Tropical technos sky diver
Not HEAVY DUTY ... HEATY DUTY! 😉
I noticed that. A misprinted dial? Perhaps something that would increase collector interest and value?
Looks like the watch was stashed away while still in new condition or nearly so. Perhaps bought as an investment or a customer return because of the mis print?
No end of speculations.
Really nice watch.
Here's another obscure one, a new arrival Helbros Invincible in very nice condition. The internet says that this was sold in the US military PX in the Vietnam War era, which seems plausible, but I can't find any advertising or convincing documentation of that. It's fair to say that this is an entry-level diver with a modest FHF hand-winding movement, but it has some nice features, including a glossy dial with gilt print and applied markers, big arrow hour hand, roulette date wheel, big crown, 38mm SS case, and 20 atm depth rating. For fun, I've included a photo with some other more-collectible watches from my collection, to illustrate the stylistic similarities.
That's a nice one - great condition! Very similar, and cool to see the small variations, small changes in the size of the "HELBROS", shape of the minute hand, lume plots vs. applied markers etc. Also interesting that yours is signed WEST GERMANY instead of SWISS.
I definitely think these punch above their weight class in terms of style. Yours was probably a higher-end version with an automatic movement. Do you know what movement is inside? Mine is a hand-winder. The BoR bracelet looks good, does it have a Helbros clasp, or is it generic? BTW, I've also seen a different variant where the circled "h" logo is red.
By the way, it looks like half of the bracelet got flipped around at some point; the part attached at 12 o'clock is flipped back-to-front. 😀
