Vintage watch experience 古董手錶: Triton Spirotechnique diver watch

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Triton Spirotechnique diver watch

I love vintage diver watches and I have been searching for the rare Triton Spirotechnique for a while after gathering some vintage ZRC. Christmas came early as I have finally managed to find one Triton Spirotechnique in very good condition. The decision to go for the Triton Spirotechnique is due to its rarity and it conform to my vintage diver watch theme.

An early competitor for the recreational dive watch market, the French firm La Spirotechnique, with its long and distinguished history in underwater technology, introduced the Triton dive watch in 1963 and remained in production through the mid-1970’s.

In the early 1940s, the famed diver and explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau approached the firm Air Liquide, which specialized in compressed gas, to make underwater breathing devices. Cousteau and his partner, Émile Gagnan, wanted air regulators that could be attached to compressed air gas tanks to be used underwater. Due to the success of these early prototypes, Air Liquide formed the subsidiary firm, La Spirotechnique, in 1946 in order to mass-produce dive regulators. Today the firm is known as Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique and remains one of the largest manufacturers of scuba diving equipment.

The Spirotechnique was developed after original diving watches, Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms and Rolex’s Submariner. However, the Spirotechnique was made specifically for professional divers and the military and was much more depth resistant and innovative in design. Its specifications and and precision were designed specifically for divers’ needs. The Spirotechnique is considered one of the most iconic diving watches of all time.

The vintage Spirotechnique diving watch was water resistant to over 200 meters. That is below the distance that natural light penetrates the open ocean water. The watch was manufactured in France and had a self winding Swiss mechanism. The casing was 37 mm in diameter, and the bezel was 39 mm. The design of the Spirotechnique featured unique oversized bezel numerals at the 10 minute markers. The Triton crown insignia and hinge were featured at the 12 o’clock hour. The date numerals had a distinctive “roulette” style alternating between red and black with the odd and even numbers. The casing was angular in shape and the watch was slim compared to other diving watches. The watch had 3 types of rotating bezel’s including minutes, meters and feet. The crown, often the weak point in diving watches, had extra protection from water leakage. The Triton Spirotechnique remains one of the best and most iconic vintage diving watches of all time.

At first glance one notes the unlikely position of the winding and setting crown on the Triton watch.

Jean René Parmentier (1921-1998) designed the case, which was manufactured by Dodane, giving the watch an instantly recognizable look with the crown placed at the 12 position. This provided a safety measure, ensuring the diver didn’t get the watch caught on something while underwater. The watch was one of the few in the era certified water-resistant to 200 meters - one of the reasons professional divers chose this tool watch for their work. Not only was it sold to civilians, it was also issued to French military personnel well into the 1970s.