Usefulness of a Diving Watch

[alewar]

Does your Suunto Core have a sapphire bezel?

Does it have a helium release valve?

Mostly importantly, do chicks dig it?

I don't really care about release valves or sapphire bezel, I buy things that I can use without feeling bad about them getting scratched, lost or whatnot... To impress chicks when on holiday I can rent a nice car and have fun with it

 

[agilis]

I've had my Seiko 6309-7040 for more than 35 years, and wear it on all holiday trips, diving or not. It's a thing of beauty to anyone who appreciates mechanical excellence, and the aesthetic of combining function and style. It is a self winding mechanical watch (no batteries) that I personally service. Like a good 1st stage regulator it needs little other than o rings and the occasional spacer. In fact, I use the same tool to open the watch case that I use to open the sections of my SP Mk 5 and Mk 10s that require the use of double pins to remove.

The watch still is accurate to within 10 seconds in a month. I never have to take it off, and it's as useful on land as in the water. Its primary function is to measure the passage time in an analog mode. On most dives, this is all a competent diver needs, since by definition the essential tables have been taken into account when planning the dive. It's also useful when snorkeling as a way of making sure you get back to shore somewhere close to the time you had promised, or just checking the time while wandering around, without pulling some devilish privacy and solitude compromising device out of your pocket.

It is a true diver's watch, with no extra dials and whistles. It has a sturdy elapsed time bezel and , in addition to analog time hands, has a day/date window. I've had the hands and hour markers relumed twice. That's it.

I have a computer (Suunto Gekko) but I tend to rely more on the watch and the tables when diving, using the computer as a backup and also as a primary guide for dives with a profile that is more appropriate for a computer. I have a couple of other dive watches, but it's my faithful Seiko that goes on my wrist as I'm leaving for the airport.

 

[fnfalman]

I don't really care about release valves or sapphire bezel, I buy things that I can use without feeling bad about them getting scratched, lost or whatnot...

I don't feel bad about scratching up a $3000 dive watch.

To impress chicks when on holiday I can rent a nice car and have fun with it

You can't bring the car inside the bar to show off to the chicks.

 

[vladimir]

As has been suggested, the best use of a dive watch is to make it to your lunch appointment on time.

I have a few expensive watches, and their utility can only be explained as jewelry. They might confer status upon their wearer (though your Rolex may have some negative associations, as well), and they might be esthetically pleasing, both as adornment and as examples of skilled craftsmanship. There is no timekeeping role they fill that cannot be accomplished more cheaply, and probably more reliably.

 

[Tigerman]

As has been suggested, the best use of a dive watch is to make it to your lunch appointment on time.

I have a few expensive watches, and their utility can only be explained as jewelry. They might confer status upon their wearer (though your Rolex may have some negative associations, as well), and they might be esthetically pleasing, both as adornment and as examples of skilled craftsmanship. There is no timekeeping role they fill that cannot be accomplished more cheaply, and probably more reliably.

I agree with most but the first line makes absolutely no sense to me..
Youre actually suggesting that using a dive watch as a backup instrument is of no use? Because why?

 

[vladimir]

I didn't say "no use." I said its "best use" is to make it to your lunch date. And that was a bit facetious. A dive watch could be useful as a backup, but I prefer a second computer.

 

[agilis]

What could possibly be cheaper and more reliable in a timekeeping role than a battery powered watch with some moderate level of water resistance(shower, washing hands, surface swim) selling for less than $100? A battery powered diver's watch, completely waterproof and functional at depths far beyond sport diving range can be had for less than $200. Wristwatches require no pockets, and are extremely utilitarian. In fact, their descent from the demands of WW1 trench warfare, and their continuing use by elite military units suggests that they are still held in high regard by those capable of easily traslating analog displays and requiring quick and easy accesss to a timekeeping device that requires no special handling or storage.

There are very expensive (and often not very rugged and reliable) dive computers that can be worn on the wrist, but doing so when not in a diving situation puts one in the same category as a scuba instructor I once knew who walked around with one of those big old diving knives strapped to his leg whenever he wore shorts or a bathing suit within several miles of the ocean or when he was in his dive shop. These days, when overweight office workers barely able to swim are able to proudly display a certification card there are (I hope) few people so spectacularly fatuous, so pathetically in need of disguising the interior Walter Mitty, that they seek to impress people through such infantile displays. There are a few wandering around out there, though.

I have a dive computer, and I use it. Anyone who cannot safely plan a dive without one should not be certified.

 

[Tigerman]

...
I have a dive computer, and I use it. Anyone who cannot safely plan a dive without one should not be certified.

Mine died 5 minutes into the first day of a 3-dive day and lo and behold I could just ignore it and use my dive watch to keep track of depth and time and safely complete 3 dives and get the computer revived the next day.
It saved me (or kept me from losing) a lot more money than being in time for a lunch


Edit: First DIVE of a 3-dive day of course..

 

[NSMEDIC]

I have two dive watches..one I just got for x-mas from the wife and a second that is a family heirloom that has never been worn

 

[vladimir]

What could possibly be cheaper and more reliable in a timekeeping role than a battery powered watch with some moderate level of water resistance(shower, washing hands, surface swim) selling for less than $100? A battery powered diver's watch, completely waterproof and functional at depths far beyond sport diving range can be had for less than $200. Wristwatches require no pockets, and are extremely utilitarian. In fact, their descent from the demands of WW1 trench warfare, and their continuing use by elite military units suggests that they are still held in high regard by those capable of easily traslating analog displays and requiring quick and easy accesss to a timekeeping device that requires no special handling or storage.

There are very expensive (and often not very rugged and reliable) dive computers that can be worn on the wrist, but doing so when not in a diving situation puts one in the same category as a scuba instructor I once knew who walked around with one of those big old diving knives strapped to his leg whenever he wore shorts or a bathing suit within several miles of the ocean or when he was in his dive shop. These days, when overweight office workers barely able to swim are able to proudly display a certification card there are (I hope) few people so spectacularly fatuous, so pathetically in need of disguising the interior Walter Mitty, that they seek to impress people through such infantile displays. There are a few wandering around out there, though.

I have a dive computer, and I use it. Anyone who cannot safely plan a dive without one should not be certified.

Note that the first paragraph of my first post refers to "dive watches" in general and, again, is a bit tongue-in-cheek. The second refers to "expensive watches," and does not conflict with your points here.

Watches can be useful to divers. I prefer a second computer as backup. If my primary computer fails during a dive trip the backup can step in seamlessly. It is always attached to my BC, so it has my nitrogen status and I can continue diving without interruption.

I do not wear a dive computer when I am not diving.

Mine died 5 minutes into the first day of a 3-dive day and lo and behold I could just ignore it and use my dive watch to keep track of depth and time and safely complete 3 dives and get the computer revived the next day.
It saved me (or kept me from losing) a lot more money than being in time for a lunch


Edit: First DIVE of a 3-dive day of course..

Perhaps my lunches have more at stake than yours.