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In the 1960’s, scuba diving was becoming an ever popular sport. While a lot of it was taking place in the militaries across the globe, it was becoming a popular thing for people to do. One thing that was vital was a watch that could assist the divers to go to the depths safely. At the time, watches were able to go to 600 feet without any issue. Bulova decided to push the limits and design a watch capable of going to 666 feet.
Now, I am sure when you see ‘666 feet’ printed on the dial of this watch, your mind immediately starts thinking about how the number relates to the devil, the antichrist, or evil in general. While there may be some comparable instances where this number would be relevant for going down to incredible depths of the unknown, the brand seemed very focused on creating a work-horse watch capable of guiding divers throughout their dive.
The 1960’s was when Bulova began manufacturing their 666 feet dive watches. In order to do so, the company focused on producing a wearable and functional watch. Steel cases and easy to read dials were a large part of making their watches tick the boxes for divers. They also identified bezels that were useable, especially before dive computers had been invented. Further, identifying movements that would function at depths was super important too. Now, Bulova also produced Compressor cases which were equipped for diving and rated to 600 feet. The 666 feet rating really pushed the brand, hence why the brands watches began being called “Devil Divers”. There are many variations of the “Devil Divers” out there on the market which can make collecting these dive watches very interesting.
The watch you see today is a reference 386-1. They produced some variations on the reference 386, that used different dials, but all had the basic setup of a very good, waterproof watch. As mentioned before, the watch ticks all the boxes - stainless steel case and bezel, black dial with aged lume hour markers. The lume marker at 11 o’clock is falling off slightly, but does not detach from the overall look of the watch. There is date complication at 3 0’clock with a nice rectangular window. It has a large steel crown which makes it easy to change the time and set the date.
The watch is running on the Automatic caliber 11ALACD. The 11ALACD movement is a no-nonsense, very robust automatic movement made by Bulova. It was thought of so highly, that they actually used a sealed mainspring barrel. The purpose or thought behind this was that they thought the movement was considered so well design that it would not break. The barrel is sealed and if it was open it would essentially break the barrel drum or lid. Talk about confidence in the watches ability!
Even cooler is the large lollipop seconds that that sweeps across the dial. This may have been a replacement seconds hand. The 386’s were made with both tritium and or white paint, this version looks to be with tritium. Talk about legibility at 600+ feet. The watch is on an aftermarket beads-of-rice bracelet which looks great with dive watches of this era. One could easily swap it out for a leather strap or NATO to really get into the mood of diving in the 60’s.
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