1. The helium escape valve is revered as the ultimate technical feature of a dive watch; a “fact” disputed by certain specialists. In reality, a helium escape valve serves a purpose only during saturation diving. This high-risk profession is reserved for a small and elite group of experienced commercial divers. In the vast majority of cases, this complication is therefore of no practical use.
2. Why are dive watches almost invariably cased in steel? One reason is that manufacturers have perfected the machines and techniques for working with this metal and know exactly what its physical reactions are. Also, a steel component can have an ideal surface state, which limits the risk of water seepage. Lastly, despite having a surface resistance greater than that of steel, materials such as titanium, carbon and sapphire can demonstrate undesirable behaviour when exposed to very high pressure underwater. While steel may not have the high-tech credentials of other materials, for dive watches so far nothing can beat it!
3. Spirotechnique is the name not of a particular model of watch but that of a manufacturer of diving regulators that several brands (and competitors) have simultaneously used under licence over the past 40 years. Auricoste is one. The brand was revived in 2011 by a 78-year-old Claude Tordjmann who, on the eve of his 90th birthday, is still at the helm!
4. In 2011 Blancpain revealed the extravagant X Fathoms in real-life conditions of use, i.e. underwater. Nothing unusual for a dive watch, you may say. Except the diver wearing it was Marc Hayek, CEO of Blancpain and himself a keen diver. For good measure, the launch took place at the bottom of the giant, shark-filled aquarium in the Dubai Mall.
5. In the entire watch industry, only one brand has a professional diver at its head. Frank Huyghe - who formed Ralf Tech in 1996 - is a qualified deep-sea diver with years of experience. The brand’s flagship dive watches have all been tested to their water-resistance depth not in a laboratory pressure chamber but in actual underwater immersion. Very few brands (Rolex is another) go to such extremes.
This year GMT Magazine and WorldTempus have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the divers watch since 2000 in The Millennium Watch Book - Divers watch, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. This article is an extract. The Millennium Watch Book - Divers watch is available in both French and English here:
