In 2020, Swiss dive watch specialist Aquastar was relaunched with the simultaneous return of a slightly larger version of the Deepstar chronograph from the ‘60s (see February 2021 issue). Since November 2021, the brand’s first three-hand watch is offering a much more affordable option for those who missed out on the chronograph, or didn’t want to spend $3,590 on one of the four dial options (which were all sold out rather quickly).

Interestingly, Aquastar chose to not relaunch another of its classic designs (which is bad news for all those who had hoped for a return of the Benthos), but instead opted for a declination of the Deepstar’s design. The Deepstar II, like its 40.5-mm chronograph counterpart, comes with the large silver subdial, this time at 9 o’clock (instead of 3 o’clock) for the permanent second hand (instead of the minute chronograph counter). The satin-finished case, however, measures 37 mm (around 47 mm lug to lug) and is based on the design of the first dive watches from the brand, and therefore offers a very compact alternative.

Like the Deepstar Chronograph, the Deepstar II comes with a 200-meter water resistance, but is powered by a top-grade Swiss-made automatic movement from Sellita (SW290-1 with 38-hour power reserve). As a result, the Deepstar II is priced at $1,490 during the brand’s preorder period. The stainless-steel beads-of-rice bracelet is sold separately, but a Tropic and Horween leather strap are included. The polished, bidirectional bezel is mounted with ceramic bearings and features the brand’s typical decompression engravings for calculating repeated “no decompression” dives. While the bezel pip, hour and minute hand as well as the hour indexes are covered with high-density “old radium”-style Super-LumiNova, the second hand unfortunately remains invisible at night.

The Aquastar Deepstar II is currently available in three dial options: “Steel Grey” (pictured here), “Vintage Black” and “Blue Ray,” with each being limited to “an opening series” of 300 individually numbered pieces, which sounds like there might be an option for the brand to add more pieces and colors, in case demand is bigger than supply.

Surprisingly, the 37-mm watch wears bigger on the wrist than one might assume, which is mostly because of the 47-mm lug-to-lug length. The biggest surprise, however, is that Aquastar has managed to create a completely new model that looks like it has been part of the brand’s collection for almost exactly 60 years.

Aquastar Deepstar II Specs

Manufacturer: Montres Aquastar GmbH, Leugenestrasse 6, 2504 Biel/Bienne, Switzerland 

Functions: Hours, minutes and seconds (9 o’clock) 

Movement: Sellita SW290-1, automatic winding, 28,800 vph, 31 rubies, 38-hour power reserve, diameter = 25.60 mm, height = 5.60 mm 

Case: Stainless steel, screw-in crown and caseback, domed sapphire crystal, water resistant to 200 m, bidirectional ratcheting bezel (120 clicks) with decompression time calculator 

Strap and clasp: Tropic rubber strap with signed buckle 

Dimensions: Diameter = 37 mm, height = 14.80 mm, lug width = 19 mm 

Variations: With blue or black dial (each limited to 300 pieces) 

Warranty: 1 year 

Price: $1,890

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For many collectors, the history of the dive watch starts in 1953 with the introduction of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Rolex Submariner. Divers, however, already had to rely on water-resistant watches, decades before the commercialization of two of the category’s most iconic models. We take a deep dive into how the history of underwater exploration and the evolution of the wristwatch are connected.

In 1942, German trade publication Uhrmacher-Woche (Watchmaker’s Week) began an extensive article about water-resistant watches with the following opening paragraph: “15 years ago, when the water resistant watch hit the market, many expected it to be an advertising gimmick or a fashion fad, because it isn’t really necessary to wear a watch when swimming.” The author then quickly went on to conclude that “the development of the air-tight watch became a technical necessity and important for the outcome of the war, because in rooms with lead storage batteries, in factories, on board submarines the air is filled with acid fumes.”

