Dive Watch Failure?

[tep]

I have a 1985 Seiko 150m watch that has a few dives on it. I've always been very careful to only have the battery changed at a place that can pressure test it. My new local watch place has the test chamber out where you can see it, and provide printed confirmation of the watch's "dive".

I have an automatic that has a few dives, but if I didn't wear it, it had to be wound, plus automatics seem to need more service.

I have a large Invicta (see photo) that is mostly for show, and also a quartz. It's a little to big to wear diving as it doesn't go under the wet suit very well. But I can read it at night without my glasses, which is its real purpose anyway!

These were all considerations when I bought a new dive watch, just a month ago: I wanted a quartz that would never need a battery change. So I went "solar" with a Seiko SBDN026 200m Solar Diver. This watch will go diving, not just to the office.

 

[rx7diver]

All mechanical automatics, no 'complications' so no push buttons etc, just a screw down crown. None have failed or flooded. One lost a spring bar but the watch wasn't lost as I use NATO straps under water and they thread through both bars so losing one isn't fatal

Good suggestion, Captain Swoop! I will look immediately for a NATO strap. I hope to have one before my next dive outing. Thanks.

And, yes, a dive watch without complications--maybe without even a date window--should be more robust.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[Captain Swoop]

Date adds an extra complication but it's relatively simple, what it does though is make the winder more comolicated and delicate.
Rolex have always done a 'no date' Submariner as a workhorse but it's just as expensive as all the others now.

 

[rx7diver]

Rolex have always done a 'no date' Submariner as a workhorse but it's just as expensive as all the others now.

Ha! No problem. My pockets are not nearly deep enough for a Submariner--date or no-date! My Steinhart OVM is a knockoff, um, an "homage."

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I learned very early by actually reading the manual that came with the first "dive watch" I bought that anything rated at less than 200 meters is water resistant. Not waterproof. The 100M models are fine for swimming, snorkeling, and washing dishes but they are not rated for SCUBA. That first watch got taken right back and I bought a Pulsar 200M Solar4000 Diver. It was about 160 bucks as I recall. Still have it twelve years later and it still dives with me and is my pool teaching watch. When I got my YMCA instructor rating I bought myself an EcoDrive Professional Diver's 300M and it was more than double the price of the Pulsar but it's a beast. Expensive to me but not so much that I won't dive with it. One thing I did find out is that the band, while it looks like heavy rubber, also has two cords on each side embedded in the rubber. A friend had to replace his due to cracking with age and use. The band is 80 bucks or so.
I'd love to have an Omega, Rolex, or Breitling. Just can't afford one and honestly, it would be for the cool factor more than anything.

 

[Fossil_Diver]

25 years - Seiko (combo digital/analog) with buttons worked fine until stolen, Telux (battery powered mechanical) worked fine until mechanical guts quit (non-diving related), Citizen EcoDrive has been fine for 5 or 6 years now...

No dive failures.......

I had a Seiko analog/digital watch. Never gave me a problem until one of the function buttons got pushed by accident. It filled with salt water instantly.
Then I bought a Seiko workhorse automatic. I have had it since 1993. Never been serviced and still runs fine and doesn't leak. I only use it with the rotating bezel to monitor the time left on the parking meter.

 

[Captain Swoop]

They gave James Bond an Omega so you can't wear them anymore.
On the plus side it does mean you can wear a Rolex again, as long as it is an old one with a painted bezel and markers. I have been trying to persuade my dad that he should give me the old Sea Dweller he got in the 70s, It's got a bashed bezel and scratches but it just adds to its desirability, he hasn't worn it for about fifteen years, it needs a service but it's way cool.

 

[Nemrod]

Citizen TiZilla and EcoZilla and peppers:

Old Seiko 6309 and Bulova diver, together they have hundreds and hundreds of dives on them:

The watch case is what we used before there were reliable and affordable diver watches, we just used a cheap Timex and then put the lid on the case.

N

 

[rx7diver]

The only pic I have of my OVM was taken by my eldest with her iPhone a couple of years ago during a fall sprint to the Missouri River bottoms. The OVM loves zoom-zooming as much as it loves diving! (Yes, I am a southpaw.)



EDIT: For the younger SB-ers who might not understand the "zoom-zoom" reference:

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Thanks, everyone, for your replies. So far it seems real dive watches are pretty durable and robust after all--if given their due diligence. Good to know.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[hammet]

When I firet started in the 80s I was young and had money to spare. I got myself an Omega Seamaster Pro.
They were more affordable back then, like a Rolex Sub used to be. They were working watches, now that divers use computers they are fashion items. They are still as accurate and waterproof but they are 'blinged' with ceramic bezels, white gold markers etc.
I used my Omega until I found out how much a 'vintage' model will sell for and got myself a Seiko, I have had a couple over the years and at the moment I use a Beaver Momentum.
All mechanical automatics, no 'complications' so no push buttons etc, just a screw down crown. None have failed or flooded. One lost a spring bar but the watch wasn't lost as I use NATO straps under water and they thread through both bars so losing one isn't fatal

The only pic I have of my OVM was taken by my eldest with her iPhone a couple of years ago during a fall sprint to the Missouri River bottoms. The OVM loves zoom-zooming as much as it loves diving! (Yes, I am a southpaw.)

View attachment 388700

EDIT: For the younger SB-ers who might not understand the "zoom-zoom" reference:

.


Thanks, everyone, for your replies. So far it seems real dive watches are pretty durable and robust after all--if given their due diligence. Good to know.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

The Rolex Deepsea is rated to 12,800 feet! I'd call that durable and robust.