Anonimo Nautilo Vintage – More Retro-Styled and Smaller

A brand built on the ashes of the Italian branch of Panerai, founded by a naval engineer and former head of the aforementioned watchmaker, is obligated to have a dive watch in the collection. For over 12 years now, the Nautilo has been part of the Anonimo line-up, interpreted in various guises – see here, here or here. New for 2019 and launched as a preview to Baselworld is a more retro – or vintage-inspired – take on its cool Nautilo, with the Anonimo Nautilo Vintage. And good news for a lot of people: it’s smaller!

At first glance, there is not much new going on here, other than a change in design. You still get the trademark cushion-shaped case and the crown at 4 to prevent it from digging into your wrist. However, there are some (positive) novelties, such as the reduced diameter, a slightly softer appearance and the vintage or retro inspiration of the watch.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen Anonimo launching various bright coloured editions offering a summer vibe to the wearer, all in a 44.4mm wide case – not small to say the least. The new Anonimo Nautilo Vintage has been reduced in size to a more everyman-friendly 42mm diameter and 11.8mm in height while remaining true to the brand’s most important merits.

The dial for the new Nautilo has been remodelled too. Instead of the familiar 12-4-8 layout for the hour numerals adopted by Anonimo on most watches, we now have railway style indexes surrounding the sunshine blue dial. The typical 12-4-8 layout (to emulate the A of Anonimo) isn’t entirely gone but is now more discreetly depicted with double batons for the hour markers. The diving bezel, also redesigned, has a combination of steel ring and thin blue ceramic insert with a luminous pip at the zero, stick markers every five minutes and Arabic numerals every 10 minutes.

The hands of the Anonimo Nautilo Vintage and all indexes are coated with luminous material. The date is shown at 6 o’clock through a square aperture with a white disc underneath. A sapphire caseback reveals the Sellita SW 200-1 automatic movement, the same as in the Nautilos preceding it. This automatic movement offers 38 hours of power and operates at a frequency of 28,800 vph (or 4Hz). The Anonimo Nautilo Vintage comes on a vintage styled calf leather strap with a steel pin and buckle. Finally, no concern on water-resistance despite the sapphire caseback as it is rated to 200 metres.

The price of the new Anonimo Nautilo Vintage is set at CHF 2,290, in line with other watches produced by the brand. More details at anonimo.com.