Once again I want to talk about vintage watches that won’t break the bank and that deliver a lot of stylistic bang for the buck. And for the guy who likes a rugged, retro look there are some great values in the vintage dive watch market. Having owned a bunch of these bargain beauties I can tell you that there is still a lot of fun to be had out there for well under a grand.

For example, take this stunning 1970s Elgin automatic diver: big all-steel screwed case at 41 x 45mm and obviously a mega-cool blue-orange “roulette”-style layout on the dial and hands. If you want a watch that pops on the wrist, you’re looking at it. Plus, it has a very intriguing and robust A. Schild full-rotor automatic caliber 1913 under the hood where one quickly advances the date by repeatedly pushing in the crown. You don’t see that very often and I’m not sure of its overall effect on water resistance — I imagine there is a pretty good gasket system in that crown & tube assembly. But in any event, it’s a pretty bloody cool way to quickset the date! Best of all, all that style and eccentricity will only set you back around $750.

The world of Super-Compressor divers, a profoundly influential late 1950s design innovation that continues to be used today, offers plenty of variety and choice, from the psychedelic to the downright elegant. Sure, this category of big twin-crown divers is famous for such heavy hitters as the JLC “Polaris”, the Longines “Legend” and the Vulcain “Nautical” Cricket (note that such is the iconic nature of this case style that all of those classic models have been recently re-issued to varying degrees of success by their parent companies). But if you don’t want to be tempted to dip into the kids’ college fund have a look at this Haste “Aquamax Safety” which will cost you a mere fraction of those highly coveted 70s Super Compressors.

Another big guy at 42mm wide, the Haste also makes a couple of interesting points about this iteration of Super-Compressor case: that they were provided by casemaker EPSA both off-the-rack, as in this example with the EPSA-logo back, or, higher up the food chain, personalized for individual watch manufacturers with their own logos on the rear medallions and crowns. Also there are a lot of differently branded models that share the same exact case dimensions and cross-hatch crown setup. You can find a virtual clone of the Haste marketed under the name Precimax and probably some other marques and this particular case is the exact same one used by the famed Fortis Marinemaster with its unique dive table dial.

For more on Compressor dive watches and their uniquely water resistant case design I highly recommend the EPSA Super Compressor FAQ article over at ScubaWatch.org. As for prices, the Haste is another $700-range watch on the secondary market, though you’ll be hard pressed to find one with a dial as nice as the one above, which is very nearly Mondrian in its use of rectangular and square markers and plots. And you can get reissues of the Fortis Marinemaster using NOS parts all day long for around the same price range, maybe even a little less if you’re lucky. But finding an original Tritium-dialed 70s Marinemaster like the one pictured? Well, that’s something else again…

Lastly, if you’re not a large watch guy and prefer your diver to be a bit more discreet I always heartily recommend the classic Zodiac Sea Wolf. With a couple of cool configurations to choose from, most commonly the black dial version with silver dial text and quarter-Arabics but also the more scarce “exotic” version with gray dial and acrylic bezel with bright orange accents, the original Sea Wolf is a modest 35mm in diameter. But that didn’t stop it from being one of the favorite watches of combat soldiers in Vietnam back in the day. The little Zodiacs are tough as nails, their snap back cases are sealed so tightly for water resistance that it’s nearly impossible for an amateur to open them and they feature a near-bulletproof in-house automatic movement that’s also quite accurate and easy to maintain. The Sea Wolf is great retro style at $700 or so for the standard black and a premium up to $8-900 for the exotic.

So it really doesn’t take a ton of dough to have your cake and eat it too. Not everyone wants or is able to spend Rolex Submariner money to own a cool vintage diver. And that’s OK. Vintage watches shouldn’t be about who has the deepest pockets. It’s about how much enjoyment you can wring out of your watch purchases and how they can give you that certain sense of style and élan that a modern watch simply can’t provide. And with Vintage Divers, there’s plenty of fun to be had in the shallow end of the pool.