Monday, 23 June 2025

Aquastar deepstar watch possibly a prototype watch

I have found a new old stock unusual vintage Aquastar deepstar watch as below. For every Rolex Submariner or Sea Dweller, Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Omega Seamaster, there were scores of other lesser-known watch brands that nevertheless merit consideration from the vintage watch enthusiast. One of such watch is the Aquastar. 

Aquastar is one of the many watch companies that proliferated just before the Japanese Quartz Watch Crisis. Founded in 1962 by veteran SCUBA diver Frédéric Robert, Aquastar—as the name suggests—took the needs of aquatic sportsmen as its guiding principles. Drawing on a patent filed in 1958 by Aquastar’s parent company, JeanRichard, Aquastar introduced the brand’s first dive watch: the JeanRichard Aquastar 60.


Watches produced by JeanRichard under the Aquastar line were retailed under many brand names, from JeanRichard to Duward, which was primarily used in Spain 7 Europe; which the line became so successful that it became the brand name by which the watches are best-known. 

The company would go on to produce a varied line of purpose-built aquatic timepieces such as the the first regatta timer, but there’s another watch that attracts the attention of vintage chronograph collectors, not least of all for its connection to Jacques Cousteau. 

That would be this watch, the Aquastar Deepstar chronograph which has both the diving function plus that of a chronograph. With its rotating bezel and stainless steel case rated to 100 meters, the Deepstar combined these dive watch features with a chronograph, making it the first of its kind. That added functionality soon attracted the attention of professional divers—including Cousteau. 

Although Cousteau was a proponent of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and the Rolex Submariner—and later became a vendor of the DOXA Sub300t through his company, U.S. Divers—Cousteau and his crew were by no means married to any particular watch. However, Cousteau’s relationship with the Aquastar Deepstar was certainly quite long-lived. It started in 1965 and lasted for nearly ten years. Cousteau and many of his crew on the Calypso could be seen sporting Aquastars in his landmark television series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. While these watches surface occasionally on the vintage watch market, they’re rarely in such good condition as the one we offer here, due to the hard use that they were invariably subjected to throughout their lives.

Even though this is not my core watch. It is almost a new old stock and watch looks like a gilt dial plus having a Maxi dial. The markers are also without the usual steel surrounding the markers.






The dial lume  of the watch looks similar to the Aquastar 60 watch from watch sold in Antiquorum : 

The Aquastar dial's lume looks similar to that of the Aquastar 60






Another example from 

https://thewatchspotblog.com/aquastar-60-a-schild-cal-1701/



Borrowed photos from https://mentawatches.com/product/aquastar-geneve-deepstar-chronograph/

Comparison with other examples found from the internet web pages




No comments:

Post a Comment

google.com, pub-9153422137839320, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

Vintage Mido Multifort rectangular 1940s

在現代大型腕錶主導的鐘錶世界裡,人們對小型腕錶的關注和興趣往往有限。然而,一些具有重要歷史意義的腕錶仍然能夠吸引收藏家的目光。例如,勞力士泡泡背腕錶和勞力士王子腕錶。今天,我們要講的就是這款擁有獨特錶殼設計的獨特腕錶。 在美度(Mido)Multifort 的漫長歷史中,圓形錶殼...

google.com, pub-9153422137839320, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0