YEMA Superman Tourbillon CMM.31

It's funny that having been in the watch industry for over twenty years and collecting about five years longer, how narrow my view of the industry truly was for the majority of that time. Up until I started Hourstriker a few years ago, my personal experience with watches was limited only to the largest of brands like Audemars Piguet, IWC and Omega. This was mostly due to the fact that collecting watches was a much different hobby in the early 2000s as it is today. Back then, you had to rely on print magazines and forums to get your information. These two sources didn't step out much past the fifteen or so household names in watchmaking, so naturally neither did I.

This was compounded more when I helped start one of the largest sites that sold pre-owned and impossible to source high end watches. The timepieces I was exposed to during this period were just insane, basically having full access to wear any watch I felt like. For somebody in their mid 20s to be able to wear a six figure Richard Mille or Audemars Piguet and then swap it for a Vacheron Constantin or Patek Philippe the next day, it's easy to see how I developed such tunnel vision for the industry so fast.



Starting Hourstriker really opened my eyes up to the full watch industry in rapid succession. My goal for the site was to cover as many brands as possible and really cater to those looking for a $300 dollar watch all the way up to the collector looking to add a unique grand complication to their collection. I guess I didn't realize how much more there was to learn about the industry, since I already thought of myself as extremely knowledgeable. The most pleasant surprise was in discovering brands I otherwise would have never known about. One such brand is French manufacture YEMA, of which I'm not just a casual fan of, but now I'm also a YEMA collector.

We have had the pleasure of reviewing four different pieces from YEMA over the past two years, from their traditional Superman dive watches to their playful collaboration with seconde/seconde/. Through those four reviews I was able to spend lots of wrist time with YEMA pieces and it was obvious that they make extremely well built watches.

Today we're going to look at what is perhaps YEMA's greatest flagship watch ever produced. It's a watch that, as soon as I read the technical specifications and saw the pictures, I knew I would be a huge fan of. Before we get into that timepiece, we need to first go over a quick history of YEMA.



YEMA was founded by Henry-Louis Belmont in Besancon, France in 1948. Belmont was a classically trained watchmaker that graduated at the top of his class from the famed National Watchmaking School of Besancon in 1931. The name YEMA was picked by a school contest to create a Greek sounding word that sounded catchy and wasn't taken. It's thought that a twelve year old student ended up thinking up the name that Belmont ultimately went with. Unlike many watches of the day that were focused more on elegance, Belmont decided to take his brand in the direction of creating rugged tool watches. At first these timepieces were developed for such high risk activities as motorsports and military use. YEMA even started to use the official slogan of "Time of Heroes", referencing how well their watches performed under pressure. As YEMA watches were being worn in such active situations, the brand also put some of the earliest automatic movements in their watches to take advantage of the watch constantly being in motion.

A few short years after its founding, YEMA would find its true calling in the depths. In 1953, along with Blancpain, Rolex and a very select few others, YEMA became one of the first watch brands that was capable of building a watch that could withstand depths of up to 100 meters. Fueled by the explosion of recreational diving at the time, YEMA saw their annual production boom up to 130,000 watches a year by 1954.

By the 1960s, the amount of watches YEMA sold globally was so large that the brand changed their official name to YEMA International in 1962. The mid to late 1960s saw YEMA become the biggest watch exporter in France, shipping over 400,000 a year internationally. Remember during this time that France was a major global player in the watch industry before the Quartz Crisis took hold of the industry, making this fact very impressive. The 1960s also saw the release of some of YEMAs most classic models including the chronograph Yahctingraf, which featured an innovative countdown timer meant for the start of sailing regattas.



1967 saw the release of the most well known product in the history of YEMA with the release of the Superman. The most critical element of a dive watch is the dive bezel. This crucial ring lets a diver keep track of their dive time and if the bezel was to move, the results could be life threatening. There have been a handful of bezel safety features released over the years, but the system on the Superman was about as failsafe as they come. The Superman used a piece of metal that would physically lock the bezel into place when the crown was screwed down, making it virtually impossible to rotate by accident. Along with this bezel lock system, the Superman also boasted 300 meters of water resistance and became the ultimate French dive watch.

