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Baylor Automatic Diver 'Captain Cook', Stadium Bezel, circa 1969 — view 1 of 6
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Wristwatches · Wristwatch

Baylor Automatic Diver 'Captain Cook', Stadium Bezel, circa 1969

DocumentedDocumented from a dealer's listing; attribution and date as stated by the dealer.
Maker / attribution
Baylor (maker)
Date
c. 1969
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Wristwatch
Stock no.
vws3057
Credit line
Dealer listing, Vintage Watch Specialist (vws3057)
Catalogue title (original)
Baylor Automatic Diver 'Captain Cook' - Stadium Bezel - c.1969 (English)

View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction

Record summary

Catalogued by Vintage Watch Specialist (dealer), United Kingdom (stock number vws3057), this is a wristwatch by Baylor, dated c. 1969. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Wristwatches collection. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

Dealer description — Vintage Watch Specialist

A Superb Baylor Automatic Diver 'Captain Cook' with a Stadium Bezel, Grey Metallic Dial and Beautiful Pumpkin Lume, c.1969 “Baylor” was a house brand for Zale's, a large chain of jewellery stores headquartered in Texas. The company was founded in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1924 and its headquarters moved to Dallas, Texas in 1946. What's on Offer Rado introduced the Captain Cook watch in 1962, an attempt at serving the diving craze trend that had hit the 1960s and was named after British navigator and explorer James Cook, famed for sailing and mapping much of the South Pacific. This Baylor (by Rado) dive watch is almost identical to the Rado Captain Cook, featuring the same case, dial design and stadium bezel and is as collectable as the Rado version for sure. The watch is in fantastic pre-owned condition and features a metallic grey dial with chunky hour indexes that have maintained their original lume and which have aged to a beautiful pumpkin colour as has the lume on the hands - we love us some pumpkin lume! There is a date aperture at 3 o'clock. The caseback reveals that the watch is tested to 600ft, however, we wouldn't guarantee the water resistance due to the vintage, the watch is powered by an A.S. (A.Schild) movement (1903) which is also the same as the Rado CC. These watches are few and far between and have become rather desirable among collectors, especially in such immaculate condition - you would be hard-pushed to find a better example on the market today.

Historical context

Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)

Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.

Quartz and digital watches transformed the market after 1969. Swiss employment collapsed, Japanese and Hong Kong production soared, and the Swatch (1983) helped the Swiss industry recover; mechanical watches survived as luxury goods.

Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology

Atlas type guide

Dive and water-resistant watches

Keeping water and dust out of a wristwatch was a long-standing challenge. Rolex's screw-down Oyster case (1926) and Omega's Marine (1932) were landmarks; in the early 1950s Blancpain's Fifty Fathoms and Rolex's Submariner defined the professional dive watch with rotating bezels for timing dives, luminous dials and high water resistance. The ISO 6425 standard (1982) later codified what a 'diver's watch' must do.

Dive watches became icons of post-war design and exploration, and their evolution — helium escape valves, ceramic bezels, saturation-diving depth ratings — records the history of underwater work.

What to look for

  • Unidirectional or bidirectional rotating bezel with minute markings.
  • Screw-down crown and case back; depth rating printed on the dial.
  • Luminous hands and markers (radium before c. 1960, tritium c. 1960–1998, then Super-LumiNova).
  • Reference numbers on the case between the lugs or inside the back.

Dating clues

  • Screw-down Oyster cases: from 1926.
  • Professional dive watches: from 1953.
  • Tritium 'T' marks on dials: c. 1960–1998.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

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