Circula SuperSport – Diving into the German Made SuperCompressor

By Montredo in Lifestyle
January 12, 2022
Circula SuperSport – Diving into the German Made SuperCompressor

In November 2021 we introduced you to Circula – a family-owned independent watchmaker from Pforzheim in Germany. Established by Heinz Huber in 1955, and reimagined by his grandson Cornelius Huber in 2017 – and offered you a brief glimpse into their current collection.

One piece that particularly caught our attention was the Circula SuperSport. A genuine SuperCompressor (more on those later) dive watch, with a Swiss automatic movement, a sandwich dial, and all of the lume!

Diving into the SuperCompressor

Before we go any further, let’s talk about SuperCompressors. First off, a SuperCompressor isn’t a type of watch. It is a particular type of watch case – developed and patented by Ervin Piquerez SA (EPSA) in 1956 – with a spring-loaded case back that compresses as water pressure increases, to provide an incredibly water-resistant seal.

Hugely popular with recreational divers throughout the 60s and 70s, watches with SuperCompressor cases often had a twin crown setup. With the 4 o’clock screw-down crown being used to set the time and date, and the 2 o’clock turn only crown operating an integrated rotating bezel under the crystal.

Following on from Circula’s popular AquaSport and AquaSport II skin divers, Cornelius decided to utilize these revolutionary pieces of dive watch technology to create the Circula SuperSport dive watch.

Collaboration with Watch Fans

The development of the SuperSport was very much a community effort, with watch enthusiasts from all over the world casting more than 4,500 votes on various aspects of the watch’s design and functionality. An approach that might make some traditional watch companies nervous, but had already proven itself successful with the Circula AquaSport.

The result is a truly unique modern diver – built-in Pforzheim, powered by a Swiss Automatic movement, and delivered at an affordable price.

A Modern Sports Driver

Whilst vintage dive watch DNA runs through the Circula SuperSport, this is very much a modern diver. Working from the outside in, the stainless steel cushion-shaped case is 40mm wide, 46.5mm lug to lug, and 12.8mm deep. It is a bit on the higher side, but this diver still fits easily under a casual shirt cuff. And thanks to its 20mm lugs, swapping it off of the supplied rubber strap and onto fabric or leather for desk diving days, is as simple as could be.

The crowns at four and two have a knurled edge, making them easy to grip. The lower screw-down time-setting crown is inset with a band of colour, and capped with a Superluminova filled logo. The upper operates the 120 click unidirectional bezel, found under the slightly curved anti-reflective sapphire crystal.

Telling the time (or measuring the length of your dive) is made simple by the incredible clarity of the SuperSport’s dial design. A sandwich construction that allows for large recessed plots of Swiss SuperLuminova® C3 X1 to clearly define the hours, with a printed white minute track running around the inner edge of the rotating bezel.

There are three different dial and bezel combinations available (black, petrol, and grey LE), each complemented by a contrasting sweep second hand, and polished stainless steel lume-filled hour and minute hands.

At its heart beats a high-quality Swiss automatic Sellita SW200-1 movement, with quickset date (deleted on the grey LE), hacking seconds and a 38-hour power reserve.

Availability and Pricing

The Circula SuperSport is available to buy now directly from Circula, with the Black, and Grey LE models in stock at time of writing, and the Petrol model due in June 2022. All models are priced at EUR 699 on a rubber strap, or EUR 799 on a stainless steel bracelet. All prices include VAT and worldwide shipping.


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