Introducing: The Vulcain Nautical Legacy Massena LAB
What We Know
Massena Lab just dropped its latest project – a collaboration with Vulcain for a very small run of a very Massena take on the Vulcain Cricket Nautical. The original Cricket Nautical was very much a product of the early sixties, with the original model coming out in 1961. The personality most associated with this watch is physicist, mathematician, and deep-sea diver Hannes Keller, who ended up performing a record-setting dive of 222 meters while wearing the Cricket Nautical. Oh, and the dive record was witnessed and certified by the legend Jacques Cousteau—no big deal.
More than sixty years later, we’ve seen the modern revival of Vulcain, creatively spearheaded by Guillaume Laidet, bring back the Cricket Nautical in the “Nautical Heritage” line—a pretty faithful recreation of one of the first waterproof dive watches with an alarm. Now, Massena Lab comes into the picture and winds the clock back even further, envisioning an imaginary scenario in which the Cricket Nautical was designed ten years before its time.
So, what’s new on this one? First, and very unsurprisingly, Massena gives the Cricket a tropical-dial treatment. While the standard collection has a Cricket Nautical with a beige patina, this one goes all out on the faux aging. The dial is a chocolate brown with varying shades in direct sunlight and looks to feature an almost glossy metallic finish. Of course, the dial also acts as the decompression table, and the upper “plate” of the dial rotates like you might find with an internal bezel on a compressor – the cut-out on one side of the upper dial plate reveals the correct timing for a diver’s decompression back up to the surface, based on a prior calculation of length and depth of the intended dive.
One of the newest aspects of this watch is the handset. Instead of the traditional dauphine hands found on the Nautical Heritage, the Nautical Legacy features a baton-style hand for the hours, a large arrowhead hand for the minutes, and a much bolder arrow hand for the alarm indicator. The lollipop seconds hand remains the same.
The case is identical to the current production models – 42mm in diameter like the original, with a thickness of 17.5mm. Yeah, 17.5mm. That’s quite a chunky case. With the Cricket Nautical, it seems like the thickness isn’t the fault of the movement as is typically the reason – the standard Cricket models come down to a much more reasonable 12.8mm. But, with the functionality required for a 300m water resistant diving alarm that you technically need to be able to hear underwater, the watch features a closed “triple caseback” that functions as a resonance chamber and would theoretically alert a diver when their ascent should start. Seems like we might be at the mercy of the laws of physics for this one.
Movement-wise, we find a manually wound Cricket Alarm Caliber V10, which has a power reserve of 52 hours. This caliber has two barrels, one to power the timekeeping of the watch and one to power the alarm. Turning the crown at three o’clock winds either one of the barrels based on the direction of the wind.
The final cherry on top, I suppose, of this collaboration is the all-new black rubber strap – this is the other purely Massena Lab contribution, as the team there is credited for designing this strap. It has a not-so-subtle Vulcain logo motif on each side and is fitted with a signed Vulcain buckle.
The Vulcain Nautical Legacy Massena Lab is priced at $4950 and is limited to 25 pieces, available only at MassenaLab.com.
What We Think
While I’ve appreciated the modern Vulcain Cricket models from afar, the pricing (in some versions, almost five and a half thousand dollars) has always been a hindrance to that enthusiasm. Don’t get me wrong – I completely understand that watches with small production niche alarm movements most likely have to be priced this way to amortize R&D and production costs. But at that price, they have never been at the top of my list. That being said, the Cricket Nautical has always been the design that stood out to me, mainly because I loved the additional complication of the moving dial plate with the decompression scale. In a sense, everything and the kitchen sink was put into a Cricket.
When it comes to this collaboration, I think the design choices here are done well – I’m usually not a tropical dial guy at all on modern watches, but this balances that aesthetic enough where it just feels like a chocolate dial, and that’s a lot of fun. The handset is certainly an interesting choice here as I’ve seen several vintage examples with baton hands, but never one with that large arrowed minute hand. I suppose, in this case, that it’s more “imaginary vintage,” like we’ve seen on the Massena Lab x Albishorn Maxigraph. Regardless, they’re large, have lots of lume, and are very legible, perhaps in an intentional sacrifice to dressiness and elegance. The one small detail I would have wished to see is perhaps a facet on the hands to let them catch light in the same way that the classic dauphine set does.
Now, if my pricing critique of the Crickets in general stands, I have to give a bit of credit to both parties here – the watch’s retail price is aligned with the standard models. When you factor in the development costs of a new handset for only 25 pieces, as well as the molds for a rubber strap, I think I would expect to see this priced slightly higher. Do I think the price is still steep? Yes. But it’s par for the course here. I think they also know that they’re speaking to a very specific collector out there with only 25 produced. Regardless, I’m glad that this new design exists and eager to see where they end up.
The Basics
Brand: Vulcain
Model: Cricket Nautical Legacy Massena Lab
Diameter: 42mm
Thickness: 17.5mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: Brown
Lume: Yes
Water Resistance: 300m
Strap/Bracelet: Rubber strap designed by Massena Lab
The Movement
Caliber: Cricket Alarm Calibre V10
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, alarm, adjustable decompression scale dial
Diameter: 27.07mm
Power Reserve: 52 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 18,000 VpH
Jewels: 25
Pricing & Availability
Price: $4950
Availability: MassenaLab.com
Limited Edition: Yes, 25 pieces.
For more, click here.
Hodinkee
