Spinnaker Piccard Dive Watch

Although most of Spinnaker’s line consists of affordable automatic dive watches, it appears they want to venture into more elite horological territory. The Piccard is a limited-edition dive watch with a serious 1,000-meter depth rating and very original styling, which is hard to pull off in this genre these days. Inspired by and commemorative of a 1960 voyage of the Bathyscaphe Trieste mini-sub to the Challenger Deep (over 10,900 meters in depth!), the Piccard means business. It gets a robust titanium case that helps mitigate weight, a chunky screw-down crown, a curvaceous domed sapphire crystal, and C3 Superluminova for high legibility in the dark. The movement is a Swiss automatic Sellita SW-200 with a 38-hour power reserve and hacking seconds. While these are all great features, we’re blown away by the inclusion of a helium escape valve that automatically regulates, a technical feature not often found on dive watches costing thousands more. The dial is a looker with its exposed screws and partially shrouded markers. Spinnaker will make only 300 of them, and they should prove to be one of the best dive watches for less than $1,000.