
What it lacks: the name of a century-old watchmaker. What it does have: a watch whose design owes nothing to any of those names.
Latin America Perspective
Tusenö sells directly from tuseno.com with free global shipping via UPS Express or DHL Express. For buyers in Mexico, Colombia, or Argentina, the price in dollars is what they pay at the time of ordering—but import taxes are collected upon delivery, directly by the carrier.
In Mexico: 16% VAT plus an estimated tariff of approximately 15%. Based on a starting price of $799 USD, the actual customs cost is around the equivalent of $950–$1,000 USD. (Approximate figure—verify with the customs agency or directly with Tusenö before purchasing.)
In Colombia and Argentina, tariff regulations differ, and accessing dollars may involve additional costs. The most predictable route: direct purchase in dollars from tuseno.com with an international credit card, with the clear understanding that import taxes are charged separately upon delivery.
The brand offers a two-year warranty with service partners in Sweden and Switzerland.
The Shellback V2 didn't arrive on the market to replace anyone. It arrived to demonstrate that Swiss Made and under $800 USD are not incompatible terms—and that a brand can build its own design identity without needing the visual vocabulary of the classics. Tusenö achieves this with a lighthouse on the crown, a two-layer dial that shines like few others in its class, and the decision to sell directly to anyone who wants to buy it, without a waiting list, without a distributor, without an intermediary.
In independent watchmaking, that's the argument that's hardest to find.
