Behind Divers Watches

Diving timepieces are designed for underwater diving that features a water resistance greater than 100 meters / 330 feet. The typical diver's watch will have a water resistance of around 200 to 300 meters / 660 to 980 feet, though modern technology allows the creation of diving watches that can go much deeper.

 

Divers timepieces are the most popular in the UK and in the US as well. It’s because they are completely waterproof, which makes them ideal for daily use.

 

So when it comes to functionality, diving timepieces offer so much more than most watches. They are designed to be readable underwater, which means they are supposedly easy to read.

 

Most modern dive watches are equipped with a rotating bezel, a feature designed to measure the amount of time taken for diving. This feature can also be used for other activities. The bezels also come in different shapes and colors, which makes them unique.

 

Many people have a tendency to like something sporty. Whether it’s a sportscar, sports bike, or sports shoes, people love associating themselves with an active/sporty lifestyle. That makes divers timepieces even more popular.

 

It’s not just for diving. People wear basketball shoes, but most of them don’t really play basketball. Or people who buy an off-road SUV but they never use it off-road. People like what a certain product is capable of, even if they not going to use it for that purpose.

 

But since how long have diving timepieces been around, and why?

 

The original idea wasn’t to go diving but to keep dust out of the watch.

 

In the 19th century, water and dust-resistant watches were usually one-off pieces custom made for a particular customer and described as "Explorer's Watches".

 

The creator of the Rolex watch brand came out with the Oyster watch case in 1926. This watch featured a hermetic seal that kept water out.

 

They proved themselves when an English swimmer Mercedes Gleitze used the Rolex watch during a 10-hour swimming session. The watch remained sealed and kept a good time throughout. That’s when it got a lot of attention.

 

Diving was a growing sport in the late 1920s. They even used the watch for military purposes. The Rolex watch became a success. After that, obviously many other brands wanted to hop on the train and make their own diver watch. One of them being OMEGA.

 

OMEGA created their first divers watch called “Omega Marine”. This was the world’s first commercially available diver timepiece. It was made in 1932. You could go deeper with this watch than any watch before, that’s why most divers choose it. There are other brands that tried making divers watches like Paneri and Cartier.

 

The first Japanese dive watch was made by Seiko in 1965. it used a self-winding automatic movement and was water resistant up to 150 meters. Japanese Antarctic Researchers were supplied with this watch on their mission from 1966 to 1969. At the time Seiko was making one of the most durable and reliable timepieces.

 

As of today, divers use these watches to tell the time underwater. These watches have a major influence up to this day.

 

A divers watch case must be water pressure resistant, so the cases are generally made out of materials that are grade 316L or 904L stainless steel.

 

Bezel

 

The Bezel is serving for the diver as a time limit. If they have maximum oxygen of 35 minutes underwater they can set the time on the watch.

 

Crystal

 

Diving watches have thick watch crystals. Sometimes domed crystals are used to enhance the pressure resistance of the watch and to improve the watch face legibility under water.

 

Crown

 

It’s a screw-down crown so it doesn’t let the water leak inside the watch. These Crowns are placed on the watch to reduce discomfort from touching the wearer's wrist or back of the hand.

 

Straps / Bracelet

 

The straps are generally made out of materials that are water-pressure resistant. Most of the straps are made out of rubber or stainless steel.

Instead of a Rolex or Omega, we are going to look at an affordable watch, that looks just as good and iconic as a Rolex watch.

 

Seiko SKX007

 

 

 

The Seiko SKX007 is a low-cost diver’s watch that was worn by Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now. We wrote a blog about watch and movie collaborations that you can check out at the Dwiss website in the blog section. Unfortunately, the watch is discontinued, but when it was still available it cost 200 pounds. It can still be bought from resellers for around 250 pounds.

 

It uses Seiko’s 7S26 automatic movement with a power reserve of 41 hours and 21 jewels. The case is crafted from steel and it has little curves that makes the watch appear smaller. The crown is located at four 4 O’clock, so it will not hurt your wrist. It can also display the day and date in two languages.

 

What makes this watch iconic is the dial. That is because if we take a closer look we can see sticks poking out at 12, 6, and 9 O’clock markers. It looks very aesthetic and overall great.

 

It has a jubilee bracelet that feels very comfortable on the hand. The clasp has an original Seiko design.

 DWISS M3W 

The DWISS timepieces are not diver watches, however, every DWISS collection that is featured right now on their website is water resistant to at least 100 meters / 330 feet. You can take a look at the collection by clicking here.

 

Even though it’s not a diver timepiece, it is still worth taking a look at because of its unique design.

 

The DWISS M3 and M3W collections are water resistant even up to 200 meters / 660 feet, It’s an exclusive 10th-anniversary watch. To celebrate this achievement DWISS made a whole LIMITED collection for it. There are only 500 pieces in the world, and only 60 pieces are left. They are selling fast. Get yours while you still can here.

 

 

They have a two (2) Year International warranty. Here's a video of how the watch actually looks in hands!

 

If you are interested in the current collections or want to look at the past collections you can just click here.

  

Conclusion

 

We’ve gone through the first diving watches that were created, and how it blew up in the market. Dive Watches are unlike most watches. They will always stay in fashion and they are always going to be seen as one of the most durable timepieces.