This Classic Tool-Watch Brand Just Launched Its First Dive Watch Ever

You may or may not have heard of Hanhart, but you know who most definitely was aware of the tool-watch brand? Steve McQueen.

The late actor and style icon wasn’t what I would call a watch collector. By contrast, McQueen is remembered for wearing only a small handful of watches. There was the Rolex Submariner, his most frequently worn personal watch. The Heuer Monaco, which is mainly associated with his on-screen persona in his film Le Mans.

And then there is the Hanhart 417 ES pilot’s chronograph, another watch McQueen favored in his down time. In addition to its Hollywood association, the Hanhart 417 was significant as the first chronograph created for the post-war German Air Force in the 1950s.

Even today, more than half a century after it found a home on McQueen’s wrist, the 417 remains Hanhart’s most recognizable model, but it’s far from the only tool watch in the German watchmaker‘s arsenal. Today, Hanhart adds another in the form of the brand’s first-ever standalone dive watch.

Hanhart

Hanhart Aquasphere

Specs

Case Size	42mm
Movement	Sellita SW200 automatic
Water Resistance	300m

• $1,560 at WatchBuys

A Long Time Coming

It seems somewhat insane that a classic tool-watch brand that’s been around since 1882 is just getting around to making a professional dive watch in 2024, but apparently, Hanhart’s watchmakers were so committed to churning out pilot’s watches and chronographs that they just never got around to it.

I’m kidding, as I don’t really know what took Hanhart so long to cook up a dive watch, but now that the brand’s first diver is here, it begs the question: Was it worth the wait?

Hanhart’s debut dive watch is the Aquasphere, which I have to say, is a pretty solid name. And by the looks of the specs and design, it would appear to also be a pretty solid watch that’s worthy of the Hanhart logo.

Hanhart

The Aquasphere is a 42mm traditional dive watch in stainless steel featuring a mix of brushed and polished finishing. It has a 60-click unidirectional bezel with a fluted grip and a ceramic insert, a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the interior only, an automatic helium escape valve at 10 o’clock, and a screw-down crown and caseback ensuring 300m of water resistance.

The watch features green-glowing Super-LumiNova C1 on the hands, indices, and on every mark on the bezel. It’s available on a three-link Oyster-style steel bracelet equipped with quick-release spring bars and a diver’s extension, or on Hanhart’s Hookstrap textile strap. Powering the watch is a Sellita SW200 automatic sans date.

Hanhart

A Unique Design

Specs-wise, the Aquasphere is pretty standard fare for a modern professional dive watch. Design-wise, however, it’s fairly unique, with a handful of quirks.

The sides of the lugs have a sort of cut-out that extends into the midcase, giving the watch an interesting profile. The caseback features an embossed depiction of an underwater world. I like both of these details quite a bit.

The dial and bezel design, however, are perhaps the most unique aspect of the Aquasphere — and the most polarizing. The hour and minute hands are semi-skeletonized swords with blunted syringe tips, and I’m not all that crazy about them.

Hanhart

The seconds hand has a red spear-shaped tip that’s partly lume-filled and again partly skeletonized, making it one of the busiest seconds hands I’ve ever seen. The pop of red on the seconds hand matches the red line and red triangle marker at 12 o’clock on the bezel, a detail that is welcome here as red accents at 12 have long been a Hanhart signature.

The indexes are applied and are mostly trapezoids, but the 12 o’clock index is an oversized Arabic 12 in an army-style stencil font. This font is used again to mark ten-minute increments on the bezel. I don’t love the font here — it’s very loud and crowds the design — but it’s certainly legible, and I feel like legibility was one of Hanhart’s chief goals in designing the Aquasphere.

Hanhart

Pricing and Availability

For tough-as-nails German-made tool watches, Hanhart’s products have always offered solid value, and that continues with the Aquasphere.

The brand’s first dedicated dive watch retails for $1,840 on the bracelet and $1,560 on the strap. To start, the Aquasphere is available in just one color, FreeFall Blue, which was named in honor of brand ambassador and freediver Fabio Tunno, who spent months testing the prototype at depths up to 110m.

Both variations are available to reserve now from U.S.-based German watch retailer WatchBuys.

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