If you find older vintage divers intriguing but you’re looking for a more modern watch that you don’t have to worry about as well as something that really stands out from the ordinary, have I got a timepiece for you: this extra funky and cool Squale Tiger rated to 300 meters. Made by a reborn version of the company that produced so many classic, rugged divers in the 1960s and 70s, the modern incarnation of Squale used new old stock parts from their supply, including original Tritium luminous dials with fantastic patina, to create an entirely new yet still essentially vintage model. Featuring a big asymmetrical case with oversized bidirectional locking bezel that is released for rotation by the red button on the lower right lug (much like Omega’s famed Ploprof), the Tiger doesn’t look like any other watch out there and your unlikely to see it on anyone else’s wrist on land or at sea.
Made of extremely high quality stainless steel and featuring a tough mineral crystal and bulletproof ETA automatic movement but priced under $800, the Squale Tiger is remarkable value for money and a remarkable statement on the wrist. For those who dare to be different while living their life of adventure, this Tiger’s got your name on it.
Here’s another special watch that I’m offering on consignment and, yup, you guessed it — it’s a rare vintage diver just like the Benthos. Only this one has a more conventional type of stopwatch complication even if it’s just as scarce. It’s a circa 1960s “Skin 666” with Aqua-Lung logo, a highly water resistant diving chronograph featuring a beautiful black dial with gold accents and intricate Tachymeter & Telemeter tracks. The gilt hands compliment the dial beautifully and their original luminous fill has acquired a lovely patina.
Inside the screwed steel back is a very robust and classic Landeron caliber 248 column wheel chronograph movement. Unlike most chronos, this Landeron starts the timer with the top pusher but stops and resets it with the bottom pusher, a welcome bit of uncommon quirkiness.
This Aqualung “Skin 666” was constructed by Schild Co. in Switzerland and then imported by California’s US Divers Company to be sold along with their top-of-the line diving equipment. You can check out some of their cool catalog images below — love that vintage ad style and layout!
In amazing true Near Mint condition and even featuring its original Tropic rubber strap, this Aqualung chrono is 38mm in diameter by 47mm long, just the right size in my opinion. In terms of wrist presence it wears similarly to a Rolex Submariner of the period. But for all its charm, scarcity and functionality, it’ll cost you way less than one of those. I always say you don’t have to break the bank to make a statement with a cool vintage watch. This beautiful Aqualung diver’s chronograph from back in the day is surely proof of that!
Kicking off October (and starting a definite trend for the month) with another wonderful consignment watch: a super cool and chunky 1970s Aquastar Benthos 500 diver’s chronograph. This is a big watch at about 43mm wide without crown and 14mm thick and it features a very unique purpose built minute counter complication: once the pusher at “4” is depressed, the big orange hand begins a 60-minute journey around the dial (to tell the wearer how long he’s been underwater, for example). And while it can be reset back to zero with another click of the pusher it will not stop counting until it has made it all the way back to “12”. Unlike most chronographs, the straight white sweep seconds hand is just that, a constant seconds that is always running and unconnected to the minute counter feature. The highly unusual movement is an A. Schild caliber 1902/03 that seems to have been made and modified exclusively for the diver-specific Aquastar Benthos line, as I’ve not seen this strange type of complication in any other watches.
The whole watch is really pretty scarce, in fact, and to find it in this sort of unpolished and simply beautiful original condition is no easy task. Personally, while it’s not inexpensive I feel like it’s actually undervalued for as uncommon and special as this watch is. Best of all, if you’ve got the swagger to pull this bad boy off you’re unlikely to see it on anyone else’s wrist. The Aquastar Benthos 500 is a rare classic from the heyday of mechanical dive watches and it’s for the serious enthusiast knows the importance of the specially designed tool he’s got on his wrist.
Speaking of Grails: As September winds down to a close it’s my great pleasure to offer on behalf of a friend a very rare and iconic vintage Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000. This cult tool watch classic is crafted in all-titanium with a matching super comfortable and innovative bracelet and is the civilian version of a very famous German Navy-issued Bund military watch. At 43mm in diameter it’s the big size model and dates from the mid-1990s. Best of all, it’s in fantastic condition and not only has it been well maintained during its lifetime with the paperwork to prove it but the watch also comes with essentially every item that this IWC Porsche Design Ocean 2000 came with when it was bought new.