From the Pocket to the Wrist and Into the Waters of WWII 

What makes this article from 80 years ago remarkable is the combination of several misconceptions about the development of the waterproof or water-resistant wristwatch that ultimately culminated in the invention of the dive watch. First, Rolex clearly did manage to create an impact “15 years ago” by placing its famous full-page advertisement on the front of London’s Daily Mail on Nov. 24, 1927, proclaiming the success of the first waterproof wristwatch and chronicling “the debut of the Rolex Oyster and its triumphant march worldwide” after then-26-year-old British professional swimmer Mercedes Gleitze swam the English Channel wearing a Rolex Oyster, thus spending more than 10 hours in the chilly waters between France and Great Britain. Second, not a single word mentions divers or diving, even though helmet diving had already become an established industry by then. Other fields of application seemed much more important than diving or “swimming,” which ironically was also the case with many of the innovations that helped establish diving itself. It was, for example, the idea for a smoke helmet by Charles Deane in 1823 that led to the development of the first successful diving helmet (which consequently resulted in Augustus Siebe, an engineer and former watchmaker, working on a helmet fitted to a full length watertight canvas diving suit in 1830). The same was true of the oxygen rebreather, which was as much intended to be an emergency escape apparatus for submarine crews, mine workers or firefighters, as it finally allowed helmet divers to work more independently without surface-supplied air via a diver’s umbilical.

Ironically, those early helmet divers came up with a rather pragmatic way to know how much time they had already spent underwater: the first dive watches were simply regular pocketwatches, mounted on the inside of a diving helmet. One reason for this solution: back then, the “bracelet watch” was “looked upon by Americans as more or less of a joke,” according to the New York Times from July 9, 1916. But, like the German Uhrmacher-Woche, the paper also concluded in the same article that “the telephone and signal service, which play important parts in modern warfare, have made the wearing of watches by soldiers obligatory.” Looking at those early field watches, wearing one underwater, over a thick dive suit and thus completely exposed to both water, pressure and potential bumps would have been much riskier (and more expensive) than simply mounting a pocket watch on the (hopefully) dry inside of a helmet.

Two years after the New York Times piece on trench watches, on June 11, 1918, New York based “manufacturers of high class specialties for Waltham watches” Jacques Depollier & Son was granted a patent in the U.S. for a “waterproof and dust-proof watch.” In an ad from the same year, Depollier also came to a similar conclusion as the New York Times. “With the general use of wrist watches for soldiers, sailors, aviators and others engaged in the open, the demand for waterproof watches has become much more insistent, and the fact that the demand still exists unsatisfied is an indication that a reliable waterproof watch has not until now been produced.” Depollier’s “D-D” field and marine watch was equipped with a double clinched bezel that promised to keep out “water, dust and gas.” Again, Depollier, like the New York Times, did not mention the diver as its intended target audience, even though their watch “might be completely submerged in water” and was advertised using a picture of it being placed in a fish bowl.

Rolex, on the other hand, brought out its first attempt at a waterproof and dustproof watch, the Submarine, in 1922. It turned out to be an impractical design, according to Rolex, since the watch was “relying on a second outer case to protect the main watch body. The outer shell had to be opened every day in order to wind the watch, thereby also weakening the metal gasket that sealed the opening.” Four years later, two major technical innovations of the company had made the single-case wristwatch watertight: a screw-down back and bezel, as well as a newly patented winding crown, which could be screwed down to seal the case. Rolex advertised the Oyster as the “wonder watch.” Mercedes Gleitze provided the proof (and also became the brand’s first testimonial).

Like Rolex before, Omega came up with a similar idea of a double-case construction for a watch that was targeted specially at “sportifs, marins et coloniaux” (athletes, sailors and soldiers). In 1932, the “élégante” Omega Marine utilized a patented case sealed with cork to “keep water and the elements away from the heart of the watch.” The rectangular watch even featured an adjustable clasp and was tested in Lake Geneva at a depth of 73 meters (later conducted laboratory tests found the watch to be waterproof to a depth of 135 meters).

