Obscure and Vintage Dive Watches

neat colors and really cool band. Where did you get your band from?

Thanks; it is a Bulang&Sons.

Tarted up the Loengrin big case diver with a modern-made Tropic strap

Another 'obscure' diver I still have; Edox Supercompressor

That Helvetia is awesome, care to share some more information on the piece?

Na-na-na na-na-na Batman!



Glad I found this thread - time for another thread follow so I can spend more money 😝

Oh good lord, tell me about it...my wallet hates this forum hahah

Not sure how obscure it is but...I’ve never seen another.

Gigandet Super Submarine

Candino diver; vintage and haven't seen 1 other example in yellow

Pretty rare Tissot Navigator Diver

Wakmann diver, haven’t seen one exactly like it.

Not wrist ready but rare enough for this thread?

Well, folks, I finally got around to taking a good look at the watch above ... .and I was pleasantly surprised.

So, the movement is a heavily modified Valjoux 7751 (just as it says it is) .. but the modifications are really strange. Originally, Breitling used the Venus 188 (which became the Valjoux 7750) but Valjoux acquired Venus in 1966. This watch was originally designed in 1965, so best guess is that my example is 67 or later.

Let's take a step back and start with what the watch actually is: it's a "slow chronograph" for diving. Hands up who's never heard of a slow chronograph? Cos my hand's up. You probably noticed that there are no subdials to record elapsed time for the chronograph functions. Well, that's because the main centre seconds isn't a centre seconds - that's the chrono hand. It registers elapsed minutes, up to 60. There is no seconds hand. But look at that huge lumed diamond on the end of the chronograph hand ... ain't it just gorg? When the chronograph is engaged, the sweep hand records minutes. At the 6 o clock position, there isn't a vacant date window - that's a red/black indicator to show whether or not the chronograph is engaged.

The strange bridge and missing parts on the movement? They're not missing at all - they were never there. The movement isn't rotated; the stem isn't missing or broken - it's in there and the damn thing almost wants to run. The dial is the thing that's rotated. I'm hoping the dial feet aren't broken, but that's repairable if they are.

The pusher cap isn't the only thing that's missing there. The entire pusher is gone. The 4 o clock pusher is ... not doing what it should. Most concerning is the missing wheel to indicate whether or not the chrono is engaged. I'm hoping that's underneath (on top of?) the movement and just floating freely.

There are a couple of write-ups on the interweb about this piece. One's here: https://shop.analogshift.com/products/breitling-superocean-reference-2005

I'm really quite chuffed at the prospect of spending a lot of money to bring this back to glory.

Very interesting and well thought out design features.

My Sinn 809

The emblem looks to be a European fire fighters helmet and tools. I suppose a highly water resistant watch would be a plus for firefighters.