A Note To Our Fellow Adventurers
At RZE we've always believed the best stories of our watches are told by real users and adventurers in the field. In 2026, as we continue our story, we are dedicated to showcasing some of your stories in our Adventure Logs.
In this series, we introduce a long time friend and professional adventurer Sam who shares his experience with his UTD-8000-BK on the wrist and on location - a look in the bag and behind the lens of how adventure content is captured and created.
Sam Delaware is based in Los Angeles, California, directing and shooting for Sigma America, where his work puts high-performance optics through real-world use across commercial, editorial, and adventure-driven assignments.
As a former in-house producer at HiConsumption, he covered wristwatches from major manufacturers and independent makers alike, building a working familiarity with mechanical systems and design driven by function.
We appreciate you joining us for the ride and look forward to sharing more great stories and hope our watches will travel with you on all your adventures.
- Huiy Tang, Co-Founder
September 13th, 2025
Sigma America, Beachman Bikes, INEOS Grenadier
Carizzo Plain, Central Valley California
On location for Beachman Bikes, with the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster as secondary placement. Fast riding, environmental portraits, details of painted chassis and metalwork. Everything handheld. Wind kept clouds of dust in motion all day. Cameras. Glass. Watch. Everything held. The UTD-8000 stayed as it always does: compact, lightweight, overbuilt in all the right ways. Surface stayed clean against sun, sweat, grit, scuffs, shocks.
The day started with a four-hour drive from Los Angeles, then another two hours across the desert to reach the location. High sun, long shadows, dust kicked up by tires on dry earth. The bikes were Beachman’s flagship model, the '64, a nod to early cafe racer style and design. Hours spent capturing riding sequences, product details, and the small charm points of each bike.
Environmental portraits came during blue hour, when the light shifted and softened across the plain. Riders paused, helmets off, posture relaxed, bikes grounded in the landscape. Shots depended on timing, light, and movement. Sunset before the crew loaded up and began the long drive back, making it a twenty- hour day from start to finish.
The core kit is stripped down, tested, predictable. Keeping track of memory, batteries, shot lists, resets, talent, vehicles, dust on the lens and matte box… it all stacks. On a skeleton crew, that’s par for the course. The UTD-8000 seems to sits in that line of tools as well: clear, fast, unobtrusive.
This shoot also put Sigma’s Aizu Primes through a proper field test in the same way as the UTD. The 25mm T1.3 lived on the now-discontinued Sigma fp L. Sigma has operated out of Aizu since the 1960s, privately held and family owned. Design, engineering, production, all in one facility. Clean mountain water, essential for production, still moves through the manufacturing plant and directly impacts the quality of the optics.
My father’s lineage in New England was shaped by river-fed mills, where waterways powered production and raw timber became paper. A world away in Aizu, mountain water flows through Sigma’s facility under a notably similar system. At its core, the structure feels familiar, even if the products are not a 1:1 match - paper and optics. However, towns built around the mill, and mills sustained by the participation of the town are now a rare artifact of closed loop labor, geography, and skilled craft.
The UTD-8000 fits there. Full titanium case and full digital module. No bezel markings, no hands, no heritage styling. Day, date, time, a few timing features. Sun at high noon. Glare kept down by the Super-AR coating on the sapphire. Blue hour dropped light; backlight gave just enough to track the final shots and monitor wrap time and reading the timing features remained straightforward through it all.
For the final piece for Beachman Bikes, check out the cinematic reel hosted by Sigma Cine. Follow Sam Delaware on Instagram to see more and join him on his adventures.