A New Type of Watch, Robust Enough to be Worn Underwater 

In 1935, the paths of the watch industry and underwater operations finally became fully intertwined, when the director of G. Panerai e Figlio in Florence, Giuseppe Panerai, was approached by the Italian Navy to develop a water-resistant compass and a watch for operators of its newly developed manned torpedo. While Panerai had already been a supplier of special navy equipment, the company had never produced wristwatches. On Oct. 24, 1935, Rolex therefore sent Panerai a Ref. 2533 with a large 9k gold cushion case for tests, the very same watch that should later evolve into the Radiomir, used by Italian special forces (and later by the Germans after having seized some of these watches during the German occupation of Italy that lasted until May 2, 1945).

While members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS commando frogman unit were initially equipped with Panerai-supplied Rolex watches, the American Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), predecessors of the U.S. Navy’s current SEAL teams, were equipped with “canteen watches” from the likes of Hamilton and Elgin (featuring a screw-on cover for the crown that was held in place with a small chain). Like the watches supplied by Panerai, these significantly smaller canteen watches were not equipped with a bezel, but simply indicated time with their luminous hands.

For the rotating bezel, clearly the visually most distinctive element on a dive watch, the watch industry first looked to the sky. On July 31, 1929, Philip Van Horn Weems applied for a patent for a “method of and apparatus for navigator’s time keeping” using a rotating bezel. The patent was granted in 1935 and soon found its way on to many pilots’ watches, the most important one being the legendary Weems watch from Longines. It would take a few more years until the watch industry began to recognize the potential for its diving customer. More precisely, with the rise of autonomous diving, based on open-circuit, compressed-air devices, like Yves Le Prieur’s invention from 1925, and, more importantly, Émile Gagnan’s and Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s regulator that was first patented in 1943 (and mass produced by La Spirotechnique after the war), the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) revolutionized diving, and consequently increased demand for a reliable underwater timing device.

Blancpain started in the early 1950s with the development and testing of the brand’s first wristwatch intended exclusively for divers. The Fifty Fathoms (a reference to the depth rating of 300 feet or 91.4 meters) was the brainchild of Jean-Jacques Fiechter, then CEO of Blancpain, who also happened to be an avid diver. In an interview conducted in 2018, Fiechter recalled that he was diving off the coast of France when he lost track of time and ended up running out of air, prompting an immediate ascent to the surface without stopping for decompression, and thus leaving him at the risk of the bends. His solution, and ultimately Blancpain’s “first modern dive watch,” was commercialized in 1953 and came with a new positioning for the caseback and crown gasket that would better protect the case and movement from water, resulting in a patent for both designs. More importantly, Fiechter had also introduced a unidirectional bezel with the Fifty Fathoms that would allow the watch’s wearer to better track how much time was spent submerged. In short, Blancpain had both improved the water-resistant case and added a bezel that was exclusively aimed at keeping track of time spent underwater.

Rolex, on the other hand, already had implemented a bezel on a watch with the Zerographe and was now working on the most waterresistant watch case of that time with an experimental watch, the Deep-Sea Special, which was attached to the exterior of Piccard’s Trieste during its first deep-sea trials down to 3,150 meters (10,245 feet) off the island of Ponza in 1953 (Jacques Piccard himself was seen wearing a Longines Chronograph 13ZN when diving outside the submarine). In 1960, Don Walsh, Jacques Piccard and another Rolex watch would reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench (10,916 meters, 35,814 feet). Almost simultaneous with testing the Deep-Sea Special, the company introduced the Submariner in 1953, a diving watch equipped with a rotating bezel. In 1954, the watch industry’s trade publication Europa Star first mentions the Submariner briefly as a watch that “has been specially designed for deep-sea diving,” and like the Rolex Turn-O-Graph, the Submariner “carries a Time Recorder bezel,” which “enables the consumption of air in independent diving equipment to be easily controlled.” According to Europa Star, the Submariner was “tested on 132 sea trials in the Mediterranean and declared a to be an essential accessory to diving equipment.”

