Introducing: The Christopher Ward × Seconde/Seconde/ C65 Desk Diver
Christopher Ward teamed up with seconde/seconde/, resulting in a rather quirky version of the C65 Aquitaine. Let me introduce you to the C65 Desk Diver limited edition. Unlike most of seconde/seconde/’s subtle jabs at the watch world, this is a full-on tongue-in-cheek redesign of the C65 diver.
Christopher Ward will produce 500 of these C65 Desk Divers. Each is priced at £995 / €1,295 / US$1,195 on rubber or £1,160 / €1,510 / US$1,395 on the Bader bracelet. Both versions come with an additional Delugs rubber strap in bright yellow. Let’s have a closer look!
C65 Desk Diver
I am sure you have heard the term “desk diver” before. If not, it refers to the completely over-specced nature of most dive watches for the way nearly all people end up using them. Most hardcore dive watches never see any water, thriving in the office instead. Christopher Ward and seconde/seconde/ aren’t the first to riff on this concept. Sphaera launched its take on the theme back in 2023. However, Christopher Ward and seconde/seconde/ take it quite a bit further.
The first thing that draws the eye is a Post-it note on the dial, reminding the overworked office clerk of the watch’s name. Moving out to the perimeter of the dial, we spot daily office activities. Each has a recommended daily unit. The Desk Diver recommends three breaks and one unit of office politics, for instance. Doomscrolling has a recommended daily dose of zero.
Lastly, the rotating bezel is marked with commentary on those activities. A proper meeting, for instance, consists of saying hi, power napping, and saying bye. The one daily recommended dose of gossip is marked with a knife for backstabbing colleagues to further your career. Doomscrolling, meanwhile, results in toxic dopamine levels and a loss of faith in humanity.
Desk Diver specifications
Under all the office puns, this is a C65 Aquitaine diver as we know it from Christopher Ward. That means you get the familiar, beautifully curved 41mm stainless steel case. This is paired with a 46.7mm lug-to-lug and 12.5mm thickness. A box-style sapphire crystal breaks the flowing lines of the case with some vintage appeal. I have to say, I really like this case. Oh, and if you do wish to take it underwater, you can safely go down to 200 meters.
The stainless steel screw-in case back covers a Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. This classic caliber ticks at 28,800 beats per hour and has a 38-hour autonomy. In Christopher Ward’s guise, it is rated to ±20 seconds per day. That is not impressive, but considering the otherwise tremendous value for money, you have to cut CW some slack.
The Oyster-style bracelet — should you choose this option — features a ratcheting micro-adjustment mechanism and quick-release pins. Otherwise, the Desk Diver comes on a Tropic-style black rubber strap. Whichever you pick, you get an additional yellow Delugs rubber strap. Seconde/seconde/ exerted his influence on the packaging too. The set includes yellow stickies, a marker, three paper clips, five thumbtacks, and two pencils. All, of course, have the Desk Diver branding.
Initial impressions
You may know I am a big fan of Romaric André of seconde/seconde/. I love his originality and the inventive visual commentary on the watch world’s idiosyncrasies. This time, I am a little less convinced. I like how he often expresses an original, unexpected take in very simple visual language. The C65 Desk Diver is the opposite: it is an already widely familiar concept expressed in a rather convoluted way. This is, in part, because its layout makes you take it too seriously. “What am I supposed to do with this? Should I use it? If so, how?” By the time you’ve gone through this train of thought, you’ve killed the joke.
Still, there is no arguing this is a conversation starter. If anything, it will serve as a reminder not to take yourself too seriously at the office. It is the horological equivalent of David Graeber’s notorious 2013 article “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.”
Romaric puts it well: “The irony is, I qualify as a desk diver myself… Daydreaming is my first occupation. Watches have the unique ability to transport the wearer from the banal to the exceptional. When you put on a dress watch, boom, you’re surrounded by Art Deco furniture and Carrara marble. When wearing an Explorer, you feel like you are scaling Mt. Everest. Reversing this trajectory and taking you back into hard-core-norm-core felt like the obvious next step. At work, you never know what is going to happen next, arguably making it the most unconquered landscape of all. I wanted to remind people to try and find something amazing in the everyday, instead of fantasizing about where they could be.”
What do you think of the new Christopher Ward and seconde/seconde/ Desk Diver? Let us know in the comments section below!
