About as esoteric as they come, the Benthos 500 was a chunky scuba diving watch released by Aquastar back in the late 1960s, before the brand became one of the many casualties of the quartz crisis. I won’t get into too much history of the brand as it has already been covered at length. When […]
Picture a classic dive watch… It’ll probably be made of steel, with a robust case, a unidirectional bezel with a 60-minute scale, a black dial with large luminous markers and a set of three hands, with an enlarged minute hand and a necessary seconds hand to indicate that your watch is running (basically, I’ve just […]
If you’re on this website, reading the latest article in my diving test series, there’s a pretty good chance that you have at least a passing familiarity with Sinn watches. There is an equally good chance that most of your non-watch-nerd friends, family, and colleagues do not. Flying just under the radar, Sinn has been […]
Like many other brands born during the golden era of watchmaking, and in particular the early days of the professional dive watch, Squale might not sound familiar to a mainstream audience but has to be considered an emblematic maker of dive watches for seasoned enthusiasts. 65 years ago, in 1959, Squale launched its first watch; […]
Next to the vintage-inspired Legend Diver collection, the Longines HydroConquest is a more utilitarian, robust, classic diver, with water-resistance up to 300 metres, a unidirectional, external rotating bezel, a screw-in crown and a screw-down caseback. Following the introduction of the practical, versatile and mostly visually appealing HydroConquest GMT last year in a 41mm case, Longines […]
While we’re not here to re-do the story of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, we must remember that we’re talking about one of the most important watches ever. Created back in the mid-1950s and one of the first purpose-built modern dive watches, it has, together with a couple of other timepieces, established the fundamental technical and […]
For most watch enthusiasts, Citizen is probably best known for its wide range of affordable quartz, solar-powered and mechanical watches. Watches like the Promaster series, for instance, have been fan-favourite models for years. More recently, the Tsuyosa collection made quite an impact for its honest yet compelling proposition. There is one collection that, however, delivers […]
William Wood was not a watchmaker by trade, he was a distinguished firefighter in the British Fire Service with a 25-year tenure. To his grandson, Jonny Garrett, William Wood was not just a hero who saved lives but an extraordinary individual whose legacy deserved honour. In 2016, Jonny embarked on a mission to craft timepieces […]
Although Seiko’s expertise in waterproof watchmaking goes back a very long way, it wasn’t until 1965 that the Japanese manufacturer entered the professional dive watch market. Ever since, plenty of low- and high-end dive watches have been introduced with a good number of them becoming genuine icons. Collections like the 5 Sports, the Turtle, the […]
Jack Mason is an up-and-coming microbrand with a growing portfolio of divers, chronographs and day/dates, and the latest Strat-o-Timer GMT is the most polished of the bunch. With a dive watch vibe and in-house regulation, it’s bold and stylish, with an accuracy rating well above the norm for the specific Miyota movement it uses. Of […]