While Blancpain and Rolex have defined the look and function of the modern dive watch, both had approached the problem from the same angle: a robust, highly water-resistant wristwatch equipped with a bezel that would be able to withstand external pressure. What they didn’t factor in: the rise of saturation diving, first in the military field, then in commercial application. Dr. George F. Bond, a U.S. Navy scientist, had introduced the concept of saturation diving in the late 1950s. Earlier experiments had shown that divers were able to live and work underwater for days or weeks at a time before making a single, comparatively short decompression period. Bond’s work is not only credited as the beginning of saturation diving, but also marked the start of the United States Navy’s Man-in-the-Sea Program. From 1964, a trio of saturation diving experiments that let divers work and live in undersea habitats (Sealab) was launched and supported by the United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU). With the ill-fated Sealab III, the habitat was lowered to 610 feet (190 m) off San Clemente Island, California, on Feb. 15, 1969, a depth that would bring a standard-issue Submariner already near its limits. But it wasn’t just the depth that posed new challenges; helium caused the weakest part on some of the watches, the crystal, to pop off during decompression. And this wasn’t just happening to the divers in the Navy. In 1968, Japanese watchmaker Seiko received a letter from a saturation diver from Kure City, in Hiroshima prefecture. In that letter, the diver also complained that the dive watches from Seiko lost their crystals during decompression. While some divers simply unscrewed the crown before compression, Rolex wanted to offer a different solution for its 1967-introduced Sea-Dweller dive watch. From an ad from 1974: “The Rolex Sea Dweller, however, is fitted with a patented gas escape valve.” Rolex had applied for a patent for this valve on Nov. 6, 1967. “In effect, this means that the watch decompresses with the diver,” explained T. Walker Lloyd, then an oceanographic consultant for Rolex in the same ad. The Sea Dweller then went on to become standard equipment of the Compagnie maritime d’expertises (COMEX) employees (and replacing the previous partnership between Omega and COMEX).

A Diver’s Tool 

Omega and Seiko, however, chose a very different approach to solving the helium problem: instead of improving an existing watch, they both went back to the drawing board. One result was the Seamaster 600 “PloProf” (Plongeur Professionel) from 1970 that was built to be more robust than any other watch from the company before. From an ad from that period: “We also put the 600 through our helium test. Helium, having much smaller molecules, can penetrate where water can’t. So if a watch is proof against helium, it’s proof against just about everything else. This test showed that the 600 is one hundred times as air- and water-tight as the Apollo spacecraft.” Another ad from Omega explained the three major innovations like this: “we carved the Seamaster out of one block of stainless steel; no joints behind. Then we gave it a heavy, hardened mineral glass, which actually screws in. We gave it a turning elapsed-time bezel, which has its own lock to prevent accidental moving. We gave it an extra-safe, twin-locking crown.” Seiko, too, went with a monobloc case construction for its 1975-introduced professional dive watch, the 6159-7010 with a guaranteed water resistance of 600 meters (a watch that was, like the PloProf, in fact much more water resistant than this). The Seiko, however, took seven years to develop and resulted in 20 patents. The 6159-7010 was also built in a way that it could withstand the pressure differences without having to rely on an additional opening in the case, but came with a protective shroud, taking into consideration the heavy underwater work of its customers. On the other hand, both the Seiko and the Omega came with a design, size and price that prevented it from being worn by a large group of consumers, while the Sea-Dweller looked much more like a regular watch both underwater and onshore.

All three models also undoubtedly helped improve the quality of dive watches substantially. In 1966, the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) had set up an investigation committee for diving equipment, including dive watches, which back then were deemed not only “a vital part” of the diver’s equipment, but apparently also the most troublesome. In 1968, BSAC member Geoff Harwood concluded that “the majority of the complaints and allegations of faulty equipment and unsatisfactory dealings with manufacturers and distributors have been concerned with diving watches” — which led to the decision “to carry out a survey in order to determine the extent of the problem.” Harwood’s conclusion was not as encouraging as the industry might have hoped for, “since so few of each make are represented, we cannot draw a conclusion as to ‘best buy’ or to definitely not recommend a certain watch.” And added, “[E]ven if you buy an internationally famous watch costing over £50 you still stand a fair chance of finding it full of water when you come to start your decompression schedule after a deep dive.”

