In 1971, banker-turned-explorer Peter Gimbel set out on a 5-month voyage aboard the Terrier VIII to be the first person in the world to capture a Great White shark on film. He cobbled together an eclectic team for this adventure, including everyone from conservationists and shark experts to filmmakers and writers. This expedition resulted in the documentary film Blue Water, White Death, which has since become a cult classic within the diving community, and features a slew of very unique, very 70s dive watches to boot.
Among the crew of early underwater luminaries (Stan Waterman, Ron and Valerie Taylor, anyone"), Gimbel also saw fit to hire budding singer/songwriter Tom Chapin along as a guitar-slinging jack of all trades, whereupon he became the natural soundtrack for the film. Tom?s role in this expedition is considered to be the inspiration for filmmaker Wes Anderson?s inclusion of Brazilian folk singer Seu Jorge in his sea-set feature The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Both films result in support of an eternal truth, that the best boat rides are the ones with folk singers aboard. For the last three years, the Windup Watch Fair in Chicago has brought enthusiasts from as far south as Texas and from as far north as Canada to gather and geek out on watches from around the world. Beginning with the first year of Windup Chicago, a dedicated team of watch enthusiast divers started an adjacent activity, affectionately dubbed ?Windup in a Lake.? Each year, this intrepid gr...