Abercrombie & Fitch published several catalogs over the course of the year, with the “Play Hours” catalogs focusing on summer sports and travel — vacations at the beach, swimming, boating, fishing, camping, etc.

The 1949 Play Hours catalog is interesting for watch collectors, in that Abercrombie & Fitch was introducing — on page 38 — the “New Tide Watch” which it had designed especially for yachtsmen and those spending time along the seacoast. This was the Abercrombie & Fitch “Seafarer”, with the first model being derived from Heuer’s Reference 346 chronograph.  The catalog describes the tide dial on the left (which shows the times of the high and low tides each day), the minute dial on the right (specially painted to be useful for yachtsmen, counting down the five minute increments to the start of a yacht race) and the hour recorder at the bottom, perfect for timing a cruise or race that lasts up to 12 hours. This first version of the Seafarer was introduced in 1949 and it would be offered by Abercrombie & Fitch into the 1970s.

On page 39 of this Play Hours catalog, we see the Abercrombie & Fitch Yacht Timer, also made by Heuer (as Reference 912).  This stopwatch featured a two-color repeating dial which counted down the minutes, from 10 to 5 (in red) and then from 5 to 0 (in white).  The scale for seconds around the edge of the dial also counted down, from 60 seconds to 0 seconds.