If I were to chart the progression of my watch obsession, it would look like this: affordable fashion watches -> unobtainable fine dress watches -> modern dive watches -> vintage dive watches -> cheap and cheerful vintage dive watches.
Within this last category sits the skin divers from the 60s and 70s. To be honest, I used to think the archetypal skin diver case was undesirable, but as anyone who collects anything learns - what is ugly one day suddenly becomes beautiful the next.
Oddly, the watch that changed my mind about the skin diver case was a frankenwatch. I knew it was a franken and it was definitely overpriced, but pandemic boredom got the best of me and the rest is now history.
What surprised me the most about the case was how comfortable it is. The lugs curve downwards hugging the wrist, ensuring a comfortable fit throughout the day. But I didn't want to directly copy a vintage design, so I decided to slightly thin the lugs to strike a balance between ruggedness and elegance. I wanted the watch to look the part, whether you're actually diving or simply desk diving.
Our first collection is comprised to two models and will be produced in a limited quantity of 300 units each.
FLX002 features a sterile bezel, another nod to a very special watch: the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bund. Sterile bezels give a modernist/minimalist feel but were also used when modern rebreathers were able to provide dive times of over an hour, making standard bezel indexes useless. The dial is the classic "California Dial" and is not only graphically appealing, but also provides high visibility and error-proof reading (as it has done since the 1930s).
In the coming few weeks I will be updating our site and blog with official photos and more posts on why we feel our watches would be a charming addition to your collection.
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*Note: The straps shown above were used for the concept drawing purposes only. Production straps will differ (and we hope you love them).