This is a rare opportunity to own a complete example of this avant-garde IWC diver with exceptional provenance. And while it’s certainly not inexpensive it is a quality collectible that’s well worth ponying up for if it tickles your fancy, as well a watch that has seen a pronounced increase in value the last few years. As the old saying goes: they’re not making any more of them!
If you hang around with watch collectors for any length of time you are guaranteed to hear the word “Grail” mentioned and probably more than once. I don’t know who coined this term for a particularly desirable watch (maybe the late, great Chuck Maddox?) but it has come to be the word of choice for that certain timepiece which most captivates us at a given moment and inspires an obsessive quest to obtain it. Which is not to say that a particular Grail watch remains a constant. On the contrary, the more driven collectors (guilty as charged) will constantly shift their definition of Holy Grail and apply it to multiple watches, especially as their tastes evolve and they wade ever deeper into the seemingly bottomless waters of the watch world.
It might happen that a beginning collector getting into vintage starts out with a particularly handsome Omega dress watch as his Grail but finds himself being attracted to the legendary Speedmaster chronograph line. So, having acquired his lovely dress Omega, he shifts his Grail designation over to the yet-to-be-acquired Speedy Moonwatch. Then, having acquired a conventional Speedmaster, he may learn through research and participation in the various forums about earlier, scarcer versions that were being used at the beginning of the NASA space program and before the design was completely standardized. And so with his classic Moonwatch acquiring mere “daily driver” status, now a pre-Moon straight lug cal. 321 Speedy becomes his new Grail.
Likewise, a budding Military Watch collector may start out feeling very well satisfied with a Benrus Type I or II, no small achievement to be sure. But soon enough, through discussion with other enthusiasts, a hierarchy of MilWatches is revealed to him and he discovers that his well-loved Benrus Type, while highly regarded, is nowhere near the top of the pyramid. Continue reading →
All right, so the Ghibli is Maserati’s “entry level” 4-door model with all the attendant compromises that implies for such a storied luxury marque. But it still flies that stylish Trident flag very impressively. Especially considering you can have all that panache and performance in a 5-seat sedan for a bit over $70k for the deluxe “S” version, certainly comparable with the attractive but Teutonically restrained (and much, much more common) Audi S7 and Mercedes CLS. And if the interior quality is not quite up to the Germans in terms of quality and tech savvy, the sexy exterior and only-from-Italy engine note is guaranteed to turn many more heads. And isn’t that a big part of why you fall in love with Italian luxury cars in the first place?
In its most appealing “S Q4” configuration, the Ghibli features rear-biased all wheel drive and a Maranello-designed twin-turbo 3.0 liter engine that puts out an impressive 404 break horsepower with 406 lbs of torque, which can shoot the rather hefty 4100 pound chassis from 0-60 in a decent 4.7 seconds. With the option to control the 8-speed automatic transmission semi-manually via the steering wheel paddles and the symphonic Sport mode selected, the Ghibli excels as a mid-size performance machine, more growling jungle cat than sedate sports sedan. Of course, you pay the price in gas mileage for all that uniquely Italian exhilaration at just about 20mpg highway and so you’ll constantly be filling its 21-gallon tank. But that’s because you’ll be driving the hell out of this beautiful machine.
Quibbles about the Chrysler-borrowed interactive touch screen system, which probably controls too many facets of the interior functions, and seats that look great but are not actually that comfortable are put aside when you put your foot down on windy, uphill roads and the Ghibli really begins to shine. With exceptional power-to-weight distribution and road handling ability, especially if you opt for the pricey but telepathic Skyhook adaptive suspension, plus an ingenious system for electronically controlling the torque distribution between front and rear, the car seems to perform better the faster you go and the curvier the road. Chances are, it will have you singing like Pavarotti as you blaze your way up California’s Route 1 or New York’s Taconic. Control, power and finesse in a beautiful package that always turns heads, all at a price that won’t break the bank? Now that’s amore.
