Dive watch features?

Ok, so my son and I picked up our SSI C-cards yesterday and to celebrate I said "Hey, we need dive watches, lets go shopping!" So we start looking and as any self respecting teenage honor student would so he said "sooo, since we have this wiz bang dive computer (Suunto Cobra), what do dive watches do?". So I said "Well son, umm, aaaaa, errrrrrrr, ). So we left.

Help!!!!! Do we still need watches? What features? Sould I just buy an egg timer and duct tape it to my wrist? (good to 200M of course, hey maybe new DIY thread)

Thanks in advance for your help.

A watch is nice to have for a backup, but is only really "neccesary" if you get into decompression diving where the need for redundancy makes it needed safety item and where a sweep second hand or digital display of seconds is nice for timing deco stops.

In recreational diving within the No decompression limits if your computer fails, you just end the dive (and you should be checking it often enough that you know from the rates and trends of your prior observations of the computer that you are not in a required decompresion status.) Also, it's very unlikely your buddy's computer will also fail simultaneously, so you can ascend and complete a safety stop normally along side your buddy.

If you are a cold water diver, you will find that you need a much larger strap to make it around the 7mm suit and/or glove so wearing it during diving or when you are not diving are options, but wearing it for both is problematic.

I have owned some very expensive dive watches in the past, partly to advertise "I am a diver" but mostly because I have found that a watch rated to 200M seldom leaks in the shower and my watches tend to stay on my wrist 24/7.

To be honest, a lot of money is not required for a good dive watch. Casio G-Shock watches do exceptionally well as dive watches and various models are available with features that are very desireable underwater. They are pretty much the standard in the commercial dive industry as if it gets crunched you are only out $50 and can replace it at Wal-mart. If you crunch your Seiko or something even spendier, you are out a lot more money.

Reliability wise I have found that a Casio G-Shock or Timex Ironman will last virtually forever while the Seiko's I have owned went back to the factory about once a year under real world conditions.

I am not a big fan of digital watch displays and currently I wear a Timex Reef Gear watch that paid $25.00 for at Wal-mart. It is 200M rated, has a protected locking crown, a one way ratcheting bezel, a sweep second hand, and a display that is easy to read at depth - all I basically need in a dive watch.

What DA said
If you happened to be carrying another depth gauge, besides the one in your computer, that and a watch would allow you to finish your dive (knowing time of dive and depth) and to keep diving on future dives (say, on a dive boat/trip/etc)
I picked up a cheap dive computer watch (depth/time) to back up my computer. You can do the same by having a depth gauge and a watch

Do a search on Timex Helix. It's also a nice, inexpensive dive watch for rec diving imo, though perhaps what you really want is a dive computer.

When we dove Looe Key the dive boat operator said we had to have a watch to make sure we were back at the boat on time. We've always used the Casio watches, they have a stopwatch, indiglo light (love that!) and they display the time so you're back on the boat when they told you to be there.
Ber :lilbunny:

A dive watch can also be used for underwater navigation if your running complex patterns and time yourself on each leg of the pattern.

You should have a dive watch as a backup. I have a St. Moritz which cost about $75. It has a rotating bezel, illuminated dial and is rated to 200 meters.

Timex Ironman for me. Cheap, digital display, lap timer, countdown timer, back light, indestructable. I haven't had any problems with my bling-bling Tag Heuer and it looks just *****in' but when performance counts it comes off my wrist.

I have a Casio Sea Pathfinder. It is not really a SCUBA watch, since it is only rated to 100M but It has worked just fine on nearly 100 dives and it only cost 125 new.

I am looking at getting the St. Moritz Nereos if I decide to get a new full time watch since I think it is a great combo of good looks and the right features to make it a great on wrist backup.

dflybldr:

Ok, so my son and I picked up our SSI C-cards yesterday and to celebrate I said "Hey, we need dive watches, lets go shopping!" So we start looking and as any self respecting teenage honor student would so he said "sooo, since we have this wiz bang dive computer (Suunto Cobra), what do dive watches do?". So I said "Well son, umm, aaaaa, errrrrrrr, ). So we left.

Help!!!!! Do we still need watches? What features? Sould I just buy an egg timer and duct tape it to my wrist? (good to 200M of course, hey maybe new DIY thread)

Thanks in advance for your help.

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You didn't say how much you wanted to spend.
I have a Casio Sea-Pathfinder and have had it over 100 feet without a problem but its my backup depth and timer.

You can spend from $20 to $1600 and even more and cost doesn't corralate to function.

I like a depth, timer and compass on mine but many just use the watch as a timer. Also for around $300 to $500 you can get a full blown dive computer/Watch that does everything minus the compass.