Not many dive watches have the authentic heritage of Aquastar. If the name Cousteau means anything, then you’ll understand that Aquastar watches were there back in the 60s. This was when depth records, wreck exploration, shark documentaries and the first North Sea Oil rigs all captured the public imagination.

Aquastar didn’t just make excellent dive watches, they invented stuff and put a patent on it. Like the bezel that worked out decompression times for repeated dives that day. That sort of life-saving and boundary-pushing tech made the Aquastar watch a pro diver choice. You can’t buy history like that; you either have underwater cred, or you don’t.

After a fallow period during the quartz watch boom opf the 80s, Aquastar kinda went under – forgive the pun. But now they’re back in business and the 40mm Aquastar Deepstar watch is a sublime beauty; it combines technology, classic styling and Swiss made cachet.

Here’s the word from their PR office;

The Synchron Group is proud to present Aquastar: the last great story in dive watches. With the rebirth of this iconic, hugely influential brand, we present the 2020 Deepstar Chronograph Re-Edition. 

But the return of the Deepstar represents more than just the re-telling of the watch world’s best-kept secret. The Aquastar brand, and its enigmatic, innovative founder Frederic Robert shaped a pivotal moment in mechanical watch history throughout the sixties and seventies. One that represented a conscious shift from wrist watches as timekeeping devices, to purpose-built tools designed for diving and exploration.

In 2020, Robert’s original vision dives again with the new Deepstar Re-Edition, a modern, yet strikingly faithful adaptation of Aquastar’s most emblematic dive watch from 1962. it’s available pre-order at$2750 which isn’t bad considering it features a LaJoux Perret column wheel chronograph movement inside that stylish, almost chiselled case. 

There’s a 55 hour reserve, the watch is limited to 300 examples in each of the three dial colours too. Sun-Ray blue is our fave, but there’s black and steel grey as well. It is a very understated watch and although you’ll never impress Rolex Submariner fans at the golf club, choosing an Deepstar kinda shows you know wristwatches inside out.

The history of technological advances, of human endurance and discovery is all writ large in a watch like this.  History matters.