While “waterproof” chronographs have been kicking around since the mid-20th century, dedicated diver’s chronographs are another animal entirely. To be truly useful to the SCUBA diver, these need to be completely over-engineered in order to not only resist saltwater, but also to provide easy-to-use elapsed timing functionality beneath the waves. Screw-down pushers are one way to prevent water ingress, but they make chronograph operation difficult — all the more so if one is wearing gloves in cold water. Tiny chronograph totalizers, furthermore, are that much more difficult to read with refraction underwater and lack of ambient light at depth.
Breitling Superocean 'Slow Counting' Chronograph Ref. 2005 - IN THE SHOP
During the popularization of SCUBA as a recreational sport in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, watch companies developed numerous interesting timing mechanisms. In addition to the simple, waterproof, time-only watch with a bidirectional rotating bezel, certain firms — especially those that already excelled at or specialized in chronograph production — turned their sights to diver’s chronographs. Breitling, established in 1884 in Saint-Imier, had been producing monopusher chronographs since the First World War and double-pusher models since 1934. In 1965, it released the SuperOcean Reference 2005, an oversized diver’s chronograph with a unique feature.
Measuring 42mm in stainless steel — quite large for its era — the Ref. 2005 boasts a conventional, bidirectional timing bezel for measuring elapsed time. However, its black and white dial holds a secret: Rather than featuring a central chronograph seconds hand and small totalizers for viewing running seconds and measuring elapsed minutes, its luminous ‘sword’ handset is completed by a white central minutes hand with a large, luminous, diamond-shaped tip. When the top chronograph pusher is engaged, this central minutes hand begins moving imperceptibly forward. Why a central minutes hand? Elapsed seconds don’t particularly matter when SCUBA diving — elapsed minutes, however, are crucial. They measure bottom time; air left in a tank; or decompression stop time.
Placing the elapsed minute hand in the center of the watch — and jettisoning all manner of seconds hands and elapsed hour counters — thus makes much sense. But because minutes tick by relatively slowly, the user needs a method by which he can tell that this hand is engaged and actually running. The SuperOcean Ref. 2005 features a brilliant solution to this problem: Above 6 o’clock is a small window: When the chronograph is unengaged, this appears black. When the chronograph is running, however, it turns white, altering the wearer that the minute hand is actually moving. When the chronograph is stopped but not yet reset, it switches to a black background with a white dot in the center. Voila — a visual indication that the chronograph is active.
The remainder of the dial is an otherwise simple yet highly legible affair: The minutes track is white and relatively wide, with black printing in the form of triangular and ‘Arabic’ indices, plus hash marks at each minute. Within this white track is a black central section with luminous tritium indices at each hour, plus another set of white minute hash marks in the form of an open track. As is common on many diver’s chronographs, the outer rotating bezel allows for tracking of one discrete event — say, overall dive time — while the chronograph allows for tracking of another. (Decompression stop time, for example.) A screw-down caseback promises water resistance of 200m from the factory, while a hand-wound Venus Calibre 188 cam-activated movement provides timekeeping duties.
While we wouldn’t necessarily recommend diving with a 60-year-old watch today, the Breitling SuperOcean Chronograph Reference 2005 has lost none of its midcentury charm during the intervening decades: The example seen throughout this story — and available via AnalogShift.com — features a particularly sharp dial with puffy tritium plots and clean white and black printing. Paired to a black Tropic rubber dive strap, it still makes for an excellent, well sized and highly utilitarian tool watch all these years later — one that’s perfect for timing multiple discrete events. Its design has proven an enduring one beloved by serious collectors the world over, with many clamoring for a modern reissue. Until that time, we’ll just have to settle for the genuine article — one of the most interesting chronographs ever developed by any brand.