The 1960s concluded with the release of the motorsports inspired Rallygraf. This automotive themed YEMA featured a crucial for motorsports chronograph and was worn by none other than motorsports legend Mario Andretti when he won the Indianapolis 500 in 1969. Andretti would even go on to say just how much the Rallygraf meant to him having worn it for the month prior to the race and also the fateful day he won at Indy.

1970 saw YEMA venture into aviation focused watches with the release of the Flygraf chronograph which featured a slide-rule bezel perfect for pilots. The Flygraf would go on to win multiple awards, cementing YEMA's reputation in the air, sea and on land. That same year, YEMA also became the official supplier of watches to the French Air Force's Search and Rescue divers, who wore YEMA Superman dive watches.



For well over ninety percent of the manufactures of mechanical timepieces, the 1970s and 80s were very tough times. This is when Seiko released their quartz powered watch movements, which initially were extremely expensive but became dirt cheap in no time. Not only were quartz watches very inexpensive, but they also were much more accurate than any mechanical watch. YEMA was not safe from this threat to mechanical watchmaking and ended up joining Matra Horlogerie in 1982 to continue operation. Henry-John Belmont took over for his father as CEO of YEMA and a promising young executive, named Richard Mille, took over international development for the brand. As anyone reading this review surely knows, Mille would later go on to start his own self-named brand that would become a titan of the watch industry.

During the 1980s, YEMA would continue to innovate with such releases as the Spationaute I and II, which would see YEMA now launch their watches into space on French Astronauts. The Spationaute I made YEMA the first watch from a Western European watch manufacture to be sent into space. In 1986, Richard Mille developed a rugged titanium tool watch which was meant to withstand the brutal temperatures and magnetic fields of the North and South Poles. The watch was named the Bipole and it would successfully accompany Dr. Jean-Louis Etienne during his 800 kilometer solo trek across the North Pole. The Bipole is such an impressive watch, that I actually added one to my own collection a little over a year ago.

In 1986, Seiko purchased Matra Horlogerie which included YEMA. Under the control of Seiko, YEMA ended up releasing more Seiko influenced pieces like the Superman II. The brand would also continue to push its development of space focused pieces like the Spationaute III, which even boarded the MIR space station in 1988. Towards the end of Seiko ownership, in 2004 YEMA would launch the massive and super complex Master Elements, which featured four separate bezels for speed calculation and aerial navigation.



Following two decades of ownership by the Japanese conglomerate, 2009 saw YEMA return to both being independent and French owned, when it was acquired by Ambre France. Ambre France is a family-owned watchmaking group founded by Marcelle Bole and Rene Four in Morteau, France in 1965. It took over YEMA with the primary goal of producing in-house movements in France. After investing three million Euros and spending four years in research and development, YEMA successfully launched the MBP1000. The movement was fully assembled and designed in France and offered extreme precision at a very competitive price. The caliber was a huge success and saw over 250,000 units produced.

YEMA did not rest on their laurels though and in 2021, the brand decided to work with master watchmakers Olivier Mory and Patrick Augereau, who along with YEMA's top watchmaker, Jean-Paul Boillot, would develop YEMA's second generation of in-house calibers in the YEMA2000 (three hand) and YEMA3000 (GMT). In 2022, YEMA decided that they wanted to reduce the radius of where parts they did not produce in-house were sourced from. Within the Jura French-Swiss area, YEMA was able to source everything they needed to produce a finished watch, all within 72 kilometers of their Morteau based manufacture.



Today YEMA has gone one step further and now offers their Calibre Manufacture Morteau (CMM) movements which have mainplates and bridges produced in-house and pair them with Swiss regulating organs. This has led to such innovative movements as the CMM.20 (micro-rotor) and CMM.30 (tourbillon). The CMM.30 was developed once again by Olivier Mory, who is French and actually went to watchmaking school in YEMA's hometown of Morteau. After school Mory went to Switzerland to work for the extremely respected industry development studio Renaud & Papi, now Audemars Piguet (Renaud & Papi) SA, during that time period the studio was creating the movements for the first Richard Mille watches as well. Mory would soon leave to co-found BCP Tourbillons SA in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2017, where he perfected a method of more efficiently creating tourbillon calibers. The watch we're going to be looking at today features one such tourbillon movement from Olivier Mory.

