The 1970's Caravelle Diver Ref. 745
When it comes to divers, there is an incredible amount of variety out there from past decades. The 1970’s was certainly a time of great imagination for many watch brands as they created watches to try and capture the imagination of those who were moving away from mechanical watches towards quartz. The watch we have today is a great example of this, and it comes from a brand that has a pretty successful history.
Caravelle was a line of watches that was launch by Bulova in 1962. It was created for jeweled watches and was aimed to retail at a fairly affordable price during this time period. It was completing mainly for those who were looking for a classical looking watch at a good price. The line of watches was very successful and was the largest selling jeweled watch in the USA in 1968. But they did more than just jeweled watches, they also created divers.
The diver we are looking at is the reference 745, a 41.5mm stainless steel watch from the 70’s. The case has an ovular shape to it with very short lugs. The watch has a black dial, which has some really cool spots on it, giving it the look of the night sky. It has a black, bi-directional bezel with a red arrow at 12. It features a day and date complication at 3 o’clock. The complications are non-quick-set, which is frustrating for some, but fun for others who like to work with the mechanical movement.
The applied hour markers and hours/minutes hands have luminescent material on them that has patinaed to a soft brown colour. A big eye catcher is the seconds hand, which has a white jet plane at the end of it - not something you see very often and such a cool thing to watch on the dial. The watch is running on the no-frills 11 OKACB automatic movement which is geared to being a work-horse movement as opposed to something of high finishing. The watch fits really nicely, and with its jet plane and unique 70’s shape is a joy to have on the wrist.
The watch is available on our store here.
