Caravelle isn’t exactly a household name in the watch world. As Bulova‘s lesser-known sister brand, Caravelle mostly plies its trade by selling bargain-bin fashion watches that can be found at your local mall or department store.
But that wasn’t always the case. Bulova launched the Caravelle brand in the early 1960s as a more affordable alternative to its own watches, and within a few years, it became one of the bestselling watch brands in the U.S.
Among vintage collectors today, Caravelle is best remembered for its Sea Hunter, a dive watch that debuted in the late 1960s and was produced throughout the ’70s. One vintage Sea Hunter reference that has gained particular acclaim is a “Devil Diver” reference from 1969 — so called because of its 666-foot depth rating on the dial — which featured an aesthetically pleasing design akin to Longines’ skin divers and was powered by a Swiss-made automatic movement.
Now, shockingly, Bulova has dusted off the Caravelle nameplate for a watch that enthusiasts actually want: a reborn Sea Hunter Devil Diver. And with an automatic movement and a price below $400, it just might be the affordable dive watch we’ve all been waiting for.
The Devil is in the details
The reborn Caravelle Sea Hunter is quite faithful to the original from 1969. It features the same general design, with a matte-black dial, printed lumed indices with Arabic numerals at 12, 6 and 9, and a date window at 3:00. Golden fauxtina is used for the lume, while the dial text and oversized minute track are printed in white.
The handset, with its spade-tipped hour hand and sword minute hand, is the same as before, and like the dial layout, it appears almost indistinguishable from the Longines Heritage Skin Diver. The bezel retains is fully marked black aluminum insert and its luminescent pearl at 12:00 and is unidirectional, of course.