Initial Thoughts

The watch we have from YEMA into review today is the follow up to the brands first watch featuring an Olivier Mory tourbillon caliber. That watch was the Yachtingraf Tourbillon Mareographe released in 2023 to celebrate the 75th anniversary on YEMA. Limited to only 75 pieces, the Yachtingraf Tourbillon Mareographe had a substantial 105 hour power reserve and boasted both a tourbillon and tidal indicator. We will be taking a closer look at the successor to that watch in this review, the Superman Tourbillon CMM.31 released in October of 2025.



The Superman Tourbillon sees the introduction of a new Mory caliber in the CMM.31 which no longer has the tidal indicator. The movement is housed in a 43 mm titanium case and boasts a diver appropriate 200 meters of water resistance. The moment I read all of the specs and saw the press release images of the watch, I was extremely interested to see it in person. If there was ever a watch that checked off pretty much every box of what I look for in a personal watch, this was it. I immediately contacted YEMA to see if there was a press sample available to review. After not too long, YEMA was able to source a model for us to review.

When the YEMA Superman Tourbillon arrived, the first thing I noticed was the stunning black textured dial and the tourbillon at 6 o'clock. The dial has a strong texturing to it and when combined with the matte black hue, just looks right for a luxury dive watch. The tourbillon aperture is large and nicely frames the tourbillon cage. Once the caliber is wound, the tourbillon starts its one minute dance which is needed to complete a full rotation. YEMA was very wise to keep the metal color used in the tourbillon cage and balance silver in tone, since gold or bronze components would have looked out of place on a tool focused dive watch, even one of this caliber. From a distance, the Superman Tourbillon still resembles a pure dive watch, but as you get closer you can see that there is something a bit more special going on.



The next thing I noticed during my initial time with the Superman Tourbillon was just how lightweight the watch was. I tend to stick to titanium, carbon and ceramic for case materials on my personal watches, since I like larger watches, but do not care for heavy timepieces. On the full titanium bracelet, the YEMA Superman Tourbillon only weighed in at 109 grams. This is extremely impressive, since even on a strap, I consider a watch of this size lightweight if it weighs less than 100 grams. Having a full bracelet piece weigh only 9 grams over my threshold for lightness is impressive. For most of my time with the Superman Tourbillon, I did wear it on an appropriately French Marine Nationale parachute style strap which reduced the weight to a truly lightweight 82 grams.

The final thing I took note of during my first time looking over the YEMA Superman Tourbillon was the CMM.31 movement visible through the sapphire caseback. The CMM.31 isn't beautiful in the classical sense of a high horology piece which is ornately finished, but instead it is finished exactly how a top tier dive watch's movement should be finished. The mainplate and bridges have been micro-blasted to a dark grey matte textured finish that goes perfectly with the dial texture. There is also nice usage of snailing and anglage, but it's not overdone. The movement looks more like a finely crafted and expertly engineered machine than it does a jeweled haute horology spectacle. Once again, this is just perfect for its use case inside of a serious dive watch.

A Closer Look

The Superman Tourbillon is crafted out of lightweight grade 5 titanium and has a case diameter of 43.3 mm with a lug to lug length of 50 mm. The watch weighs in at 109 grams on the grade 5 titanium bracelet with all links added. At its thickest point the Superman Tourbillon is 13.3 mm tall when you factor in the tall double domed sapphire crystal, and 11.5 mm when just measuring the case. Grade 5 titanium is a great choice since it's highly resistant to corrosion which is perfect for saltwater diving. Also grade 5 titanium offers a bit more scratch resistance than pure grade 2 titanium and is more receptive to finishing.



