I want to design a Dive Watch. What would make the best watch?

[Diver0001]

What would make the best dive watch to you?

1) It should work like a bottom timer, not just a time keeper. In other words, it should time AND depth. This is the main reason I don't use a dive watch outside of the swimming pool now.

2) It should start accumulating dive time automatically upon submersion to to given depth (1m?) and stop accumulating dive time 5 or 10 min after the dive is over.

3) I like *simple* analog faces but the bottom dive time and depth could be displayed digitally if it were done discretely.

4) In terms of appearance it should have a sleek simple design that you can wear at work (I work in business) without people thinking that you just walked off the set of robo-cop. This is my main objection to most of the citizen designs.

5) the glass face should have a concave form inset under the line of the bezel so that it doesn't get scratched while diving.

6) It must have a second hand.

7) The strap should be adjustable to fit around the arm of a drysuit

8) The face should be clearly readable if you shine a light on it. To me it doesn't matter if it has a back-light or phosphorescent bits that are hard to read anyway.

9) it should be water proof (duh)

What dive watches do you like and why?

Well... I've had a couple of Citizen ones that I *didn't* like because of the maintenance costs. It was expensive to get batteries changed and one of them flooded because I got the crown cross threaded when I adjusted the time and didn't notice it. I don't know much about their eco thing but that sounds like a good feature in terms of maintenance costs.

The dive watch I have now is an el-cheapo citizen. What I like about that one is (1) that the glass is inset under the level of the ring around the outside of the face so even after using it for a year the face is not damaged, (2) 10 year battery life (3) the el-cheapo price tag. I think it cost me like 25 Euros or something. Other than that it's ugly as hell and has a big robo-cop factor, which I hate. I decided to buy this one because I was frustrated with the costs involved in owning a citizen which are also ugly as hell and turned out to be less reliable as well for about 10x the price.

I wouldn't have bought a dive watch at all after my last citizen died except that I'm an instructor and I absolutely need one for using in the pool.

What do you hate about dive watches?

See above: maintenance costs and "industrial" appearance. Often they're also on the heavy side which I don't like when I'm at work. I usually take off my watch when I"m typing at the computer.

What is missing?

The niche that's out there is for a stylish/classy watch which is first and foremost a time piece but works as a bottom timer. I'll never pay more than 50 Euros again for a dive watch that looks like crap as long as it does what I need but I'd gladly pay 150-200 euros for a nice looking one that had descent functionality and low maintenance costs.

R..

 

[00wabbit]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I think a watch without a battery, automatic, eco-drive solar or something of that type would be best because you don't ever need to remove the caseback and risk damaging the seal.

As far as stylish designs go - What would that be to you?

1) It should work like a bottom timer, not just a time keeper. In other words, it should time AND depth. This is the main reason I don't use a dive watch outside of the swimming pool now.

2) It should start accumulating dive time automatically upon submersion to to given depth (1m?) and stop accumulating dive time 5 or 10 min after the dive is over.

3) I like *simple* analog faces but the bottom dive time and depth could be displayed digitally if it were done discretely.

4) In terms of appearance it should have a sleek simple design that you can wear at work (I work in business) without people thinking that you just walked off the set of robo-cop. This is my main objection to most of the citizen designs.

5) the glass face should have a convex form inset under the line of the bezel so that it doesn't get scratched while diving.

6) It must have a second hand.

7) The strap should be adjustable to fit around the arm of a drysuit

8) The face should be clearly readable if you shine a light on it. To me it doesn't matter if it has a back-light or phosphorescent bits that are hard to read anyway.

9) it should be water proof (duh)



Well... I've had a couple of Citizen ones that I *didn't* like because of the maintenance costs. It was expensive to get batteries changed and one of them flooded because I got the crown cross threaded when I adjusted the time and didn't notice it. I don't know much about their eco thing but that sounds like a good feature in terms of maintenance costs.

The dive watch I have now is an el-cheapo citizen. What I like about that one is (1) that the glass is inset under the level of the ring around the outside of the face so even after using it for a year the face is not damaged, (2) 10 year battery life (3) the el-cheapo price tag. I think it cost me like 25 Euros or something. Other than that it's ugly as hell and has a big robo-cop factor, which I hate. I decided to buy this one because I was frustrated with the costs involved in owning a citizen which are also ugly as hell and turned out to be less reliable as well for about 10x the price.

I wouldn't have bought a dive watch at all after my last citizen died except that I'm an instructor and I absolutely need one for using in the pool.


See above: maintenance costs and "industrial" appearance. Often they're also on the heavy side which I don't like when I'm at work. I usually take off my watch when I"m typing at the computer.



The niche that's out there is for a stylish/classy watch which is first and foremost a time piece but works as a bottom timer. I'll never pay more than 50 Euros again for a dive watch that looks like crap as long as it does what I need but I'd gladly pay 150-200 euros for a nice looking one that had descent functionality and low maintenance costs.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

As far as stylish designs go - What would that be to you?

