Until 1974 the Aquastar brand watches were looked at as stricktly professional instruments, and were only available through professional diving equipment outlets and were never offered on a large scale to retail distributors. But that year Frédéric Robert retired and in 1975 Aquastar was acquired by the Eren Group, also established in Geneva. They made the Aquastar watches available to the general public through retail outlets.
The in part one described first Aquastar Regate from the 1960’s with the Felsa 4000N movement was limited with a 5 minute regatta countdown. And as the regulations changed for regatta’s, a new movement was developed by Aquastar, now with a 10 minute countdown. This time with the help of Lemania’s star designer Albert Piquet (his name is mentioned as inventor on the patent), and soon the new Lemania caliber 1345 was born!
With this new patent (CH563037, US3910362) Aquastar is at the origin of all regatta watch developments which have been made subsequently on this coloured disc model used as regatta countdown with minute indicator. The new Lemania regatta caliber 1345 is derived from the 1341 movement. After the introduction of the new Aquastar Regate the Lemania 1345 movement comes available for other brands as well.
New patent filed by Aquastar, but ascribed to Albert Piquet as inventor. Here the USA version 3.910.362.
“The presented timer count-down includes an ordinary hour and minutes hands, respectively designated 1 and 2, a hand for the seconds 3, susceptible to be brought to zero with the help of a mechanism described hereafter, and a disc indicator of minutes 4, able to count the limited numbers of minutes, presenting for this purpose, two differently coloured hemispherical zone 4a and 4b, appearing successively in five cut windows on the dial, designated 6 of the count-down. The disc 4, showing the minutes, is automatically immovable at the end of its run and can be brought back in its initial departure position, with the help of it’s above mentioned command mechanism.”
You can download the Swiss version of the patent as PDF here.
New 1970’s model Aquastar Regate with the Lemania 1345 movement.
Model: Aquastar Regate.
- Reference: ?
- Caliber: automatic Lemania 1345 fly-back movement with regatta module.
- Case size: Ø 38,7 mm / H 15,6 mm.
- Year: mid 1970’s.
The new version of the Aquastar Regate with the Lemania 1345 movement came in a 2-piece-case. Or even 3-piece if you like, as the caseback can be unscrewed from the inner section too:
As the rubber gasket between the two case parts looses its flexibility over the years, it can be very difficult to separate them. When using to much force, there’s a chance that the crystal will break and damage the dial and hands, so be careful if you are going to do this!
Other brands like Roamer, Seiko, Favre-Leuba and Heuer have used the same case design, but they all have a caseback that cannot be removed. The crystal has to be removed first, to be able to take out the movement. As Aquastar uses a normal screwed caseback, the movement can be removed from the back as usual, and there is no need to remove the crystal first.
The caseback has an engraved circular section in the middle with the Aquastar star-logo and the text ‘AQUASTAR – GENEVE’, and a serial number engraved. Click on the picture to have a better look.
The silver coloured dial has a small red circle painted onto the dial above ‘REGATE’, an applied silver Aquastar star logo and only three applied hour markers (at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock):
Where the crown of the first 1960’s Regate was signed ‘Aquastar’, the crown of the new 1970’s Regate has the Aquastar star-logo on it:
As many of these Aquastar Regate watches have been sold, they appear today with a variety of different straps. A 19 mm Isofrane rubber strap marked 52007 seems to be the original, but I think they came with a rubber Tropic Sport strap as wel. The straps had a buckle with the Aquastar star-logo on it.
How the countdown function works:
The Lemania regatta caliber 1345 is like the Felsa caliber 4000N in the first Aquastar Regate a modified chronograph with fly-back function. It has the crown to set the time at 3 o’clock, and one pusher at 2 o’clock for start/reset of the countdown. Under the dial lays the indicator disk coloured silver, red and blue (or black, red and blue in case of a black dial). There are five round holes cut out of the dial, between 10 and 2 o’clock.
With the chrono activated the five dots colour blue and the sweep second hand returns to 60. By releasing the pusher the countdown starts and the sweep hand is set in motion counting backwards from 60 to zero. The indicator disk runs continuously clockwise. After one minute the first dot colours red, and after five minutes all 5 dots colour red. Again one minute later, so after 6 minutes, the first dot colours silver. And after 10 minutes all dots colour silver. The indicator disk stops revolving, but the second hand moves on.
Movement:
- Make: Lemania.
- Caliber: 1345.
- Type: automatic flyback chronograph with yachttimer
function. - Size: 13,75″ Ø 31 mm.
- Frequency: 28.800 A/h.
- Power reserve: 44 hours.
- Jewels: 17.
- Shock protection system: incabloc.
The caliber 1345 is a modified Lemania 1341 movement, with the regatta parts integrated into the caliber. The caliber 1341 was used in some of the Omega and Tissot chronographs from the same period.
A comprehensive description of how the Lemania regatta caliber 1345 works, is written by Richard Askham on his website Thewatchspotblog.com, see here.
You can download two pages of the technical documentation of the Lemania regatta caliber 1345 here and here.
Aquastar Regate with Lobster Tail bracelet:
A rather unusual version of the Aquastar Regate is housed in a more square case in combination with a steel Lobster Tail (or Armadillo) bracelet:
On the caseback of this lobster-type-case, there’s a text being painted. Unfortunately this would have quickly worn off, so it is hard to find one with the original text still intact these days. There’s also a serial number engraved.
