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Where Cressi Came From, and How to Say It
In 1938 in Genoa, the Cressi brothers started handcrafting masks and spearguns. The brand name is their family surname, and the first mask was called Sirena. Also: the double S is not decoration.
A surname, not a word
Cressi is an Italian brand, born in Genoa (Genova).
In 1938, the brothers Egidio Cressi and Nanni Cressi began handcrafting masks and spearguns.1
You may already have spotted it — Cressi is a family surname. A lot of diving brands are; Beuchat, below, is another.
In 1943 they released their first mask, the Sirena.1
Sirena is the Siren: mermaid, sea-nymph, and siren in the alarm sense. Those meanings share a root — the Sirens of Greek myth lured sailors with a beautiful high voice, and that is where the warning "siren" gets its name. As a name for a mask, it is rather romantic.
Cressi is one of the oldest diving equipment manufacturers in the world.
Which is older, Cressi or Beuchat? Not a useful question
Beuchat was established in 1934, in Marseille.2
Four years earlier. But the gap is not really the point — what you find quoted is always a "founding" date, counted differently by each company, with no consistent legal meaning behind it. Both are houses that started doing this in the 1930s. That is the useful fact.
What Cressi looks like to me
Trim. And there is a colour: a beautiful royal blue, close to the blue in their logo, with a pearlescent sheen to it.
You can see it on their masks, and on the suit Guillaume Néry wears.
Pronunciation: the double S is not decoration
It is Cres·si, which is as intuitive as it looks.
The part that matters is in the middle: a doubled S means you pause very slightly between them. It is more a feeling than a stop — the effect is that the S comes out heavier and longer. Italian double consonants work this way generally; they are not a spelling quirk, they are pronounced.
Read it with English habits and you get a light, hurried Cressi. Just remember the pause.
Recap
- Cressi is Italian, from Genoa, founded in 1938 by the brothers Egidio and Nanni Cressi
- The brand name is the family surname
- The first mask, Sirena (1943), means mermaid, sea-nymph and siren
- Arguing about whether Cressi or Beuchat (1934) is older is not worth much; both are 1930s houses
- Pronunciation: pause on the double S, and let it land heavier
1. Cressi official brand history: the brothers Egidio and Nanni Cressi began handcrafting masks and spearguns in 1938; the first Cressi mask, Sirena, followed in 1943
2. Beuchat was established in Marseille in 1934 by Georges Beuchat