Aquastar Benthos H2: The Best Value in Swiss Dive Watches?

Aquastar may be the most important watch brand you’ve never heard of. Frédéric Robert, who founded the brand in Geneva in 1962, was somewhat of a multi-hyphenate: apart from being a pilot, mathematician and sailor, he was also an avid diver. In transforming his father’s watch brand Jean Richard into Aquastar, Robert aimed to focus on manufacturing serious tools for avid scuba practitioners such as himself. To that end, his watches were largely sold through dive shops instead of traditional retail channels.

If you’re not familiar with the Aquastar Benthos 500 — the first non-monobloc dive watch with a 500-meter depth rating, released in 1970 — this may be why. But the Benthos 500 was notable for more than just its water resistance. Housed in a chunky 42mm stainless steel tonneau case, it featured a central 60-minute flyback totalizer hand for calculating bottom or decompression times. This innovative feature, when combined with a tall 60-click bezel and an amply lumed dial, made it an ideal piece of kit for the pre-dive-computer days of the 1970s.

Following his acquisition of the Aquastar brand in 2019, dive watch specialist Rick Marei has since relaunched several of the brand’s classics, including the Benthos 500 (as the Benthos 500 II) and the Deepstar chronograph, to much acclaim, delighting dive watch aficionados the world over with thoughtful (yet subtle) updates and excellent build quality. Aquastar’s newest release, the Benthos Heritage II, is a modern, streamlined take on the classic Benthos — and at under $1,500, it’s also one of the best values in Swiss-made dive watches on the market today.

Aquastar Benthos H2 watch — The crown at 4 o’clock is actually a helium escape valve.

Aquastar

Measuring 40mm by 12mm tall, the famously chunky Benthos case has been slimmed down to better align with modern tastes and offer a more comfortable wearing experience. The brushed stainless steel tonneau housing of the original model has been retained, as has the dual-crown/pusher design, but in the case of the H2, the functionality is different: At 2 o’clock, a conventional winding crown is used for setting the time and hand-winding the movement (if desired); the 4 o’clock crown, meanwhile, is actually a manually released HEV (helium escape valve), a feature that allows divers living in a saturation environment to off-gas helium from the watch. Both ridged crowns are easy to manipulate with gloved hands, and 300m of water resistance is plenty for all but the most demanding professional applications.

Based on a conceptual drawing from 1968, the H2 doesn’t feature the central-minutes flyback totalizer of the Benthos 500. Rather, it’s a more typical three-hand design with lumed baton hands and a bright orange central seconds hand. Its unidirectional, 120-click rotating bezel is fitted with a luminescent, aluminum elapsed-time insert, making it a cinch to calculate bottom or decompression times. (Or an egg boiling on the stove top, if that’s more your speed!) The black dial itself, with its applied indices, vintage-colored lume and chunky, white minute track is highly visible in low light. Inside the H2 is an Elaboré-grade Sellita SW200-1 Swiss-made automatic movement with 26 jewels, bi-directional winding and three adjustments for improved accuracy.

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While various microbrands certainly offer dive watches that fit the “ISO” definition for less money, few match the Benthos H2 considering not only its feature set but Marei’s vast knowledge and attention to detail. (Indeed, it was Marei who revived not only Aquastar, but also Doxa, Tropic and ISOfrane.)

To get a handsome, well-made, highly legible tool with 300 meters of water resistance, an easily usable bezel and crowns, an HEV, an Elaboré-grade movement, and excellent dive strap or bracelet for under $1,500 is still a steal — even in 2025, with its profusion of dive watch options. And speaking of pricing, a preorder special, available until February 28, gets you a Benthos H2 on either a Tropic or ISOfrane 20mm rubber dive strap for $1,190, while a stainless steel beads-of-rice bracelet version will set you back just $1,290. Final MSRP after the preorder will be $1,390 and $1,490, respectively, with the first batch of 150 pieces shipping in May and a second batch shipping in June.

Whether you’re a recreational diver looking to add a classically-inspired piece of mechanical kit to his rig, a seasoned collector who can’t turn away a handsome dive watch, or an Aquastar fanboy who buys each and every watch release, the Benthos H2 will be a tough watch to turn down.