The Greatest Dive Watches of 2024

How We Examined the Greatest Dive Watches

Our Testing Course of and Testing Grounds

As a result of dive watches are extraordinarily diverse, we broke this information into two sections. First, there are a few watches centered on truly diving. These are technically dive computer systems, which support in bottom-time calculations. For many scuba divers, these are the best way to go, eliminating time-consuming calculations with dive tables.

The subsequent part covers conventional analog dive watches. Whereas these are succesful instruments for scuba diving, most analog (or digital show non-computers) spend their lives on dry land. These fluctuate from cheap quartz watches that may stand up to important water stress to luxurious watches famend for his or her look as a lot as their efficiency underwater.

Whereas dive watch costs can simply vault into the stratosphere, we’re GearJunkie, a website that focuses on gear you can truly use within the open air. And meaning not bankrupting your loved ones in case you break a watch. So, we stored the costs right here underneath the $2,500 mark.

If you’d like a Rolex, Omega, or Tudor, nicely, you already comprehend it’s the title you’re after. This information focuses on perform and likewise trend, however not brand-name status. So whether or not you’re excited to dive safely or simply need to know what time it’s in type, this information ought to have you ever lined.

As soon as we settled upon of testing slate, we used these watches as our each day drivers to get the total expertise and perceive the place they excelled and the place they faltered. As talked about beforehand, most dive watches won’t ever see the depths, so our testing leaned extra on observing informal performance, sturdiness, and feature-richness. From the jetway to the grocery retailer, these watches acquired the total remedy and earned their place in our lineup.

Our Professional Testers

This information is dropped at you by two of GearJunkie’s high watch fans, Josh Wussow and Sean McCoy. Wussow is a contract author for GearJunkie and an avid outdoorsman and contractor. McCoy is the Editorial Director for AllGear Digital, GearJunkie’s mum or dad firm. He’s additionally the previous editor-in-chief of GearJunkie. He’s an avid outdoorsman and PADI-certified open-water diver who lived within the Caribbean for 10 years, the place he dove repeatedly.

McCoy can also be a complete watch nerd and enjoys the horological parts that make effective watches tick. Whereas his ardour for watches and timepieces is relatively new (he’s been writing about watches for lower than two years), he has a deep understanding of substances and outside sports activities developed over 10 years of writing at GearJunkie.com. He has revealed greater than 2,500 articles on the outside.

Our objective for this text is to offer probably the most helpful recommendation for these seeking to purchase a dive watch. Right here, we share the identical recommendation we’d supply our family and friends. You probably have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to achieve out. We’ll be updating this text repeatedly to supply the perfect, up-to-date recommendation for dive watch buying.

Purchaser’s Information: How you can Select the Greatest Dive Watch

Motion

In case you’re available in the market to your first diver’s watch, there’s no extra essential issue than your alternative of motion. It’s going to deeply have an effect on your relationship with the piece from each a timekeeping and energy perspective. Let’s cowl the three primary choices.

We’ll begin on the high with the automatics. By “high,” we’re referring to the most costly choice. Automated watches are mechanically operated, retaining time via a sequence of tiny springs and gears working their magic whereas strapped to your wrist. Their ticks and spins produce the sleek, pretty sweep of the second hand as a substitute of the extra frequent second-to-second lurch of quartz.

However what the heck is “automated” purported to imply? On this case, the time period refers to a mechanical motion that’s been fitted with a small inside counterweight and rotor. This piece swings round if you transfer your arm about, winding the watch’s spring and offering energy.

Reserves fluctuate, however you’ll often be getting round 2 days of timekeeping from a completely torsioned spring. These will also be hand-wound utilizing the crown, however as long as you’re carrying the look ahead to a number of hours a day, the mechanism can run nearly indefinitely.

Now, the downsides. Due to their inherent complexity, automated watches are much less correct than their electrically operated kin. Until you intend on spending hundreds of {dollars}, you’re going to be hoping for a chunk that good points or loses lower than 8 seconds a day.

