Eska Amphibian 250: A Rare Diver Reborn with Modern Purpose

by Vincent Deschamps

Reviving watch brands has become as popular as it is common to find bubble tea shops in Paris. Soon all brands which vanished during or after the Quartz Crisis will have been brought back to life, and they will perhaps dominate the market just like it is easier to find a taro milk tea bobba rather than a café crème in France’s capital. (I’m slightly exaggerating.) And some folks prefer to restore something that existed and disappeared rather than creating something new because they are passionate about a certain era of watch design or what a specific brand excelled at. It is more ethical to officially recreate the brand and relaunch its best collections instead of imitating its designs, because we know for sure what the brand owners intended on doing. What also generally happens is that the new versions of old watches change in size and specs, which is normal and fine, as we’re about to see.

Eska Amphibian 250 Black Shark @calibre321

Today we’re going to take a look at another brand revival but with a twist. The brand is Eska, originally founded in 1918 in Grenchen, Switzerland, which followed a pretty common path also taken by a plethora of Swiss brands. Dressy watches, utilitarian ones, with a variety of complications such as calendars and chronographs, Eska did a lot and also went through a rectangular phase as an attempt to survive through the 1980s. To no avail. But in 1959 it created a unique watch, the Amphibian 600, very much anchored into its time period from a design perspective. Little is known of the Amphibian 600 except that only four samples of it exist in the world today, which didn’t preclude those who revived Eska to do so by re-releasing one of the most obscure and rare divers of the 50s. The modern Amphibian 250 is something quite unique, aesthetically from the 1950s and mechanically from the 21st century.

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Key Features of the Eska Amphibian 250-BS Black Shark

Dimensions

So modern recreations of old watches do come with improved specifications and a larger figure. Brands do so to please and accommodate contemporary watch enthusiasts and perhaps also because they don’t have a choice—a perceived choice of being able to make a solid diver smaller. But I digress. The Eska Amphibian 250 has typical dimensions for a modern underwater exploration watch, with a case measuring 40mm in diameter, 46mm lug-to-lug, and 13.5mm thick, and coming with a 20mm lug width. It’s only 2mm larger than the original from the 1950s which had a diameter of 38mm, so that’s pretty good. The water resistance is 250 meters hence the name, and the OG had a depth rating of 600 feet hence the name. That’s a lot of water resistance for any dive watch and most humans and you can certainly sport an Amphibian this summer for whatever it is that you are into.

250m of water resistance @calibre321

Dial, crystal, and movement

As modern divers should, the Amphibian 250 comes with plenty of lume here of the Old Radium variety, applied on the bezel, hands, as well as the painted and sandwiched hour markers. Nighttime legibility therefore is great. The hyper-lumed dial is visible through a piece of double-domed sapphire crystal with some inner anti-reflective coating, which sits proud of the bezel as vintage hesalite crystals did. Sapphire is also what we find on the bezel insert which looks very 1950s and very Blancpain-esque, though with a count-down scale instead of a count-up one. Why that is remains a mystery. The bezel has 120 firm clicks and is unidirectional, actuated thanks to a fine coin-edged pattern. Inside we find a Sellita SW200-1 caliber (4Hz/38 hours of power reserve) but it should be noted that the first batch of the modern Amphibian was powered by a Seiko NH38A caliber.

Bold legibility @calibre321

Of Interest

Looking beyond its specs, the Amphibian 250 is interesting for two reasons: (1) it’s a recreation of an ultra rare watch which probably never went into production; (2) modern Eska made a few tweaks to the design to improve it. Indeed, little is known of the OG except that it came out in 1959 and that only four examples of it exist in the world today. The team that recreated Eska borrowed one of the four samples from a French collector to study it in order to recreate it, which was lucky of them to be able to do so. Visually the Amphibian 600 inscribed itself perfectly within the design zeitgeist of the 1950s—and of the first Blancpain Fifty Fathoms from 1953 to be exact—something that the Amphibian 250 is fully charged with. So it was a bold move to revive a brand by first recreating an ultra rare diver, a gamble which seems to be slowly paying off.

Old Radium lume @calibre321

Now powered by the Sellita SW200-1 @calibre321

The 250 heavily borrows from the 600 from a design standpoint, but the former was tweaked to be a bit more modern. And a bit more legible as well as reliable. For example, part of the hour markers are sandwiched to create depth and guarantee greater nighttime legibility, whilst the markers at the cardinal points look exactly like on the original one: wide, textured, and delineated by thin lines. At the outer edges of the sandwiched markers we find red painted lines to make the markers pop, and red can also be found on the tip of the seconds hand for extra effect. The minute track is simple and punctuated by numerals and triangles, and a thin metal ring was added between the bezel and crystal to better frame the dial. The case for its part has been beefed up a bit, the lugs made wider, and preserved its 1950s bulbous case-back which is glorious.

SPECS

Case	316L Stainless Steel Gold PVD 40mm Diameter 46mm Lug to Lug 13.5mm Thick 20mm Lug Width 120-click Unidirectional Bezel Screw Down Case Back & Crown 250m Water Resistance
Dial & Crystal	Domed Sapphire Crystal Matte “Sandwich” Dial Printed Indexes Sword and Arrow Handset Old Radium Super-LumiNova
Movement	Sellita SW200-1 26 Jewels 28 800bph 38-Hour Power Reserve
Strap	Fabric Strap

^{Eska Amphibian 250}

Balanced wrist presence @calibre321

Final Thoughts & Pricing

The Eska Amphibian 250-BS is quite something. It represents a slice of horological history that saw the creation of some of the most iconic tool watches ever made, with daring and bold designs and unparalleled technology for the time. Visually, the 250 is unique. Mechanically, the 250 is sound. It has all you need to make for the perfect all-rounder tool watch and proper diver. And for $1,125 USD/990€ I would be hard-pressed to find a more singular-looking, vintage-inspired dive watch. But if you don’t like black dials but fancy white ones, then you’d be happy to learn that the Amphibian comes in White Shark variant. It ships in a color-matched carrying case and comes with nylon and rubber straps, and you can buy an additional ladder bracelet for an extra $110 USD/95€.

Eska Amphibian 250-BS Black Shark @calibre321

About the author

Vincent Deschamps is a museum professional, originally from France, with more than 10 years experience as a researcher, producing visitor experiences for national and international organizations. He is also the founder of mainspring.watch. You can follow Vincent on Instagram.

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