The YEMA Superman Tourbillon features a double domed sapphire crystal which does a great job of not distorting at angles even though it's over 2 mm thick. The crystal also minimizes reflections, which is something some domed sapphires have issues with. Through the crystal clear sapphire you can see the matte black dial which has a grained texture to it. Around the outside of the dial you can see a minute track printed in white, with each five minute increment being marked with a thick hash mark and each other minute getting a slimmer mark. YEMA uses polished applied hour markers on the dial of the Superman Tourbillon. 12 o'clock is represented by a large triangle with 3 and 6 being done in large bars. 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11 o'clock are then represented by large dot markers. 5, 6 and 7 o'clock do not have traditional markers because of the opening for the tourbillon. Screws found at 5 and 7 hold the upper tourbillon bridge and act as hour markers, while 6 is completely without a marker. The hour markers are filled with grade A BGW9 Super-Luminova which appears bright white in normal lighting and glow a very strong bluish green in low light.

There are two centrally mounted hands on the dial of the Superman Tourbillon being the hour and minute hands. Both hands are polished like the hour markers, with the hour hand being pencil styled and the minute hand being an oversized arrow common to dive watches. The hands are filled with matching lume to the hour markers as well. There is no traditional seconds hand on the Superman Tourbillon, instead there is a black hand on the tourbillon which can function as a seconds hand. The movement of the second hand and that of the tourbillon are critical since the Superman Tourbillon is a hand-wound dive watch. These two components indicate that the watch is in fact running and can be trusted to record time dive. The aperture of the tourbillon has a white ring around it with large black block markers for each five second mark and thin hash marks for every other second, which allows you to track the current seconds. The ring around the tourbillon as well as the tip of the hand on the tourbillon, are once again covered in matching lume to the other dial markers.



Finishing off the dial is the YEMA logo and branding at 12 o'clock along with "SUPERMAN". Overall the dial of the Superman Tourbillon is a masterclass in keeping the classic dive watch look of the 1950s and 60s intact while alsoincorporating such a piece of high watchmaking like a tourbillon. Huge kudos to YEMA for also keeping the dial of the Superman Tourbillon extremely legible in both regular and low light, but we'll get to that later.

Moving on from the dial is the dive bezel with a domed ceramic insert. The uni-directional bezel requires 120 clicks to perform a full rotation and each turn results in a satisfying click with absolutely zero back play, reminding me of a rifle bolt ratcheting into place. The bezel really resembles old Bakelite bezels on vintage dive watches, or even the curved sapphire Blancpain uses on modern Fifty Fathoms. The bezel really reminded me of the bezel on my Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms, I had to check twice to make sure it was actually ceramic. The bezel on the Superman Tourbillon is also very nicely scalloped and provides a ton of grip, meaning it should easily be able to be used with dive gloves on. The bezel features a zero marker with a matching lumed pip at 0/60. This is the only lumed area on the bezel, making it easy to locate and then pair up to the minute hand while in low light. Each 10 minute interval is represented by a silvery-white Arabic numeral with the five minute intervals in-between getting a simple hashmark in the same hue.



The case of the YEMA Superman Tourbillon is crafted out of lightweight and extremely durable grade 5 titanium. The advantage of grade 5 titanium over pure grade 2 titanium is that it is more scratch and damage resistant. My old Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000 is one of the original titanium watches made out of grade 2 titanium, that watch scratches extremely easily. On the other hand the watches I own that are crafted out of grade 5 titanium hardly have any scratches on them. Grade 5 titanium still offers the anti-corrosion and hypoallergenic benefits that pure grade 2 titanium offers as well. Another nice benefit to grade 5 titanium, is that the alloy is easier to apply finishing techniques to.

Speaking of finishing, the Superman Tourbillon features a mostly brushed finishing. This is appropriate for a true tool dive watch. There is a bit of additional visual interest added by having some of the chamfers done in a high polish. Looking at the profile of the watch, you can see that the case is rather slim and the lugs are short with a sharp taper to better conform to your wrist.

The right hand side of the YEMA Superman Tourbillon features a large screwed down crown that is scalloped nicely like the bezel. With the screw down crown, the watch boasts a more than dive worthy 200 meters of water resistance. The crown is also topped with an engraving of the YEMA logo. Owning its vintage heritage, there are no crown guards on the case of the Superman Tourbillon. Since the watch is powered by a hand wound movement, the crown is used for winding the caliber. Once the crown has been unscrewed, you can now wind the movement in the resting position. The winding feels true and reassuring and once the power limit is being reached provides resistance to let you know to stop winding. Since there are no calendar complications on the Superman Tourbillon, there is only one additional crown position. Position one allows you to set the time on the watch. It does not stop the tourbillon from turning though, so you can't really hack seconds on the watch. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand, and getting the crown to catch to screw back in is plain effortless. Screwing the crown back into the Superman Tourbillon might be one of the easiest watches I've performed this action on in reality.