Some poorly tuned fashions may be off by as a lot as half a minute, making exact timekeeping tough. That’s why it’s essential to discover a motion that permits the gears to “hack.”

This implies if you pull the crown all the best way to the setting place, the second hand stops in its tracks. Among the extra iconic dive watches (just like the Seiko SKX talked about above) lack this essential function.

One step down the ladder in mystique and a number of other rungs up in perform comes photo voltaic quartz. These timepieces make the most of a tiny cell to attract power from the solar. They often function a capacitor able to holding a minimum of a number of months’ value of cost.

Photo voltaic quartz can also be remarkably correct, often straying as a lot time in a month as some mechanicals would in a single day. They’re comparatively low-cost and extremely dependable and have the eco-friendly cool issue. Downsides are few, particularly in case you’re after practicality as a substitute of status.

Lastly, we get customary quartz. It’s the identical because the photo voltaic described above, besides it operates on conventional watch batteries. That is nearly at all times the most affordable choice and may be probably the most dependable. It’s not precisely glamorous, nevertheless it’s a well-recognized standby for a motive.

Don’t let the cool youngsters idiot you — there’s nothing flawed with customary quartz. The draw back? You’ll in all probability want to go to the jeweler each few years for a battery change.

Dive Bezel

See that outer ring above the face of the watch, painted with numbers in 10-minute increments? That’s the dive bezel. These had been launched within the Fifties to trace each time elapsed and time remaining underwater. They will also be used as a slide rule of types for computing primary math.

More often than not, these will probably be unidirectional. This retains you from by accident transferring the bezel and main your self to imagine that you’ve extra backside time left than you truly do. This isn’t a tough and quick rule, nonetheless. Some legendary dive watches, just like the Vostok Amphibia, make the most of a bidirectional ring. Nonetheless, as a rule, you’re going to need one which spins solely a single method.

Lume

This little bit of jargon is brief for “luminous compound.” Principally, it’s a glow-in-the-dark coating utilized to numerous elements of the watch. Whereas some discipline or trend watches paint solely their hour and minute palms, most dive watches have it plastered throughout their indices and second palms, as nicely.

Among the nicer fashions gentle up their bezels, too. This compound may be charged with nearly any type of gentle and makes the watch readable in darkish circumstances. Whether or not you’re 50 ft underwater or rolling over in your sleeping bag at evening, a great dive watch ought to glow like a swarm of orderly fireflies.

The large title to be careful for right here is SuperLuminova. It’s the compound discovered on many of the highest-end timepieces, although it’s began to trickle down into extra reasonably priced territory.

Citizen and Casio each have their very own variations of the stuff. Some are higher than others, so be conscious of simply how essential nighttime visibility is to you earlier than making your alternative.

Strap or Bracelet

Once more, all of it boils right down to a matter of choice. Chrome steel gives extra of a jewellery impact and might usually be very snug. The draw back right here is adjustability. Until you’ve got both a set of springbar instruments (low-cost however specialised) or a bracelet with a quick-adjust system (very costly), you’ll be making a visit to a jeweler at any time when it is advisable to make a change.

The most effective methodology I’ve discovered is to set my bracelets at a cheerful center floor, permitting it to slip alongside my wrist within the morning after which discover a bit extra buy when the arm swells because of the day’s bodily exercise.

Straps, nonetheless, supply a world of potentialities. Rubber makes for a snug expertise and simple cleansing and is a superb companion to timepieces that may truly be used within the water.

Material NATO straps, whereas actually possible in moist circumstances, will retain moisture as they sit towards your wrist. Nonetheless, they provide a variety of colours and patterns, making them one of many extra snug and iconic selections.

The one materials we’d keep away from on a dive watch is leather-based. Sure, we did suggest the Squale within the picks above. (Come on, it’s attractive.) Nonetheless, in case you plan to do something greater than sit at your desk, having one thing that may again up a diver’s seaworthy fame is good.

