What it is
The Marine Nationale, the French Navy, issued the Aquastar Benthos (third generation) to its combat divers from 1979 through 1984. The procurement ran through the Toulon base. About 3,200 watches shipped over the six-year period. The civilian Benthos and the issued Benthos were the same watch, identical dial and bezel; the only military marking was a case-back stamp reading MARINE NATIONALE followed by the procurement year.
The Benthos was the brand’s tool watch for working divers, one of the military dive watches issued to a national navy. Aquastar built the first Swiss 500-meter dive watch in 1970 and was already supplying saturation programmes for Cousteau-Comex before the Marine Nationale contract began. The third generation refined the case, kept the no-decompression bezel, and added the Aquastar dual-gasket crown (patented 1965) that made the 500-meter rating serviceable in the field.
Full procurement records and serial-number ranges are held in the Aquastar archive in Bienne. The longer heritage story sits on the Marine Nationale heritage page; the Benthos lineage from 1970 forward is covered in the Benthos history.
In the line today
Four current Benthos models. Same case architecture, same workshop in Bienne, same patents on bezel and crown.
The closest case to the MN-issued third generation
The Heritage II uses the same case design Aquastar built for the original Benthos line that supplied the Marine Nationale. Modern Swiss automatic, 500 m, sapphire crystal.
Limited blue-dial Heritage One
Heritage One case, blue dial. Swiss automatic, 500 m. Limited Founder's Edition run.
The 200 m Founder's tribute, smaller case
A more wearable Founder's Edition of the Benthos 500 II. Swiss automatic, 200 m water resistance, sapphire crystal.
Full saturation, modern workshop
The current professional saturation diver in the Benthos line. The same workshop that supplied the French Navy 1979 to 1984 still builds Benthos in Switzerland today.
Confirming a vintage MN Benthos
Procurement years confirmed in Aquastar archive records run 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984. Each issue carried a case-back stamp reading MARINE NATIONALE followed by the year, single-line block letters, identical font across all years. The dial and bezel matched the civilian Benthos of the same period.
Collectors and inheritors of MARINE NATIONALE-marked Benthos models who want to confirm provenance can contact the workshop in Bienne directly. The serial-number ranges are not published; the archive responds to verification requests case by case.
Frequently asked
The Aquastar Benthos (third generation) was issued to French Navy combat divers based in Toulon from 1979 to 1984. Approximately 3,200 watches were procured over the six-year period.
Original MN-issued examples turn up periodically on the vintage market. Aquastar today builds the modern Benthos line in the same Aquastar workshop: the Benthos Heritage II uses the same case design as the MN-issued generation. See the modern Benthos collection for current models.
Each MN issue carries a case-back stamp reading MARINE NATIONALE followed by the procurement year (1979 through 1984), single-line, block letters, identical font across all years. Procurement records and serial-number ranges are held in the Aquastar archive in Bienne. Collectors and inheritors can contact the workshop directly.
No. The dial and bezel were the same as the civilian Benthos of the same period; there was no military-only variant. The only distinguishing feature was the MARINE NATIONALE plus year case-back stamp.
The Benthos third generation was a 500 m diver with a no-decompression bezel calibrated to the dive tables used by the period. The brand had built the first Swiss 500 m diver in 1970 and was already supplying professional saturation programmes including Cousteau-Comex.
In Bienne, Switzerland. The same workshop that supplied the French Navy from 1979 to 1984 still builds the Benthos line today: the same case architecture, the same heritage of patents on the bezel and crown gasket.
