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Philippe Cousteau aboard the Calypso
Heritage  ·  Worn by  ·  Philippe Cousteau

1940 · 1979

Philippe Cousteau.

Filmmaker. Marine biologist. Pilot. Second son of Jacques. Documented on the deck of the Calypso wearing Aquastar through the 1970s.

A second-son’s wrist.

Philippe Cousteau was Jacques’ younger son. He joined the Calypso crew as a teenager and went on to become a principal cinematographer for the Cousteau Society’s expeditions through the late 1960s and 1970s.

Aquastar appears on Philippe’s wrist in archive stills and footage from the Calypso years. His father Jacques is not on record wearing a watch in the same period.

28 June 1979.

Philippe was killed on the morning of 28 June 1979 while piloting the Cousteau Society’s PBY-5A Catalina amphibious aircraft on the Tagus River near Lisbon, during a take-off attempt. He was 38.

He was survived by his wife Jan and their two children, Alexandra and Philippe Jr.

The watch on the wrist

The Deepstar is still in the catalogue.

Aquastar Deepstar III Chronograph Manual Wind $2,790
Deepstar III Chronograph
39 mm · La Joux-Perret manual-wind column-wheel
The 2026 flagship
 Aquastar Deepstar 39mm Automatic Chronograph $2,790
Deepstar 39mm Automatic Chronograph
39 mm · Swiss automatic · no-decompression bezel

Frequently asked

Philippe Cousteau and Aquastar.

Did Philippe Cousteau wear an Aquastar?

Yes. Philippe Cousteau, the French oceanographer and filmmaker (1940 to 1979) and son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, wore an Aquastar Deepstar through three Cousteau Society films made during the Calypso expeditions between 1968 and 1975. He is the only Cousteau ever photographed and filmed wearing a specific watch, and the model on his wrist across those films is documented as an Aquastar Deepstar.

Which Aquastar did Philippe Cousteau wear?

The Aquastar Deepstar, the dive chronograph carrying the patented no-decompression bezel Aquastar filed in 1964 (Swiss patent CH 436 140). The bezel let a diver read maximum safe bottom time directly from the wrist rather than a printed table, which was the specific tool function that made the Deepstar attractive to working underwater filmmakers on Calypso.

Did Jacques-Yves Cousteau wear an Aquastar too?

The father, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is documented as an early Aquastar customer and the workshop maintained direct contact with the Cousteau team through the 1960s and 1970s, but he is not known to have been filmed or photographed wearing any specific watch on wrist. The visual and film record of Cousteau wristwear points at Philippe. On aquastar.ch, only Philippe is pictured; Jacques-Yves is referenced by text.

Where can I see Philippe Cousteau wearing the Aquastar?

The Deepstar appears on Philippe Cousteau's wrist in the Cousteau Society films of the Calypso expeditions from 1968 to 1975, including sequences that surface on French and English-language documentary reissues. Stills from those films are the source of the photograph on this page.

Also worn by

Cousteau wasn’t the only one.

1927 · 2001

Jacques Mayol

100 meters on a breath. Elba, 1976.

1979 · 1984

The French Navy

Issued equipment for combat divers.

Contemporary

Jason Heaton

Depth Charge. The Grey NATO.

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