How to Buy a Dive Watch

On the lookout for your very first dive watch? This can be an intimidating plateau on which to find oneself.

Even a decade ago, the horological landscape was quite different: Though it was once almost entirely the purview of luxury brands and huge conglomerates, the market in the 2020s now includes myriad small companies (“microbrands”) as well as direct-to-consumer businesses that simply didn’t exist when many Gen Z buyers were growing up. Slightly older millennial and Gen X buyers are no doubt dazzled by the sheer variety of available marques and models suddenly available on the market. And baby boomers who learned to dive in the 1970s—or may have interest in getting recertified or simply picking up a cool new watch—would no doubt find the market largely unrecognizable.

Don’t sweat. This is what we’re here for.Whether you’re looking for a sub-$500 everyday watch that simply looks cool and tells the time or a $20,000 luxury watch that you can—with some bravado—wear with black tie to an awards ceremony, we’re gonna show you the good stuff and offer some useful advice along the way. And while we can’t turn our attention to every single make, model, and reference on the market, we’ll still cover a wide swath of pricing territory to make sure that no matter your budget, there’s something here for you. But first, a dive into the past…

A (Very) Brief History of Dive Watches

Mankind has always been called to the sea, but before the mid-20th century, it was largely only specialists who had the opportunity to breathe beneath it. While shore-fed air supplies and closed-circuit rebreather systems allowed engineers to build structures on the seabed or frogmen to engage in early special operations, open-circuit systems—those that vent a diver’s exhaled carbon dioxide directly into the water—weren’t yet in recreational use. (Closed-circuit systems, which scrub carbon dioxide and turn it back into breathable air, leave no telltale bubbles, which is why they’re the preferred breathing system for clandestine military use.)

During the Second World War, French naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and engineer Émile Gagnan designed and tested the world’s first successful open-circuit underwater breathing device, which they named Aqua-Lung. At roughly the same time, an American officer, Major Christian J. Lambersten, invented a rebreather for military use that he would later dub SCUBA, or “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.” It was the open-circuit system, now also called “scuba,” that would take off following the war, allowing recreational divers across the globe to experience the incredible world beneath the waves.

In these early days of recreational scuba, there were a few items that, in addition to the breathing apparatus itself, were absolutely essential: fins—which are significantly more efficient for underwater locomotion than one’s feet—as well as a face mask to prevent the ingress of saltwater into one’s eyes seem obvious. What is perhaps less obvious is the need for a sturdy, waterproof timing device. Because while the scuba rig alerts you to the amount of remaining gas in your tank, it does not tell you how long you’ve been at the ocean floor or how much time has passed during a safety or decompression stop. These stops—where one simply hovers for a given amount of time at a prescribed depth—are a necessary part of the ascent during a scuba dive. If one skips this process or miscalculates it, built-up gasses within the bloodstream might not be able to dissipate before resurfacing. This can lead to decompression sickness—aka “the bends”—which can be fatal in extreme cases.

But back to the need for a timing device. What might the requirements for such a device be? Well, it should naturally be highly water-resistant, which necessitates the use of some kind of specialized case with either a screw-down crown and case back or other unique system. Additionally, it should be automatically wound, which lessens the need to loosen the crown and wear down the threads and gasket. Furthermore, it should be highly legible beneath the water and in the darkness, which necessitates the use of some kind of luminous material. (Back in the 1950s, said material would have been highly radioactive radium, and later, tritium.) Finally, some kind of time-recording device is a must, which was taken care of via the use of a rotating bezel with a luminous pip: Line this pip up with the minute hand and one can quickly and easily track elapsed time.

The Tudor Pelagos takes its visual cues from dive watches of the mid-20th century.

The birth of the first dedicated, serially produced diving watches is generally pinned to a particular year: 1953. Although Panerai and Rolex had collaborated on specialist watches for Italian and German frogmen during the war and Omega had built a unique waterproof watch in the form of the Marine in 1932, these watches don’t fulfill the aforementioned dive-watch criteria. It was Rolex with its Submariner, Blancpain with its Fifty Fathoms, and Zodiac with its Sea Wolf that are generally credited as the first commercially available, serially produced dive watches with automatic movements, luminous dials, rotating dive bezels, and water-resistant construction. Once these brands led the charge, countless others followed with similar timepieces, many of which are still in production today. Fascinatingly little has changed in their basic design.

Beginning in the 1980s, digital dive computers—which can track elapsed time in addition to depth, breathing-gas mixture, and more—began taking over market share from analog dive watches. Today, these miniature, wrist-worn computers are so advanced that said diving watches are almost completely unnecessary: While some people still wear them, many (particularly younger) divers are completely unfamiliar with the idea of one and will ask you sincerely if the one on your wrist is waterproof and will survive the dive. Much as a mechanical dive watch might be seen as an vestigial appendage of a bygone era, however, one would do well to keep the old quote from General James Gavin about paratroopers in mind: “Show me a man who will jump out of an airplane, and I’ll show you a man who will fight.” A convenient modification might be, “Show me a watch that will work underwater, and I’ll show you one that will keep time anywhere.”

