After reintroducing the celebrated Skindiver watch, Manufacture Vulcain breaking the waves with the reissue of the Cricket Nautical, the legendary diving instrument with an aquatic alarm.
In 1961, Vulcain launched a diver’s watch equipped with an alarm that could also be heard underwater. It was created in collaboration with 3 experts in the field of diving and exploration: Hannes Keller, Max-Yves Brandily and Arthur Droz.
Water-resistant to 300m, the Cricket Nautical featured a ‘triple case back’ that acted as a resonance chamber. It was the world’s first diver’s watch that would not only feature a system for determining no-stop dive times built right into the dial, but also sound a real alarm to signal the diver.
With the new Cricket Nautical, Vulcain pays tribute to Hannes Keller, who passed away last year, on 25 December 2022. On November 3, 1966, in Toulon, France, he reached the abyssal depth of almost 250 meters with a Cricket Nautical on his wrist.
Like its forebear, the Cricket Nautical stands out with ample dimensions for its time, the diameter of 42mm making it easy to use the watch and read the dial indications underwater.
Two superimposed dials – one fixed and the other rotating, adjustable with a dedicated crown at 4 o’clock – serve to determine decompression times. Depending on the dive duration and depth set on the dials, the rectangular aperture displays the stop times required at the typical depths of 9, 6 and 3 meters when ascending back to the surface after an extended underwater excursion.
This is not the first Cricket Nautical. To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011, the Vulcain Manufacture Le Locle produced a limited edition of 1961 pieces, identical to the original model but taking advantage of modern technological advances to improve robustness and reliability.
Just over a decade later, for its 60th anniversary, the new Cricket Nautical, equipped for the first time with a sapphire crystal, retains the same charisma.
Beating inside, the Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-10 hand-wound mechanical alarm movement is visible through the exhibition case-back.
It comes in two versions, both faithful as ever to the original Nautical. First model has a black dial with faux-patina indexes and hands; emerald green minute track. The second one features black dial, white Super-LumiNova® hour markers and hands, and lagoon blue minute track.
Technical details
Model: Vulcain Cricket Nautical
Movement
Caliber ‘Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-10’
Mechanical hand-wound alarm movement (12 lignes or 27.07mm in diameter), double barrel, equipped with the Exactomatic system, 165 components
Decorations: Nickel-plated treatment, blued screws, skeleton ratchets (on sapphire case back version)
Frequency: 18,000 vibrations/ hour
Power reserve: 42 hours
Functions
Hours, minutes, center seconds
Alarm
Decompression scale adjustable via screw-in crown at 4 o’clock
Alarm duration: approx. 20 seconds
Case
316L stainless steel case
The ‘Triple Case Back’ acts as a resonance chamber, allowing the alarm function to be used underwater or in a sapphire crystal version embellished with the stylized Vulcain “V”
Diameter: 42.20mm
Thickness: 17.35mm
Crystal: Sapphire, domed, with anti-reflective coating (or domed plexiglass version)
Water resistance: 30 ATM (300 meters)
Dial
Semi-matte black dial with decompression tables
Strap
Black leather strap, water-resistant carbon texture
Steel pin buckle
