IWC Aquatimer Cousteau Divers Limited Edition

Founder's Select I'm not entirely sure why, but this colorful Aquatimer transports me right back to the early 2000s when I first moved to NYC, and remains one of my favorite models ever produced by IWC. Could have been a fair amount of the naiveté that comes with gawking at a luxury diver through the glass of their Madison Avenue boutique in my 20s and thinking that was the pinnacle of watch design, it could be the deeply hued blue dial with orange accents and integrated rubber strap, or perhaps its merely the names 'Calypso' and 'Cousteau' engraved on the case back and emblazoned on the dial that transport me to a time of wonderment and joy for all things watches. -James Lamdin When one thinks of a dive watch, IWC isn’t a brand that springs immediately to mind. Despite other companies taking the lead in the dive watch race, however, the Schaffhausen-based firm has contributed significantly to the aquatic scene. Their compressor-cased Aqautimers from the late 1960s have since become collectible classics, while the Ocean 2000 designed with none other than Ferdinand Porsche was one of the first titanium-cased divers. All in all, the pilot’s watch-focused company has had quite an impact on the design of undersea timekeepers. The particular Aquatimer we have here is a Reference 3548 from the 2000s. Introduced in 2004, it marked the return of the internal rotating bezel featured on the 1967’s Reference 812 AD, referencing the model’s ‘Compressor’ design. It features a 42mm stainless steel case with a sapphire crystal, dual crowns, an inner, unidirectional rotating dive timing bezel operated by the bottom crown, and a simply gorgeous luminous glossy/sunburst blue dial with a bold, white and orange handset, and a date window at 3 o’clock. Limited to just 1,953 pieces, it’s powered by the IWC Calibre 30110 automatic winding movement (ETA 2892-A2 base) and comes paired to a signed blue rubber dive strap with an IWC-signed pin buckle and it's factory goodies. Bold and colorful, it’s the perfect vacation watch, and one that you won’t see very often out in the wild. Think IWC only makes pilot’s watches? Think again! Nab this one before someone else has the same idea.