Diving watches

[rhwestfall]

My BIL has a collection of vintage Rolex watches. Old Jewish family money/watches. Worst time keeping pieces and stupidly expensive maintenance. He just keeps them in a security box....

 

[Dody]

Try diving the Submariner with the crown just a little loose. I have three Rolexes. (Submariner, Yachtmaster and Daytona). None go underwater with me. Ever. May as well drop a few Kruger Rands in your weight pockets as ballast and hope they don't fall out. Buy one if you want but leave diving out of the reckoning. I doubt that too many people take their watches in for "maintenance either. It's obscenely expensive.

All my 60+ dives have been made with a Tag Heuer Kyrium (paid 2000$ in 1997, worth 1000$ today but means way more for me) and I honestly don’t understand how you could let the crown loose.
As for the maintenance, if people are not willing to pay 100 or 200$ every 3 to 5 years for maintenance, they should not buy expensive watches.

 

[Dody]

if you own the car in your avatar, you likely are immune to advice.

View attachment 637801

buy any watch you want, have fun...but, you already had decided that.

I purchased this car: Caterham Super Seven in 2004 at 50 000€. But what I used to say at the time was: unless most of my colleagues, I don’t have a mistress, I don’t go skiing every winter and I am a good cook. It’s all about saving money in your lifestyle.

 

[tridacna]

All my 60+ dives have been made with a Tag Heuer Kyrium (paid 2000$ in 1997, worth 1000$ today but means way more for me) and I honestly don’t understand how you could let the crown loose.
As for the maintenance, if people are not willing to pay 100 or 200$ every 3 to 5 years for maintenance, they should not buy expensive watches.

I buy them as investment pieces. It would cost me thousands annually to service them. Rolex maintenance is cheap comparatively. $100-$200? Ha ha. Good luck. Breguet, Patek and AP much more to maintain. I adjusted the time on my Breitling and didn't tighten the crown properly before diving it. Shlt happens. Oops. Don't know any "collectors" of Tags.

 

[BoltSnap]

I once flooded my Omega Seamaster Diver when I somehow forgot to tighten the crown in the swimming pool. I was lucky it happened in the pool not in salt water. I took it for complete service at a Swiss watch repair center the next day (the staff and technicians were actually Swiss) and it was all OK after the repair. I think that it cost me around $100 or so. Although I do have it checked in a pressure pot every few years after battery change and it checks out OK, I never took the watch into water of any kind since I flooded it. I only wear it occasionally. It is around 35 years old now and has great sentimental value for me. I'll pass it on to my son some day. I wear a much less expensive "dive watch" when I teach in the pool now. I don't wear a dive watch in openwater at all. I have redundant dive computers that do the job for diving.

 

[Tournesol2000]

@Dody, I love the car. Very cool.

 

[Bigbella]

Since I beat the living crap out of technology -- regulators and watches, in particular -- I have always opted for the timepieces of mere mortals; and, among my favorites, over the years, has been this orange-faced 1000 meter watch, from Poseidon, which has traveled with me, just about everywhere; and has gone through some hell . . .

 

[Neilwood]

My personal tu'pence - dive with an expensive watch if you like but is it the best tool for the job? Definitely not.

If you want to dive tables or have a watch to time stops etc - take a cheap "throwaway" that you can replace for probably less than the cost of a service on an expensive watch (like a Rolex). Do you want to worry about having $$$$ on your wrist or enjoy the dive?

Best tool for the job though is a dive computer - and you can get a good one for not much more than the cost of the cheap watch. Follow its instruction and it will keep you safer than the watch while allowing longer dives (allows you to dive nearer NDL/ easier for multi-level dives).

 

[Saboteur]

My current favorite dive watch and the one I wear everyday is the Seiko SKX007 with a nato band.

View attachment 637399

They are stylish, classic and inexpensive. I have the SKX173 version with rectangular number indicators. Like all diver watches you can wear it with a suit, work on the car or mow the lawn with it.. oh and dive with it.

 

[Saboteur]

I would love to have a plain Jane Rolex Submariner (no date window, please). I would dive the H--- out of it, too.

Problem is, I can't afford one. I can't even afford the cost of its periodic routine service!

Instead, I wear a much, much, much less expensive "homage", a Steinhart OVM ("Ocean Vintage Military", Review: Steinhart Ocean Vintage Military - Worn & Wound). I wear it daily, and it is my working dive watch. In fact, it's on my right wrist in my avatar.

rx7diver

Frickin sweet looking watch!