I got this beautiful hard to find Scubapro 500 dive watch from a fellow local watch club member. This watch is from the 70s and has great similarity with the Eterna Kontiki dive watch. The watch comes with the original oyster style bracelet. Scubapro is a well known dive equipment company that has contracted several watch companies to sell dive watches under their brand name. This watch will partner well with my equally rare Seiko Scubapro 450.
Great watch @erpin9! I have one incoming as I type. Any chance we could also get a picture of the Seiko???? Thanks!
Finally have a wrist shot of mine.......mine, courtesy of another member. One Scubapro down and one (rare) Seiko version to go!
Congrats, nice pick up. These are very cool and feel great on the wrist. Might as well add mine to the thread:
Very nice!.. I think that Scubapro 500 is a fantastic diver!! I have a very rare "Tuna" version with original Isofrane strap (see picture below). Massimo
^They're both very rare. Be warned that the scubapro dials are being reproduced, so it's harder to be sure you have a real one. Obviously, there are no such worries with the tuna can case.
Absolutely right, you have to be very careful when buying a Seiko Scubapro 450. The guys at the Seiko Citizen Watch Forum are very knowledgeable on what to look for to verify if the dial is original and not a reproduction.
No, it is stainless steel. Titanium wasn't really used by anybody (aside from Seiko) in the 70s. I've always wondered who actually made it. Sadly, no one knows the manufacturing history behind the case...not even scubapro themselves.
What makes one of these watches a "Tuna" version from a non-Tuna version? Is it the shroud....or is the case different? Having trouble seeing a difference myself.
Well, Seiko released their model in 1976 after quite a few years of research (and a number of patents too). The Scubapro is a copy of it. Because it is labeled as Swiss Made, no one knows who actually made it. In general, the tuna description comes from the shroud design. It was also the first watch to be made as a one piece titanium case. Most significantly, it was helium resistant without needing a gas release valve.