First Look: Ianos Avyssos

The Greek poet Homer wrote about sponges, which tells us that retrieving sponges from the seafloor has been going on in Greece for as long as 3,000 years. Cultivating sponges requires diving as deep as 100 meters for as long as five minutes on a single breath. To get to the bottom quickly with minimal effort, Greek sponge divers tied themselves to rounded stones called skandalopetra, which would drag them to the bottom where soft sponges grow.

In 1900, sponge divers discovered an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island Antikythera. Resting 148 feet below the surface (deep even for modern SCUBA divers), this wreck is believed to have gone down around 70BC. Among the artifacts these sponge divers raised was the Antikythera mechanism, a clock-like movement with over 30 interlocking gears. The Antikythera mechanism is thought to be the first mechanical computer, and theories of what it computed abound. Most researchers agree, however, that the mechanism kept track of time, including the passage of the 12-month calendar, the passage of multiple years, and likely the movement of heavenly bodies. Though ancient Greek astronomical calculations were a bit out of whack, it appears that the mechanism tracked those calculations with incredible accuracy.

A brand new Greek watch company called Ianos will soon be issuing a dive watch dedicated to the legacy of those intrepid sponge divers who discovered the Antikythera mechanism. They’re calling the watch the Avyssos, which is Greek for “abyss.” Add it all up, and we’re looking at a very watery Greek theme that Ianos has managed to realize, quite cleverly, with nearly every detail of the Avyssos.

Around front is a compelling sandwich dial—a bit reminiscent of that other Mediterranean-oriented brand Panerai—and the numerical font manages to look original without succumbing to oddness. The dial’s surface is granulated like medium-weight sandpaper, and Ianos claims this is to replicate the rust that encased the Antikythera mechanism. Once again, I totally buy it.

What I think everyone will buy into—and I think this is going to be the big selling point for the Avyssos—is the sub-dial. A lumed pinwheel rotates every 60 seconds beneath the 4-part aperture, creating an interesting alternative to a seconds hand. The shape of the sub-dial aperture is taken from one of the Antikythera mechanism’s two faces. The idea here isn’t accurate counting of seconds but a bold and quick assurance that the watch is running (this is the purpose of a seconds hand according to the ISO 6425 dive watch standard). It’s hard to imagine a sponge diver tied to a sinking stone plunging into total darkness being able to make out the motion of a tiny pip on a seconds hand, so the Avyssos’ sub-dial turns out to be a rather ingenious marriage of form and function. On dry land, the rotating disc isn’t distracting like, say, an exposed tourbillon. In the dark, however, that rotating disc is like a slow-moving disco light.

The bezel and the screw-down crown have a bolt-head shape to them—another nod to the Antikythera mechanism—and both operate easily between finger and thumb (not always true with crowns and bezels that lack knurling).

Water resistance is full-on at 300 meters/1,000 feet; crystal is a sapphire dome; stainless steel is 316L—standard stuff for an indie dive watch. A number of compelling colorways will be available, though I really enjoy the Greekness of the blue and white version I have in hand.