From the workshops of Montreal-based Héron comes a timepiece that doesn’t just tell time, it evokes an era. Héron, already lauded for their unwavering commitment to crafting vintage-inspired watches of exceptional calibre, expands its celebrated Marinor collection with a vibrant new iteration: the Marinor Rainbow Watch (From $570).
Building upon the foundation of classic dive watch design that underpins the entire Marinor family, this latest model takes a decidedly groovy detour into the colourful world of late 1960s aesthetics, all while retaining the robust spirit and ‘old-school cool’ skin-diver essence that has cemented the Marinor’s place in the hearts of horological enthusiasts.
The Marinor Rainbow is more than just a pretty face; it’s a considered homage to a fascinating, if somewhat niche, chapter in dive watch history. It draws direct inspiration from the decompression scale dive watches that graced wrists in the sixties and seventies, championed by brands like Mido, Buler, Cornavin, and Vulcain.
These were not merely time-telling devices; they were functional tools for divers, ingeniously incorporating multi-coloured scales that became the watch industry’s stylish nod to the bold, boundary-pushing colours dominating pop art, psychedelic posters, and the burgeoning world of avant-garde fashion. Héron has deftly captured this vibrant spirit, employing a carefully chosen, subtly desaturated rainbow palette that speaks of refined taste rather than brash exuberance.
This masterful blend of serious diving pedigree and artistic verve perfectly encapsulates a time when creativity and innovation were reshaping both the landscape of design and the very frontiers of human exploration.
The quartet of coloured rings adorning the decompression scale are far from mere decorative flourishes. They are imbued with a practical purpose, echoing their historical function as a visual reference for depth levels. This ingenious design acknowledges the physics of the underwater realm; as a diver descends, the spectrum of light is progressively absorbed by the water, causing colours to vanish one by one.
This phenomenon transformed these multi-coloured scales into a genuinely functional tool, allowing divers to instantly correlate depth with crucial decompression stop times, a vital consideration for safe underwater exploration.
Complementing this colourful functionality is the Marinor Rainbow’s precisely engineered countdown bezel. Featuring a satisfyingly tactile 120-click mechanism, it works in perfect synergy with the decompression scale, allowing divers to meticulously monitor their time beneath the waves, manage their bottom time with accuracy, and precisely track their ascent stops.
Encased beneath a robust, domed sapphire crystal – chosen for its remarkable durability and its subtle nod to vintage watchmaking aesthetics – the dial, with its distinctive sandwich construction and integrated decompression scale, exudes both depth and character. Powered by the reliable automatic Miyota 9039 movement, housed within a water-resistant case tested to 300 meters, and secured by a robust, scratch-resistant bracelet featuring a convenient quick-release and micro-adjustment system, the Heron Marinor Rainbow is a timepiece built for purpose and designed to captivate. It’s a vibrant, vintage-inspired dive watch that doesn’t just mark the passage of time, but paints it with the colours of a bygone, and undeniably groovy, era.