Flipping the watch over shows you the stunning manufacture caliber CMM.31. The movement is displayed underneath a sapphire crystal that is held in place with a screwed down caseback. The caseback has a rather slim bezel where important information about the watch is engraved, such as water resistance and the case number.

Through the sapphire you can see the expertly finished yet industrial look of the CMM.31. The main finishing technique seen on the movement is the micro-blasting done to the mainplate and bridges. These grey components with their rough texture nicely mirror the texturing of the dial. YEMA and "Calibre Manufacture Morteau 31" are engraved into the movement. On the mainspring barrel this same style of engraving is done and the individual limited edition number of the 100 pieces produced is displayed. YEMA has used snailing on the ratchet wheel and crown wheel as well as anglage of the bridges. The CMM.31 also features nice usage of polished screws, polished countersinks and displayed rubies. This is the exact finishing you'd expect on a high end luxury dive watch, which still has strong tool watch bones.

The CMM.31 isn't your run of the mill delicate Swiss tourbillon caliber. Instead this movement lives inside of a watch that is capable of reaching 200 meters of depth and can withstand 5,000 G's of shock resistance as well as 2,000 Gauss of magnetic protection. The CMM.31 developed with Olivier Mory boasts an incredible 105 hours of power reserve and beats away at a stable 21,600 vph (3Hz). On our timegrapher the CMM.31 recorded an extremely accurate result of +1 second per day when averaged out over several positions. This is amongst the top performers we have ever tested and well within chronometer specifications. That YEMA was able to achieve this level of accuracy from a manufacture tourbillon caliber in such a short development time is beyond impressive.



The YEMA Superman Tourbillon has a rather standard lug width of 22 mm. The watch comes on YEMA's Scales Slim bracelet crafted fully out of grade 5 titanium. The bracelet tapers down from 22 mm at the lugs to 18 mm at the brushed clasp with YEMA branding and polished edges. The Scales Slim bracelet is uniquely YEMA and uses a five row construction that has two larger outer links and three smaller inner links that make up the scales like appearance. The links are held in place by screws, which is my preferred way of adding and removing links. The bracelet is extremely lightweight and offers a ton of articulation. The links on the bracelet are also fully brushed matching the finishing on the case. The clasp requires two pushers to be depressed to release the clasp. The Scales Slim bracelet also has an additional two pushers which allow the bracelet to be adjusted to your exact fit. These micro-adjustments allow up to 15 mm of total adjustments, enough for a hot or cold day or even to fit over a lightweight wetsuit.

In total transparency, I am not a fan of bracelets. When I first started collecting, my first two Omegas and then my IWC were all on bracelets that did not have micro-adjustments like the Superman Tourbillon does. This meant that during the Texas summers where it was well over 100 degrees and humid outside, my wrist would swell to the point that the watch became a handcuff, to then going into 70 degree air-conditioning and the watch all of a sudden was sliding everywhere. Having then worn every watch under the sun for the next twenty years, I really started to solely collect watches on straps. Even on my Ocean 2000 with its iconic bracelet, I swapped it out to the available Velcro bund strap. I'm saying all of this because for the majority of the time I had the YEMA Superman Tourbillon I did not wear it on the titanium Scales Slim bracelet. Although the bracelet is awesome and the micro-adjustments are a lifesaver, at the end of the day it's still a bracelet.



I ended up putting the watch on an appropriate French Marine Nationale parachute strap. This kind of strap allows for endless adjustments and only adds one layer of strap underneath the caseback, as opposed to two on a standard NATO, while still offering all of the protection from spring bar failure that a NATO does and lowering the watch's weight to a Richard Mille like 82 grams. I even spoke to Christopher Bole, the CEO of YEMA, about this and he thought that in the future the possibility of including an additional strap of this nature might be a good idea, but thought at the level the Superman Tourbillon is positioned at, that a full titanium bracelet was warranted, which I totally agree with.

