To overcome the lack of year-long profiling data of upper ocean layers in remote areas, a Subsea Winched Profiling System (SWIPS) was developed at the Alfred Wegener Institute. As a top of a scientific mooring it is able to winch a profiling unit equipped with various sensors from depths up to 200 m to the surface. The whole construction was deliberately designed to be compact and lightweight in order to simplify handling and improve performance in the water. Profiler and winch unit are connected by an electro-mechanical cable, which is used for a communication link between these two components. This allows the position of the profiling unit to be controlled and the measured data to be stored in the winch unit as a safety backup. The cable also supplies the profiling unit with power. Several tests and demonstration deployments have shown the operational readiness of the system.