When entering a country through just about any monitored checkpoint in the world, you must present your passport and state the purpose of your visit. We have plenty of reasons for going where we go and doing what we do, but we can generally boil them down to just two descriptors: business and pleasure. I have come to regard GMT watches in the same manner. Those for business tend to be on the dressy side, in a tastefully conservative, usually in colors and styles that you might pair with a coat and tie. Those for pleasure are more likely to play with color or incorporate whimsical details. If a uniformed official at a point of entry were to ask me that question and I were wearing the Foliot Scubanaut World Diver like I am today, I would answer, “pleasure,” because that is clearly what this watch is all about.
The stainless steel case measures 41mm wide, 48mm long, and 12.5mm thick with a 20mm lug gap. It is bead-blasted with polished accents on the signed crown, the outer edge of the bezel, and the chamfer that travels the entirety of both sides of the case, looping the rounded tips of the lugs to make its way along the underside. It is not a common approach, and while subtle, it pays big dividends by encircling that broad matte section, blurring the edges to draw your eye to the matte surface sandwiched within, thus making the case appear even slimmer.
It fit me quite well, striking the right balance between the presence I like my dive watches to command and the more modest size my 6.75″ wrist requires.
“Scubanaut” sounds like a name coined in the 1960s, and not coincidentally, it is rendered on the dial in a suitably retro typeface. If you are of a certain age, you will not be able to read it without humming a few bars from the similarly titled Black Sabbath song. As you may have surmised, this is a diver’s watch, rated for 200m water resistance with an AR-coated sapphire crystal and a red-stemmed crown to alert you when it is not screwed down.
The 120-click, unidirectional bezel has firm action, and while I appreciate the feel and the security, I wish there was a bit more tooth to that edge to offer a better grip. As it was, I found it hard to pinch the comparatively shallow fluting on the coin edge.
You get two indexes on the bezel. The steel outer ring is a countdown timer while the inner ceramic insert gets a dive timer. It is both practical and attractive, as that narrow black insert makes the watch appear trimmer than if it filled all the surface area.
Foliot chose the Miyota 9075 for the World Diver’s GMT engine. This 24-jewel, 28.8k bph automatic shares its architecture with the rest of the excellent 9000 series movements and gains a fully independent second hour hand. They then designed a face that incorporates a 24-hour day-night index and, can it be, five hands?
Well, not quite, but close. You see, in addition to the white, lume-flilled hour and minute hands, and the orange-stemmed second hand, they extended the blue arrow GMT hand’s counterweight and distinguished it with a bright green tip. This allows you to quickly convert 24-hour time to 12 hours in the afternoon; handy for those of us who did not serve in the military and whose eyes glaze over when people invite us to meetings at “1300.” (We’re discussing budget priorities, Bob, not landing on Omaha Beach.) That said, if you are staging an amphibious landing, the watch is well up to the task, although you may watch to cover the two-tone C3 Super-LumiNova after nightfall lest it betray your your position.
Anyway, the five-hand arrangement is just one element of the Scubanaut’s appeal. We also have the blue and white ring that seamlessly incorporates the 6 o’clock date window, the combination of applied triangle and pill markers that give it such lovely depth, and the fact that a five-color dial is light-hearted and fun without tipping into the garish or illegible. As I said at the beginning: business or pleasure? Pleasure. Pure pleasure.
If you have more conservative tastes, Foliot has not forgotten you. They offer a three-hand Scubanaut 200 with black or white dials. They have no 24-hour index or GMT hand, but interestingly, they retain the 9075 movement and its jumping hour feature.
Foliot equipped the Scubanaut World Diver with both a three-link bracelet and its proprietary Marinesport elastic strap. The elastic is a similar design to the Marine Nationale paratrooper style but with the addition of a locking clasp for extra security. It looks fabulous in its blazing orange and should be an ideal accessory for those who will use their Scubaaut to actually Scuba dive.
The bracelet is a fine piece as well, featuring all the modern conveniences: quick-release spring bars, screwed pins, and a push-button ratcheting dive extension in the signed clasp. The links are blasted and polished to match the case.
Flip the watch over and you’ll find a diving bear. Why? I didn’t ask. I simply enjoyed its clean execution and the contented smile on the furry fellow’s face. He’s a bit tired from a long day in the surf. He explored a coral reef and saw fish he never dreamed of. It was a good day.
The watch launches on Kickstarter on February 15, 2024, starting at $540 for the three-hand Scubanaut 200 and $649 for the World Diver. Prices will increase by 30% once the presale period is over.
The Foliot Scubanaut World Diver is a nicely executed watch that deftly balances joyful design with tool watch utility and does so for an extremely tempting price. If you are headed to a faraway island for some sun and relaxation, this is your watch.
“For pleasure,” you will say to the Customs officer. “Purely for pleasure.”
