Hi everyone from OF,

This is my first post on OF and I recently made a purchase off (see title above and picture below) an auction site. I did some research but could not find much information on the mentioned watch or its variations, the Sub Sea 50, Sub Sea 50 Tempomatic and others. What I did manage to find was a guide to Vintage Sub-Sea 50 off this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/comments/d6xidp/movado_guide_to_vintage_subsea_50/

Do any of the OF members here have any resources or knowledge about these lines of vintage Movado watches?
For example:
1) Were the Sub Sea 50s a continuation of another line? or a completely new line?
2) The reddit thread also mentioned that these watches are made in an era where people wanted more waterproof and larger watches (>36mm although small in today's standard). I could not find any information on its water resistance and hoping can shed some light on this.
3) What kind of variants were there to the Sub-Sea line.

Any information and photos will be extremely helpful for me to understand its history a little bit better! Thanks in advance!

Ps. These photos were taken by the auction site and not me. I have yet to receive the watch but am very curious about its history.

 

Sorry I can’t give you any info but I think you made a good pick. I love those vintage movados. I’m sure a more knowledgeable person will come along with some info

 

Thanks. I've only recently begin to appreciate vintage Movados and I gotta say they're really gems of history.

 

There was a broader use of "Sub-Sea" by Movado, simply to denote water resistance:




The "Trans-Atlantic" model line extended to the Kingmatic line as well:




The model that you have posted was probably "launched" around the time that Movado employed a promotion in which a watch was affixed to a large boat that traversed the Atlantic ocean, hence "Trans-Atlantic". So, more of a sport model with higher water resistance than other models.

 

Nice! Thanks alot for sharing those photos and info. I must say there isn't a stark difference in terms of dial aesthetics between the Sub-Sea 50 and Kingmatic line. Was there just a change in movement?

I seem to remember there was a Trans-Atlantic Tempomatic Sub Sea 50 sold quite a while ago on OF as well. So many model names but so little difference to pick out or am I missing something here.

 

Circa 1955:

 

You're welcome. Yours presumably has a manual-wind movement, while the Kingmatics were automatic. Other than that, I doubt that there are any differences.

 

Movado liked to attach their watches to boats. Here's another ad, circa 1957:

 

Although Movado was a prolific advertiser I can only find one mention of the Sub Sea models, as seen here in a 1959 ad for a Kingmatic Sub Sea:

 

Woah. Thanks a lot for posting these nuggets of history. These Movado ads are really fascinating, and judging from the tone and bold statements Movado used to describe their watches, their watches must have packed a punch back then. What happened to Movado man... Such a pity.

Movado's Trans-Atlantic testing reminded me that Citizen did something similar back then in 1959.
Source: www.vintagecitizenwatches.com

These Citizen Parawater were attached to buoys and allowed to float on open sea until someone finds it. I think Citizen tested these watches in the trans-Pacific and the East-Sea (Sea of Japan). The cool thing was that whoever found it could keep the watch and all they had to do was to send a reply slip back to Citizen to inform them of the condition and performance of the watch.

I think the seller mentioned that it has an automatic movement and judging from the slight protrusion on the caseback, I think there's a rotor involved. Tried asking the seller to open the caseback but he/she didn't want to oblige because of the factory sticker, understandable. I guess I have to wait till the watch arrives.