Having collected watches since the 90s, I’d seen this watch (online) a few times over the decades, but never in person. I’d also never really considered buying a Porsche Design (PD) watch until I bought a mid-life-crisis 911 about five years ago, and then the first Porsche Design watch I bought was their classic Black PVD 1972 Chronograph made by Orfina, now known as the “Top Gun”.

I’m not sure what kicked off my search for this watch but it was probably a combination of the following:

• • My previous budgets of $5k then $10k generally for watches didn’t seem to get me very much interesting choice any more, including new and vintage watches. There was a time that you could walk into Omega and buy a new watch for under $10k, or you could buy a good vintage chronograph on ebay for around $2k.
  • All watches are starting to look the same to me these days. Yes you can pay $50-100k and get something very cool and different if you have that money, and yes occasionally a new micro-brand hits a new spot for $1-2k.
  • And I’m back working in sales so that quarterly commission started to burn a hole in my pocket!

So, as mentioned, walking into watch shops to buy the watch you want seems to be impossible these days, and I do not line up or put my name on a list to give other fucking people my hard-earned fucking money FFS! And with everything else being online these days including vintage watch shops, it’s harder to find a unique and/or bargain vintage watch also!

Then I remembered this place I used to spend most of my time exploring, the time I now split across scrolling Instagram and Facebook Marketplace – good old eBay where I used to have at least half a dozen searches like “Vintage diver chronograph” that I would check multiple times a day, and don’t forget to search slight mis-spellings as well for some serious bargains!

It was there that I went down the Porsche Design rabbit hole for a Divers Watch. There are a few to choose from including the more expensive 80s 42mm Ocean 2000 by IWC, and its more affordable little brother 34mm Ocean 500. But as I was dipping my toes back in the bargain eBay water, I was looking for the cheapest 90s 41mm Porsche Design Titanium Diver manufactured by Eterna (my PD Diver).

Now this is where information gets hard to find. I have now seen my PD Diver advertised as 80s, 90s and 00s, however I believe they were made in the 90s and 00s but happy if someone can confirm. Also, Porsche Design is a design house so not traditionally a manufacturer of anything with their name on it, eg. cars, sunglasses, skis, clothing, shoes, or watches. My PD Chronograph is made by Orfina but was also manufactured by Lemania and Eterna. Again I believe my PD Diver (Ref.6501.10) replaced the PD Ocean Divers of the 80s mentioned before, and at some stage in the 90s Porsche Design acquired Eterna.

Anyway, back to the search, really only eBay and Chrono24 had say less than ten, and even then I suspect there were multiples of the same watch from the Japanese sellers. I did make an eBay offer to one of the Japanese sellers but as is know, they are not really into negotiating. Then, one popped up on eBay from a WA seller in apparently NOS condition and he was open to offers, so we agreed on a price and like a time-warp back to the 90s and 00s, I waited to see what turned up in the post.

Primarily the design of this watch is what appeals to me, I already own a 70s Tissot T-12 Chronograph which in my opinion was the (very strong) design inspiration of the 00s Marc Newson Ikepod watch brand (that I also already own a Thunderbird version of thanks To Roman), and so this UFO 80s/90s design from PD unsurprisingly drew me to it. Like most of my watch purchases, I care little about the movement and tend to read about these details after I own a watch.

In short, it’s very cool and I love it!

Pros
– Unique Design – it ain’t no boring desk-diving investment submariner that every wanker-banker is wearing these days.
– Quality Execution – well, it looks top shelf to my untrained 50 year old eyes.
– Comfortable to Wear – for a larger integrated bracelet titanium watch.

Cons
– Lack of reference and history information
– Links took a little while to remove
– Not many around to choose from.

Quality
90

Style
95

Value
90

Wearability
85