Or, as Robert R. Springer wrote in his Skin & Scuba Diver’s Digest of 1975, “At one time an oddity, today, specially constructed waterproof and pressure-resistant watches have become something of a status symbol among the socalled beautiful people — even though most of them never reach depths greater than the bottom of a martini glass. The practicing scuba diver, however, needs a functional item, rather than an impressive one. And, in looking for an underwater watch, it pays to be highly selective.”

Becoming an Ambassador of the Sea 

In 1983, while the watch industry was slowly starting to recover from its worst crisis to date, the Orca Edge hit the market as the first commercially viable dive computer. Watch brands at that time mostly focused on making dive watches more water resistant (the IWC Ocean 2000 from 1984, for example, was the first serially produced dive watch water resistant to 2,000 meters), and multi-function quartz watches and dive computers quickly started to reduce the mechanical dive watch first to the role of a backup instrument, then mostly a status symbol, as observed by Springer in 1975. In 1990, Seiko launched the “world’s first computerized diver’s watch,” equipped with a water sensor and depth sensor that displayed diving time and depth. Five years before, Citizen had introduced the first Aqualand and also the first quartz watch to incorporate an electronic, digital depth gauge. Despite the existence of a more versatile (and often less expensive) option, dive watches have become one of the most successful categories for luxury watch manufacturers in recent years. The Submariner from Rolex, for example, ranks on positions 2 and 5 on Chrono24’s most popular list from 2020. Even at Breitling, a brand traditionally synonymous with pilots’ watches, the Superocean dive watch has become the brand’s most popular watch category. It’s hard to imagine Tudor’s recent rise to fame without the 2016-introduced Black Bay dive watch, or Rado’s success among watch collectors and enthusiasts without the re-introduced Captain Cook from 2017. Even Seiko has based most of its recent global success on the Prospex dive watch collection. And Panerai, the former supplier of the Italian Navy, was resurrected in 1993 exclusively as a watch brand. Last but not least, since 1995, Omega has been equipping the world’s most famous spy with a Seamaster dive watch, and by doing so has created one of the most recognizable luxury watches of the industry.

But perhaps more importantly, dive watches have become an ambassador for the importance of the oceans. Blancpain, for example, became a force in protecting the biodiversity of the oceans. The 2014-founded Blancpain Ocean Commitment initiative (BOC) is a unique program in the watch industry that has already helped a number of environmental initiatives get off the ground (some of them already underway before BOC was launched). Oris, too, believes “passionately in conservation and is committed to acting sustainably” and has launched several limited edition watches that support various conservation efforts. Others, like Luminox, Breitling and Ulysse Nardin, have started to promote upcycling methods with their releases.

From a quality and performance point of view, today’s mechanical dive watches are better than they have ever been. They have reached the deepest parts of the ocean repeatedly and offer any kind of additional feature one could dream of. In recent years, they have become a symbol of sustainability and preservation, and offer a nostalgic look back at how man conquered the deep at the same time. In other words, the dive watch has stood the test of time and proven that an analog product can coexist with a digital alternative.

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Horological startup Aera draws its inspiration from classic tool watches, but adds a modern twist with its rounded case designs. WatchTime performed a quick pre-flight check with the P-1 Pilot, one of the brand’s inaugural watch models.

In 1927, while working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), Fred Ernest Weick (July 14, 1899 – July 8, 1993) also headed the development of a streamlined, low-drag engine cowling for radial airplanes for which he would win the Collier Trophy just two years later. The NACA cowling represented a major advance in aerodynamic drag reduction, and ultimately fuel efficiency. In this aspect, looking straight from the top at the round bezel of the P-1 Pilot from Anglo-Swiss brand Aera feels very much like standing in front of a silver-colored airplane of such design, and it would certainly have been interesting to bring the P-1 Pilot to NACA’s wind tunnel at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory (LaRC or NASA Langley, the oldest of NASA’s field centers), to see how it would perform in terms of aerodynamics.

