Hot Rod from a ’74 Vantage Case

Man, I love watches! They can just be cool objects that delight you when you least expect it. I sort of resolved to myself, without any focused plan, to just post more often about watches that delight me without digging so deep into specs or research. Maybe I can do that with this Desk Diver? I haven’t seen a review of one of these other than on release?
I mostly write about groups of watches and where they fit into the watch spectrum and my categories and collections. I am obsessed with where a watch sits in chronology of design; what came before it and after it or is adjacent to it. I think about why it is what it is sometimes more that what it is. It’s hard for me to just enjoy a watch for what it is on its own with out knowing what other versions of it exist.
Remember being a kid and being fascinated by something, a toy, a bike, a car a machine, or animal that you could just enjoy without fitting it into a bigger picture? It wasn’t til later that you started to wonder where it fits in or where it came from. I can almost do that with this Cincinnati Watch Company (CinWC) Desk Diver(DD) LE. If you have read any of my post you know I have trouble focusing…

Very quickly I knew I really liked this watch. There was some mental preparation before I saw it in the metal, but still I knew it was an oddity, an object of limited availability that I didn’t have to connect to a bigger collection. I only have to mention one other related set of watches, well…two, but I can still enjoy it for itself, mostly. CinWC had to go and conjure up a follow-up DD2Pro with a newly designed case and real water resistance and an auto movement. But, still, this LE can stand on its own.
I don’t want to label Cincinnati Watch Company using “CWC” since that reminds me of the CWC of old Cabot Watch Company now making cool reissues of vintage military-related tool watches. When I see CWC, I think of those. So, I will use CinWC. I really like typing Cincinnati because I am a west coast guy, not a Reds or Bengals fan and have no roots in Ohio. I rarely get to say or write Cincinnati. I am old enough to have watched the WKRP tv show.
Happy
Let me just spray out a bunch of words that come to mind when I look at this watch: square case, orange/black, shine, ’70s, case finish, smooth seconds hand, great size/shape, rubber, blocky, bezel, lume, lugs, sunburst, old, cool, cheap, crown, fun. Its just a cool thing and I like so much about it.
When we look at a watch, so many things are happening in our brain. We are making so many associations with references to specifications, styles, materials, sizing, colors, etc. We subconsciously qualify a watch in a hierarchy without really just seeing its physical form and design. Watches can represent something other than their form like status or brand that keeps us from sometimes actually looking at it. This watch allows me to just look at its parts, and forms and colors and finishes. Maybe because of its vintage nature I know it is not of the contemporary scene. I do see its 70s vintage. I don’t have to rank it. There is nothing to compare it too.
Restomod
This Desk Diver 1 is like a restomod car! Its like taking a ’74 Vega body and swapping out its aluminum four-cylinder engine for a modern V-6, adding LED lights hi-tech paint, wheels and tires. Its basically an old, unused, inexpensive case with a sweet new movement from a class above, given a custom dial, new crystal and new strap. its a watch that never existed before and will never again. I’ve always been squeamish about modified watches like Seiko Mods. It makes me uncomfortable knowing a watch is not a “certified” original design, corrupted. My categorizing brain says, “wait, you can’t do that!” It is what it is and you can’t make it something it isn’t! Collectors hate Frankensteins. But, that is a dumb mindset when you consider we modify almost everything we get in some way, to make it our own. We change straps right away. We replace parts to keep watches running.

As soon as I took the watch out of the box, I liked it. I liked it more than I thought I would. While waiting for it, there was buyer’s remorse about it being an odd thing. There is just so much to like: I like the idea that the case is 50 years old but new. I like the fact it has a Sellita manual wind SW210. I like the 70s feel. I like the orange hands (all three). I like the idea of a low-end case with a high-end movement. The bezel is a friction fit bi-directional one that moves too easily. So, what! I love it. I like the idea that the movement is new, solid and can be repaired. I like that it fits my wrist, not too big. I don’t like that it has practically no water resistance (though it probably has more than CinWC says), but then that is the beauty of it; it doesn’t really matter because I don’t plan on taking it into the water. I like it because its an odd-ball that doesn’t make sense to a lot of watch enthusiasts.

