AQUASTAR Deepstar II [perpetuating past form]

Just a year on from the brand’s celebrated return, Aquastar with its storied PAST writes a new chapter featuring a young protagonist; 

every bit as handsome as the DEEPSTAR Chronograph Re-Edition, the hero of 2020s story (which btw sold out in only a few short days) yet more ergonomically and economically viable.

Meet the Deepstar II; a new three-hand Deepstar model measuring 36.7mm in diameter and powered by a Swiss-made Sellita SW-290 (Top Grade) automatic; 

he might be the junior of the family but he retains all those design traits that made his grandfather, the 1962 Aquastar chronograph such a legend.

For example in order for him to bear the Deepstar name, this modern successor has retained all those features unique to the Deepstar such as the look of the mono-compax time display – 

(an innovation of Aquastar founder, Frederic Robert) a single chronograph dial layout that has been moved over to (9hr) the left of the dial and re-imagined as a sub-seconds counter.

So too the Deepstar’s multifunction bezel, a memento from those trailblazing days of scuba diving when your dive watch was all that stood between you and a potentially fatal miscalculation – 

that as well as tracking elapsed dive-time offers an additional safety feature that allows it be used with a dive-table to calculate your required decompression times for safe repetitive dives.

Just as its bigger brother did, the new Deepstar II extols the virtues of those pioneering aquanauts, ocean explorers and divers who wore those innovative watches looking much like it does on their most daring forays into the deep. For the man stood at the helm of the modern Aquastar brand, Rick Marei the Deepstar II is the retrospective successor to the OG Deepstar Chronograph if not for the advent of the quartz movement in the '70s and early '80s which all but killed off the mechanical wristwatch. With the quartz crisis safely (decades) behind it, the new Deepstar II carries on the traditions of the past with a Swiss-made Sellita SW-290 automatic mechanical movement in Top Grade form which powers hours, minutes and a sub-seconds in the counter at 9 o’clock. The historic Deepstar was dateless so the movement on the Deepstar II has been stripped if its date wheel allowing for a more authentic diver-centric dial layout.

The movement is housed in watch case whose dimensions are truer to those bygone days. Measuring a modest 36.7mm in diameter it is made from marine-grade Stainless steel and is water-resistant to 200 meters. 

The Deepstar II’s diameter while modest on paper is said to be very wearable even on larger wrists. Its dimensions precisely echo those of the OG Deepstar Chrono from 1962.

The Aquastar Deepstar II will be available in three dial options: Steel Grey, Vintage Black, and Blue Ray, with each limited to an opening series of 300 individually numbered pieces. 

The watch is provided with a genuine Tropic diver’s strap color-coded to the dial but it can be fitted with a stunning BOR (beads of rice) Stainless steel link bracelet for an additional 100USD.

The Aquastar Deepstar Chronograph has a full retail price of 1,890USD, but it can be pre-ordered during the brand’s launch period for 1,490USD. 

It is available exclusively from AQUASTAR.ch

Thoughts? The Deepstar II with its modest dimensions, 3-hands setup and pre-order price-tag of 1’490USD is a happy substitute for the now sold out Deepstar Re-Edition; it is blessed with the same good looks but at roughly half the price. It’s the watch that in an ideal world should have launched alongside the Deepstar Re-Edition last year but it’s here now, an authentic reinterpretation of the watch that could have been.

Meanwhile the Deepstar’s full potential remains untapped – for example what would the OG Deepstar have looked like if it had been spec’d for the Swiss military? 

Imagine it with matte black finishing, a matte khaki dial and perhaps even an orange minute hand. But what do you think?

DEEPSTAR II SPECIFICATIONS: 

 - Case: 36mm 316L Stainless steel 

- Movement: Swiss-made Sellita SW-290 automatic (hours, minutes, small seconds, date wheel removed) 

- Water resistance: 200 meters - Crystal: Sapphire with AR coating 

- Dial: Steel Grey, Vintage Black, Blue Ray. Applied stainless steel markers & indices, high-density “Old Radium” style SuperLuminova application 

- Bezel: Rotating, stainless steel with ceramic bearings and decompression engravings Pioneered by Aquastar for calculating repeated “no decompression” dives. Tables calculated according to French Navy dive tables. 

- Straps: Pre-Order includes both TROPIC® Rubber and stitched Horween leather. Stainless steel beads-of-rice bracelet sold separately 

- Retail price: $1,490 (Pre-Order Price: $1,890) - Delivery: November / December 2021