The Aquastar Benthos Heritage II, a Smaller Take on the Classic Diver

Iterations are the name of the game. When a watch brand stumbles upon a successful design for a timepiece, it would be fiscally foolish not to try and build upon it. What that means in the tiny world of watches is usually tiny little upgrades, or more often than not, not even upgrades but more lateral moves. One millimetre thicker or thinner, slightly different handset, different coloured date wheel, any little thing to make what’s old new again and to please (or usually enrage) the masses. And when said successful design is an older, historically important watch, they have a much harder time iterating upon it. Change it too little, and you are just releasing the same thing over and over; change it too much, and you have committed artistic blasphemy and should be sent to the guillotine. 

This is the predicament Aquastar found itself in when approaching a re-release of its vaunted Benthos line. The brand decided to take a sort of “spirit of Benthos” approach to the first modern iteration, the Benthos H1, back in December of 2023. This hotly anticipated watch had the essence of the Benthos without having the full heart, which is the original and unique central 60-minute chronograph function. The result was an excellent and fully specced modern dive watch that looked the part without all the features, a downside that was heavily made up for by its value-heavy price of entry. Next up was the Benthos 500 Founder’s Edition, a much more faithful reissue of the original Benthos 500 from the 1970s, right down to the beloved central chronograph hand. That little addition required a whole new movement that took three years of closely working with La Joux-Perret to create, making the 500 feel like the Benthos of yore.

The new Benthos Heritage II

Today, Aquastar is releasing the next iteration in the Benthos line, with the Benthos Heritage II. Slightly changing tack, the approach this time around is one of an alternate history, a kind of “what if”? Based on some recently discovered sketches in the Aquastar archives, the Heritage II imagines what might have been if Aquastar had continued iterating on the Benthos way back in the 1970s. Reverting back to a standard three-hand configuration without the chronograph, most of the Benthos spirit remains intact, with a few important changes. Let’s take a look.

The first thing one will notice, and probably the most important change in the Benthos Heritage II, is the size reduction. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, as of today, the name “Benthos” is no longer exclusively synonymous with “gigantic beast of a timepiece”. The diameter has been reduced to 40mm from the 42mm of the previous two models, and the thickness has been reduced a whopping 4mm, down from 16mm to a mere 12mm. Four millimetres might seem insignificant to the layman, but in the world of horology, that is a huge reduction and makes a very noticeable difference on the wrist. 

The 40mm case retains the iconic Benthos shape but is now crafted in 904L steel for presumably superior toughness and corrosion resistance compared to its 1970s predecessors. The dial is the same semi-glossy black as the other models and offers a nice contrast with the applied hour markers, which are made with high-density Super-LumiNova. The seconds hand is another small change here. Gone is the large arrow hand of the H1, which was modelled after the chronograph hand, which was conspicuously absent. One could have either seen that addition as a nice nod and a wink to the Benthos of old or as a taunting reminder of what was missing. Either way, the new Benthos H2 has opted for a standard stick hand as the seconds hand, rendered in a highly visible orange. This feels like the correct choice and the natural culmination of a long journey of ideas for the seconds hand. 

The bezel is of the ceramic, 120-click variety and has ample lume in every minute mark, all around the circumference. It feels very sturdy with a satisfying and hefty click and is suitably grippy to be operated with a gloved hand (I dipped into my dive kit to confirm this). The crystal is a triple AR-coated flat sapphire that does an excellent job protecting things and being anti-reflective. The caseback is the standard star-tooled screw-on back that is seen in all of Aquastar’s models, and the whole package is water-resistant to a more-than-respectable 300 metres. Inside the case is a classic, outsourced automatic movement, the Sellita SW200. Nothing fancy but a reliable movement in line with the price of the watch. 

The last part of this newer, slimmer package that we have not discussed yet is the dual crowns. “What could a second crown possibly be used for if not an internal bezel?” you might be asking yourself. That, my friends, is a Benthos first, a manually operated helium release valve. As most of you know, the helium escape valve is a largely unnecessary complication that would only be put into use by commercial saturation divers in very specific conditions. As such, I’m sure this will be the most hotly debated change to this new Benthos, but for me, it can be simply summed up as follows: Is it necessary? Probably not. Does it hurt to have it? Surely not. Does the dual crown setup make the watch look cool? It really does. It’s that simple from my perspective, and as such, I’m putting the addition in the win column. Case closed.

The Benthos Heritage II the wrist

Helium escape valves aside, the smaller size and increased wearability of this new Aquastar Benthos Heritage II is the real story here. As much as people seem to love the looks of the original Benthos and both of the recent modern additions, a consistent refrain around the watchosphere is “they’re cool, but too big for me”. And that’s not without merit, as all the previous Benthos models are big, chunky scuba diving watches. The press release even states: 

At the heart of the Benthos Heritage II lies a series of core characteristics that were requested by our community over the past 5 years. “We listened carefully to the feedback and requests of our supportive community on our official forum and on social media, and incorporated these features into the Benthos Heritage II”

You can bet dollars to doughnuts that’s a reference to the size change. And the change really is substantial. Aquastar has toyed with shrinking watches before: the Deepstar 2020 was 40mm and a little on the thick side, so the next iteration was the Deepstar 39mm. The thickness didn’t change much on that one due to the movement, so the difference wasn’t all that noticeable. This Benthos H2 is different, as the aforementioned 4mm thinner case makes it feel like a completely different watch. This is like moving from Ploprof and DeepSea territory down to Seamaster 300 and Submariner territory, to use a few well-known examples. It’s a big difference. 

It wears just about perfect on my smallish 6.25” wrist. It’s comfortable and svelte while not sacrificing too much wrist presence in its shrunken state. It feels like a modern dive watch, but maybe not a modern diver’s watch, if you take my meaning. I also had slight concerns that the double crowns could be uncomfortable or dig into the wrist a bit, but this proved to be unfounded; they are small and recessed enough to be unnoticeable. 

The watch comes on either a rubber strap (Tropic or ISOFrane) or Aquastar’s beads-of-rice bracelet. Having worn it on both, I prefer the Tropic rubber for a vintage diving vibe, but your mileage may vary depending on your level of fanciness and/or adherence to vintage diving standards and practices. 

Final Thoughts

There will be fanatics who say that shrinking a Benthos and leaving out the chronograph is sacrilege and that it’s not a true diving tool anymore. I would argue the opposite and say that the true tool watch is one you want to wear every day, on a boat or at the grocery store, on a dive or in the kitchen. And hey, if you need a bigger Benthos, those are still out there, too. There’s plenty of room in the proverbial pool for Benthos of all shapes and sizes and kudos to Aquastar for listening to community feedback and delivering on it with this new Benthos Heritage II, a welcome addition to this iconic family. Plus, the price is more than right.

The Aquastar Benthos Heritage II is now available from aquastar.ch with a pre-order price of USD 1,190 on a strap and USD 1,290 on a bracelet. The future retail price will be USD 1,490, and deliveries are expected in May 2025.