This Affordable Dive Watch Follows in the Footsteps of the MoonSwatch. It’s Not a Swatch

Next step: Become a global sensation.

a close up of a colorful bulova dive watch

By Johnny Brayson

Published January 9, 2025

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Updated January 9, 2025

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The MoonSwatch collab between Swatch and Omega stands as one of the most successful watches in recent memory.

When it debuted in 2022, the affordable spin on an iconic luxury watch quickly became a global sensation, and the fervor has only slightly died down since. In 2023 alone, Swatch sold over two million MoonSwatches en route to becoming the 13th top-selling Swiss watch brand. Pre-MoonSwatch, it wasn’t even in the top 20.

All this is to say it was only a matter of time before another brand came along to try and borrow some of that MoonSwatch magic. And it looks to me like that time has come, as Bulova’s new dive watch, the Snorkel, shares some strong similarities with the Swatchified Speedmaster.

a Bulova dive watch superimposed over the ocean — Is the MoonSwatch is about to get some competition?

Oceanographer Homage

In recent years, Bulova has found success by mining its extensive back catalog and recreating vintage favorites aimed at enthusiasts. One of the best examples of this is the reborn Oceanographer dive watch, AKA the “Devil Diver,” a quirky and attractive automatic diver originally from the mid-twentieth century.

Bulova is an affordable brand, and in the big scheme of things, the Oceanographer is an affordable watch, coming in with an SRP of $750. That’s a tremendous value as far as I’m concerned, but for normal people who don’t live and breathe watches, $750 sounds like a ton of money to spend on a watch.

So to cast a wider net while trading on the Oceanographer’s heritage and style, Bulova has launched the Snorkel: a colorful, quartz-powered Oceanographer diver that costs less than half as much.

a Bulova dive watch — The Snorkel shares the same case shape as the iconic Devil Diver while costing less than half as much.

But Bulova creating a more affordable, quartz-powered homage to its own mechanical icon is only part of the reason why the Snorkel reminds me of the MoonSwatch.

Bioceramic by another name?

The Snorkel has a case made of Hybrid Ceramic, marking the debut of the material for Bulova. The brand describes the material as a composite that’s durable, lightweight, scratch-resistant and “luxuriously smooth.” But what exactly is Hybrid Ceramic?

The material is a blend of 60 percent titanium dioxide and 40 percent biosourced polyamide derived from castor oil. To me, that sounds a whole lot like Swatch’s Bioceramic, a composite made from a mixture of two-thirds zirconium oxide ceramic powder and one-third castor oil-derived “biosourced material.”

Bioceramic is used for the case of the MoonSwatch and its sibling, the Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms, and it shares all of Hybrid Ceramic’s aforementioned properties.

four bulova dive watches on water — The four Hybrid Ceramic colors of the Snorkel are inspired by different marine animals.

The first four Snorkel divers also feature cases and bezels in different colors — green, orange, blue, etc. — showcasing Hybrid Ceramic’s ability to take on various shades. This, of course, is a signature feature of Bioceramic, too, and one of the reasons for the MoonSwatch’s continued success as Swatch pumps out more new colors and iterations.

Snorkel vs Scuba

As I mentioned, the MoonSwatch isn’t the only Swatch homage watch with a Bioceramic case. There’s also the Scuba Fifty Fathoms, which is an even closer match to the Bulova Snorkel — and not just because they’re both dive watches.

First, most obviously, are the similar names, Scuba and Snorkel, both of which are underwater breathing apparatuses. Though, to be fair, this is probably a coincidence, as Bulova has used the Snorkel name on Oceanographer divers in the past.

Perhaps less coincidental are the Snorkel’s color inspirations and casebacks. The Scuba Fifty Fathoms comes in various colors, each drawing inspiration from a different species of nudibranch sea slug. The corresponding slug also appears on the caseback of each watch.

the caseback of a Bulova dive watch showing a shark — Each Snorkel is named for a different animal which also appears engraved on the watch’s caseback.

Similarly, Bulova’s new divers also get their aesthetic inspiration from marine life. There are four versions of the Snorkel to start, each with colors inspired by its titular animal: the Blue Tang, Sea Turtle, Clownfish and Great White Shark. Also, as you probably guessed, each critter appears on the caseback of its eponymous watch.

Pricing and Availability

Bulova, obviously, has not cited the MoonSwatch or the Scuba Fifty Fathoms as being inspirations for the Snorkel. But the similarities between the watches seem too numerous to be a coincidence.

Regardless of where Bulova got the idea for the Snorkel, the watches are undeniably fun. They’re colorful and mimic the look of an iconic diver, so there’s obviously a lot to love there. They’re also more wearable as an everyday sports watch than Swatch’s offerings, too, thanks to 100m of water resistance, a boxed sapphire crystal and a quick-release Tropic-style rubber strap that’s vastly superior to Swatch’s straps.

All four colors of the Bulova Snorkel are priced at just $350 — $50 less than a Scuba Fifty Fathoms — and, unlike the Swatches, are available to purchase online.

Bulova Snorkel

The Snorkel is Bulova’s more affordable take on its iconic Oceanographer dive watch. It sports a colorful case made from lightweight and durable Hybrid Ceramic material, a quartz movement and a box-style sapphire crystal.