Friday, December 21, 2012

AQUADIVE, Old is New Again!


Take a ride in the AQUADIVE time machine!

Your destination: Switzerland 1977

Your mission: Witness the birth of an iconic timepiece and an unforgettable piece of time

AQUADIVE is proud to be the only watch company in the world today to offer an updated NOS version of their vintage iconic timepieces. The soon to be released AQUADIVE NOS Model 77 (December 2012), is based on the iconic 70s design model, the 1977 AQUADIVE MARITIME.

The NOS Model 77 is a classic beauty, housed in a genuine NOS vintage case with a unique 70s Swiss design. only a limited quantity of these cases are still available in our inventory. The NOS Model 77 case is all original with beautiful sunburst S/S finishing and extremely durable PVD coating on the lower part of the case, In the 1970's, AQUADIVE would be one of very few companies who applied a layer of copper alloy to the case to make the PVD coating extremely durable. The original unidirectional rotating bezel has a black aluminum insert and operates on a very precise and solid 60 click mechanism. The model 77 case measures 40mm wide - excluding crown - and 46mm long, and has 22mm lugs. The NOS Model 77 is supplied on a specially designed NATO or rubber dive strap. The case, bezel, and case back and AS automatic movement are vintage genuine NOS parts originally manufactured in the mid 1970's in Switzerland. The crystal, gaskets, galvanized dial, hands, and ETA movements are all new Swiss made parts. The new 5mm thick crystal and gasket insure much higher depth rating than the original. So the NOS Model 77 case is now depth rated beyond 200m/660ft.

The modern black dial is a two piece galvanized and all SWISS made construction. The hands are a 100% reproduction of the original hands found in the vintage automatic version. The NOS self-winding 21 jewels Anton Schild movements are regulated to 20 seconds a day, due to age and features of this particular movement. They have all been disassembled, oiled, cleaned and serviced by our master watchmaker. They are the movements that were originally used in this case back in the mid to late 1970's. The vintage date wheels in the Anton Schild movement are white with red digits. Back in the 1970's, it was a common feature for date wheels in terms of legibility. So to stay true to the vintage heritage of this model, AQUADIVE did not switch the date wheels over to modern black versions on these vintage movements. With the modern ETA 2836 Elabore movements, the date wheel is black.
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