On The Wrist

I've actually had the YEMA Superman Tourbillon in my possession for a fairly long time. Over that time I have become very familiar with the watch and have worn it frequently. Right off the bat the 50 mm lug to lug measurement is right in my Goldilocks zone of case sizes. Combining that with the extreme lightweight 82 gram weight of the grade 5 titanium case and Marine Nationale parachute strap, meant the Superman Tourbillon was the absolute perfect wrist companion. Being completely honest, the watch really disappeared on my wrist while wearing it. It was only there when I needed to check the time or wanted to look at the tourbillon dancing around.



On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area, the Superman Tourbillon nicely covered my wrist with zero lug overhang and sat perfectly centered. The height of the watch also meant that the Superman Tourbillon looked well balanced and never bulky. I'd guess it wouldn't have much problem sliding under most cuffs either. While the watch features a high horology tourbillon movement, it does feel like you are wearing a robust diver while on the wrist, which is very welcomed. With the 200 meters of water resistance and high shock and magnetic resistance, there isn't much you couldn't do with this watch on. If there was ever a tourbillon "Go Anywhere Do Anything" (GADA) watch, this YEMA Superman Tourbillon is it.

The Superman Tourbillon has a mostly black and white aesthetic, so it went perfectly with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. On the Marine Nationale parachute strap, the watch perfectly fit my casual lifestyle as well. Putting the watch back on the titanium Scales Slim bracelet would do a much better job of allowing the Superman Tourbillon to do well in both casual and more formal settings. Just like people wear Rolex Submariners to formal occasions, the YEMA Superman Tourbillon would fit in just as well if not better. With the exceptional 105 hours of power reserve, I was easily able to put down the watch for a few days and pick it up again running and set correctly. I do tend to wind a watch every time I am about to wear it though, so I've had the joy of interacting with the excellent winding crown on the Superman Tourbillon countless times already.



To test the legibility of a watch, I use a simple test where I see how easy it is to tell the time while driving at just a glance. In this test diver watches with their high contrast dials and large markers do the best, while complicated and skeleton watches do the worst since they focus on design over legibility. I was a bit unsure of how the Superman Tourbillon would do since it is both a dive watch and a partially skeletonized and complicated watch. In all honestly, the watch really beat my expectations. The hands and hour markers are large with polished edges and stark white Super-LumiNova contrast perfectly with the matte black dial. A glance was all that was needed to easily decipher the time. Also in low light the YEMA Superman Tourbillon glows extremely bright, making low light time telling a breeze.

When I wore the Superman Tourbillon out and about on boring everyday errands as well as out to dinner and drinks I noticed a decent amount of people looking at the watch. I was actually surprised it received as much attention as it did since I had the watch on a more military themed strap. I do feel that if the watch was on the titanium bracelet that a lot more people would have checked it out. I did have a few people comment and ask questions about the Superman Tourbillon, even a couple of people knew about YEMA. For the most part, everyone just loved how lightweight the watch was and were also mesmerized by the spinning tourbillon at 6 o'clock. When it came to pricing, it was a pretty even mix of people that understood why the YEMA Superman Tourbillon cost what it does, and others that were a bit shocked. I guess it really came down to their understanding of watchmaking and what goes into producing a manufacture tourbillon caliber.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Superman Tourbillon retails for $13,000. For that price you're getting a full grade 5 titanium case and bracelet housing a manufacture tourbillon movement with 105 hours of power reserve. The watch also offers a full 200 meters of water resistance along with more than sufficient shock and magnetic resistance. Now is the time in the review where we look at other watches that offer similar features and specifications to see how good of a value the YEMA Superman Tourbillon really is. The watches I'm going to pick to compare to the Superman Tourbillon fall into the rather rare group of dive or sports watches with a tourbillon or some other interesting technical advancement.