This DD also made me think of HMT watches. For a long time they combined old and new parts to create new watches. Its the dream of every new old stock watch part stuck in a dark box, to become part of a living watch.
Serendipity
I’m not the first owner of this basically new watch. I got it on eBay because the original owner did not want to keep it for some reason. I wasn’t even looking for one. I had heard of them, but never really thought much about them. At the time I read about the release, I thought it was cool that old cases could be used. I liked the humor of 0m WR. There were only 75 made, so they say, but I see no serial number on the watch anywhere? So, I was lucky to stumble on to it.
Two things coincided. I was looking for a preowned Lorier because I decided I wanted to start acquiring USA designed/made/assembled watches. CinWC and Colorado, and others were on my radar. While looking for a Lorier I saw this Desk Diver listing. Like I said, at first I thought it was nuts bidding on it, but now I’m glad I did.
1974 Vantage Futura case
OK, we have to talk about the case, historically. The case is the whole reason this CinWC watch exists. They got an old stash from a defunct watch supplier. The CinWC explanation on their site left me wanting more. I tried searching for watches with a case like this but came up short. There were lots of similar 70s cases, but not exact. I thought this watch even reminded me of a 70s Longines Ultrachron! Then, Bingo! eBay came through again. Someone is selling one of these same exact ONS cases and has lots of good info about it. It seems to be a case made by Aetos for Vantage Futuras for (at least) 1974. Was it used on other watches?

Being a low-end case it is not stainless. The case back is, but the main case is base metal with plating. And that’s what it looks like. It looks like a lot of my cheap watches. But, that’s what is so great; its a mix of low and low and high. There is that great dial, lume and Sellita inside.
There it is shown in a 1974 Hamilton/Vantage catalog illustration, listed as as a Futura XI. Now I know. But, to muddy the waters, There are several different case styles for Futuras this year and others. It states that this case was also used on the Futura VII. It did have a manual wind movement with date at 3 o’clock. Now as to being a “Diver” that is still debatable, because the part of the catalog shown does not list it as a diver. I do know of ’60s and ’70s Vantage “Skin divers” that are not Futuras. It can be difficult getting information on Vantage watches. I don’t know if CinWC knew about the Futura or not?

From what I know about Vantage, it was a company or collaboration company of several watch parts manufactures created to sell low-end watches. Hamilton wanted to get some of the low end market. People like to attach Hamilton to Vantage to give it more prestige, but in reality the Vantage products really had nothing to do with the Hamilton products up to this time. This case was made in Switzerland by Aeos, but I link Vantage more often to Japan and Hong Kong. From the ebay case listing:”…in 1961 Hamilton purchased Standard Time in large part for its Vantage line of watches. In 1971 Aetos Watch, SA, owned by Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère (SSIH), the precursor holding company that now owns the Swatch Group, became a minority owner of The Hamilton Watch Company. In 1974 SSIH bought the remaining interest in The Hamilton Watch Company. The Futura XI and Futura VII would become a part of the Vantage line.” I’m assuming SSIH wanted some of that low-end market, too.
’70s Style
So here we are with this cool retro Frankenstein that really is ’70s and modern in one watch. The black sunburst sandwich dial with orange details is old and new at the same time. It has a nice restraint to the design that I think bigger companies might have overdone? The Cinci interpretation is more conservative than the Futura illustrated above, but it captures the era. The case is so cool! I love the polished stubby lugs the round cornered square. One of my favorite things it how the crown guards are on the same plane as the main brushed case deck. Instead of the case side dropping over and the crown guards protruding from the case sides, the top the the crown guards is the top of the case extending out. The Deck feel of a skin diver remains as the whole thing becomes a 70s shape and the long lugs go away. As ’70s as it feels, the case is still smallish, not a bulky cushion or barrel. It is about 41mmx43mm.

The manual wind SW210 keeps the whole watch pretty low at only 11mm with crystal. The acrylic crystal is not high with it rounded corners, and flat on top (box), so it is a good balance that matches the overall flat design. The very narrow flat aluminum insert bezel is awesome with its metallic orange markers and numbers. The flat bezel ring has a knife edge with straight vertical slots creating the sharp-dged teeth. Not your typical diver bezel. The X1 Superluminova is readable all night long.

The LE came with a 20mm silicone rubber strap that tapers to 18mm. They feel pretty soft, but collect dust and lint. I still like it, but have a few ideas…

I’m not sure this case/watch was originally meant to be a diver? It is a screw on back with the vintage soft-shouldered 10-sided projection that just begs for a special tool. I don’t know if I could open this one?

Closing thoughts
I got my first Cincinnati Watch Company watch. I am happy. It is a unique specimen. Some would call it impractical because of its water resistance rating,bad value because of case materials, and and mix of old and new parts. That is exactly why I love it. It throws the whole dive/tool/spec watch value thing out the window for a spell. It is a fun, great looking, great performing watch. That it was inspired from found parts is what makes it special.
Because it happened you can now get a more modern, practical case that you can take swimming. You can also get other colors. But, you still don’t get a ratchet bezel! It’s new stainless case is a bit bigger for the SW200 movement, but looks just like the old Aetos cases.

I don’t know if I will need to get a DDPro in the future? I’m pretty happy with the LE for now. It is truly a vintage watch and a modern watch at the same time. I get the best of both.

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