Most likely both cases were made by or for Lemania, as all watches that used it have a Lemania caliber 134x movement. And as Omega, Tissot and Lemania were part of the SSIH group (see the Tissot section here), very similar cases were also used by these brands.
The Lobster Tail Aquastar Regate was available with a silver, with a black or with a blue dial:
The silver-dialed version has black hour- and minute-hands; the black- and blue-dialed versions have white hands. These dials no longer have an aplied Aquastar star logo, but a painted one. The number of aplied hour markers has increased from 3 to 9 (from 2 upto 10 o’clock). In all versions the big sweep-second hand is again orange, but changes from either with a straight (middle picture) to a pointed (left and right picture) tip. The indicator disk changed from blue-red to blue-orange.
Variations:
More than once I came across the combination of an Aquastar-lobster dial (with 9 aplied markers), housed in a Tissot case (see the Tissot section here) with the Spanish Galleon glued upon the case-back. Both with silver or black dial:
Or the other way around, an Aquastar-lobster case and an older type dial with an applied Aquastar-star and just REGATE – no automatic – on the dial. Note that this variation has the ‘right’ indicator disk, coloured orange/blue, and do not have the smal red circle just above REGATE:
Special editions:
Over the years various special editions have been made, some examples I picked up from the internet:
Benytone Regatta, Rodania Regatta, Delma Regatta and elRecio(?) Regatta, all four housed in a Tissot-case with silver dial; Bucherer Regatta housed in an Aquastar case and the rotor also signed ‘Bucherer’. The family company Bucherer was founded in 1888 in Geneva – Switserland as a watch and jewellery shop were you will find only the more prestigious brands. I guess Aquastar was once one of them!
Valgine Regatta, Rotary Regatta and Pierce Regatta with black dial, all three housed in a Lobster case. Note that all these variations have 9 marker dials and are called ‘Regatta’ in stead of ‘Regate’.
Aquastar lobster Regatta, signed VAN HATTUM. Van Hattum was a Dutch jewelry shop, located from 1909 upto 1990 at the Noordeinde in The Hague.
x – x – x – x – x – x – x – x – x – x
Aquastar Regate Olympic Start:
In the late 1970’s Aquastar then introduces the model Regate Olympic Start with the same Lemania 1345 movement, but in a different 1-piece case. This case is probably also made by or for Lemania, and must have been cheaper to produce, but I don’t know whether this was the reason. And again a similar case was used at least by Tissot for a Navigator.
The number of aplied hour markers on the Regate Olympic Start dial is back to three, and the aplied Aquastar star logo is also back. Is was available with either a silver (with black hands) or a black (with white hands) dial.
Late 1970’s model Aquastar Regate Olympic Start.
Model: Aquastar Regate Olympic Start.
- Reference: ?
- Caliber: automatic Lemania 1345 fly-back movement with regatta module.
- Case size: Ø 39,0 mm / H 15,8 mm.
- Year: late 1970’s.
The Aquastar Olympic Start case has the same caseback with the circular section in the middle, but now with an extra text etched around it:
It was available with either a steel bracelet (black dial), or with a black Tropic style rubber strap (silver dial). At least these two options are shown in the brochure below. The steel bracelet has a tri-fold safety clasp, with the Aquastar star logo and name engraved in the clasp:
x – x – x – x – x – x – x – x – x – x
Aquastar Regate Newport:
The last regatta watch that Aquastar released with an automatic movement, was the model Regate Newport in the mid 1980’s. It houses the same Lemania 1345 movement as before, and uses the case from the Heuer 134.50X series in which Heuer had launched their Regatta models in 1983. Obvious the collaboration with Heuer still existed. The silver and black dials are equal as in the Olympic Start models, except for the name Olympic Start which has been replaced by Newport.
Although Heuer launched only two versions (134.500 and 134.505, see the Heuer section here), Aquastar had at least three different ones as shown in the brochure below. Pictured are a stainless steel case and bracelet with gold screws and black dial, a stainless steel case and bracelet with steel screws and silver dial, and a stainless steel case with golden bezel and steel screws, with an Isofrane rubber strap. Most likely other configurations where sold as well.
1980’s model Aquastar Regate Newport.
Model: Aquastar Regate Newport.
- Reference: ?
- Caliber: automatic Lemania 1345 fly-back movement with regatta module.
- Case size: Ø 40 mm / H 15,8 mm.
- Year: beginning 1980’s.
The Aquastar Regate Newport was available either with a steel bracelet (with golden or steel screws to match the bezel), or with a black Isofrane rubber strap. The Aquastar signed steel bracelet is similar to, but different from the Heuer variant, and has a folding clasp:
It has an equal engraved caseback as the Olympic Start models:
After the introduction of the Aquastar Regate Newport, it seems both the Olympic Start and Newport models were sold in the same time, as this brochure suggests:
Aquastar brochure with both the Olympic Start and Newport models.
This is the end of part 2. To be continued in the Aquastar 1983 – 2019 section.
Source:
- http://www.aquastar.ch/
- Many thanks to Battista Daniele La Mantia for sending me your pictures.
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Many thanks to Richard Askham for your patience and helping me so much with this section.
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Many thanks to Roland for scanning your brochure for me.
- Many thanks to Manish Jain for sending me the picture of your Aquastar-Rodania-Regatta.