In 1975, a timepiece surfaced from beneath the cinematic waves—quietly, confidently, and without pretension. It wasn’t a watch chosen for its fame. It became famous for what it stood for: courage, craft, and character.

The Alsta Nautoscaph 'Superautomatic' was worn by Matt Hooper—played by Richard Dreyfuss—in JAWS. But before the screen immortalised it, the Superautomatic was already a tool trusted by those who ventured beyond the shoreline, into deeper waters and wilder horizons.

Half a century later, we bring you not a reissue—but a reimagining.

The Alsta Nautoscaph was first released in the mid-1960s and was a skin diver which was served a different market need than the professional diver watches of the time. Skin divers were designed to be work on the wrist against the skin as opposed to over a wet suit, hence the name skin diver. They were usually rated to be waterproof to a shallower depth than professional diver watches. Alsta skin divers were still rated to dive well below the depths of typical sports divers. Alsta is proud to announce the next in the series of re-editions of the Nautoscaph family.

The Nautoscaph draws its inspiration from Alsta’s own 1960s dive watches, reimagined to meet the rigorous demands of contemporary exploration. Its distinct skin diver case shape pays homage to the era when form followed function, resulting in a design that is as enduring as it is practical. Reintroduced and available now in stunning bronze.

The founder of Alsta Watch, Joseph Alstater, was born in 1910 in Belgium. He emigrated with his wife to the United States in 1940 and settled down in New Jersey. After the Second World War he moved to New York City and established the Alstater Watch Corporation.

Like many other watch brands at the time Alsta turned to Switzerland for its high-quality manufacturing of time-piece movements which were brought to the US and cased under the name Alsta Creations. Alsta, quickly becoming one of the most prolific and interesting post war watch brands in America.

Alsta’s designs generally followed the changing tastes evolving from the more traditional dress type of watch, favoured in the 1940s and 50s, into the larger more sporty styles, which were popular in the 1960s and 70s. All of these are now extremely rare in the pre-owned watch market.

Our contributions cover a wide range of topics across various media platforms, and our contributors include watch collectors, enthusiasts, and close friends of Alsta. We feature exciting interviews with Hayley Easton Street, director of StudioCanal’s Something in the Water, who opens up about her journey in the film industry, as well as British actor Marc Aldridge, who shares his own journey. There is also a wonderful piece about the Jaws watch receiving its first service in 50 years, alongside regular articles from our founder and CEO, Angus Macfadyen.