One of my favorite MilWatches is the early 1970s Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Eterna KonTiki Super, which was issued to Israel’s elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13, some really hardcore Special Forces operatives and essentially Israel’s version of our SEALs. You can read about S’13 history here but suffice to say they were in the thick of it during very perilous and conflict-filled times for Israel and many of these watches have seen genuine naval special forces combat.
Although the tonneau-style case is not everyone’s cup of tea, I really like it and you can find similar typically ’70s shapes on several other dive watches of the period, including the Aquastar Benthos divers’ chronographs. At 41mm wide x 45mm long x 14mm thick this is definitely a man-sized timepiece and the super-chunky uni-directional elapsed time bezel is easy to get a grip on in wet conditions and when wearing dive gloves.
Obviously, as with so many military watches, what differentiates the IDF KonTiki Super from its civilian brothers are the issue marks engraved on the back by the quartermaster. In this case, the engravings are primarily in Hebrew, as well as containing the general spec & unique issue number of each individual watch in Roman numerals. Despite the exotic look, the Hebrew writing is essentially standard information translating to “catalogue number” and the “ע” (Tzade) symbol standing in as an abbreviation for IDF (“Tzahal”) (h/t milspectime.com).
I suggest doing your homework on the correct font and style of these engravings, because like a lot of other valuable commodities in the military watch world the IDF KonTiki is faked and faked often .
With its heavy steel screwed-back construction, screw down crown and high-pressure mineral crystal, the KonTiki Super is tough as nails and was ultra-water resistant in its day. Continue reading →
As July winds down to a close it’s my great pleasure to offer one last watch. And it happens to be one of the all time vintage Rolex icons: An early 1960s GMT-Master with gilt/gloss minute track dial, mini 24-hour hand, pointed crown guards case and beautifully faded “Pepsi” bezel insert, with the excellent caliber 1560 GMT chronometermovement under the hood still sporting its original Butterfly rotor.
I’m selling this one on behalf of a friend and I’m excited to be able to do so, as this classic two time zone watch is such an unmolested, honest example and with just enough WABI to show that it has lived a wonderfully full life. Among the 1960s steel Sports models, this early reference 1675 is right up there with the pointed crown guards 5512 chronometer Submariner as the most desirable and beautiful on the wrist. Simply put, if you want pure Vintage Rolex style of extremely high original quality, this is your watch. It’s not cheap, but then the best things in life never are.
Here’s an unusual one: A highly sought after 1960s “Jumbo” Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox alarm watch that features a very rare World Time center turntable disc with selected city’s of the world printed to represent the different time zones. As I say in my ad, I can’t say for sure that this disc is correct for this watch — JLC themselves do not have the records to verify that. And some experts maintain that the printing on a World Time disc shouldn’t encroach on the edge of the inner dial one iota. But certainly watch companies back in the day did some very non-standard things when they wanted to sell watches and this disc and the dial as a whole are definitely 100% factory original printing. One thing’s for sure: at a big 37mm and with those exotic cities filling out what would normally be empty space, this is one very cool and classy looking and Memovox.
Here’s a cool vintage diver that you won’t see very often, especially not in this kind of condition: a late 1960s/early 70s Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster 1000, also known as the “Baby Panerai”. Why is it called that you might ask? Well, at a nicely proportioned but hardly huge 38mm wide this Depthmaster shares the Oyster-style cushion shape of the Rolex-supplied Panerai cases of Italian naval fame at about 3/4 scale.
It even has screwed spring bars like many PAMs do. Nivada added a nice chunky elapsed time rotating bezel and the Depthmaster 1000 also features a very heavy screwed steel case and very retro semi-Arabics dial with fantastic patina to the thick Tritium figures, plus there’s that cool splash of red to the 1000. And who doesn’t like red on a dial? With its thick, straight lugs and strong but not overpowering wrist presence, the off-brand Nivada Grenchen went and produced something of a design classic with this watch. Perhaps it started as something of an homage but at this late date it has achieved its own cult status. And unlike a Panerai from the 40s or 50s, you don’t have to break the bank to put this icon of vintage style on your wrist.
