In 1985, the Italian Military commissioned a watch company to develop a new diving watch specifically for their navy. The man responsible for the task was Alessandro Bettarini who worked there at the time. The brief called for a watch that was antimagnetic, highly legible underwater and with high water resistance. There were two designs that made the final cut (although 3 variations were made) and hand made prototypes were created.
A display Mille Metri with a rubber strap that was actually used on vintage Citizen divers.
The shape and lines of the original were not accidental. Most of the work was done on a lathe and wire-cutting machine, which explains the concentric patterns and 2-axis cut angles. The three versions where made with titanium, aluminium and bronze cases, where the bronze case had movable lugs.
A very rare image showing the black anodised case. Also note that based on the location of the locking lever, this version could have been a Destro/ Left hander.
The titanium version had a very plain sandblasted finish and the aluminium was anodised black and both had lugs that angled downwards without any hinges like the bronze case. All three utilised the company’s patented locking crown system to water proof the crown and housed standard ETA made movements.
Image of the bronze prototype with movable lugs
Plain black dials were used with lume for 12,3,6, 9 numerals. The company also experimented with various lume applications and dial methods including printed metal dials and reverse printed plexiglass dials. There was even a version that used luminous tubes to replace the markers on the plexiglass and hands. Most of the prototypes used a very thick plexiglass that was stepped to create a sandwich construction with a massive O-ring under it to increase water proofing as the O-ring and Glass doubled as a seal to the entire case. It was this unique construction that set it apart from most other dive watches at that time.
Image of prototype with lume filled tubes on hands and markers
The prototypes were tested rigorously by the Italian Navy and passed, but no record of an order was ever recorded. At the same time, the company went through a massive acquisition and the folklore goes that the design drawings were shelved into the archives by the new owners and the prototypes were dismantled/ lost/ destroyed. Due to the re-launch of the brand by the new owners, pictures and the actual prototypes started to emerge in blogs, watch news sites and auctions. The highest recorded auction price of the titanium version was at Christie’s in 2014 for 281,000 CHF.
Mille Metri Prototype sold at Sotherby’s in 2014 for 100,000 CHF
Mr. Alessandro Bettarini left the company and started his own watch company with a very similar design as it was his design when he worked there. It is one of the most legitimate homages of the original design as it is true to the construction and language of the original although many other homages have been created since, that only follow the look of the watch and not it’s construction which was what made it special. The Antiqua Kilometre takes the design and modifies the size and specification to create a more modern and wearable version while keeping to the original specification of high legibility underwater and water resistance.
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