PPF | Aquanaut 5167A — Now With a Free Spring

The Aquanaut 5167A-001 is the steel-on-rubber everyday watch of the grail set, a sentence that makes sense to nobody outside this hobby. PPF has a new one, and the interesting part is not the dial. It is, reportedly, a choice of what ticks behind it.

The release

The factory poster lists a forged stainless steel case, a deep grey sunray dial with the embossed pattern, and a clone of the 26-330 S C calibre. That last part matters. The genuine 26-330 arrived in 2019, brought the hacking seconds the older 324 never had, and reached the 5167A in mid-2022 production. The original measures 40.8 mm across and wears a black composite strap with a fold-over clasp, shown here still in its protective film, as is tradition.

According to dealer reports, there are two versions. The standard watch is said to sit around $530. The second, reportedly sold under the UMI name for around $655, is said to carry an “SH330-fs” movement: a free-sprung 330 clone with hacking seconds, attributed to a movement maker reported as Jinghe. The poster does not say which version it shows.

A movement photo said to show the free-sprung version has since surfaced: no regulator arm on the balance, and what look like adjustment screws on the rim. Both are what you’d expect from a free-sprung design, but nobody has compared it side by side with the genuine 26-330 yet.

Why it matters

The genuine calibre uses a free-sprung balance, adjusted by weights on its rim rather than by a regulator arm. Clones have traditionally copied the look and kept the arm. Until now, a free-sprung 324 or 330 meant finding a modder and paying something near $3,000. If the reported version is what it claims to be, that gap has just shrunk by a few thousand dollars.

The UMI badge also raises a family question. UMI has been presented as PPF’s rival. A free-sprung PPF option sold under that name suggests the rivalry may be closer to kinship than competition. We note this and move on, politely.

The take

In the photographs, the case lines, crown guards and strap look right, and the caseback shows a convincing 330 layout under a gold-tone rotor. What the pictures cannot tell us is which version this is. Free-sprung is a claim you prove with a timegrapher and a few months on the wrist, not with a poster. Even so, it is the most interesting thing to happen to the steel Aquanaut in some time.

Release report based on the factory poster, photographs and dealer reports. We have not handled this example. The free-sprung movement, the UMI version and the prices are reported claims, not independently verified.