Aquastar Regate - Felsa 4000N - Five-Dot Yacht Timer - Circa 1965-1970

A yacht race begins five minutes before the gun.

Five minutes out the fleet is behind the line, sailing back and forth, killing time and watching each other. Four minutes out one boat breaks for the better end of the line and three others go with it. Three minutes out the boat is still holding back, sails eased, waiting for its moment. Two minutes out it turns for the line and the sails come in hard. It leans over and picks up speed, and the deck tilts until the crew are hanging off the high side with spray coming back over them. Two other boats have turned at the same moment. One is a length off to the left. One is coming down from the right. All three are aiming for a gap that is not wide enough for three. One minute out somebody shouts for room and nobody gives it. Arrive one second early and the race is over. The boat turns back through the whole fleet and starts again in wind the others have already used. The only person aboard not watching the line is the one calling the minutes.

What none of them can do in that moment is arithmetic.

Frederic Robert sailed. He was also a watchmaker, the fifth generation of the family that founded JeanRichard in the 1800s, and in 1962 he renamed the family firm Aquastar because he had decided to build instruments for the water instead of watches for a drawer.

A chronograph makes a skipper look down, find a hand, work out what it means and look back up. Robert took the arithmetic out. Press the pusher and the seconds hand snaps to the top while all five discs turn red. Release it and the countdown runs. At the end of the first minute one disc goes silver, then the next, then the next. When the last red one turns, five minutes are gone and the race has started.

Aquastar patented the module in 1964, built on a JeanRichard patent from 1961, and the Regate became the first regatta timer ever fitted to a wristwatch. While Aquastar made them at one point Heuer took on distribution and sold Regates with its own name printed beside Aquastar's, and began building yacht timers of its own soon after.

The dial is silver sunburst, and light dances across it. It is original and clean, the printing sharp. The five apertures sit in a shallow arc across the top with REGATE printed beneath them and the starfish above Aquastar Geneve. The central hand is orange, the one loud thing on the watch, because it has to be found in a hurry.

Then there is the track around the edge. It reads sixty, fifty-five, fifty, forty-five, falling as it goes clockwise. The hand sweeping around it is not counting seconds up. It is counting them off.

The case is steel, polished, with long angular lugs that fall away from the body in flat facets and edges that have stayed sharp. The crown is signed Aquastar and a separate pusher below it works the discs. The screw-back has Aquastar's toothed center section, engraved Aquastar Regate under a starfish with the reference and the caliber beneath, and STAINLESS STEEL, 100% WATERPROOF, INCABLOC, ANTIMAGNETIC, SWISS MADE and AUTOMATIC around the rim.

The lume has aged to a warm cream beautifully. The domed acrylic crystal is clear and bright, and the case carries fine scratches from wear. It comes on a blue suede rally strap.

Under the back the rotor is signed Aquastar Watch Co, seventeen jewels, Swiss, unadjusted, over the Felsa 4000N with Aquastar's regatta module built onto it. It runs and keeps time, the discs cycle and reset, and its service history is unknown.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

All sales final.