The Auricoste Démineur is a limited series of 150 pieces built for the Démineurs de la Sécurité Civile, France's bomb disposal and mine clearance service. Around 700,000 unexploded WWII munitions still sit under the seabed along the Channel coast. The teams who find and destroy them needed a watch that could handle the job: readable in low light, shock-resistant, and waterproof to serious depth.
Auricoste has been the official watchmaker of the French Navy ("Horloger de la Marine") since 1854. They equipped combat swimmers and mine-clearing divers from the 1980s onward. This Démineur continues that lineage.
Specifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Movement | Sellita SW200, automatic |
| Frequency | 28,800 vph (4 Hz) |
| Power reserve | 38 hours |
| Jewels | 26 |
| Case | 316L steel, 40 mm diameter, 12.85 mm thick |
| Case back | Screw-down steel |
| Crown | Steel, positioned at 4H |
| Bezel | Unidirectional dive bezel |
| Crystal | Anti-scratch sapphire |
| Water resist. | 300 m |
| Dial | Black, indexes and hands coated in Super-LumiNova |
| Strap | Tropic FKM rubber + NATO kaki (two straps included) |
| Edition | Limited to 150 pieces |
| Price | 2,650 EUR |
What stands out
The dial features ten-second marking zones designed to help time field operations precisely. Crown at 4 o'clock keeps it from digging into the wrist during physical work. Two straps included: a Tropic FKM for diving and a NATO kaki for land ops.
The Sellita SW200 is a proven workhorse. 300m water resistance with a screw-down caseback is proper dive-watch territory. At 40mm and under 13mm thick, it stays compact on wrist, which matters when you're handling explosives.
At 2,650 EUR for a limited French-made military piece with real provenance, this sits in interesting territory. Not a fashion collab. An actual tool watch commissioned by the people who use it.