Rejig of Saucer Style Titanium Dive Watch 2000m (maybe)

[Popgun Pete]

Diving Saucer Watch. Any interest for production?

This is not a KICKSTARTER project, but some time ago a saucer case watch capable of 2000 atm as rated was put to the market, but they never aimed it at the right buyer segment and to make matters worse showed it on a leather strap. If you want a working watch then you want a wetsuit compression...

www.watchuseek.com

Saw this forum thread on a new Saucer style dive watch in titanium. Made in China of course where it is rare for them to do anything but copy known and successful models, but here they took a chance on doing something new. Clearly they didn't ask any divers and so it was a flop commercially before anyone really knew anything about it. How China works is factories knock out watches from myriad plants making various components and individuals styling themselves as “brands” place orders to cobble together watches that they will think are going to sell. A lot depends on someone in China willing to sell the watch using their market presence in the West, then they have their logo slapped on it. But now thoughts are being turned to addressing the bezel grip problem and this could then be a very interesting and cool watch. These watch forums are heavily skewed by dweebs wearing oversize or trophy (in their minds) watches and hoping other people will think they are expert. Most don't even know what they are talking about and it becomes an echo chamber ruled by the lowest common denominator, but this watch may be worth a look.

Photo of the original design which unfortunately is smooth as a baby’s bum, but will hopefully be changed in a new edition. Needs feedback, but from real divers!

Possible changes without wiping out the saucer vibe, indents only need an edge in the push direction, which is anticlockwise.

Note I have no commercial or financial interest in this watch, but at the right price I would buy one, if the issues are fixed. A dive watch on a leather strap, no thanks!

 

[Popgun Pete]

This watch was originally slated to be sold by a company “San Martin” which sells better than normal Chinese watch offerings by just selecting another level up of factory to do their assembly rather than the economy producers. However compared to established watch brands they often only lack brand snobbery as they have copied nearly everything else, but not absolutely everything, so are not fakes. "San Martin" never got many takers as the watch hadn't any snob value and on some photos you could not see the crown position, as in the first photo shown here. After he gave up on it the watch was featured by ASTAR, which is a wholesale arranger, buy say 50 watches minimum and they will put your “brand” name on it. Just because a particular watch is listed does not mean they actually have any.

 

[Popgun Pete]

With this "saucer" watch we can assume they have all the machining software sorted out to control the computer operated mills, lathes and cutters to churn the watch out, they have already done it on a limited batch, very limited as it turns out, and they really only need change the bezel details by adding some grip features, ideally recesses rather than bumps. The dial can be changed as they always offer sterile versions to keep their machines running if say company X does not order enough but the demand is still there. Take for example this ice hockey puck style watch, it has at least three brands selling it as well as a sterile version. Bought the latter, but have never worn it, prefer my Seiko Professional 600 which I have had for decades from new.

The above watch, being stainless steel, is a bit of a lump just picking it up!

 

[Popgun Pete]

The saucer connotations with diving are the Cousteau “Denise” mini-submersible that could take three people to the ocean depths and was propelled by water jets from rotatable nozzles sticking out of the outer hull. It was deployed by crane from the mothership, the Calypso, and many older divers will recall it swinging perilously as they dropped it into the ocean and later fished it out again. It was trimmed in attitude underwater by moving mercury around inside a ballast system while drop weights allowed it to return to the surface, these weights being consumables on every dive. I assume the diving saucer is now in a museum as the Calypso was rammed by a barge and sunk and any rebuild struggles as most of the historic vessel had rotted and been thrown away, including the interior we all saw on TV in the various expeditions undertaken by Jacques Cousteau and his crew.

 

[JohnN]

Even though I own a dive watch (my son gave it to me), I don't understand the marketing BS with the absurd depth ratings. Mine is rated to a paltry 500m. I pointed out to my son, that 500m is a one-way dive,

Nor do I really understand why it would be worn while diving. My computer and backup computer do a much easier job of tracking my dive time. I probably could find a set of tables if I had to and use the watch for bottom time, but why?