Up first we have the Fifty Fathoms Tourbillon 8 Jours from Blancpain which has a 45 mm case crafted out of titanium. While the Fifty Fathoms was the first dive watch released, YEMA was right there in the early 1950s producing dive watches along with Blancpain. The Fifty Fathoms is an awesome watch, especially in titanium, I myself own the 1,000 meter 500 Fathoms in titanium. The Fifty Fathoms Tourbillon has a bit more water resistance than the Superman Tourbillon at 300 meters. It is powered by an in-house automatic movement with more power reserve at 192 hours as well. This all comes at a tremendous price, with the Fifty Fathoms Tourbillon costing over 10 times as much as the Superman Tourbillon at $152,500.



Moving on is the U53 Diver Tourbillon from Angelus which has a 46 mm case made out of titanium. The U53 features a fully skeletonized dial with a flying tourbillon located at 6:30. Being a dive watch, this can make the watch hard to read in tough conditions. The U53 does also offer a bit more water resistance than the Superman Tourbillon matching the Fifty Fathoms Tourbillon at 300 meters. The U53 is powered by an in-house movement with only 60 hours of power reserve, which is much less than the Superman Tourbillon and Fifty Fathoms Tourbillon. The U53 Diver Tourbillon is also much more expensive than the Superman Tourbillon at $42,800.

Next up is the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Extreme Sport from TAG Heuer which has a 44 mm case made from DLC titanium. The Carrera is not a dive watch and as such only has half the water resistance as the Superman Tourbillon at 100 meters, but it does add a racing inspired chronograph. The Carrera also has a mostly skeletonized dial with the tourbillon at 6 o'clock, which isn't the best of legibility. The Carrera is powered by an in-house automatic movement with only 65 hours of power reserve, much less than what the Superman Tourbillon offers. Finally the Carrera is much more expensive than the Superman Tourbillon at $39,350.

Finally we have the Diver [AIR] from Ulysse Nardin which has a 44 mm case made out of a mixture of Titanium, Nylon and Carbon Fiber. The Diver [AIR] does not include a tourbillon, but has a fully skeletonized dial with the exposed balance beating away at 6 o'clock. The real claim to fame with the Diver [AIR] is that it is the lightest mechanical dive watch ever made by weighing 51 grams and having the same 200 meters of water resistance as the Superman Tourbillon. The Diver [AIR] is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 90 hours of power reserve, which is a bit shy of the 105 hours found in the Superman Tourbillon. Like the other three watches, the Diver [AIR] is much more expensive than the Superman Tourbillon at $45,300.



Looking at the four watches we compared to the YEMA Superman Tourbillon, you can see just how great of a value the watch is. First of all, having a genuine Swiss tourbillon featured in a movement makes costs skyrocket, just look at the Blancpain, Angelus and TAG Heuer to see this illustrated. The fact that YEMA can offer this type of caliber with a nearly class leading power reserve at a fraction of what their competitors charge is mind blowing. I am genuinely a fan of all the watches I compared the Superman Tourbillon to, but honestly in a lot of ways I actually prefer the styling and everyday use of the YEMA.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the YEMA Superman Tourbillon CMM.31 for me? I've reviewed a ton of watches so far on Hourstriker and I can easily say that the Superman Tourbillon is probably the closest to the perfect watch for me that I've reviewed. The watch has that mythical 50 mm of lug to lug length that I look for in watches I collect personally. It is also crafted out of grade 5 titanium, which is one of the case materials I stick to, the others being ceramic (used on the bezel) and carbon. As I've matured as a collector, I've settled back on dive watches being my favorite genre of timepiece, which the Superman Tourbillon is. I have always valued a long power reserve, which is the main reason I've collected IWC Big Pilots over the years, and the 105 hours in the CMM.31 is very impressive. Finally for over 25 years I've always viewed the tourbillon as the pinnacle of watchmaking. There is just something special about looking down at your wrist and seeing it doing its little dance. I know recently tourbillons have become more commonplace, but there is still something very special about having a true Swiss tourbillon in your watch. I also love the vintage dive watch looks of the YEMA Superman Tourbillon, it reminds me more of a vintage Fifty Fathoms than the current Fifty Fathoms does. I own one, I should know! Finally, the watch, especially on the aftermarket Marine Nationale parachute strap, is just a dream to wear all day long at only 82 grams. Saying I could see a tourbillon as being my daily watch is just an insane thought, but the YEMA Superman Tourbillon does make that a very real possibility.



