Each year, IWC revamps a different family of watches. This year we get a whole stable of new Aquatimers and today we've got a first look at one of the special editions, the Aquatimer Automatic 2000.
The second most practically-minded Aquatimer, the Automatic 2000, is water resistant to 200 bars, which is approximately 2.000 meters deep depending on the salinity of the water. The watch has an uncluttered dial that tells the time with a central seconds hand and a small date window at 3 o'clock.
The big new innovation with the 2014 Aquatimer collection is the IWC SafeDive system, which uses an external bezel to move an internal timing ring. Of course the internal ring only moves unidirectionally, so you never have to worry about bumping it in the wrong direction. The external bezel has no markings but advances the internal ring in one-minute increments.
The 45mm titanium case is lightweight and designed to be a real tool on the hefty rubber strap. The bright green luminous hands and markers stand out nicely against the textured black dial. The design is inspired by the 1982 IWC Ocean 2000 dive watch, designed by none other than FA Porsche himself. The similarities are most noticeable in the shapes of the bezel and the hour markers.
Finally, the new Aquatimer collection adds in-house movements to many models that previously did not have them. The Automatic 2000 for example houses the caliber 80110 – though this movement is still hidden under the solid caseback, which is used here for utilitarian purposes.
We'll be showing you all the new Aquatimers over the coming weeks and while they all share certain key features, there are a lot of interesting variations to come.
