Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic Severn Pays Tribute to British Divers From the 1800s

The Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic Severn is an interesting dive watch because it’s dedicated to a pair of significant figures in the history of British diving. First, you have Henry Albert Fleuss, who the watch is named after. He was a pioneering engineer from the late 1800s who created a new type of rebreather that enabled divers to spend longer underwater more safely.

The second diver celebrated by the watch is found in the second part of the name, Severn. Alexander Lambert was the first diver to use Fleuss’ new rebreather during operations while working on the Severn Tunnel project near the Wales-England border in 1880.

It’s really intriguing to see a watch be dedicated to two working professionals. They’re not particularly famous outside of the diving world, certainly not to the same extent as divers like Jacques Cousteau or Carl Brashear, but despite that, they had a significant impact on the history of Britain and on the history of diving in general. And the Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic Severn reflects that in its design. The 43mm diameter steel case isn’t flashy or showing off, it’s practical and robust.

Getting into some specifics, it has relatively broad lugs giving it a tough appearance and the crown is fairly large too, making it easy to manipulate. The bezel features a unidirectional rotation and is equipped with a diving timer scale, the first 15-minutes of which are highlighted in a separate colour to make it easier to read.

The 150m water resistance rating is admittedly on the lower end of things for a professional style dive watch, I would much prefer it to be resistant to 300m. However, it’s somewhat thematic considering that the Severn Tunnel sits at a depth of about 50 feet, which is only 15m. So, the Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic Severn has a rating 10x greater than the project it’s named after.

From a style perspective, the watch has a definite industrial and technical appeal, courtesy of a partially skeletonised display revealing the mechanisms of the movement below. It manages to maintain its all-important legibility by positioning its large, lumed indexes around the edge of the dial, not over any of the skeletonised area. Plus, the hands and large and lumed as well, which helps them stand out against the moving features below. While we’re talking about lume, the entire bezel lights up in the dark as well.

In terms of colour, there are four choices available. Wet suit black, moonlight blue, brilliant white and tropical blue. Notably the wet suit black and tropical blue editions swap the completely transparent portion of the skeletonised dial with smoky translucent layers instead, in their respective colours. It reminds me of the skeleton Rado Captain Cook.

The movement that’s visible through the dial is the Japanese NH35 by Seiko. A very common off the shelf calibre used by a huge number of international brands. It’s automatic with a 41-hour power reserve, which is respectable for an accessible timepiece. Which the Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic Severn is at £370.

This isn’t the first time that Spinnaker have explored the skeletonised dive watch concept, there has been the Croft limited edition previously. I think the Fleuss shows that some important lessons have been learned by Spinnaker when it comes to making watches like this. The new piece is much more legible and has a good theme and story attached, making it easier to form an attachment to the piece.

On balance, I think the issue of the water resistance would sway me towards one of their other dive watches like the Hass over this one, but if you’re not planning to swim then it’s a solid watch. It even comes with an additional leather strap alongside the metal bracelet for land-based use.

More details at Spinnaker.

​Oracle Time 

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