Experiments gone right

So back in April 2022, I placed an order for a grey-dialled Aquastar Deepstar II on a BOR bracelet. The vintage aesthetic and sub-dial at 9 just got me and I had to have it. At the same time, I ordered the grey Tropic strap, to give me some options, in case I wanted to change things up. Turns out, the Tropic strap colour was much lighter than the dial itself. And the keepers…well they were unusually oversized and slid up and down the strap (not much keeping there). I just couldn't gel with it, so I parked the strap in my utility box, with all my others and just kept the watch on the bracelet. 

Fast-forward to today. My watch fund has been diminished by other life expenses. So with not much watch buying on the horizon and an itch to scratch, what is an enthusiast to do? I started toying with the idea of putting the Deepstar on a basic black Tropic strap - just to try it out. Would I go with the Aquastar OEM tropic? Not quite. The keepers are still a dealbreaker for me and I just couldn't justify the price. Instead, I bought a MiLTAT 'Tropic-style' strap from Strapcode and swapped the pin buckles.

Aquastar make it known that the Deepstar II is a thought experiment come to life -  a watch that attempts to answer the question "What if the quartz crisis never happened?" With this new strap, I can't help but imagine this watch doing the rounds in the 60s/70s, strapped to the wrist of a recreational diver, over a wetsuit. In addition to this, the black strap plays with the dial, almost hinting that the watch has spent a little too long in the South Pacific sun, fading what was once a black dial, a slightly lighter shade (although the sunburst dial kind of gives it away).

This strap has brought everything together in more ways than I could have imagined. I now find it hard to put on anything else, because I just can’t bring myself to breaking away from this “experiment” gone right. I’m keen to hear from others who may have taken a bet on a strap (or even a watch) and have ended up with something that they didn’t expect to like.