After all, we must recall that its design hails from a time when digital displays were in the future, and being able to decipher an analog gauge at a glance was a necessary survival skill. For something that tried (and tries) to cram all the bells and whistles of a classic two-register chronograph into a watch along with a 100-meter depth rating (the only thing that keeps it from fulfilling the technical requirements for a dive watch is the bezel, which is bidirectional) the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver manages to come across, if not as an example of Bauhaus-esque self-restraint, then at least as a technical timepiece which does its level best to deliver a lot of analog information in a coherent fashion.
The Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver was and is something of a watch that tries to be all things to all people, but succeeds at it perhaps better than most. Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, which marked the beginning of the establishment of a permanent human presence in Antarctica (as well as the beginning, unsurprisingly, of an ad campaign from Nivada touting its presence on the expeditions).
The original Antarctic watch went to the South Pole as part of the U.S. These are the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver, which can be had in either a hand-wound or automatic model, and the Antarctic, which was originally developed in conjunction with the International Geophysical Year (the same "year of exploration" for which the Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic was made) in 1958.
In partnership with Remi Chabrat, the owner of a private label Swiss watch firm known as the Montrichard Group, plans were made to re-launch Nivada with watches based on two vintage models. 1985, and most recently back in 2018 when he launched a couple of very attractive automatic chronographs with Seiko movements. This Croton Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver 9870 was introduced in 1969, and it was produced until 1978.The genius loci in Switzerland for the brand is none other than Guillaume Laidet, whom we last encountered here at HODINKEE as the founder of the eponymous brand William L. It includes a micrometer regulator, and the mechanism oscillates at a frequency of 18,000 vph (2.5Hz). It's constructed with 17 jewels, an Incabloc shock absorber device, a straight-line lever escapement, and a self-compensating Breguet flat balance spring. 248/Valjoux 7733 mechanical manual-winding chronograph movement. This Croton Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver 9870 has a Landeron cal.
CROTON CHRONOMASTER AVIATOR SEA DIVERS WATCH FULL
It has a 45-hour power reserve at full wind, and the 14mm thick case, dial, and movement are all signed. There are twin recessed white subsidiary dials, including a running seconds register at 9 o'clock, and a 30-minute chronograph totalizer with a red 5-minute regatta countdown wedge. It has steel baton hands with luminous inserts, and a red center sweep chronograph seconds hand. There is a black dial with luminous baton hour indices around an outer minute/one-fifth second scale, a red marker at 12 o'clock, and the perimeter has a tachymeter to 600 UPH. The 38.5mm diameter solid two-body case, downturned lugs, and bi-directional rotating flat bezel with a 60-minute dive scale with Arabic numeral hour markers every five minutes, are polished/brushed. SWISS." It has a black bi-directional 60-min bezel with 2 time zones. There are round chronograph push buttons with a screw-down winding crown, and a solid screw-down case back, inside of which is hand tooled a sunray pattern and engraved with "CROTON INTERNATIONAL WATCH CO. It has a shell cordovan strap with a stainless steel tang buckle, and a scratch resistant sapphire crystal. 1970's stainless steel Croton Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver 9870. More about Vintage Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver SS
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