Three Vintage-Style Dive Watches Under £1000

Starting from Just £188, this list hopes to show you some of the watches that you don't need to spend thousands on to get a watch that suits your style and needs. These 3 Vintage-Style Dive Watches under £1000 provide the classic style of previous times and the functionality of a well-built watch to survive the events of life.

The Vintage-Style of Watches are a favourite of ours here at 2NDs, due to the beautiful colour contrast between the vintage cream shade and the black, and then the surrounding textures and materials that brands may incorporate into their designs, therefore kicking off this list:

Spinnaker Watches' Fleuss Automatic in the Lumber Black Colourway

Spinnaker are a British brand that were founded in 2013, who's expertise are Diver's Watches, so it was only natural for them to create the Fleuss Automatic in this colour-way, inspired by the 'Golden Age' of Diver's Watches, and the vintage-charm that so many people look for in watches can be combined with the affordable techniques used to create a durable watch that can also be versatile, as well as for Diving Purposes.

The Watch functions on the Miyota 8215 Automatic Movement, with a Spinnaker engraved rotor that can be seen through the case-back exhibition window. This movement provides a strong 42-Hour Power Reserve, and has a date, minutes, seconds and hours function - the necessities, well executed for a watch at this price-point.

The Lumber Black Fleuss retails for £188, a very affordable price and this watch can be a great piece for someone looking for an everyday watch, or a beach / pool day watch, since the water resistance is 150M, which is perfect for casual swimming or life's events, but serious diving would require more water resistant watches.

The watch does require the wearer to have a larger wrist however, since the case size is 43mm and the thickness is a chunky 13mm, dimensions that may obstruct daily life for someone with a wrist size of less than 17 Inches, yet for someone with the right wrist size, this piece nails the vintage aesthetic with the textured dial, classic Diver's Bezel with NewLite Lume inside both the bezel and case, which are clear at day and night due to the Anti-reflective coating applied to the sapphire crystal.

Baltic's Aquascaphe Classic Black Gilt

Baltic are a watch brand from France which were founded in 2016 by Etienne Malec, as a tribute to his father's passion for watches. Now they create affordable and creative designs with styles from a range of time-periods in watchmaking, with some featuring classic and 'dressier' elements such as Breguet numerals, and some more modern and versatile, such as the Hermetique Collection.

This Aquascaphe Classic Black Gilt was released in 2019 and it had the vintage-style at the heart of the design, which is clearly reflected in the final product, from the thinner bezel with 15-Minute Marks which can be found on all the vintage-divers from the era, to the clean and classic dial.

The dial is free from a date window, which shows the classic Diver-Style, yet in modern times this keeps the dial super clean and symmetrical, with the minute track and hour markers equal and very appealing. Complimented with the grainy-texture of the dial, this watch has multiple levels making the time-reading and viewing experience easy.

The price of this piece from Baltic is €665, or roughly £570, excluding taxes, which if for the top-model with the flat-link steel bracelet or the beads-of-rice steel bracelet. The retail price for the watch without a steel bracelet is €600, or £515, and there are a couple of rubber straps to choose from based on wrist size, which add a modern tone to the classic style of the watch.

Considering the price of this watch, the specifications offer good value for money, as the piece features many desirable specs which can be found on watches that retail for more than £600, from C1 SuperLuminova inside the case on the hands and hour markers, but also inside the sapphire crystal bezel. The glass covering the dial is also sapphire crystal, internally coated in anti-reflective coating, preventing scratches or wear on external coating but also providing the desired function. The water resistance of this Baltic piece is slightly stronger than Spinnaker's Diver, with this Aquascaphe being resistant up to 200M, allowing for further diving capabilities, but whether the wearer actually uses this watch for diving is not a necessity, since it is stylish and functional for everyday use, with the case being a practical 39mm, a lug-to-lug of 47mm, and a thickness of 13mm including the sapphire domed glass.

What does allow for the high specifications in the build quality while keeping the cost moderate is the movement, and this Aquascaphe uses the Citizen Miyota 9039, which is a solid automatic movement that provides 42 hours of power, but has a large variance in time-accuracy per day, so may not be as accurate as more expensive pieces. It does however have hacking and is very thin to accommodate the strong build quality around it on the Baltic Aquascaphe, which improves the comfort for the wearer of the watch.

Heron Watches' Marinor - Gilt and Black Variant

Neo-Vintage and affordable are Heron's bread and butter, so it's not a surprise for their watch to appear on this list. They are a Microbrand that started up in 2021, a very new brand, and are enthusiast-founded with the aim of creating exactly the criteria of this list - vintage-style watches. The brand is based in Canada, and they have a passion for the vintage style of watches, but they found that over the years of collecting themselves, the materials and mechanics understandably wear down and they become fragile and less practical, therefore they started a brand to make the styling, but with reliability and solid build quality.

The strength of this watch is an instant eye-catcher on the list of specifications, with the Stainless steel of the case being strength-treated on-top of the original metal, reducing wear in daily life, already cementing this piece as a great GADA, yet the Diving capabilities are also strong as a result of the strong steel, which reduces corrosion, as well as the 250M Water Resistance, the most on this list of watches. As well as strength-treated steel, the sapphire crystal used is boxed, making the crystal much more durable.

While the crystal is still domed, the thickness of the watch is only 12.2mm including the crystal, and the case size is 39mm with a lug-to-lug of 46mm, the most compact watch on this list, making it more accessible to a wider audience of wearers.

Helping to achieve this thin profile is the movement, which is the same as what is used in the Baltic Aquascaphe - the Citizen Miyota 9039 - with a movement thickness of 3.9mm, it is clear why this watch is so compact. The specifications of the movement are exactly the same as the Baltic's Movement, with the 42 Hours of Power Reserve and Hacking, and no date function.

Also with this watch, it comes on a steel flat-link bracelet as standard, which the clasp has a double release and an on-the-fly micro-adjust feature, which for a watch at this price-point, is great value. Along with the standard bracelet, there are many different options for a strap, with rubber, hybrid leather, NATO Straps and more.

This is the second generation of the Marinor Collection, and these upgrades are very beneficial to the wearer, from the comfort on the wrist to the security of the watch and the durability, providing a long-lasting, good value-for-money Diver with the vintage charm.

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