How To Use A Dive Watch

Whereas trendy scuba divers often use dive computer systems to calculate their underwater adventures, a traditional dive watch can nonetheless do the job. Certainly, many critical divers use an analog dive watch as a backup system. As Gustavson reminded us of the previous saying, “Two is one, and one is none,” which means redundancy may be an essential security measure.

To make use of a dive watch in scuba diving, you first should perceive calculate backside time. For leisure divers, meaning fluency in utilizing PADI’s Leisure Dive Planner. The one method to do that safely is by taking a course comparable to Open Water Diver. So please, don’t attempt scuba diving with out the right certifications.

With that caveat, you employ a dive watch to measure backside time — the period of time you’ll be able to keep underwater correlated with the depth of your dive. When you’ve calculated your backside time (with the charts talked about above), you regulate the uni-directional bezel, pointing the bezel arrow or zero on the minute hand. Then, merely learn the elapsed time on the bezel.

As for the finer hash marks over the primary quarter-hour of some bezels, these permit for single-minute measurements throughout decompression stops. These “security stops” permit nitrogen to depart the physique when ascending from deeper dives. With out correct security stops, divers can get the bends, a doubtlessly deadly affliction attributable to nitrogen bubbles forming within the blood.

So sure, your dive bezel can maintain you secure whereas diving. Nonetheless, most divers nowadays won’t ever use it that method, as dive computer systems are way more correct and simple to make use of. The dive bezel makes an incredible timer and is great for cooking or different wants.

Worth & Worth

It’s true: dive watches can price a fairly penny, which suggests you should have a great understanding of what you’re buying and selling for these payments.

Funds

Spending between $50 and $400 can nonetheless internet you a strong dive watch — however know that you just’ll be leaving a bit on the desk. Dive watches aren’t complicated creatures, and in finances variations, you’ll most frequently see mineral glass used within the crystals, in addition to lesser-quality non-hacking actions that aren’t as crisp. Manufacturers like Casio, Vaer, Citizen, and Orient run the scene right here, and there are a selection of choices we discover nicely definitely worth the minimal spend.

The $50 Casio MDV106-1A “Duro” reigns in the case of relative worth and sports activities an outsized 200 m water resistance, screw-down crown, and even a date window. The $279 Vaer D4 Meridian Photo voltaic provides photo voltaic to the combination, as does the Citizen Promaster ($375) — a dupe of the Seiko SKX007 that makes the grade.

Mid-Tier

Springing for a barely nicer watch actually will get you into the higher-end timepieces. These are the place you’ll see sapphire crystal watch faces, licensed Swiss watch actions, stainless-steel or titanium case builds, and legit dive scores backed up by screw-down bezels. These watches will run you anyplace between $500 and $1,500+.

The Squale 500M Automated ($1,095) sports activities a Swiss pedigree together with a wild 500 m water resistance and sapphire crystal that elevates the luxe issue. The Victorinox Dive Professional Automated ($1,200) tucks away a Sellita SW220-1 motion within a titanium construct that retains this watch gentle in your wrist, making it an outside favourite of ours.

Premium

That is the realm of your Rolex and Omega watches, that are nearer to effective jewellery than utilitarian timepieces. You’re undeniably buying and selling greenback payments for title manufacturers and premium execution. The priciest watch we suggest isn’t any of those, nonetheless, as we predict the Formex Reef Chronometer ($1,960) does all they do for half the value. The COSC-certified Sellita SW300-1 motion is each bit as practical, and the micro-extension system on the watch band means no compromises on match.

This isn’t to say that luxurious watches aren’t nice. We’ve examined and adored the Zodiac Tremendous Sea Wolf. However its $2,200 price ticket barely scratches the floor of the premium dive watch realm, which climbs into the tens of hundreds of {dollars} nearly instantly. On this value vary, watches ought to have in-house actions with lengthy energy reserves. Sapphire faces and distinctive lume are the norm. And the match and end have to be impeccable.

That is the world of horological perfection and a step past what most real-world divers would think about for a jaunt under the waves.

Incessantly Requested Questions