Briston Presents the New Clubmaster Legend Compressor Collection in Steel and Signature Acetate

French brand Briston has built quite a nice little family around its Clubmaster Legend collection. These are accessible sporty-chic watches housed in cushion-shaped cases. Earlier this year, Briston dropped two new versions of the Clubmaster Legend Diver with cool wave-textured dials. These came after the brand had presented new time-only references, including open-heart models. The nice part is that they were all positioned as everyday watches, with prices starting at around 550 euros. If you follow Briston’s releases, you will notice that it likes trying out new styles, be it its take on the small seconds or the very latest Clubmaster Legend Compressor we are looking at today.

Briston mixes vintage-inspired design with colourful details and its signature cellulose acetate cases, giving its dive watches a laid-back look while still taking their diving credentials seriously. And since cellulose acetate is more commonly found in sunglasses than watches, it gives the Clubmaster a rather unusual material choice, especially when most dive watches stick to steel or titanium. The new Clubmaster Legend Compressor follows the same idea, with black or navy blue dials and a choice of polished steel or tortoiseshell acetate cases.

Its two crowns give away the inspiration straight away: the old super-compressor dive watches, even if these watches have a classic case construction (no real EPSA-like cases here). One crown at 2 o’clock controls the bidirectional rotating inner bezel, while the other at 4 o’clock sets the time and date. This is a neat arrangement, giving it a look that nods to the 1950s and 1960s. The 42mm cushion-shaped case has a domed profile, with a polished finish throughout. It measures 14.65mm thick, offers 200 metres of water resistance, and has a screw-down caseback. The 2.8mm domed K1 crystal is designed to be highly resistant to scratches. You can choose it in steel, but the tortoiseshell cellulose acetate version is the one that gives the watch its Briston personality.

The warm brown tones and that slightly translucent appearance create a retro look, and if you match this Clubmaster Legend Compressor with a pair of old-school shades, you can have a pretty cool combination going. It is also light to wear, which is a nice bonus. The black and navy blue dials come with a semi-gloss finish and have a fairly straightforward layout. Applied steel indexes and Arabic numerals have green Super-LumiNova C3 inserts, while the white railway-style minute track keeps things easy to read. The silver-white inner bezel has a luminous triangle and dot, and you can also spot a red inner minute track for dive times, adding a dash of colour against the black and navy blue dials.

The hour hand is baton-shaped, while the minute hand has an arrow-shaped tip; both are steel with luminous inserts. Its central seconds hand also gets a rounded luminous tip. This whole setup is quite focused on legibility. Inside the Clubmaster Legend Compressor is the Japanese automatic Seiko NH35 movement, which beats at 21,600 vibrations/hour and delivers a 41-hour power reserve. The watches come on matte FKM fluorocarbon vulcanised rubber straps in black or navy blue to match the dial. They have a two-part construction with Briston’s presto quick-release system, making strap changes easy.

The steel versions have a more regular look, while the tortoiseshell case is very much the playful option. Prices for the new Clubmaster Legend Compressor start at EUR 590 for the acetate versions and EUR 610 for the steel models.

For more information, please visit briston-watches.com.