What watch do real divers wear?

[bwade]

Rolex Submariner ... nuf said

 

[Akimbo]

Rolex Submariner ... nuf said

In the first half of my career, without a doubt, it was the Rolex Sea Dweller. This was due to their patent on the Helium relief valve and 2000' rating. Here is story on the subject some may find interesting.

…
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.

I finally bought a Sea Dweller after getting out of the Navy. I did wear it in sat, but never on a lockout. The irony is a surface supplied diver has no need to monitor time. It is just handy so you don’t have to look out a chamber viewport to see how long before dinner is locked in. The real irony is a barely water resistant $10 Timex would have worked just as well. They do have to be all mechanical though, unless technology has improved. The analog electrics would go squirrelly and the digital's display would not compress gracefully.

That Rolex is sitting in a drawer since the stem pulled out. I was afraid to send it anywhere but the factory for repair since nobody else seems to have the chamber rated deep enough to test it. It is like wearing a hub cap on your wrist anyway.

 

[KP3S]

I use a Casio G Shock 7900-1 and works like a charm and don't break your pocket to put more money is other more important gear. I use it in conjunction to my Aeris XR-1 Air Dive Computer as a backup time piece underwater, on the surface is my every day watch. Not bad for the price, just $17.00 of ebay because it does have a small flaw, it doesn't said G Shock, it said G Shook but is an original Casio.

 

[Ed Palma]

Timex Expedition. Been with me on most of my dives, although during the last dive I found it to be a bit moist inside...

I think I'll pop it into my pressure pot to test it.

 

[Troutmaster]

My phone has the time on it (and also V-planner BTW) to get me to the boat on time.

Underwater, I use two Uwatec bottom timers on bungie mounts. Pretty hard to read a watch when I would be under my drysuit.

Dive watches are really for fashion, not diving.

 

[bwade]

[QUOTEDive watches are really for fashion, not diving.[/QUOTE]

and the battery(s) in computers WILL fail at some point rendering your dive over. In 32+ years of diving I've seen this happen more than a few times to others and myself. My Rolex Submariner has never let me down and thus I've never had to call a dive due to battery power loss.... Sometimes a little old school redundancy is a good thing..

 

[sardiverdan]

I only wear a dive watch for pool dives and as an everyday walking around time piece. For diving I use bottom timers and computer. As far as a watch goes I like the Citizen Eco-Drive professional diver's 300m. It will be in the 300.00 range. A little heavy but not too bad.

 

[fdog]

and the battery(s) in computers WILL fail at some point rendering your dive over. In 32+ years of diving I've seen this happen more than a few times to others and myself. My Rolex Submariner has never let me down and thus I've never had to call a dive due to battery power loss.... Sometimes a little old school redundancy is a good thing..

Despite having experienced the aforementioned battery power failure in computers and bottom timers, I, too, have never called a dive because of it....

Sometimes the redundancy of resources in a well-trained, disciplined team is a good thing.


All the best, James

 

[MikeSSS]

Seiko 7002 from the late 80's, sometimes. More often a simple G-Shock because the Seiko has sentimental value. Other times a computer or dive timer.

The 7002 is still made but it is the Seiko SKX173 today. The Seiko SKX007K is a lot like it.

The plastic covering on G-Shocks will die from old age as will the band but pushing the buttons underwater has never been a problem. The 7002, on the other hand, has aged very well. The scars on it remind me of this or that dive, for that reason alone it is worth having.

That said, I usually forget to set the bezel or start the G-Shock before a dive so having the computer that auto starts is really a good thing.

These old eyes can't read a G-Shock now days but they can still read the Seiko!

When I started diving in 1962 we didn't have to worry about a watch, nobody had one. No SPG or BC either but we did have demolition fins that gave wonderful cramps and dandy blisters. These are the good old days.

 

[drdaddy]

Citizen Eco-Drive Professional Diver

And 2 computers - I don't have them in "time mode" when diving.