Great Britain’s Christopher Ward was the first modern-day U.K. watch brand to develop an in-house caliber in the 21st century, and now it becomes the first watchmaker ? British, Swiss, or otherwise ? to revive a style of divers’ watch that was once immensely popular but has languished as a relic of the past for almost 50 years ? the so-called Super Compressor case. Here is what you need to know about the all-new C65 Super Compressor and why it’s such a major deal.

Christopher Ward C65 Super Compressor (above and below)

“Super Compressor” was the name given to a type of complex-structured dive-watch case, developed and manufactured by the Swiss firm Ervin Piquerez and used by watch brands from IWC to Tissot to Jaeger-LeCoultre to Girard-Perregaux, among many others, from the late 1950s through the 1970s. It was designed to increase its strength and integrity as it descended deeper underwater, with external pressure on the caseback compressing the O-ring gasket, and included a rotating bezel, operated by a second crown, under the crystal rather than outside the case. While several watch brands in the modern era have used the Super Compressor as a design inspiration for their dive-watch cases, a “true” Super Compressor has not been on the market since E. Piquerez discontinued production of the style in the 1970s (and eventually went out of business in the 1990s).
A cross-hatch pattern adorns one of the two crowns.

The c...