BUFO is the genus name of toads.
This watch has a shape which reminds me of a device built some years ago.
I was then in charge of the mechanical design and workshop of a Florentine Company specialized in underwater equipment. As it often happened, the project was very late compared to company’s roadmap deadlines. It was an electronic device connected to a floating foamed material that our Company had to provide to a Special Corps of the Italian Navy.
Just the day before the delivery of the instrument, we understood that the designed float was inadequate to meet the technical requirements. We needed what is called in Italian a “sleight of hand”, “un colpo di mano”: devise a possible (and rapid) solution.
It was decided to build a new, more suitable, float in the few nocturnal hours left before the delivering time. Two persons were forced to volunteer : Fernando, the experienced mechanic who usually followed prototypes’ tests, and myself.
We began to manipulate foam and polystyrene and we continued far into the night, with the occasional company of a security guard inspecting regularly the place.
The next morning, a few hours before the delivery to the personnel of the Navy Special Corps, the new float was completed.
The shape was unusual, a black, animal-shaped body.
In those days at Sarzana, a small town close to La Spezia, had been found by a night guard a Taurus frog, a huge exotic amphibian escaped from some aquarium.
The local newspaper broke the news with the discovery of a “rospo di Sarzana” (Sarzana’s toad). At the moment of the sea trial, the Military Navy professionals gave to our device the name “rospo of Sarzana”.
- Functions hh:mm:ss
- Movement electronic analogic (battery life about 42 months)
- Body aluminum bronze, patinated. The stainless steel case-back is fixed to the body by 3 screws ISO 1207
- Strap 18mm
- Crown stainless steel
- Crystal sapphire
- Water-proof no
Delivery in leather case
