Ah, that sweet and cozy moment when I first strap a good diver onto my wrist. A feeling akin to that of rediscovering a singular passion each time a fine sample of this type of horology lands at my doorstep. Because there is something really special about a thoughtfully designed and engineered time-only dive watch as it represents the quintessential 1950s adventurous timepieces designed by and for the pioneers of underwater exploration. Tool watches for professionals endowed with a singular function, entirely designed to fulfill their mission, and built as such. Perhaps the equivalent of a vintage Land Rover Defender for overlanding aficionados, a S.T. Dupont gold lighter with guilloché decoration for collectors of high-end smoking accessories, or a pair of Tod’s Boaters for the weekend wanderers. These types of horological devices have roots darting back many decades in the past and the best examples of these haven’t really changed since. But…but but but…there’s the question of attainability. 

Suspense won’t hold: today we’re evidently talking about a reasonably-priced time-only diver from a micro house of horology which is also gorgeously neo-vintage inspired, generously spec’ed out, and honestly put together to offer a solid option for this genre of timekeeping device at, I believe, a fair price: 840€/$1,002 USD roughly. For this amount of cash the Carlingue Diver 01 Bronze & Green—and any other variants in this collection for that matter—is a fully packaged tool watch thanks to which you won’t be left wanting more or looking elsewhere for better. Yes, that’s the power of fine time-only divers made in small batches by a small team and this one comes with a few tricks up its sleeves to make it so compelling: a balanced and timeless dial layout; a large but flat case; a fully graduated dive-time bezel; a good movement, and great lume. All of the aforementioned attributes are those the best dive watches are endowed with, from the past and the present, and which make this model standout. 

By the way, we’ve talked about Carlingue before here and here so you can learn about the brand’s story. 

Specifications 

We are back arguing what constitutes good value and how much specifications and of what type a good tool watch should have at this or that price point. What follows, and the amount of dough the brand is asking for it, seems good to me—is good—to which we need to factor in the impossibly difficult to factor in design intricacies of said timepiece and expertise of the designer. (Again, check out the two previous reviews on Carlingue to learn more about the brand’s founder background.) And we will also perhaps argue the idea of how much we should pay for a watch designed in the Western Hemisphere but manufactured in the Eastern Hemisphere*, how it compares with the ruthless competition of AliExpress specials, and how much more sensical the Carlingue is compared to the supposedly fully-Swiss Made equivalents. We will formulate opinions about all of this toward the end of this exposé on the Diver 01 Bronze & Green but before we get there, we ought to dissect the ins and outs of this diver to get a better sense of what it is. 

*I met the brand founder at a fair last year and heard him talk about this topic with anyone interested in hearing about it, with no shame and a distinct sense of pragmatism. 

The Carlingue Diver 01 does come in several versions with stainless steel cases and bronze ones, blue, black, and green dials, as well as many options for straps including singular ones made in collaboration with tattoo artists. The one we’re putting under the loupe today is a special edition and the least “Vincent” of them all: bronze case, green dial, brown strap—yeah not my usual cup of horology but I did ask to borrow this model because I wanted to challenge myself and because this is a color-combo which is surprisingly compelling. Compelling are also the specifications of the Diver 01 starting with its dimensions: 40mm in diameter (40.5mm at the bezel,) 51mm lug-to-lug (yikes but not yikes actually,) 11.85mm thick (phew), and coming with a 20mm lug width. So this means: 40mm in diameter is great but 51mm L2L is unusual but explicable here: the lugs shoot out far away from the case but curve down towards the wrist. More specifically: they curve down slightly past where they leave the case and then bottom out to perfectly cover the wristbone. 

The above explains why the Diver 01 has a large but flat profile on the wrist which makes it very comfortable to wear and which defies the commonly-agreed upon laws of watch dimensions. (i.e. a lug-to-lug of 48mm+ on a 6.5”/16.5cm wrist is a big no-no.) So this fabulous case is made of bronze which will patina like a SOB in a jiffy and develop character over time. (Sadly, I won’t be around it to see it morph.) As all bronze cases do this one is complemented by a stainless-steel case-back (to prevent your skin from turning green) which screws down and together with a grippy 5.7mm screw-down crown endow the Diver 01 with 200 meters of water resistance. Inside, the reliable workhorse of a movement, the Miyota 9039 (4Hz/42 hours of power reserve). Outside, a box-shaped sapphire crystal with inner anti-reflective coating. Then, the fully graduated bezel is made of black PVD-coated steel and rotates counter-clockwise with 120 precise clicks. The lume is green-glowing SuperLuminova applied on the bezel pip, hands, and applied hours markers. 

