A few months back, I wrote an article about a great dive watch with a storied history: the Alsta Nautoscaph. In that piece, I focused on the original release from the ’70s, and rightfully so since we were looking at things from an ?Affordable Vintage? perspective. But in that article I also touched on a couple of homage pieces, one of those being the Nautoscaph II from the newly revived Alsta brand.
Alsta was brought back from the dead in 2014 by Scottish actor Angus MacFadyden after an almost 40-year hiatus. From there, it took three years for the company to develop the Nautoscaph II, and it isn?t surprising that it took this long to bring the model back to life. The Nautoscaph came in a variety of configurations?there were round and cushion-shaped cases, different styles of indices, date and no date, multiple bezels, etc.?so I?m sure that trying to arrive at a singular design here was a challenge. Introducing the Nautoscaph II from Alsta. It’s not the exact “Jaws” watch, but it does have bite.
Ultimately, Alsta went with a 40mm stainless steel case and bezel rather than opting for a contrasting black insert. At 40 mm, the piece is noticeably larger than the original, but from a marketing perspective I understand the decision and really appreciate that Alsta showed some restraint here and didn?t go even larger. The case borrows from some of the more slabby, geometric variants like this one here. It’s not the exact Jaws watch, but it’s...