The 43-mm pilots’ watch comes with a domed, distortion-free sapphire crystal that blends seamlessly with the sloping brushed stainless-steel bezel. The crystal also matches the curved lugs and an overall round case design that, on first sight, appears to pay homage to Marc Newson’s designs for Ikepod, if it weren’t for the much more utilitarian matte

dial and classic hand design. The black pie-pan dial also creates a nice contrast to the curved crystal. According to Aera, the team felt “that in creating a clean, clear and uncomplicated design, a one-piece dial was the perfect choice.” Opting to go without a traditional rehaut (the French word for “flange”) obviously meant a more challenging approach in production, but the result is indeed supporting the “clean profile of Aera’s original design concept” nicely. Speaking of original design, watching the lollipop-style counterweight of the second hand briefly frame the two “A”s in the logo is a really nice touch, as are the refreshingly long hands, the luminous logo and dot on the crown. Same goes with the comparatively long (and also curved) buckle. It is different enough to catch one’s eye, but doesn’t get to a level where it simply becomes art for art’s sake.

Aera took offwith two models, the D-1 Diver and the P-1 Pilot. Both watches have similar case shapes that flow seamlessly into the curved crystal. The Diver, however, comes with a 44-mm case, rotating bezel with ceramic bezel and an increased water resistance of 300 meters, whereas the Pilot has a case rated to 100 meters. The watches are “assembled, tested and finished in Switzerland” and powered by a Sellita SW200-1 with 38-hour power reserve. Aera offers a 2-year warranty from the date of purchase and an additional year for everyone that registers the watch afterward.

The automatic movement chosen for the D-1 and P-1 obviously means that the brand’s main selling point will be the overall design, which Aera sees as a result of a “passion for functional tool watches.” In this aspect, drilled lugs (regardless of the quick-release spring bars used on the straps) would have been a nice detail to counterbalance the smooth design and further underline the tool watch character. In a nutshell, however, Aera did manage to offer a surprisingly fresh take on not one but two rather traditional categories, even if the engines used do not offer that much variety for collectors. More importantly, the Aera P-1 Pilot definitely doesn’t belong in the category of items that have to be removed before flight.

To learn more about Aera, click here, and to subscribe to the WatchTime print magazine, click here.    

One of the most unexpected releases at Watches and Wonders 2022 was undoubtedly the re-edition of Vacheron Constantin’s Jumbo version of the “Triple Two” in 37 mm in 18k 3N yellow gold.

Vacheron Constantin’s original 222 was launched in 1977 for the 222nd anniversary of the maison. The watch’s design marked a turning point in the history of the manufacture, allowing it for the first time to tap into the then revolutionary world of “sporty-chic” luxury watches. Among the various existing 222 references, the one chosen for the return as part of the Historiques collection (fittingly in a year with three twos) was the larger Reference 44018 in 18k 3N gold with a 37-mm diameter. As a result, and especially in a time where both the industry and collectors are still heavily focusing on stainless-steel watches with integrated bracelets, the ultra-rare Historiques 222 in yellow gold (Ref. 4200H/222J-B935) now serves again as a bold statement, and as an even clearer sign that Vacheron Constantin did not choose to simply follow a trend with the Historiques 222, but instead has created one of the most admired watches launched in Geneva this year.

In 1963, Vacheron Constantin had presented its first model adapted to the contingencies of working life: the Turnograph Reference 6782, a name derived from its bidirectional rotating bezel with a 15-minute graduated scale. The shape of the baton-type hands and the geometry of its straight hour markers did not go unnoticed, even though the model had a relatively short lifespan. In 1975, the maison made a new foray into “the field of urban watches” with the Chronomètre Royal reference 42001. With its special-shaped case, combined with a rounded octagonal bezel, this first Vacheron Constantin creation in steel with an integrated bracelet opened up new style perspectives for the brand. These were confirmed two years later with the 222 designed by Berlin-born Jörg Hysek, whose modern style retains Vacheron Constantin’s inherent elegance and attention to detail. “I wanted to design an elegant sporty timepiece while striking the right balance between these two elements to fit in with Vacheron Constantin’s classic and refined universe,” Hysek said.

