Best Dive Watch Ever...

[OldNSalty]

No way would I ever wear a Rolex for diving. Much too expensive to subject to risk getting scratched or lost. Kind of like taking a Hummer H1 off road.

Please, oh please tell me that was sarcasm.

 

[Cyclops_Diver]

I just picked up a Marathon GSAR. Automatic movement with tritium vials. Perfect for the daily wear, and rated to 1000ft so it's more than robust enough for dive use.

 

[Mattleycrue76]

Love my Citizen Aqualand Duplex Titanium. light weigth, looks good and when I'm in my office I can pull up the dive log and start day dreaming.

 

[stlsportsgirl]

My husband and I are HUGE Reactor fans. I dive with the Fallout midsize and love it. I also wear it for everyday.

My husband dives with Heavy Water. He doesn't wear it for his every day watch though. It isn't "dressy" enough for him.

Anyone else out there a fan of Reactor??

 

[shoturtle]

I have a Victorinox Swiss Army Dive Master 500 Limited Edition. (I'd post the URL, but I haven't made enough posts here. I mostly lurk.) Solid black, titanium, automatic movement w/see-through back, helium escape valve, illuminated markings up to 20:00, date, hour markers--everything you need, nothing you don't.

Of course I'm biased, but it's one of the coolest dive watches I've seen outside of the black Luminox watches. I love Rolex and Tag; they have that classic, bold and always appropriate style, but they don't look as cool as mine. My next watch (whenever that is) will most likely be a Sea Dweller. But for now, I just plain can't afford a Rolex. Now, I looked at plenty of dive watches before settling on this one. I looked at several watches that cose much more than mine. The only other ones I liked were the Sea Dweller and Omega Seamaster. The Doxas, to me, are close, but they looked a little busy. It's something about the hour markers that rubs me the wrong way...

I bought mine in February and took it to Bonaire in May '08, and it was awesome! I never had a problem reading it--even during a night dive at Town Pier. It's no Luminox, but the thing glows. Boy does it glow! My brother has a Movado 800 series dive watch that has yet to see the water, and it's really nice, but my illumination blows it out of the water. (Get it? Hyuk hyuk.) It'll glow throughout the night. I've woken up before 5:00 AM and known what time it is. The last time it saw any light was at least 5 or 6 hours before.

If you can't tell by now, I think that ease of reading is the biggest factor in determining a dive watch. I guess one of my problems with dive watches that have lots of doo-dads is that they can be hard to read. That's one reason why Breitling turns me off in general. I'm sure they're great for pilots, but leave my dive watch easy to read. Oh that and my brother knew of three people with Breitlings--all of them needed repairing at some point. That's not servicing, but repairing.

To all automatic owners: do you ever find yourself just staring at your second hand floating along the dial? I have lost track of how many times that's happened to me, and I've had this hunk of titanium for almost a year.

I also dive with a Suunto Vyper computer. No way I'd use that giant thing as a watch...

I agree that the Breitling's pilots watches are overcrowded for diving. But they make a excellent aeromarine line. That is for diving. The seawolf is good to 10,000ft. Just a rotating besel, and you choice of face colors. Their superocean line is as simple as you can get easy to read, choice of dial color and band.

But there are way to many good dive watches out there to say one is better then another. Just fly to Zurich and visit some to the watch shops. They are all excellent watches. And for the automatic watch person, most of the less pricey swiss watches under 10,000 dollars uses a eta or voljaux movements. The companies just changes some components of the movement to make them unique to their brand.

 

[CoralKisser]

 

[bvmjethead]

I've only owned two "dive" watches in my life.

One was the Seiko "Landmonster" which was nice but the compass feature was a worthless POS.

Next I researched on a watch forum and ended up buying a Seiko Sumo with a Seiko Marine Master band and clasp.

It's the bomb. I LOVE it.

 

[strikeshield]

I have used a Wenger Aquagraph 1000m watch for a few years and it works great.
I dive it all the time and paid $226 on Amazon. Can't go wrong for a plain watch. It is a larger watch, 46mm body and weighs half a pound, but I love it.

Christian L.
Ottawa, Ont.

 

[hollywooddiver]

Has to be the TAG Heuer....

 

[Ocean County Diver]

citizen hyper aquland. Love it!

+1.. Love this watch. Had it almost 10 years I believe.