Description
Vulcain has given the Skindiver Nautique GMT three new dial colours — green, pink and turquoise blue — and has kept the limited runs small enough to matter: 100 pieces each in pink and turquoise, 50 in green. Pricing is EUR 2,130 / CHF 1,970, with US retail varying by bracelet, and the watch itself is unchanged underneath: a 38.3 mm steel case, 200 m of water resistance and a Soprod C125 automatic with an independently adjustable 24-hour hand.
This is the colour treatment the three-hand Skindiver Nautique has already had, in orange, salmon and meteorite, now applied to the GMT. The original GMT launched in black, white and blue, and a purple followed last year. Three brighter tones is the logical next step, and it is the rare case of a brand adding colour without also adding a tool-watch disclaimer — the 200 m rating, screw-down crown and ceramic bezel insert all stay.
Design
The case keeps the compact mid-century Skindiver silhouette: 38.3 mm across and 12.2 mm thick, in vertically brushed 316L stainless steel with polished chamfers, slim unprotected lugs and a screw-down crown sitting bare at three o'clock. The bidirectional bezel carries a black ceramic insert with an etched and white-lacquered 24-hour track, which keeps the GMT reading legible against all three dial colours rather than fighting them.
The dials are where the money went. Turquoise is the brightest of the three and reads tropical; pink is softer and more muted than the pictures suggest; green is the deepest and takes the most contrast from the black bezel. All three use polished faceted baton hands with white Super-LumiNova, a red-tipped 24-hour hand and a framed date at three. A double-curved, anti-reflective sapphire crystal sits above, a solid steel caseback below, and buyers choose between a vintage-style tapered steel bracelet, a beads-of-rice bracelet or a black rubber strap.
Specifications
- Model: Vulcain Skindiver Nautique GMT — green, pink, turquoise blue
- Case diameter: 38.3 mm
- Case thickness: 12.2 mm
- Case material: 316L stainless steel, vertically brushed with polished chamfers
- Bezel: bidirectional, black ceramic insert with 24-hour scale in white lacquer
- Crystal: double-curved sapphire with anti-reflective treatment
- Caseback: solid stainless steel, screw-down
- Crown: screw-down, unprotected at 3 o'clock
- Water resistance: 200 m
- Dial: green, pink or turquoise blue; faceted polished baton hands, white Super-LumiNova, red-tipped 24-hour hand, framed date at 3 o'clock
- Movement: Soprod C125 GMT, automatic, 25 jewels
- Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
- Power reserve: 42 hours
- Complications: independently adjustable 24-hour "caller" GMT hand, date
- Strap options: vintage-style tapered steel bracelet, beads-of-rice steel bracelet, or black rubber strap
- Limited edition: 100 pieces each in pink and turquoise blue; 50 pieces in green
- Price: EUR 2,130 / CHF 1,970; US retail quoted from USD 2,330 (rubber) to USD 2,610 (vintage bracelet)
- Availability: limited editions; no on-sale date announced at launch
What's Exciting
At a shade over two thousand euros you are getting a genuine 200 m dive case with a ceramic bezel, a screw-down crown and a Soprod GMT movement — and Soprod's C125 matters here, because a caller GMT at this price usually means a modified Seiko or a Sellita module. Vulcain has instead used a Swiss calibre built for the job, at 4 Hz with 42 hours, in a case that stays under 39 mm. That combination is uncommon: most affordable GMTs are 40 mm and up.
The limited counts are the part that will decide this. Fifty pieces in green is genuinely scarce for a watch at this price, and 100 each in pink and turquoise is not much better. Vulcain is not running a colour capsule here so much as three separate small editions, and the green — deepest, highest contrast against the black bezel, and half the run of the others — is the one that will be gone first.
History
Vulcain was founded in Le Locle in 1858 and spent the twentieth century known for one thing above all: the Cricket of 1947, the first mechanical wristwatch alarm that was actually loud enough to wake its owner, and the watch that earned the brand the "Watch of Presidents" nickname after Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Johnson wore it. The Skindiver, by contrast, belongs to Vulcain's other 1960s life as a maker of straightforward professional divers.
The modern Skindiver Nautique revives that case in its original compact proportions rather than scaling it up for contemporary taste, and the GMT added a travel complication the 1960s original never had. The three-hand line has run through orange, salmon and meteorite dials; the GMT started in black, white and blue and gained a purple edition last year. These three editions bring the two halves of the collection into line.
