Neo-vintage dive watches are incredibly popular right now, both among major brands like Longines, Rolex, and Seiko, and among many smaller start-ups such as Evant, Baltic, and MAEN. One of the newest to the scene is Belgium-based Méraud with their 1960s-inspired Bonaire, a cool steel diver with an impressive value proposition. The watch originally came to the scene as a Kickstarter campaign in October 2018, and through this effort Méraud was able to fully fund the project with the first orders to reach collectors this month.

The new Bonaire uses a 39-mm brushed steel case with a 12.5-mm thickness, giving it a vintage impression on the wrist with an added feeling of sturdiness. The case also features impressively faceted lugs for a Kickstarter brand?s first model, and a slightly domed screw-down crown adding to its 200-m water resistance. Encircling the face is a unidirectional diving bezel with a curved and raised insert, made unique with its small triangle at its top and interesting font for its numerals at each of the quarter positions.
The dial matches the bezel in color and is available in either gloss black, sunburst blue, or sunburst gray, with the two sunburst models using white Super-LumiNova accents for its markers and the gloss black channeling a more vintage styling in using faux-patina coloration. On the dial?s outer edge is a simple minute ring, with applied triangular hour markers for each of the quarter hours besides midnight which uses Arabic numerals, ...