In addition to being a new model with integrated bracelet, the 222 from 1977 introduced a functional architecture with its flat base topped by a prominent fluted bezel. Its monobloc case, which required the movement to be cased up from above, was water resistant to 120 meters due to its screw-down bezel. Still, the 222 boasted impressive thinness at 7 mm, thanks to its ultra-thin movement (the 1121 was based on the famed 920 from Jaeger-LeCoultre) measuring barely 3.05 mm and driving indications of the hours, minutes and date. The baton-type hands and straight hour markers similar to the 1963 Reference 6782 Turnograph watch represented an understated and refined aesthetic on one hand, robustness on the other, thanks to its bracelet screwed to the case middle and featuring large hexagonal central links. Initially presented in a 37-mm version nicknamed “Jumbo,” the 222 was subsequently launched in 34-mm and 24-mm steel, white, yellow-gold or two-tone iterations, polished or gem set but always adorned with the maison’s Maltese cross emblem nestling in the right-hand corner of the case at 5 o’clock. Remaining in limited production until 1985 (only around 500 to 700 Jumbos were made), the 222 is now regarded as one of the founding members of the “sportychic” luxury watch club — a category that had and continues to have a huge impact on watchmaking history. Perhaps more importantly, the 222 did not attempt to duplicate the octagonal shape of the Royal Oak and Nautilus, but instead set its own tone.

For 2022, Vacheron Constantin presents a contemporary re-edition of the 37-mm-diameter yellow- gold 222 “Jumbo.” The re-edition in the Historiques collection is faithful to the original model, albeit with a few adjustments in the interests of comfort, aesthetics and enhanced reliability. The case adorned with a Maltese cross emblem at 5 o’clock has an exhibition back serving to reveal the new-generation in-house Caliber 2455/2 featuring an oscillating weight redesigned for this model and quickset date. Operating at a rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour, it offers both precision with a level of finishing just as meticulous as that of the original model. The aesthetic codes of the initial 222 model have been respected: a gold-toned dial with straight hour markers and batontype hands whose luminescence takes on a green-tinted hue at night, a reference to the tritium used on the original 222. The articulation of the bracelet has been redesigned to ensure a more ergonomic feel, the clasp is significantly better.

While the 222 is often regarded as the predecessor of Vacheron’s highly successful Overseas collection, history tells a different story. When asked in 2020, Vacheron’s Director of Style and Heritage Christian Selmoni was very clear: “We don’t really consider the Overseas an evolution of the 222. The common points between the two watches are the barrel-shaped case and what we call the flat-table bezel, but the bracelets and their incorporation have always been very different.” In addition, the 222 was discontinued in 1985 and replaced by the 333, which retained the integrated bracelet but instead came with an octagonal case. The Overseas, on the other hand, was introduced in 1996, leaving an 11-year gap between the two models. More importantly, the satin finish of the case (the Overseas has more polished surfaces than the 222) and bracelet, the much more exclusive production numbers of the modern 222 and the integration into the Historiques collection are clear signs that this model is a heavyweight on its own, and not just because of its actual weight of 205 grams.

Speaking of gold, while often called the “Holy Trinity” of watches, the Royal Oak, Nautilus and 222 in stainless steel changed the luxury watch industry forever, by simply daring to be more expensive than similar models in gold. The modern 222 manages to make an even more important statement: even as a massive yellow-gold watch, it still manages to look more casual than most stainless-steel watches with an integrated bracelet. And it dares to be as luxurious as a modern “sporty-chic” watch can be, and that means its impact on the perception of watches made of precious metal cannot be underestimated.

