Marine Nationale 1990s Auricoste Spirotechnique Deep Dive (Ref. 906.21.05)

Auricoste is a French watch company that produced watches for the French military and Navy, and for civilian use as well. This means a large majority of Auricoste watches are military issued.

La Spirotechnique is a French company founded by Jacques Cousteau and Emille Gagnan in 1947 to distribute the Aqua-Lung regulator developed by Jacques Cousteau. The main focus of Spirotechnique was creating and supplying high-end diving equipment to professional divers. Spirotechnique also supplied diving equipment, which included watches, to the French Navy and Army. La Spirotechnique's American branch opened as the U.S. Divers Company, which later changed its name to Aqua Lung America.

Spirotechnique worked in collaboration with a couple of different watch companies throughout their history including, Doxa, Squale, TAG Heuer, and Auricoste. The Auricoste Spirotechnique came to be by licensing the case design of the Deep Dive from TAG Heuer. Interestingly though, Tag Heuer didn't actually manufacture the Deep Dive case, the case was actually manufactured by Zodiac watches. 

The Auricoste Spirotechnique to this day remains a very special and very cool watch that has deep ties in the horological world. Relating back to Jacques Cousteau, TAG Heuer, Zodiac watches, and the French military.

This specific example shows not only the reference n the caseback but the MN inventory reference. Additionally, the watch retains its original issued black single pass nato strap adding to the character and vibe of the watch!