For those who love the active life – especially the underwater diving life – a host of important technically precise watches can keep pace. Generally, diver’s watches are rugged timepieces meant to withstand the toughest elements. Throughout the 20th century, a host of brands became involved in the diving world. In fact, Blancpain this year celebrates the 60th anniversary of its famed Fifty Fathoms watch that accompanied divers in the 1950s.
In recent years, as recreational diving has led to ever more serious diving enthusiasts going professional, top watch brands have developed diver’s watches for both serious and recreational divers. The best diver’s watches on the market today typically are defined by certain important characteristics. Essentially, a diver’s watch for saturation diving versus scuba diving must be water-resistant to at least the depth prescribed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – namely 200 meters to 300 meters – and also offer additional functions or features that would be helpful underwater.
Diver’s watches are often COSC-certified chronometers. Chronometers are watches that have undergone rigorous testing in various positions and under different conditions of pressure, temperature, depth and gravity, usually by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute over a 15-day period. Additionally, most diver’s watches feature SuperLuminova hands and markers for underwater reading, as well as anti-glare crystals.
To withstand extreme conditions, most diver’s watches are built of rugged materials such as steel, titanium or gold, but some watchmakers also use high-tech composites such as engineering ceramic for cases. Such is the case with the new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe that uses a silicon balance spring and a graduated scale in Liquidmetal®. Similarly, Girard-Perregaux’s Sea Hawk diver’s watch is created in high-tech, rugged ceramic and is water-resistant to 300 meters. The new Ball Engineer Master II Diver GMT, also water-resistant to 300 meters, has strong anti-shock and anti-magnetic components.
Watchmakers are indeed careful to equip their dive-specific timepieces with a variety of features to render them ultra water-resistant and diver friendly. Many of these features are patented. Such attributes include double- or triple-locked winding crowns, additional gaskets for water resistance, helium escape valves, silicon O-rings, extra-large crowns, graduated one-way rotating bezels that click into place and measure elapsed time under water, and double-locked bracelet clasps.
Some diver’s watches indicate bottom time, measure elapsed time, have an alarm function that can be sensed under water and even come with interchangeable bracelets or straps with extensions so the watch can be worn over the wet suit. Color also plays a role in diving, but only to limited depths. Red and orange disperse first, typically at a depth of about 30 feet, when these colors turn gray. Yellow lasts longer and blue is the color that says visible the longest – to depths of 200 to 300 feet - before they are no longer readable. Luminescence is therefore key. In short, when looking for a diver’s watch, one thing is certain: function is more important than form.
