Dive Watches What is a dive watch? Characteristics of a Dive Watch. There are a few specific characteristics that make a watch a dive watch or scuba dive watch. Water Resistance In order for a watch to be considered a dive watch, it must be water resistant to at least meters. However, more advanced watches will have a water resistance of at least meters.
Legibility A dive watch must be legible underwater. Many contain luminosity for low or no-light conditions. Rotating Bezel Dive watches come equipped with a rotating bezel that lets the wearer know how long they have been underwater.
Durable Strap Most dive watches have rubber or stainless steel straps. To protect the watch's time-keeping mechanism from temperature variations and pressure, designers enclosed it in a then-innovative stainless steel case.
To ensure the watch's durability under extreme stress, researchers subjected it to rigors more intense than any diver likely would face -- immersing it, for example, in water heated to degrees Fahrenheit 85 degrees Celsius for several minutes, and then abruptly plunging it into near-freezing water. In another experiment, they lowered the watch to the bottom of Switzerland's Lake Geneva, a depth of feet 73 meters , and left it there for 30 minutes.
Ultimately, in , the Swiss Laboratory for Horology certified the watch as able to withstand pressure Last but not least, they persuaded underwater explorer Charles William Beebe, who at the time held the world record for ocean depth, to take the watch for a test dive [source: Omegawatches. Over the past 70 years, inventors have come up with scores of innovations in an effort to improve diving watches. In the early s, for example, a Japanese inventor named Yoshiaki Fujimori came up with a new type of ultra-stiff seal ring that was less likely to deform under pressure than a rubber seal [source: Fujimori ].
In , another team of inventors from Japan unveiled an electronic diving watch that included a water pressure sensor [source: Utemoto ]. More recently, in , French inventor Jean-Francois Ruchonnet received a patent for a depth gauge that would fit inside a diving watch [source: Ruchonnet ]. Swiss inventors have even developed a specialized diving watch that, when combined with a sensor attached to the chest, continuously monitors a diver's heart rate [source: Angelini ]. To withstand great pressure and protect the watch mechanism, the cases of dive watches are made from extremely hard, stiff materials [source: Omega].
One popular choice is stainless steel, an alloy whose coating makes it resistant to being deformed by water and succumbing to pressure as well as corrosion. It's so tough that it's also used by some automakers to make cars' structural parts more crash resistant [source: European Stainless Steel Development Association ]. Titanium and karat gold are other common choices. If you're actually going to wear a diving watch for diving, rather than just because it looks cool, be sure to get one that conforms to ISO , the internationally-recognized standard that certifies a watch is capable of resisting pressure, moisture and works underwater for extended periods of time.
To earn that distinction, a watch has to function while immersed in water for 50 hours. Additionally, after being heated to up to degrees Fahrenheit 45 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, testers drip water onto the exterior of the watch face. If condensation develops on the inside, the watch won't pass.
If the watch is rated for feet meters of depth, it has to be able to withstand percent of the pressure found that deep, and keep working for a two-hour period [source: Avionica ]. ISO also requires a watch to have certain important functional features, such as a rotating bezel, a ring around the watch face that allows a diver to mark five minute increments of time. Thank you, Sister T. Certified diver.
I use a dive computer and my Seiko as a backup. In any event, the dive watch is a backup for most divers. We rely heavily on computers. Most dive masters actually have two dive computers one for back up , and a dive watch.
Established use of bevel requires the diver to remember the dive time in minutes read from the o on bevel. It is much easier to set the o on the bevel at the required time in minutes for the dive, then one can see quite clEarly the time elapsed without having to remember the dive time. Works for me all the time. Simply rotating the 60 minute mark on the bezel to the minute hand position when you set coarse allows you to read your ETA for ATC directly off the watch next to your ETE along track on the bezel.
Unfortunately, for some reason, most fashion watches, and divers watches for that matter, are not marked clearly enough, except for the first 15 minutes of rotating bezel, to be of any use!
Clear skies, Nigel B. Nice article. At the price point I can afford almost the simple Seiko Divers is boss. One way ratcheting bezel, large minute hand, bright illumination, screw down crown.
Since my first Seiko Divers in they just keep getting better. Quartz watches are powered by a battery that keeps a quartz crystal in the watch vibrating at a specific frequency. These watches are incredibly accurate and inexpensive to make, but they lack some of the craftsmanship of a mechanical watch. In contrast, manual watches are completely mechanical.
However, they need to be wound regularly to maintain tension on the mainspring and keep the watch running. Automatic watches function pretty much the same way internally, but they include a mechanism for harnessing kinetic energy to keep the watch wound. With diving watches, though, there are other features to consider. The biggest defining feature of a diving watch is water resistance.
Depending on the specific sport watch, this can work in a few different ways, but they all follow the same basic principle. The sports watch is built with gaskets at every place where water could get in, creating a seal that prevents it from happening.
Also, things like a screw-down crown can assist in this as well. To help a diving watch withstand the high pressures associated with underwater diving, manufacturers have to take additional steps when making these watches such as a helium release valve or helium escape valve.
At Jack Mason, our Seamount Automatic diving watch is made with sapphire crystal, one of the hardest and most durable materials in the world. We use this in part for scratch resistance, but it also helps ensure that the face will not crack under pressure. In most cases, diving watches are rated for any recreational water activity and light diving, but may not be suitable for a professional scuba diver.
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