That's a hard question to answer because I haven't seen it yet.

What I have in my mind is "less is more".

What I *don't* like is a lot of little tiny numbers and text printed everywhere and extraneous information that you don't need. It's almost like watch makers have decided that a visual bombardment of information with multiple moving parts and layers of information in extra little dials showing meaningless information is what people want. A good example of the useless crap that you see on watch faces is like the Citizen's dial that tells you if it's AM or PM... I mean REALLY... if you don't know that then you need brains, not a watch. I also really don't like the industrial look of a lot of sports watches. I know they need to be robust so it's a trade off but if it's too thick and the dials and buttons are too prominent or rubust/industrial looking then it quickly becomes gaudy looking to me.

A perfect example of everything I think is wrong with sports watches is this god-awful thing:




Since I already know where the 12 and the 6 should be on the dial, I just need enough information on the face to read it. It needs *some* reference points so you don't need to wonder if it's 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock but not so much that you're needing to become desensitized to 90 percent of the information on the dial so you can read the main bits of information you need. Ergonomics. Something like this design is much more appealing because it's compact and functional because it's clear of all the nonsense.



I know that's not a dive watch and if it was used as a starting point that the final design would need to be a lot more robust and display more information but the point I'm making is about the direction.... less is more.

Personally I also really like analog watches but it might actually be nicer looking in the long run to use a well laid out LCD screen and go digital so that relevant information could be displayed in context. Garmin have a some nice sport watches with digital screens that could also be used as a starting point but garmin chooses for cheap functional housing for their watches and a pimped up version with a nice titanium housing might be really cool. If you went this way you'd have to be careful not to get in competition with dive computer makers though.

Those are just some random thoughts and I'm just one guy, of course, but I hope that gives you some inspiration.

R..

 

[00wabbit]

I worked for Movado.

They almost have too little on the watch.
I see what you mean though.

I am thinking about digital. I want to be careful not to turn the watch into a dive computer. I think it could be nice to have the bottom timer function with analog hands but driven by a computer underneath. This is how a quartz watch works.
Or someway to very cleanly integrate a digital readout into an analog display.

My current dive watch is a gshock.

 

[divemonkey33]

I might be opening a big can of the universe here. What might be really cool is if you had a pressure group timer. As you dive the letters go up and then while you are on the surface the letters go down. I know crazy complicated and lots and lots of issues. Just thought it would be great to look down at the watch and see I'm back at a "B" and start to go dive, or see I'm at a "D" and then know I might want to wait a little longer. I"m like like a kid in the car during my surface intervals "Can I dive yet NO can I dive yet NO". Well think about it that would be my idea that might make the watch different the all the rest. Also maybe a carabiner style that you could just clip onto your BC.

 

[Diver0001]

I worked for Movado.

They almost have too little on the watch.
I see what you mean though.

Yeah, I suppose you get the point then LOL.

I am thinking about digital. I want to be careful not to turn the watch into a dive computer.

Yeah, I wouldn't go that way. That market is dominated by Suunto and saturated by pure players. It would be hard to differentiate or push any added value if you get into that arena.

Or someway to very cleanly integrate a digital readout into an analog display.

Now that you say that I remember seeing a watch (was it a swatch?) that I believe had an analog dial but the seconds were displayed in the background on an LCD screen. Maybe something along those lines would be cool where the watch was basically an uncluttered analog time piece but the information for "dive mode" became visible on the background when the watch was underwater.

My current dive watch is a gshock.

I have this thing: In terms of functionality for the price it's amazing but they filled up about 1/3 of the face with completely irrelevant information.

R..

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

I'm a little of a WIS, here is what I suggest. Pressure to 1k feet, non reflective coating on the inside of crystal, matte face, tritium markers, 22mm drilled lugs, stainless (316L pacified), 120 click one way bezel with aggressive knurling, screw down crown, decent heft, 45mm body,14mm height, Rhonda movement (easy service), offer both a bracelet and Zulu strap. Sub $400 (it can be done since it is quartz)

I dive my rolex sea dweller sometimes and I'm paranoid about the bracelet breaking. I'm going to try to come up with a leash of some sort so I have some piece of mind. I've bought from county comm, not again. I deal with Bob at military watch resource now. Stand up guy. How this helps.

Sent from my DROID X2

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

Side note, someone had a bubble style gauge. Essentially the bubble was on a track, as you went deeper the bubble shrunk. There was a scale next to the track. That would be nifty.

Sent from my DROID X2

 

[00wabbit]

That's nifty. I'll have to find that.

I think I would definately want a depth gauge for those impromptu dives. Thinking about a unidirectional and locking bezel so you don't accidentally advance it. It would have to be very easy to set though.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

Locking isn't necessary if it is one way. Worse case you shorten the dive.

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