Article: Is the Dive Watch Dead?

[Yoyodyne-88]

The nice thing about wearing a Rolex is that you can take two pounds off your weight belt.

As for actual diving uses, once upon a time a dive watch was valued because of the quality and toughness required - but today a $15 Timex can do anything you need.

I love the classic quality and look of a Submariner. But some of the places I dive it would be an invitation to be robbed. And a rather tactless display in front of people who work hard to just survive on the economic crumbs we drop.

 

[doctormike]

Yeah, I gotta say, at the risk of offending the "watch people", I have no idea what the appeal is of these things. I mean, I have a Rolex that I was given as an engagement present by my wife, so it has a lot of sentimental value (mainly because she is a non-diver, and puts up with a lot of my diving, and it's symbolic in that respect!). But I don't like wearing it around much because of exactly the showiness of it. It's basically a statement that you have 8K to drop on something that is essentially a status symbol.

I mean, I guess in the old days, buying one of these was like buying a Petrel - you spent the money because you wanted the best possible timepiece you could get. But now, when on a good day the $30K watch MIGHT keep as good time as the $30 swatch if you really maintain it well, I don't get it.

I guess people spend a lot of money on non-functional things that really appeal to them, like original art, fine wine, etc... so who am I to judge? And I do appreciate the incredible engineering that goes into these things. If you REALLY want to appreciate the skill of the watchmaker, read Longitude by Dava Sobel.

 

[diver 85]

Question...: "Is the Dive Watch Dead?"

Answer.....: "No", in my diving......

 

[Akimbo]

… 1) Rolex Submariner, it really is a great watch and my fingers are bleeding as I type this, you buy Rolex's to let everyone know you have money or your parents were WASP's and you graduated high school. The Rolex SEA DWELLER ia an abortion any true watch collector will tell you this….

The original Sea Dwellers were a very practical working diver’s watch. To my great surprise, they are now demanding obscene amounts of money. I agree that the subsequent models rated 2x+ deeper are just silly added weight.

Rolex Sea Dweller Double Red Stainless Steel for $39,995 for sale from a Trusted Seller on Chrono24

… You know the story how Rolex patented the helium relief valve on watches? Allow me to bore you anyway…

During some early saturation experiments at the old Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Washington a couple of guys were decompressing. The chamber was small so they were sitting on a bench with their hands folded between their knees. All of a sudden the face of a Rolex watch blew out and hit a guy's inside thigh hard enough to make a serious edema, besides hurting like hell.

They did some research and found that Helium molecules will leak through all known transparent materials. The gas slowly leaked into the watch, which could easily take the external pressure but was never designed for internal pressure. They called Rolex, they put a tiny relief valve in a new watch with a deeper rating, named it the Sea Dweller, and called their Patent lawyers. The 17 year patent is long expired now.

The guy with a 1½" round scar on his leg was one of the Diving Officers when I was getting qualified, several years latter.

 

[Diver0001]

I have a dive watch. I need it for training.

I've used it on "real" dives from time to time but only on vacation and only when I was unable to rent a computer. I learned to dive in the 80's and made my first 600 or so dives using tables. I can dream tables. To me, the dive watch is still a functional tool.

To my daughter, however, who I taught to dive last year and who "learned" tables but has never had to "apply" them..... the dive watch is literally useless. I told her, as I've told many of my students over the last few years, that a computer is mandatory dive gear. It's an innovation that we can't ignore.

R..

 

[boulderjohn]

I recently left both my computer and bottom timer home on a short dive trip, and that trip became the first time I have ever used an actual watch (Seiko) to measure my dive. I didn't like it--too hard to see in the dark environs of my dive.

I use a dive watch regularly for timing pool instruction. I own three different ones from three different brands, all advertised as watches for scuba diving. The Tag Hauer is about useless for that purpose. It is a beautiful watch--I have it on right now. But everything on the face is about the same color, and you can't tell a thing unless it is in very good light.

I had an interesting experience with one of the other watches in a pool session once. When you are teaching a class, you are ever mindful of the passage of time, and I am constantly glancing at the big wall clock or my watch to make sure that the class is progressing well. I checked just before we submerged to the deep end for a series of skills, and I saw we were pretty much on schedule. After doing the required skills for a session, I always let the students swim about in buddy teams, getting used to being neutrally buoyant, with the time allowed for this depending upon how long everything else is taking. On this session, when I checked my watch I was pleased to see we were doing very well, and I gave them a lot of extra swim time before coming to the surface. When I reached the surface, I was facing the wall clock, and I was shocked to see we were well beyond schedule. I looked at my watch, and I saw that it was suddenly more than 10 minutes slow. It was running, though. It must have stopped for a while and then started up again. I have no idea why it would have done that.

If that had been a real dive, I might have been in trouble.

 

[Diver0001]

John, I break my pool sessions up into 10 minute legs.

I introduce a skill, make sure they have it, let them practice it under DM supervision and the rest of the 10 min is used for the big three (buoyancy, buddy contact and communication).

Next 10 min, next skill and so forth.....

Any time we have left at the end of the session is spent on the big 3.

R..

 

[oldschoolto]

Knowing tables is the best insurance a diver can have.. Even if your of a minute or two on the safe side your golden... Just knowing 60/60/120 is lost to new divers..

Jim..

 

[agilis]

Is this a question of dive watches or Rolex watches? If it's Rolex, I think they have become as pragmatic as solid gold fountain pen. A good watch otoh, is a different issue entirely.

I've worn a watch most of my life. I automatically glance at my wrist for any number of times every day in connection with time related issues. The distinction between a dive watch and an ordinary watch that I wear daily is vanishingly small. Most of my watches can and do function as either. The idea of fancy watches with multiple functions is silly as far as I'm concerned.. Their purpose is to keep time accurately. All of mine do, all 20 odd of them, to within a few seconds each day. The watches I wear every day are the same watches I dive with. The most expensive cost a couple of hundred dollars.

People who use some sort of phone or computer to see what time it is might as well be from another planet as far as I am concerned. Time pieces belong on the wrist. It's been that way since WW1 for reasons of easy and immediate availability that still make excellent sense.

I have a few watches that I no longer dive with, but this is in recognition of their age, and my need for accuracy and reliability. In 50 years of diving I've never had a problem with a watch. Not once.

 

[Superlyte27]

Just about every commercial diver in the Navy was given a submariner a while back. Most of those divers did NOT give them back to the Navy when they left the Navy. I know LOTS of people diving Rolex.

But! If you talk to anyone that knows a lot about watches, they'll tell you Rolex is a piece of crap for the money. There are better quality watches that are higher quality and more precise in the same price point. At least that's what the watch snobs all told me when I was researching which to buy.

I ended up with a Seiko and Citizens, haha.

---------- Post added November 4th, 2015 at 12:39 AM ----------

Knowing tables is the best insurance a diver can have.. Even if your of a minute or two on the safe side your golden... Just knowing 60/60/120 is lost to new divers..

Jim..

Tables would be a nightmare for the last dozen dives I've done. No thanks.