While the diver—the prototypical “tool watch”—is now largely a luxury item, its effectiveness as a take-anywhere, do-it-all timekeeper remains as strong as ever. Whether worn on the bottom of the ocean floor off the coast of Cannes or on the red carpet within the town itself, there’s no denying the tremendous appeal of this most enduring of timepieces.

What to Look for in a Dive Watch

Once you understand that a dive watch is largely an unnecessary bit of diving kit in 2024, you can relax that shoulder tension a bit and just enjoy the buying process. However, if you want to take your watch underwater with you—as many of us enjoy doing—you should keep certain things in mind as you do your research and select the appropriate watch:

Water Resistance: According to ISO standard 6425, a true dive watch must have a minimum depth rating of 100m (330 ft). Functionally, many dive watches will have rating in the 200m or 300m range, though 100m is plenty. (Most recreational scuba diving takes place at depths less than 30m.) If you see a depth rating of less than 100m, the watch probably isn’t meant for diving.

Dive watches will often have depth ratings of 200m or more, but most dives take place less than 30m below the water’s surface.

Rotating Bezel: Dive watches have rotating bezels in order to track elapsed time underwater. (Or above it, for that matter.) While these were once bidirectional, they are largely unidirectional today to prevent accidental under-calculation. You should buy a watch whose bezel action is comfortable in your hand and whose insert—the bit of metal that you actually read—is legible and clear.

A rotating bezel allows you to track time elapsed, which keeps you safer underwater.

Lume: A true dive watch must have a luminous second hand or tail to indicate that it is running in complete darkness, and it must also be visible from a distance of 25cm in total darkness. Functionally, you want a watch with a highly legible dial, which probably means the use of ample luminous material within the indices, hands, and bezel pip. If possible, test your potential purchase in a dark environment to make sure that it glows sufficiently.

Strong lume is essential for low-light legibility.

Movement: While dive watches were once entirely mechanical objects, this is no longer the case and hasn’t been for decades. Brands such as TAG Heuer make battery-operated watches powered by light, and others make conventional quartz divers. So long as it’s easy to tell that the watch is operating underwater, it doesn’t particularly matter what’s powering the movement. (The more accurate the movement, the better, of course.)

Comfort: Comfort in watches is highly subjective—and highly important. Buy a watch too big for your wrist and it’ll be uncomfortable underwater, which is not an environment in which one wants to be distracted. Where possible, test a potential watch purchase on the type of strap or bracelet on which you intend to wear it. Don’t assume that a watch that measures a certain way on paper will necessarily be uncomfortable on the wrist: While 42mm might not be your cup of tea for an everyday watch, it might be perfect for a dedicated underwater tool.

If you’re wearing a wet suit, make sure your watch strap will fit over it.

Ergonomics: This point dovetails somewhat with that of comfort, but a dive watch should be easy to handle, both underwater and above it. The bezel should be able to be gripped with both naked as well as gloved hands; the crown should similarly be easy to grip and operate. (Though not underwater! Leave that thing in place once you dive.) The bracelet should be easy to size—see the below section—and the dial should be easy to read. TL;DR: The watch should be simple to use.

The Omega Seamaster is especially comfortable on a rubber strap.

Bracelet/Strap:Wearing a watch on a rubber dive strap makes the sizing and drying of the whole package easy. Nylon NATO straps, while they can be used in water, tend to come loose and require a lengthy drying period; leather straps are a no-no. Dive bracelets can be a good option, provided the bracelet is easily sizable. (Many modern bracelets have quick-adjust systems for sizing them without the use of a dedicated tool. This is especially useful for when wearing the watch over a wet suit or when one’s wrist swells in the heat.) Make sure you understand how your bracelet works before you purchase the watch.

Where to Buy a Dive Watch

The location and method by which you make your purchase depends upon the brand, your access to boutiques and stores, your comfort level using e-commerce, and other factors. As you may have gathered, we believe that buying a dive watch should be conducted in the same manner that one purchases a mask or fins: namely, by going to the damn store and trying a bunch of them on!(See the “What to Look For” section above.) There are still many brands—particularly luxury brands such as Rolex and Tudor—that simply don’t offer e-commerce, so you’ll have to head to an authorized dealer. (Don’t be intimated. Read this guide and then go in armed with knowledge, that most wondrous of currencies.)

Inside a Rolex boutique.

Besides mono-brand boutiques—those that sell watches from a single company—there are also reputable multi-brand authorized dealers such as Boucherer or Watches of Switzerland, each of which carries numerous marques. Some more affordable brands such as Citizen or Hamilton might be carried in department stores at your local mall; do lots of research before buying one of these watches, as there’s a healthy chance you’ll out-knowledge the sales associate behind the counter. Finally, many micro-brands attend shows such as the Windup Watch Fair where you can actually speak to the brand principals and try on the watches. (We don’t recommend buying from forums or online until you’ve actually tried the watches on, but these can be compelling options once you’re an experienced buyer.)

Dive Watches Under $1,000

Seiko SRPE99

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