Divers’ watches

Divers’ watches or dive watches (divers’ watch is the official word for them) have always been one of my favourite style of watches. For 2 reasons:

1. The features of divers’ watches.
2. The design and style of divers’ watches.

Even if I’m passionate about aesthetics and the design of watches, it has always been the number 2 for me. The biggest things for me about watches are the technology and features in a watch and close to my heart are fully mechanical automatic watches.

What intrigues me in automatic mechanical watches is the fact that they run without batteries and can theoretically run forever. Of course they need to be serviced and mainttained regularly, but still no batteries needed.

When we come to divers’ watches it ads another level to the features of the watches, because they have to withstand enormous pressure when diving deep while still functioning properly.

We have the official ISO 6425 standard for divers’ watches, but not all manufacturers test their watches even if many are built according to the standards.

How I  myself categorize divers’ watches are in 3 categories 100 meters / 10 atm, 200 meters / 20 atm and 300 meters / 30 atm (or more) water resistance. Of course there are 50 meter / 5 atm water resistand watches, but the ISO 6425 standard requires a minimum of 100 meters / 10 atm of water resistand. And also personally I put the 50 meter / 5 atm water resistand watches in general water resistand watches.

On top of the water resistance, another very important feature is the rotating bezel, which accodring to the ISO 6425 standard helapsed time bezel must rotate only counter-clockwise. Reason for this it will only show that more time has passed, causing a diver to end the dive early with a safe air reserve, rather than dangerously overstaying.

Here are the Seiko definitions of their water resistant markings:
WATER RESISTANT 10 BAR: If “WATER RESISTANT 10 BAR or 100 M” appears on the dial and/or case back, the watch is designed and manufactured to withstand a pressure of 10 Bar: showering, swimming, shallow water diving (“freediving”), but not scuba or professional diving.
WATER RESISTANT 20 BAR: If “WATER RESISTANT 20 BAR or 200 M” appears on the dial and/or case back, the watch has been designed and manufactured to withstand a pressure of 20 Bar: showering, bathing, swimming, diving in medium depth water (“freediving”), but not scuba or professional diving.

If the watch has been exposed to sea water, rinse it with fresh water and then dry it thoroughly. Do not use the push-buttons or winding mechanism when the watch is wet or in water.

DIVER’S WATCH: For scuba diving, we recommend wearing a professional watch from the “DIVER’S WATCH” series (“200M DIVER” to “1000M DIVER”).

IMPORTANT:
Always check with the manufacturer or with us before buying a diver’s watch if you will use it for scuba diving or professional diving, because not all are suitable for scuba diving or professional diving.