Ok, so far this review has been nothing but glowing praise for the Superman Tourbillon. Trust me… I can see that having written it. But if I was to ask you to take your favorite watch out of your watch box and write a review about it, I hope it would be just as praise heavy. Are there things I would change with about the Superman Tourbillon for a follow up version? Sure, of course there are. The first would be the move away from a hand wound caliber. While the having 105 hours of power reserve makes having a diver with a hand wound movement acceptable, a diver should be automatic for safety reasons. I don't expect many people to go diving with the Superman Tourbillon, and even if they did, they'd probably also be using a dive computer along with it. To truly make the ultimate dive watch, maybe YEMA could adopt the micro-rotor from their CMM.20 and make an automatic CMM.32, this would combine both their tourbillon and micro-rotor calibers and adhere more to the guidelines of a dive watch. Next, if YEMA was to stick with a hand wound caliber for the watch, maybe add a dial or movement side power reserve indicator, just so before going on a dive you know how much energy is left in the main spring. Finally, adding lume to the other bezel markers would be a nice addition, since only the pip is lumed currently, maybe keeping the pip the same color as the minute hand and having the rest of the markers in a different hue. Like I said, these are small suggestions, but they in no way change how much I like the Superman Tourbillon.

Would I then suggest the YEMA Superman Tourbillon to somebody looking for a high end dive watch that is a bit more special than the everyday five figure dive watches everyone knows? If it's more than good enough for me, then of course I'd recommend the Superman Tourbillon to that type of collector. Even if they have a smaller wrist, the 43 mm case doesn't wear large. When combined with the lightweight nature of titanium, the Superman Tourbillon becomes even more wearable. Even on the bracelet, the watch is just over 100 grams, which is extremely light. The bracelet also offers a very convenient micro-adjustment system and the Scales Slim links look completely unique. A standard 22 mm lug width opens the Superman Tourbillon to a huge variety of aftermarket straps as well, which is something I took advantage of.

A huge problem with the Superman Tourbillon is now availability. The watch was launched with 100 available pieces and as of writing this review, there are only 3 left. I'm guessing those final three units will be gone fairly soon after this review is published. 97 people have already validated what I thought about the Superman Tourbillon, so I know I'm not alone with how much I truly like and have bonded with the watch. For a little more than what a Rolex Submariner sells for (at retail), you can have a dive watch crafted out of full grade 5 titanium with a deadly accurate manufacture movement with 105 hours of power reserve AND a tourbillon. For me that honestly sounds like a no brainer. If you are at all interested in the Superman Tourbillon, I suggest you reach out to YEMA in short order.



I'd really like to thank Christopher and Lea over at YEMA for getting the Superman Tourbillon CMM.31 over to us to review. I have honestly enjoyed every second wearing the watch and feel it is a great example of what the brand is able to do in the realm of high horology. Being the pinnacle of the YEMA collection it still shares a lot of traits with the Superman models I have previously reviewed that cost a fraction as much. This illustrates that YEMA doesn't just reserve their best cases, dials and movements for only their top tier offering, but filters them equally throughout the entire range. The Superman Tourbillon has got me really excited to see what other novelties YEMA is working on for the coming years. Hopefully in the next few months we will get some more interesting pieces in from YEMA to look more in depth at.

For more information about the Superman Tourbillon CMM.31 please visit : YEMA

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 12.25.31.66.TE.MT

Retail Price: $13,000

Case Size: 43.3 mm

Lug to Lug: 50 mm

Thickness: 13.3 mm (11.5 mm without the Crystal)

Weight: 109 grams

Case Material: Grade 5 Titanium

Bezel: Domed Ceramic Uni-Directional with 120 Clicks

Strap: Grade 5 Titanium Scales Slim Bracelet with Mirco-Adjustable Clasp

Movement: Manufacture Hand Wound Calibre CMM.31

Functions: Hours, Minutes and Tourbillon

Power Reserve: 105 Hours

Water Resistance: 200 Meters