On a more practical note, the 222 doesn’t have an adjustable bracelet, and no second hand, and the case offers 50 meters of water resistance — which is less than on the original (which also had a thinner movement), but more than adequate, and it is safe to say that any watch lover will prefer having a sapphire-crystal caseback on a watch like this. Lastly, the comparatively low production numbers (don’t expect three digits per year) and the hugely successful reception in Geneva mean that this watch is currently more difficult to find than some of its stainless-steel alternatives. The 222 is exclusively available at the brand’s boutiques. It was launched with a retail price of $62,500; the current list price has been adjusted to $69,000.

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Chopard’s highly successful Alpine Eagle sports watch collection took off with a new dial color in the late months of 2022, available exclusively for the 41-mm size in stainless steel or gold. Like the “Aletsch Blue,” “Bernina Grey” and “Pitch Black” colorways before, the new “Pine Green” dial is inspired by the iris of an eagle, and also an expression of Chopard’s continued commitment to “preserve the Alpine environment and its biodiversity.”

Back in 1980, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, then a 22-year-old employee at the watchand-jewelry firm that his father had acquired, presented his idea for a watch called the St. Moritz, which would be not only Chopard’s first sports watch, but also the brand’s first watch in steel. The St. Moritz became one of Chopard’s best sellers of the era, but was eventually replaced by the Mille Miglia collection that Scheufele established in 1996 upon ascending to the co-presidency of Chopard. In a case of (family) history repeating itself, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s son, Karl-Fritz, suggested reviving the St. Moritz for a contemporary audience, a watch that, too, became an instant success when introduced in 2019 under the name “Alpine Eagle.”

The watches are almost completely made inhouse, except the crown, sapphire crystals and hands; even the dials are technically made inhouse, by a specialized dial-making company owned by Chopard. The case, available in both 41-mm, 36-mm and since 2022 also in 33-mm diameters (there is also an extra-large 44-mm flyback chronograph version since 2020), has protruding shoulders flanking the crown, an element that is repeated at 9 o’clock. The large screw-down crown is engraved with a compass rose motif as a symbol of adventure and exploration. The round bezel is distinguished by eight visible screws, grouped in pairs at the four cardinal points, their slots perfectly arranged to be tangent to the bezel’s circle. The bezel, and the case’s other flat surfaces, are satin brushed and accented by the alternating polished finishes of the chamfers. The dial’s hands and applied indexes are treated with Super-LumiNova Grade X1. Lastly, the integrated bracelet consists of satin-brushed, ingot-shaped links topped by raised, polished central caps, and fastens the watch to the wrist with triple-folding clasps. Needless to say, the case merges seamlessly with the stainlesssteel bracelet, thus perfectly embodying the currently popular integrated case-andbracelet construction.

Like its predecessors, the latest addition to the Alpine Eagle sports watch is available in Chopard’s Lucent Steel A223 (Ref. 298600-3014) or in 18-karat ethical rose gold (Ref. 295363-5007). In keeping with the ethical approach to which the manufacture is committed, A223 is exclusive to Chopard and made from 70 percent recycled material. It took four years of research to reach “a quality of metal that is just as precious as gold with the superior functionality of steel.” Perhaps more importantly, and thanks to its anti-allergenic composition, it has properties comparable to surgical steel, making it highly skin-friendly. Additionally, with its hardness of 223 Vickers, this alloy is 50 percent more resistant to abrasion than conventional steels (316L stainless steel has a hardness of 152 Vickers) and has a unique shimmering light effect, giving the metal both an “ethereal incandescence” and its name. The second version of the Alpine Eagle with green dial (obtained through a PVD treatment) is available in 18-karat rose gold.

The gold is 100 percent ethical, as is indeed the case for all the maison’s watch and jewelry creations since July 2018 (Chopard has been a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council since 2010).

Inside this modern luxury sports watch is Chopard’s 01.01-C automatic manufacture caliber, a COSC-certified chronometer consisting of 207 parts that offers a power reserve of 60 hours (frequency is 28,800 vph or 4 Hz). In this execution, the movement comes with a matching green date disk. The Alpine Eagle Pine Green retails for $14,800, the gold version for $51,000; both are available exclusively in Chopard boutiques.

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