Eloga Flipper 'Olympics' Dive Watch

James Bond. The Apollo Program. The Porsche 911. Miniskirts. The White Album. Suffice it to say, a lot of really great stuff came out of the 1960s.  When it comes to watches, there were more important firsts and iconic designs that either matured or outright came into being in the 1960s than at just about any other time in history.  For diving watches in particular, the '60s were very much the "Golden Era" as countless brands competed for recognition and success in the rapidly expanding market of amateur SCUBA. Many of these brands still exist today, with their current collections echoing the design sensibilities of the decade of their origin. Still, many other companies were lost to time, leaving remnants of their former glory for us to find and explore in the sock drawers and workshops of the watch community. One such marque is Eloga, a sub-brand of Swiss maker Fortis that produced more affordable fare than its parent company. The company's Flipper watch is perhaps most compelling: Cased in plastic, it anticipated the Swatch craze by some two decades! Moreover, the Flipper shipped with multiple bezel inserts that could be changed by the wearer at his convenience. Pretty neat, if you ask us — and something we wish we saw more of today. This particular Eloga Flipper measures 37mm in a C-shaped plastic case and features an acrylic crystal and a steel winding crown. Its bidirectional bezel is paired with a fully-hashed black diving insert — but the watch also ships with a black city ring insert for tracking world time; a fluted bezel for a more elegant look; and a burgundy pulsations for taking a pulse.  Its burgundy dial, with applied, luminous indices, framed date window at 3 o'clock, luminous 'baton' handset, and white printing, will look fetching with all three bezel inserts. Powered by an automatic movement with 25 jewels and Incabloc shock protection, it ships with its correct box, paperwork, and two-piece leather rallye-style strap with original hang tag. You could head to the mall and grab yourself any number of anonymous, plastic-cased Swatches...or you could snag this incredible time capsule of a Swiss-made watch that anticipated the trend by 20 years. We know which we would choose!