 

[Popgun Pete]

Even though I own a dive watch (my son gave it to me), I don't understand the marketing BS with the absurd depth ratings. Mine is rated to a paltry 500m. I pointed out to my son, that 500m is a one-way dive,

Nor do I really understand why it would be worn while diving. My computer and backup computer do a much easier job of tracking my dive time. I probably could find a set of tables if I had to and use the watch for bottom time, but why?

Dive watch depth rating has become a marketing tool, you even see brands like Rolex building watches to go to the ocean’s deepest point. Such watches can have a giant domed crystal to stop it bending onto the watch face and stuffing the watch. That is if it was glass, a super cooled liquid. Sapphire has no give in it, so if it deflects it shatters. No one is going to wear such watches, much less dive with them. As to wearing a watch while diving when I started that was all there was, on scuba dives you wore your dive watch, mine have always been Seiko’s and your depth gauge, I used a SOS Helium depth gauge. While a dive was generally pre-planned you always carried your dive tables on a plastic card. I used the Dacor dive tables, all tables being based on the US Navy dive tables. Putting on your dive watch was part of the suiting up ritual and when spearfishing that continued. I wore my Professional 600 on all my dives, scuba or spearing. Of course the SOS depth gauge wasn’t used spearing. When Casio brought out a dive meter watch, it was only rated to 100 meters, I used it for spearing. However it drank its batteries when switched to dive mode, so I often wore my "Tuna" as they are referred to these days. You didn’t feel dressed for a dive without your watch, particularly if say you were being expected back to shore at a certain time. Some shore dives ran to four hours in the water while ferreting out suitable victims on the offshore reef complexes. Until the LCD arrived there were few digital dive watches, one LED watch was an edge display Divemaster with a recharging panel where the dial would be. Never tried one, LED’s were battery guzzlers, so displays were only lit when you hit a button.

 

[Popgun Pete]

As for a crown at 12 o’clock we had this one a year or so back.

 

[Eric802]

So I see that watch has a helium valve. I saw online ads for a "dive watch" last month that made a big deal about how it has a "helium release valve to allow excess gas to escape". I posted a question (that was ignored) "Where is this gas coming from"? Given that a dive watch is air and water tight, where is this helium coming from that supposedly has to be vented?

 

[Popgun Pete]

So I see that watch has a helium valve. I saw online ads for a "dive watch" last month that made a big deal about how it has a "helium release valve to allow excess gas to escape". I posted a question (that was ignored) "Where is this gas coming from"? Given that a dive watch is air and water tight, where is this helium coming from that supposedly has to be vented?

In saturation diving the body absorbs a certain amount of gas due to the higher pressures. Nitrogen and oxygen at high levels are bad for you and can cause many problems, so the oxygen level is lower in the breathing air at greater depths and the bulk of the gas is something inert like Helium. The Helium Oxygen breathing gas is known as Heliox and provides the volume to inflate the lungs, but the body only needs a certain oxygen level in the blood. That is where the Helium comes from and because the gas molecule is so small it can get into a diving watch while you are sitting high and dry in the chamber slowly having ambient pressure in the chamber reduced to bring you back up to surface pressure. No chamber exposure, no helium getting into your watch. Some watches like the Seiko Professional 600 and later 1000 don’t need a helium release valve because of the construction of the watch, the works in a ‘Tuna’ go in from the front, and there is no removable case back on those watches. The Tuna Can nickname derives from the cylindical titanium case without its shroud.

 

[Nemrod]

Even though I own a dive watch (my son gave it to me), I don't understand the marketing BS with the absurd depth ratings. Mine is rated to a paltry 500m. I pointed out to my son, that 500m is a one-way dive,

Nor do I really understand why it would be worn while diving. My computer and backup computer do a much easier job of tracking my dive time. I probably could find a set of tables if I had to and use the watch for bottom time, but why?

The depth ratings for dive watches are static ratings, the watch being static. However, a watch in use is not static, it is waved and bumped about during use, dynamic. I am not talking about the seal(s), I mean the use of the watch when worn about. You may consider the depth ratings absurd or not but they do carry meaning. A 150 to 200 meter rating is generally good enpugh for a watch wearble during diving activities. Divers in commercial use may need helium valves or due to long and continuous submersion often have very generous depth water resistance ratings.

Two of my favorites to wear and dive with, an EcoZillia and a TiZilla, 300M water resistance, and they have the saucer shape: