Introducing: The Sicura Hexa 400 Sea Green, A Vintage-Inspired Dive Watch With A Dial Like The Ocean
That subtitle sounds a bit rich, right? Still, there’s some unexpected truth in that statement. Under the leadership of the famous Ernest “Teddy” Schneider in the late 1960s and 1970s, Sicura thrived and introduced a series of watches featuring pin-lever movements and bold designs. Among them were dive watches with patented multi-bezel systems and dual-crown architecture, but more on that later. In 1979, Schneider acquired the Breitling name, trademarks, inventory, and models, including the Navitimer and Chronomat, from the Breitling family. After the acquisition, Schneider gradually phased out Sicura and focused on rebuilding Breitling. The transition was formally completed in 1993, when the company, previously known as Montres Sicura SA, was officially renamed Breitling AG. Earlier this year, Sicura returned to the market after a lengthy absence with a vintage-inspired dive watch, the Hexa 400. Now there’s a new version with a Sea Green dial.
This is a remarkable year for Breitling-related brands. Resurrected Gallet is now “engineered by Breitling,” and Universal Genève resides in the penthouse of Georges Kern’s House of Brands. And then there’s Sicura, a watch manufacturer that was renamed Breitling after its owner bought the struggling watchmaker with the “B.” Now, Sicura is back, but it has nothing to do with Breitling anymore. Instead, the Dutch D Group owns it, and the first new watches came out this past summer. They take inspiration from the classic 1968 Sicura Diver 400. These 400m-water-resistant watches include a regular external dive bezel and an internal 12-hour bezel for tracking a second time zone. Please read Jorg’s intro article to discover all the ins and outs.
Introducing the Sicura Hexa 400 Sea Green
The Sea Green version of the Hexa 400 has the same general specs as the three models released earlier this year. The retro-styled 40mm hexagonal case is made of 316L steel and features twin screw-down crowns. Inside beats a Swiss Sellita SW200 self-winding movement, offering hours, minutes, seconds, the date, and an approximately 38-hour power reserve. The primary crown sets the time and date, while the secondary crown controls the green-and-white internal rotating bezel. A black ceramic external bezel and sapphire crystal top it off, and this sturdy diver comes complete with a brushed stainless steel three-row bracelet.
The dial is not just any shade of green. It has the vivid hue of the ocean the moment you plunge in. In the shallows, across a reef or beneath a wave with the sun behind it, light bends through the water, and blue gives way to green. The dial mimics the ocean not as you see it on a postcard but as it appears when you swim in it. The firmly instrumental, solid-looking hands and indexes inspire confidence and are highly functional, including in the dark thanks to plenty of lume.
How to wear the Hexa 400 Sea Green
The Hexa 400 Sea Green is a robust sports watch ready for almost anything. This is one you can take on a long hike, a cold plunge, a motorcycle ride, rafting, spelunking, kitesurfing, and so on. At €1,450 / US$1,650, it is also competitively priced. The build quality is solid and on par with similarly priced offerings from other brands. And the design, with the hexagonal case and easy-on-the-eye green dial, is distinctive. The double-bezel functionality is also a nice perk.
Sicura’s heritage also plays into the equation. Two things come to mind when thinking about the brand’s history. The first regards the three-story-tall House of Brands. Shouldn’t that be a four-story construction, with Sicura being the “ground floor” instead of Gallet? Maybe the D Group beat Georges Kern, the mastermind behind the House of Brands, to acquiring Sicura.
My second thought was about wearing the new Sicura Hexa 400 Sea Green while visiting a Breitling boutique. Ideally, well-informed staff should greet the Sicura wearer with respect and immediately offer a glass of champagne. After all, Sicura was Breitling’s savior, and without it, that boutique, let alone Breitling itself, wouldn’t exist today. I had another thought, but that one was way too wild. Oh well; I’ll share it anyway. I thought about a Breitling watch with a case-back inscription reading “Saved by Sicura.” That’s just crazy, though, so forget about it.
