Shinola’s $550 Dive Watch Breathes New Life Into a Scuba Classic

Dive watches, much like crustaceans, cephalopods, and other creatures of the deep, come in a myriad of different species and subspecies. These include sleek desk divers (pro-spec underwater watches that are refined enough to wear with a suit); beefy ultra-deep divers (ones whose XXL cases are water-resistant to 500m or more); GMT divers (ones with dual-time-zone functions); and vintage-style Super Compressor divers (identifiable by their dual-crown cases and internal rotating bezels.)

Then there’s the skin diver, a genus of tough-yet-affordable sports watches popular in the 1960s and 1970s among scuba hobbyists, weekend spear fishermen, and anyone else who wanted to add a dash of nautical swagger to their wardrobe. While not as prestigious as the dive watches made by stalwarts like Rolex and Blancpain, skin divers’ distinctive looks—which included some very funky Mad Men-era dial designs—made them incredibly popular in their day, and their appeal among vintage watch collectors remains strong 60 years later.

This month, however, there’s a new addition to the skin diver club that can be yours for the (relatively) reasonable sum of $550: the Shinola Duck 1040.

Like the best vintage-modern divers (another important species to spot in the wild), the Duck 1040 combines a heavy dollop of midcentury design cues with a raft of modern upgrades including a 40mm stainless steel case, a sapphire crystal, and a Swiss quartz movement.

With an engraving of its namesake bird on the caseback, a period-correct basketweave textured rubber strap, and a selection of dial and accent colors including canary yellow, pastel blue, and bubblegum pink, the Duck has all the hallmarks of a go-to summer ticker. As you’d expect from a brand that’s synonymous with the Motor City renaissance, every Duck is assembled “from gears to gaskets”, and tested at Shinola’s Detroit HQ.

“For a watch named Duck, the playful visuals of the golden years of the skin diving era felt like a perfect fit,” says Greg Verras, Design Director at Shinola, who pored over old issues of Skin Diver magazine for inspiration. With 100m of water resistance, the Duck 1040 is water-resistant enough for a day at the lake or the beach, but like its 1960s predecessors, it’s a more casual proposition than other members of the dive watch family, including Shinola’s 300-metre-rated Monster collection.

“Skin diving can be a leisure activity, not a technical, highly controlled endeavor—it’s more about having fun, exploring, and getting sunburned,” Verras says. “In the end, a Duck is essentially the skin diver of the bird community.”