Though the pursuit of creating water-proof watches started decades before, true divers didn’t show up until 1953. The Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms, Rolex Submariner and Zodiac Sea Wolf were all precursors to the divers we have today, both in engineering and design. Today, most dive watches ape the basic look of these early watches, but vintage divers — with their smaller case sizes and imperfect and aged dials — wear the look best. Dive watches from this era today have mostly outlived their lives as actual divers, their gaskets and seals worn and degraded, but they still make a hell of a style statement.
LeGran Nautoscaph
What we like: This is, according to Analog/Shift, an offshoot of the Alsta Nautoscaph made (sorta) famous by the film Jaws. The angular case has a very scant but of-the-era 36mm diameter, and the black dial is adorned with thick plots of luminescent paint. The bezel is adorned with faded numerals on a stainless steel background that are a little hard to read but are cool as hell, regardless.
From the seller: Case is in very good condition overall with moderate signs of use and wear. Dial is in very good condition with patina to the luminescent elements of the hour markers. Unsigned crown. Screw case back shows light tool marks and bears the Nautoscaph hallmark.
