The history of STOWA sports watches
History & Inspiration
STOWA has been successfully building professional sports and diving watches since 1963. The resulting watches of recent decades are diverse. Especially in the seventies, the designers of the brand were very active. Fancy watches with playful color schemes were created. The effort has always been to carefully continue the tradition, but also to modernize the models. The sports watch Seatime (200 meters water resistant) and the diving watch Prodiver (1000 meters water resistant) were born out of this. Design features of the earlier watches were carefully revised and adapted without destroying the DNA.
Some previous examples
Previous sports watch models
60s
Collector's watch from the STOWA Museum with blue dial, late sixties.
One of the inspirations for the creation of the new limited model Prodiver Blue Limited.
Historical Seatime models
Design features of the previous watches have been carefully revised and adapted without destroying the DNA.
70s
Collectors watch from the STOWA museum with colorful galvanized dial, seventies.
Awards: 10 times in a row Diver's Watch of the Year - The STOWA Prodiver (2013 to 2022)
The new edition
Requested by watch lovers: Preserve tradition & still think ahead
2004 - Seatime limited
Together with the members of a German forum, a new Seatime dial is created and issued in a limited series. Striking features of this first sports watch of the modern era are the dash luminous indexes and different dial colors combined with them.
2005 – Seatime Series
After the first limited series with the index dial, STOWA presents the series watch, which has hardly changed until today. It has a dial with luminous numerals and date display. Since then, limited dial colors and patterns have been realized again and again. (e.g. pink, carbon, yellow, etc.).
2006 – Prodiver
The desire to make the Seatime even more professional and to implement all the features of a real diver's watch was realized in the Prodiver. A helium valve and water resistance up to 1000 meters guarantee absolute functionality. A very appreciated watch among divers, sportsmen and collectors.
2013 – Prodiver Orange
The orange Prodiver has won the hearts of watch collectors in 2013. The watch presents itself boldly and freshly and is rewarded for it. At the moment, the Prodiver is available in lime as well as orange.
2014 – Seatime Black Forest Limited
The idea of making a special limited edition model of our popular Seatime was well received. For the first time, the trademarked dynadots, created in collaboration with world-renowned designer Hartmut Esslinger (frog design founder and inventor of the Apple design language), were also applied to the bezel. Five-minute dots that increase in diameter to subtly signal the progression of time. The dynadots make reading elapsed time very easy.
2016 – Prodiver Blue Limited
Inspired by previous STOWA dials - which were also galvanized blue - we launched two different watch series last year. The sold out Flieger Blue Limited and the sold out Marine Original Blue Limited. The idea to use the traditional STOWA blue also for our sports watch immediately met with the approval of numerous STOWA collectors.
The Prodiver Blue Limited, special model limited to 200 pieces. With rubber or metal strap. A very classy looking version of our popular STOWA sports watch.
2014 – Prodiver Limette
Lime as a hand color, a beautiful and striking splash of color. This pleases the voters at Watchtime.net again and the most votes in the category up to EUR 2,500 are given to the STOWA Prodiver Lime. The green hand is also used on the rhodium and carbon dial.
2015
Black Forest Limited.
The collaboration with Hartmut Esslinger on the Rana model inspires Jörg Schauer and he creates another special feature with the Dynadots bezel. For the first time, the markings on the bezel are also subtly recognizable. Ascending luminous dots show the clear progression of time.
2016
Prodiver. Blue Limited. Limited to 200 watches worldwide.
Beautiful blue dial, polished hands and titanium case. In September 2016 awarded as the best diving watch in the price category up to EUR 2,500 (watchtime.net).
2017
Prodiver Olymp Bronze wins watch vote!
Once again a STOWA sports model has won the popular online election at Watchtime! For the fifth time in a row (!) our sports watch Prodiver wins this competition (in the highly competitive category up to 2.500.- Euro). We are not only happy about the actual win, but also about the number of votes cast: No other watch (across all categories), has received more individual votes in the entire election than STOWA: Over 2200 readers have voted for the Prodiver Olymp Bronze!
2018
Prodiver white wins diving watch vote 2018
For the sixth time in a row, a STOWA diving watch wins the popular election at watchtime.net, the leading online portal of the German watch industry. By a wide margin, readers vote for our new Prodiver - this time equipped with a white dial.
2019
Prodiver Grey Limited - Collector's Edition!
Limited to 100 pieces. The dial is made in the beautiful STOWA gray. STOWA has used this dial color in historical watches before. The polished hands with the inlaid luminous material make the watch look noble despite its sportiness. Turquoise elements. For the first time, the Prodiver Grey Limited uses the new ceramic bezel!
2020
Prodiver Black Green Keramik wins Diver's Watch Vote 2020
For the eighth time in a row, our diver's watch Prodiver wins the popular diver's watch vote at watchtime.net (the award in the category "up to 1,500 euros"). Once again with the most votes (4,158 out of approx. 8,000) across all categories, it was confirmed that the Prodiver is one of the most popular sports watches in the entire watch market!
2021
Prodiver Mauritius wins diving watch vote 2021
For the ninth time in a row, our diving watch Prodiver wins the popular diving watch election at watchtime.net (the award in the category "1.501 Euro to 2.500 Euro"). Once again with the most votes (2,978 out of approx.7,000) across all categories, it was confirmed that the Prodiver is one of the most popular sports watches in the entire watch market!
2022
Prodiver Vintage 95 Limited wins Diver's Watch Vote 2022
For the tenth time in a row, our diving watch Prodiver wins the popular diving watch election at watchtime.net (the award in the category "1.501 Euro to 2.500 Euro"). Once again with the most votes (2.286 out of approx.8.000) in this category, it was confirmed that the Prodiver is one of the most popular sports watches in the whole watch market!
