Skindiver: at a glance
In 1957, Aquastar designed the Model 60, the watch that defined the skindiver category. Full history, specs, and modern revivals. Use this guide on skindiver to weigh design choices, engineering trade-offs and how the category translates to real Aquastar dive watches.
| Topic | Skindiver |
| Read time | 5-8 min |
| Source | Aquastar editorial |
A “skindiver” is a thin, comfortable, water-resistant tool watch designed for recreational diving and skin-diving (free-diving without scuba gear). Today the category is enjoying a quiet revival, with brands across the price spectrum reviving the look. The format itself, however, was largely defined by one watch: the Aquastar Model 60, designed in 1957 by Frédéric Robert in Geneva.
Table of Contents
Before 1957: what divers actually wore
By the mid-1950s, dedicated dive watches existed but they were not designed for the kind of diving most people actually did. The 1953 Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Rolex Submariner were built around military and commercial deep-sea use: thick cases, screw-down crowns, and water resistance ratings that exceeded any recreational requirement. They were also expensive and physically large for a wrist coming back from a beach dive.
Skin-divers (the term for recreational free-divers who used masks, fins, and a snorkel rather than tanks) needed something different: a watch that was thin enough to wear comfortably under a wetsuit cuff, light enough not to tire the wrist on a long swim, and water-resistant enough to handle 50 to 100 metres without ceremony.
That was the gap Frédéric Robert addressed.
1957: the Model 60 and what made it different
The Aquastar Model 60, designed in 1957, was deliberately compact: a 36 mm steel case (small by today’s standards, exactly right for the period), an arched profile that sat low on the wrist, and a clear, legible dial. The bezel rotated to mark elapsed dive time, and the crown sealed against a gasket system Robert had been refining.
The watch did not try to compete with saturation-grade tool watches on water resistance. It targeted the bracket where most recreational diving actually happens, which was its strength. It was a watch you would wear all day, not just on dive day.
The Model 60 also predated the Aquastar brand name itself. Frédéric Robert formally established Aquastar SA in Geneva in 1962, but the Model 60 design from 1957 is what the brand is built on. The watch went on to define what would become known as the skindiver category.
Why “skindiver” stuck as a category name
“Skindiver” came directly from the activity: skin diving was the popular post-war recreational practice of free-diving in coastal waters with mask, snorkel, and fins. The watches built for it inherited the name.
Through the late 1950s and 1960s, several other Swiss manufacturers offered watches in the same format. But the technical foundation, particularly the gasket and crown work that became the basis of Aquastar’s 1962 no-decompression bezel patent, traces back to the 1957 Model 60 design. By the time Frédéric Robert filed his ten patents between 1959 and 1977, the skindiver format had been established.
Skindiver vs Submariner vs Fifty Fathoms: the actual differences
| Feature | Skindiver (Model 60) | Submariner | Fifty Fathoms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1957 | 1953 | 1953 |
| Typical case size | 36 mm | 38 mm | 41 mm |
| Water resistance | 100 metres | 100 metres | 91 metres (50 fathoms) |
| Profile | Thin, low-sitting | Tall, screw-down crown guards | Thick, military-spec |
| Intended user | Recreational free-diver | Professional diver, military | French Navy combat swimmer |
The differences are not about which is the better watch. They’re about who each was built for. The Submariner and Fifty Fathoms were built for people whose job involved being underwater. The skindiver was built for people who chose to be underwater on the weekend, and wanted a watch they could keep wearing on Monday morning.
Modern skindivers: what survives, what’s been revived
The format went quiet through the 1980s and 1990s as dive watches got bigger, thicker, and more macho. The recent revival has been driven by collectors recognising that the vintage proportions actually work: 36 to 38 mm cases wear better, look more period-correct, and pair with strap options the larger watches cannot accommodate.
Aquastar reintroduced the Model 60 in 2023 with the Model 60 Re-edition, retaining the original case shape, the arched profile, and the steel-bezel format. Several other brands offer modern skindivers in various interpretations.
What unites the current revival is a return to the original brief: thin enough to wear all day, water-resistant enough for the diving most people actually do, sized correctly for the wrist.
Buying a skindiver today
If you are looking for a skindiver, the choice is between:
- Vintage Aquastar Model 60 examples from the 1957–1970s window (rare, condition-dependent, but the original)
- Modern Aquastar Model 60 Re-edition, built in Bienne, available in the standard variants on the Aquastar collection
- Other modern interpretations from various brands, each with their own approach to the format
What to look for: a case that sits low on the wrist (under 12 mm thick), a bezel you can grip with wet hands or gloves, a dial that stays legible underwater, and water resistance appropriate to what you will actually do with it. The skindiver format does not need to be a 300-metre saturation watch. It needs to be the watch you actually wear.
The category was defined in 1957 with one watch. The format works because it was thought through by someone who understood what recreational diving actually required. That logic still holds.
Want to read more on Aquastar’s role in dive-watch history? See the 1962 story, the ten patents, or the full Model 60 collection.
Further reading: Wikipedia on diving watches.
