Today, Movado is probably best known for producing accessibly-priced fashion watches such as the always-popular Museum Watch collection. But from the 1930s through the 1960s Movado was producing tough, purpose-driven watches that stood their ground with the best-known professional grade wrist instrumentation of the times.
Movado released water-resistant wristwatches as early as 1935, and by the 1960s was producing dive watches to compete with the era's better known offerings from brands such as Rolex or Omega. The Sub-Sea range consisted of divers and chronographs alike, with plenty of variety in case size, dial variations, and movement offerings.
Dating to circa the late 1950s - early 1960s, this Sub-Sea Chronograph is an absolute gem of a mid-century chronograph to rival the best. With a 35mm stainless steel case by François Borgel — better knows for manufacturing cases for Patek Philippe (who, by the way, used Borgel cases on their waterproof chronographs at the same time) — it features lovely faceted lugs with a signed crown, a lovely, brushed silver dial with applied indices and recessed sub registers, and Movado's Calibre M95 manual winding chronograph movement inside.
No doubt a stunner of a piece, the Sub-Sea range is functional and packs some serious horological chops. These have slipped under the radar of most collectors, and examples with a sharp, defined case with thick lugs and a clean dial dont pop up as often as you might think, and we're always happy to have one come through.
Though, they dont last!