Having conquered racetracks, deserts and jungles with their chronographs, HTD (founded by Italian designers Federico Del Guerra and Federico Zulian) now takes to the seas with a duo of ruggedly handsome Aquatic skin divers – The Palletoni, and the Space Boy.
Announced in late 2021 with pre-orders opening at the beginning of this year, the HTD Aquatic which has undergone a few subtle upgrades since we talked about it last, is now ready to ship with both versions of this ocean going adventurer available from March 21.
Our first impression of the HTD Aquatic is that it offers all of the style of our favourite 1960s dive watches in one practical, beautiful and affordable package. And that’s an important thing to note – despite having two models within the Aquatic line, what you’re looking at is one watch, with two unique dial styles.
If they were ice-cream flavours the more traditional Palletoni with its black dial and alternating circular and rectangular printed lume plots with triangular marker at 12 would be a deliciously full bodied chocolate, whilst the ultra funky Space Boy with its large hashed seconds markers and lume encased numerals at 3, 6 and 9 would be a super fresh mint-choc-chip, with extra sprinkles.
Other than the variation in dial, for all intents and purposes the Pallentoni and the Space Boy are the same watch. Sharing a 200m water resistant 316L stainless steel case that’s 39mm wide, 11.5mm deep and 47mm from lug to lug, with solid caseback and screw-down crown, a 120 click uni-directional bezel with aluminium insert, a boxed sapphire crystal, domed and lume filled polished steel hands, a vintage style 20mm wide 3-link stainless steel bracelet, and powered by a Miyota 9039 premium grade automatic movement.
As the team at HTD have gone through the process of turning their Aquatic prototype into a production watch they’ve taken the opportunity to make some subtle but important improvements. Enlarging the screw down crown to make it easier to turn, sharpening the printing on the dials and improving the quality and volume of lume, and replacing the vintage style pressed friction clasp of the bracelet with a more secure modern milled friction clasp.
We loved the HTD Aqauatic when we got hands on with it last year, so it’s great to see the team taking steps to make this charming retro diver even better.
If you’re anything like us, you are already dreaming of sandy beaches, warm seas, and cool drinks whilst counting down the days to your Summer vacation, and of course shopping for the perfect Summer watch. It needs to look cool, it needs to be rugged and water resistant, and importantly it can’t break the bank (you have a vacation to pay for after all!). The HTD Aquatic fits this brief perfectly, and based on the popularity of previous HTD models, and the Aquatic’s competitive price we think they’re likely to sell out fast.
So don’t delay – dive in today!
The HTD Aquatic Palletoni and Space Boy are available to buy now from Montredo and start shipping from March 21, 2022.
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