I’ve written previously about the enigmatic JeanRichard Aquastart on the blog. This time it’s the more common JeanRichard Aquastar 60 diver, this one arriving in pretty poor shape.
(Click pictures to enlarge)
Anyone with more than a passing interest in Aquastar watches will undoubtedly recognise this model, as it’s nearly identical to the Aquastar 60 that I’ve written about previously on the blog. It’s actually the predecessor to the Aquastar model, as the 60 was first produced with both JeanRichard and Aquastar branding.
The JeanRichard 60 is thought to have been produced between 1958 and 1962, the one in this post being one of the later models. The earliest model had a different movement, the A. Schild cal. 1581 and a different case construction.
The early case has fewer bezel markings and a different caseback. Rather than the regular Aquastar ‘star’ caseback, the earliest model has a two piece ‘compression’ caseback with a solid back and a separate threaded ring. In the picture below, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the gasket is missing, but in some early watches, the gasket is a thin layer of grey acrylic rather than rubber, and that’s what you can see here if you look closely.
Later in production, as the company was transitioning to Aquastar only branding, the case changed, resulting in a bezel with more markings and the familiar one-piece caseback with the ‘star’ that you see on many of Aquastar’s vintage models.
With the caseback change, the water resistance rating also increased from 10 to 20 ATM (200m), though the watch in this post still has a 10 ATM rating on the dial, suggesting it was made during the transitional period. The movement was also changed to the A. Schild cal. 1701 seen here and in the majority of the Aquastar only models.
Whilst on the subject of the early model, it’s perhaps pertinent to veer off on a brief tangent to mention the watch worn by Captain Don Walsh, arguably one of the most significant dive watches in history.
Bought at a local dive shop, Don Walsh wore an early JeanRichard 60 aboard the bathyscaphe ‘Trieste’, during the Challenger Deep mission in 1960. Part of the first crewed mission to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the Earth’s seabed), Don successfully piloted the Trieste to a depth of around 10,916m (35,814 ft). More details are available here.
Decades later, in 2023, Don Walsh decided to put his trusty JeanRichard 60 up for auction and here is a short video of Don himself talking about the watch.
With bids starting at $50,000, the hammer came down at $62,500, the watch being bought by Victor Vescovo, a renowned deep-sea explorer and retired naval officer. Vescovo discussed the sale afterwards on social media, stating that he bought the watch to “keep the timepiece in the Deep Ocean Community”.
Sadly, Don didn’t get the see the sale of his watch or congratulate Victor on his win, as he passed away on the 12th November 2023, just three days before the auction, at the age of 92.
Ok, let’s get back to the matter in hand. As you can see in the first picture, the watch arrived in a pretty poor state. Originally owned by an ex-submariner who put the watch in his sea-chest on retirement, the watch eventually passed to his grandson, who contacted me to ask if I could restore it for him.
I agreed, but on arrival, it was in worse condition than I’d anticipated. The bezel was stuck solid, there was no sign of life from the movement, the hands had rusted and inside, the rotor was broken.
Out of the case, the dial was still in good condition, but the hands had suffered from moisture ingress, rust had formed on their surfaces and deteriorated the lume. All this would need to be carefully scraped away and the lume replaced to put things right.
The stuck bezel was also a concern. Being a friction fit, it has a retaining spring underneath which sits in a lip on the top of the main case. When dirt builds up underneath the bezel, getting repeatedly moistened over a long period, the retaining spring rusts, causing the lip to rust along with it. In the worst cases, rust is the only thing holding the bezel on and when broken away, the lip on the case can be so corroded that the bezel can’t be refitted.
After discussing this with the owner, we decided it was worth the risk and I levered off the bezel to find that the retaining spring had completely rusted away, but thankfully, the lip was fine.
With that headache avoided, it was on to the movement servicing. Judging by the wear on the separated winding rotor and plate edges, it looks like it spent years rattling around inside the case – the watch must have been wound manually every day, just to keep it going. Thankfully, rather than replace it, I was able to press the two parts of the winding rotor back together to keep things all original.
So, with all the cosmetic and mechanical problems out of the way, the case was cleaned, the bezel markings re-enamelled, the original crystal (with date magnifier) polished and a new caseback gasket fitted.
Quite a bit of work this time, but well worth the effort I think – it may not have the provenance of Don Walsh’s JeanRichard 60, but it’s a tribute an ex-submariner just the same.
Rich.
** Many thanks to David Mitchell for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **
