Beitling Superocean Automatic 46

Breitling has just launched a redesign of its sporty sea watch. The new collection retraces the pared-down aesthetic of the original SuperOcean Slow Motion from the 1960s and 1970s, while adding modern features and a bright palette of color. Plus, it’s no longer strictly a dive watch— surf with it, swim with it, hit the beach bar with it.

In the 1960s, the emerging sport of scuba diving was all the rage, inspired by the adventures of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. In diving, timing was everything—measured almost exclusively in minutes—and Breitling wanted to not only provide the best tool watch for the task, but to give it a sense of style.

To create this early SuperOcean, Breitling’s designers eliminated any superfluous features that didn’t support the lifesaving needs of divers underwater. A high-contrast dial ring was introduced to the crucial minutes scale. Out went subtle indexes in favor of chunky luminescent batons for easy readability. And, in the boldest move of all, Breitling did away with the seconds hand, since divers ... didn’t really need it. In its place came a revolutionary minutes-based chronograph, dubbed the “Slow Motion” because it took an hour to make a full rotation of the dial.