Hands-on – Anonimo Nautilo Bronze Blue dial (live pics & price)

Anonimo is a brand that is most known for their dive watches. In the last few years, they have been producing, for example, the well-known Millimetri, which is waterproof to 1,000 meters, or the Polluce, another example of reliable and functional diving tool. Nowadays, Anonimo is refocusing the collections mainly on two references; the Militare and the Nautilo watches. With this new focus in mind, let’s find out what the latter is about, by looking closer to the Anonimo Nautilo Bronze.

As we discussed earlier in this article about the Anonimo Militare VanDucth, Anonimo is a brand with a rather unique story. One interesting fact is that, when looking at the history of the brand and see what really is typical for Anonimo; we can recognize that the Nautilo exposes quite a few of these characteristics.

A true Anonimo

Looking at the Nautilo, it is obviously a dive watch. Dive watches have been Anonimo’s focus since the beginning of the operations, when Anonimo was founded in Florence, Italy back in 1997; the Richemont Group had just acquired Officine Panerai. Richemont decided to move Panerai from Florence to Switzerland, but part of the employees did not follow the same path. When the brand Anonimo was established in Florence, ex-Officine Panerai employees decided to change company. So with the expertise of the ex-Officine Panerai employees, Anonimo was able to introduce multiple well-known watches over the following years, such as the earlier mentioned Polluce and Millimetri. Now that we know what played a part in developing these divers’ identity, it is interesting to have a look at the Anonimo Nautilo Bronze and to see which design elements correspond with this spirit.

First of all, there’s this original crown positioning at 4 o’clock. The reason for the crown to be at this position is because it allows better ergonomics. This element was implemented by Dino Zei, a military engineer who used to be the CEO of Officine Panerai for over 25 years. He ran Panerai from 1972 to 1997, when Richemont bought the Italian brand. He then joined Anonimo.

Another, quite subtle, element is the no-nonsense layout of the dial. The idea of the founder of Anonimo (Federico Massacesi) was that the product should always be more important than the brand. For this reason, the name didn’t appear on the dial until 2010. The name Anonimo itself is in line with this idea – Anonimo is the Italian word for anonymous. Apart from the addition of the name, the dial of the Anonimo Nautilo Bronze remains legible and clean an important factor for a watch intended to be a proper diving tool. In the case of this edition, we have a blue plate, adorned with a concentric pattern, on top of which are applied large indexes, made in bronze – to match the case – and filled with the right amount of luminous material – providing a strong legibility in day and night conditions.

The third element is the use of bronze, as a material for the case. Until 2013, Anonimo was entirely located in Florence. However, last year, Anonimo was bought up by a group of private investors. Thus, the production was divided: Anonimo Firenze is responsible for the cases and Anonimo Switzerland SA is responsible for the movements. Anonimo was one of the first brands to use bronze as a material for their cases and they still rely on the Florentine craftsmen who have been making cases since 1939.

Now we have taken a look at the background and design of the watch, let’s have a short overview of the specifications of the watch.

Technical features

In short, the technical features for the Anonimo Nautilo Bronze are:

• Material: case in bronze, caseback in titanium
• Case diameter: 44.4 mm
• Thickness: 12.75 mm
• Unidirectional rotating bezel with 60-minute scale
• 20atm / 200m water-resistant
• Domed and anti-glare treated sapphire glass
• Sellita SW200-1 self-winding movement (4hz, 38 hours of power reserve)
• Hours / minutes / seconds – Date at 6 o’clock
• Black rubber strap with Bronze tongue buckle 

Verdict

I had the pleasure to wear this watch for a rather long period. From my experience with it, what is really nice about this Anonimo Nautilo Bronze is that it is recognizable as an Italian watch, made by Anonimo. It has all the typical characteristics of the brand. It is made out of bronze, it is a true dive watch and it shares all technical and historical design elements. You really get a watch that was made with clever engineering behind it.

Besides being a functional tool while diving, I have to say that it actually wears pretty comfortable on a daily basis, even if rather large at almost 45mm. This being said, the overall presence of the watch might be a bit too sporty for dressier purposes. The combination of a bronze case with a blue dial and a black rubber strap makes it a sporty and somehow playful piece, a design that would perfectly fit the urban trend too. A watch made with a specific function but that can be use for almost every purpose. Now, how great is that?

The watch is also available in steel with black, silver and blue dials. The price of the Anonimo Nautilo Bronze is 2,950 Euros.