A shot of nostalgia: The Nautilo Vintage 42

Vintage models, as soon we read those words the blood starts racing right? Some people might think races from the 90's (it’s a bit odd to say the 90's is a vintage period nowadays) where great F1 encounters featured Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, others remember memorable tennis matches between Borg and McEnroe, my point is when time passes ''vintage'' as a word can be applied to almost anything and this of course includes diving. If you think about it diving is one craziest activities a person can do, in the 50s and 60's when everything was about the moon landing and space exploration we had a whole world to discover right under our noses, the ocean. The ocean is vast and I suspect much more beautiful than space, so why dream on leaving the earth when you can dream right here right now? With the explosion of recreational diving in the past, at this current moment we are spoiled of choices when it comes to vintage dive watches, we can find pieces from great brands like Tudor, Cyma, Doxa and Panerai just to name a few. You might think with so many options these days, watches should be relative affordable but this is far from the truth, the uniqueness and the history of each one of these watches is being paid with cold hard cash. This is why many brands decided to go for that vintage aesthetic and tried to recreate the nostalgia we al love, enter the Anonimo Nautilo Vintage.

We all know that vintage watches are as dangerous as vintage cars, I can almost hear Brad Pitt on the movie Snatch saying: '' you bought it how you saw it'' . Here is where the Nautilo shines for me, it has all the looks of a vintage equipment (yes lets call it that as it deserves it) with the convenience of a modern one.

The specifications:

This is the first praise of the watch, is that is 42mm! I usually go to smaller pieces as I have a 6.25 inches wrist but this watch made fall again for big watches. It's imposing but not cumbersome (this is coming from a guy who wears a 36mm Oyster perpetual on daily basis) and I suspect that the responsible of this feeling is the great cushion case which hugs the wrist making the unusual but really cool crown guard blend perfectly with the case at 3:30.

All these details with a short lug to lug distance and a height under 12mm makes this diver a perfect daily wearer. The case is all brushed with very sharp angles and it hosts a blue ceramic bezel with a blue shade that feels just right, this blue theme is carried to the dial which is in my opinion the star of the show.

The dial is brushed with a petroleum blue which shines as much as possible when the sun hits, sometimes it looks like a light blue and some times dark but I believe the beauty of this dial is partially made by that beige lume, could you imagine an award winning actor in a movie with out an amazing co-star? Try to imagine Russel Crow with out Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator or Kevin Spacey without Mira Suvari in American Beauty, well it’s the same here (I 've digressed again), the vintage beige SuperLuminova through out the bezel, hands and dial makes this watch warm and rich which feels just right.

At the back we have an exhibition case back which allow us to see the highly decorated Sellita SW200-1, the movement has been finished with a great degree of attention adding 'Perlage', 'Côtes de Genève' and a skeletonized rotor showing the Anonimo logo.

On the wrist:

As mentioned above, the watch became my daily wearer and it's as comfortable as anything. I did wanted to try the metal bracelet but I believe that this watch (because of its style) goes well with the leather strap supplied by Anonimo , I think more metal will probably make the Nautilo loose a bit of that vintage charm. I was concerned about the brushed dial as it might have been to shinny but I can report that it looks fantastic and doesn’t intrude at all with the legibility, the watch has also the date window placed at 6 o'clock which for me makes it even aesthetically pleasing matching with that ''A'' logo at 12.

Conclusions:

Not everyone gets the vintage recreation right, some brands over do it and some other just nailed it, I think in the case of the Anonimo is the latter, there is so much to love about this piece that I will have the hardest of time to send it back.

The strength of the Nautilo it on its size and subtle touches of vintage cues, not to harsh and not to minimal. The quality and attention to detail is amazing, I did a macro video (shameless plug) and the watch looked as perfect zoomed in as it did zoomed out. I do not have anything like this watch in my current collection, it is refreshing to wear something on your wrist that no one mistakes for another thing, with the Nautilo you don't hear the usual: '' is that a…?''. I've also I learnt a lot about the brand, it's origins and what it represents but we can touch on that in another article, at the moment I am thinking how it will be to wake up with out this watch on my bedside table.

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More information:

www.anonimo.com

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