Design

I wanted to review the Carlingue Diver 01 because of its resemblence to the Longines Heritage Diver (again, read about Carlingue in the previous articles, this connection will make sense) and because it comes with an air of old-school-cool utilitarian timekeeping device I’m particularly found of. Even though Carlingue the brand has been around for barely two years, the Diver 01 has the looks of a diver which has been around for decades and that is something—an idea, an impression, a fact—that will secude many of you as much as it has seduced me. At the center of this model’s visual appeal is the perfectly balanced and superbly symmetrical dial where a plate-hugging arrow-style handset is paired with small, vintage-looking Arabic numerals at the cardinal points, and five vertical lines one horizontal one tapestring the dial with a subtle architectural sense.The hands are superb in their own right as they are sanblasted and rhodium-plated with a bronze PVD treatment to help them fight corrosion and tarnishing as well as make them superbly legible. 

Besides the lines, the dial is made of a green fumé treatment which further helps with legiblity as the edges of it turn black in addition to curving down towards a brushed bronze rehaut. This makes the minute hash-marks and larger rectangular hour markers pop, and the latter, as well as the numerals, are composed of mostly old-radium looking luminescent compound which are delienated and accentuated by thin copper lines. Carlingue excelled here with the color-combination and this contributed to making this model so compelling to review. Indeed, the design work the brand poured into the dial makes it fit symbiolitically with the bezel and case of which we’re about to discuss. But before we do, let’s linger and gloat over the crispiness of the dial and its superlative legibility, and in the bizarre way in which the vertical and horizonral lines seem to perfectly fit on the time-reading apparatus of an underwater exploration tool watch. I for one have never seen this and shit, that is fine design work. (Pardon my French which I do speak.) 

Earlier we touched upon the larger format of the bronze case which shouldn’t work for a wrist like mine even though it does. And it does work because the angular lugs do wrap around the wristbone just enough to make the Diver 01 look meaty and wear comfortably. And this confort also stems from the overall thinness of the watch (11.85mm) and the narrowness of the slab-sided mid-case and its delicatly brushed surfaces. The crown was designed and engineered a la 1970s skin diver without crown-guards, and it relatively average diameter of 5.7mm means it doesn’t dig into my wrist like a Humvee tires dive into a mud pool. (I felt particularly inspired with this analogy.) And lastly, the bezel: the gloriously fully graduated bezel which all respectable dive watches should have, made of a fine matte PVD-treatment, machined and paint-filled markings, and complemented by a grippy knurling work. I particularly appreciate the all-black and oneness appearance of the bezel assembly as it relates to the bronze case. 

The Heart of the Matter

Where does the Carlingue Diver 01 Bronze & Green fit on the market today? As you now know why, its design throws us back to legendary Swiss underwater tool watches which were  endowed with timeless aesthetics and robust characters, as professional dive watches used to have before that they became luxurious wristworn machines. The Carlingue also is endowed with a classic and old-house-of-watchmaking allure which AliExpress specials will never have even though Carlingue was created just two years ago. From a technical perspective the Diver 01 is a complete tool watch and will easily complete your dive equipment or fit within your daily land-born routine as seamessly and naturally as it feels to wear the one watch everyday. So in a sense, the Carlingue 01 Diver is dive watch which makes sense visually, technically, and financially, as it will fit most situations you could realistically find yourself in and that it can be anybody’s one-watch collection or sole diver. Rare are the watches which can take on this role, believe me. 

Conclusion

I will assume that you actually didn’t check the reviews of the Carlingue Military 01 and Aviation 01 I linked way above back when. If you did, then you would have learned that the brand’s founder is Alexandre Voirin and that this gentleman has worked in the Swiss watch industry for many years and as such, he has a unique design and professional background which explains why each and every collection he has created thus far feels like vintage collections which never went out of production. Mr. Voirin has a particular talent for designing classic and timeless tool watches and, with the review of the Diver 01 Bronze & Green, we know have three demonstrations to that effect. If you like what you saw today, then check out the Diver 01’s full catalog. I do believe that 840€/$1,002 USD is a reasonable amount of money to spend for such a compelling diver. 

Thanks for reading.