IWC

Aquatimer Watches

IWC, International Watch Company, had started its journey of watchmaking in 1868. It has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2002. IWC Schaffhausen has been renowned for its high quality timepieces in all round, including its professional watches and dress watches.  The IWC Aquatimer collection is one of its popular mainstay professional collections. 

As suggested by its name, the IWC Aquatimer watch collection is a watch series designed for divers. The very first IWC Aquatimer watch was introduced in 1976 as the first IWC water-resistant watch. Over the decades IWC has released a handful of updated versions for its diver watches. 

In 2014, IWC revisited all of their previously popular dive watches and relaunched the Aquatimer collection with advanced technologies and ongoing trends. IWC successfully extracted the pros of the older collection and integrated them to meet the needs of the present day. This IWC diver watch collection has been extended to numerous variants in different options of different case sizes, materials and even different movements.

IWC (International Watch Company) was founded by the renowned American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868 at Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It started with producing pocket watches with magnificent precision and further to professional watches like the IWC Pilot watch. 

As for the marine field, historically IWC created its first diving watch in 1945 for the British Navy. Although it was marketed to be “W.W.W.” which was referring to “watch, wrist, waterproof”, the watch was actually closer to be “water-resistant“ than waterproof. It was resistant to an estimated diving depth of 10 metres that can barely endure any water sports. However, IWC continued to drill on the technology with a spirit of innovation and their diving watches kept evolving to the best ones.

Launch of the First IWC Aquatimer

As a result, the first true IWC water-resistant wristwatch was born around two decades later. In 1976, IWC introduced its first Aquatimer watch as a IWC diver watch. With the reference 812, this watch was capable of a water resistance to 20 atmospheres which is about 650 feet. 

Like other IWC sports watches, the IWC Aquatimer watch has a larger and heavier looking dial that enhances its sporty look. This IWC dive watch also featured widely spaced lugs in it. It featured a rotating internal bezel and two crowns that one of them operated the bezel. The high pressures beneath the sea, salty water and low temperatures call for a chronograph that ensures diver's safety by aiding him/her with accuracy in timekeeping and thereby being reliable. Its reference was reassigned as 1812 in the year 1971. 

At the time IWC was already best known for its high quality pilot / aviation watches. The IWC Aquatimer diver watch introduced by this renowned watchmaker had instantly grabbed the mass attention. The association of the IWC Schaffhausen with diver's watches began with this reliable and rugged Aquatimer watch. With the quick popularity, the Aquatimer watch collection has become a mainstay to the IWC professional watch family.

Since then, IWC has been putting up efforts on modifying IWC Aquatimer with its advanced technologies, diver requirements and the up-to-date trends. In 1983, the revolutionary IWC Aquatimer Ocean 2000 model, reference 3500, was released after Günter Blümlein became in charge of IWC. This titanium Porsche Design Ocean 2000 is an extraordinary IWC dive watch that was water resistant to 2000 meters or 6500 feet. It also held a mechanical deep gauge. 

With its robust titanium case with cool design, the Ocean 2000 was well received by the younger, active clientele. There were also a few following IWC/Porsche Design Ocean models released, including the “Ocean Bund”. It is considered as an especially collectible watch after being supplied to the German navy. 

In 1999, another innovative model, the Aquatimer Deep One Ref. 3257 was brought to the market. And in 2009 its descender Aquatimer Deep Two Ref. 3547 was released due to the popularity of the first model. Both IWC Deep One and IWC Deep Two featured a mechanical depth gauge to display the wearer's current depth in water. The IWC Deep Two was updated to be higher water resistant than the deep one and is also capable of recording the maximum depth that the diver reached while diving. 

In 2014, the year IWC has completely relaunched the collection, the new IWC Aquatimer Deep Three was released. 

IWC dive watches are known to be very innovative and reliable ever since the moment they were launched. These tremendous IWC watches are created with IWC’s engineering expertise and splendid designs. They are definitely a perfect companion for all the divers.

For over 20 years since its launch, IWC has released numerous updated models for the Aquatimer diver watch. In 2009 IWC had revamped some of the models of this collection. Then further in 2014, the brand again revisited and redesigned this series. The new IWC Aquatimer watches were built with a brand new case construction and a IWC SafeDive System featuring an external/internal rotating bezel.

With the help of the Darwin Society and its research facility in the Galapagos Islands, IWC created a handful of special edition watches, including the Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Expedition Charles Darwin,” IW379503. This is a special bronze-cased watch featuring a chronograph. This IWC Aquatimer chronograph is water resistant to water depth of 300 meter. 

In 2017, IWC released a series of Aquatimer special models to celebrate the collection's 50th anniversary. These IWC Aquatimer special models are made use of Cera Titanium which is a material that is known as extremely hard, unbreakable and scratch resistant.

As one of the top Swiss watch manufacturers, IWC has never disappointed any water lovers. The constant reinvention of the IWC Aquatimer watches has made its watches more reliable and modern with the advanced technologies and diver requirements of the present day. A IWC Aquatimer watch is definitely a must have for the collection of all the divers out there.