Vulcain Cricket Nautical

Following the launch of the Skindiver, Manufacture Vulcain continues to surprise and maintain the momentum on an upward trajectory, this time breaking the waves with the reissue of the Cricket Nautical – the legendary diving instrument first introduced over 60 years ago.

An aquatic cricket

In 1961, Vulcain could boast of being the only watch Manufactures to offer a diver’s watch equipped with an aquatic alarm – in other words, an alarm that could also be heard underwater. Thanks to the ‘triple case back’ that acted as a resonance chamber, the Cricket Nautical reliably signaled when it was time to head back up. And it’s a performer on so many other levels, too. The purists among scuba diving enthusiasts, fans of mental arithmetic and no-stop tables, will be partial to its functional possibilities; lovers of vintage timepieces, on the other hand, will surely take to its particular aesthetic.

Origin story

The Cricket Nautical was the fruit of research conducted by 3 experts who pooled their knowledge and experience and, together with Manufacture Vulcain, developed the very 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 “time to get back to the surface!” – in a sleek package water-resistant to a depth of 300 meters. The trio of passionate divers: Hannes Keller, a talented Swiss physicist/ mathematician, occasional pianist, and deep-sea diving pioneer; Max-Yves Brandily, explorer and filmmaker; and Arthur Droz, a national certified diving instructor and representative of the C.I.A.S (Centre d'Investigations et d'Activités Sous-Marines – Center for Underwater Investigations and Activities).

Here, Vulcain would like to pay 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. The record was witnessed and validated by none other than Jacques Cousteau, already a legend by then.

More than a diving watch, a diving instrument

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.

A full dive log

This is not the first Cricket Nautical. It's been on quite a few dives since 1961! 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. It comes in two versions, both faithful as ever to the original Nautical:

• Black dial, faux-patina indexes and hands; emerald green minute track
• Black dial, white Super-LumiNova® hour markers and hands. lagoon blue minute track

Not least, the Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-10 caliber underscores the new Cricket Nautical’s resolutely vintage character, a true tribute to the pioneering days of diving.

Technical specifications

Vulcain Cricket Nautical

Case

• Material: 316L stainless steel
• 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
• ‘Triple Case Back’ thickness: 17.35mm
• Crystal: Sapphire, domed, with anti-reflective coating (or domed plexiglass version)
• Water resistance: 30 ATM (300 meters)

Dial and hands

• Semi-matte black dial with decompression tables

Movement

• Hand-wound alarm movement, double barrel, equipped with the Exactomatic system
• Diameter: 12 lignes or 27.07mm
• Number of parts: 165
• Decoration: Nickel-plated treatment, blued screws, skeleton ratchets (on sapphire case back version)
• Frequency: 18,000 vibrations/hour
• Power reserve of 42 hours
• Alarm duration: approx. 20 seconds

Functions/Indications

• Hours, minutes, center seconds, alarm, decompression scale adjustable via screw-in crown at 4 o'clock

Strap and buckle

• Black leather strap, water-resistant carbon texture
• Steel pin buckle

MSRP

• CHF 4'200 / USD 4'862 / EUR 4'356.60

For more information, please visit vulcain.ch