The Aquatic and Marine family was essentially invented in 1988 when Davidoff Cool Water introduced a synthetic molecule called Calone — creating the smell of the ocean where before there was none. The entire genre descends from this single innovation. If you have ever smelled a ‘fresh’ masculine fragrance from the 1990s, you have smelled the aquatic family.

The key molecules are Calone (watermelon-ocean quality), ambroxan (warm, skin-amplifying, slightly animalic — the ambergris substitute that gave the modern fresh-aquatic genre its longevity), and various ozonic molecules that evoke cold sea air, ozone and rain. Sea salt notes have become increasingly important in more naturalistic marine compositions.