I was about to buy my wife a console computer--maybe a Suunto Cobra 3--when I stumbled across this thread. I dive with a Suunto D6 wristwatch-like computer and love the fact that its not annoying to leave on my wrist during surface intervals, and at the end of the day I can sit at the bar and scroll through my dives and amuse myself. I wear it like a wristwatch throughout my dive vacation. Consequently, I always know where it is, and it's always on my wrist when I am gearing up for the next dive. It's one less thing that I have to think about in preparing for a dive. I'm surprised nobody mentioned the topside advantages of the wristwatch-style wrist computer.
But my wife is not such a techie, and she's not going to wear an unfashionable watch-like computer throughout her vacation. That leaves a choice of a larger puck-style wrist computer, or a console. I had pretty much settled on buying her a console for several reasons: (1) never having owned a computer, she's accustomed to looking at the SPG console (she doesn't look at her dive watch much because she runs out of air long before approaching no-deco limits); (2) AI is a wonderful convenience and puts all information in one place, and AI consoles are less expensive than AI wrist computers; and (3) I just don't see her enjoying having to mess with taking a puck-style wrist computer on and off between dives, finding somewhere safe on the boat to leave it, remembering to go fetch it for the next dive, etc. I think that only the wristwatch-style wrist computers are truly convenient; the larger, more common "puck" wrist computers seem like a hassle topside. Of course, I am a lazy recreational diver who puts a lot of value on convenience. I can very much understand how a wrist computer with a nice big display would be preferable to a console during the dive itself.
So, now I am not quite sure. Console or wrist computer for the lady?
