The search for the perfect dive watch

I know it's not Wednesday yet, but I thought I'd start out the week with a new idea.  Instead of random "watch I like" posts, for the next few weeks, I'll be exploring, researching, and highlighting dive watches, in the search for a "perfect" dive watch.

Just about every manufacture of watches makes at least one "dive" watch.  The first that comes to mind for most people is the Rolex Submariner.  Most other dive watches are at least loosely based on the Sub.  But even among Subs, there are all sorts of different styles.  The hands on an older Tudor Sub are quite different from the hands on a modern Rolex Sub.  The dials, and rotating bezels, can be different colors.  And of course there's the "Sea Dweller" - the uber-Sub.  

Other examples quickly come to mind - the Breitling Top-Time (James Bond's had a geiger counter built-in).  The IWC Aquatimer.  The Patek Philippe Nautilus.  The Cartier Pasha.  The Omega Seamaster.  The Seiko and Casio dive watches are also right up there.

So, what makes a watch a dive watch?

Wikipedia defines a dive watch as a watch designed for underwater diving that features, as a minimum, a water resistance greater than 10 ATM, the equivalent of 100 meters (330 feet).  There is an ISO standard for diver's watches (ISO 6425).  These are suitable for diving with underwater breating apparatus in depths of 100 m or more; an ISO 6425 certified watch can be marked with the word "DIVER'S".

But there are thousands of watches out there that are water resistant to 100 m.  Really, you could take just about any modern watch scuba diving.  So what unique features make a watch a diver's watch? 

Well, the ISO certification standard gives us some clues.

1) Fantastic visibility in just about all levels of light.

The ISO certification requires adequate readability at 25 cm in total darkness; an indication that the watch is running in total darkness; clearly distinguishable minute markings.

But a good diver's watch, I think, should go beyond this.  It should be legible at any light.  The sun's glare.  The light of the moon.  A dim reflection.  A lot of watches are readable in complete darkness; it's when there's just a little bit of light that makes reading them difficult - your eyes adjust to absolute darkness, and become much more sensitive.  Analog watches should have several different ways of reflecting light back to your eyes.  The hour and minute hands should have a healthy amount of chemiluminescence.  But they should also have some "mirrored" elements, and (ideally) some sections in white or other color that contrasts highly with the colour of the dial.  Hour markers on the watch should be the same - ideally they should have mirrored segments, black or white segments (high contrast to the face color), and a healthy chemiluminescent dollop.

Although a diver's watch can have a face of any colour, the majority are black with white hands and markers.  I think my "perfect" diver's watch will have to have this color combination, or a minor variant of it (dark blue?).  Strictly an aesthetic thing, but isn't that the most important thing here?  After all, it's not like I even dive!

2.  Easy to read the exact time

The ISO standard states that there should be clearly distinguishable minute markings on the watch face.  Makes sense to me.

3.  Unidirectional bezel

The ISO standard states that there should be a unidirectional bezel, with elapsed minute markings at least every 5 minutes, and a specific marker to mark a specific minute marking.  

In other words, there should be a rotating bezel.  It can only rotate in one direction.  So, once it's set, it can be accidentally moved, but only to tell you you have LESS air, not that you have MORE air.  i.e. if you set the marker at the minute hand now, the minute markings will tell you how long you've been underwater.  If the bezel gets moved accidentally, it can only be in the counterclockwise direction, which means when you see how much time you've been under water, it will seem like more, not like less, time.  

I would add a few things to the ISO standard (not that I've read the ISO standard, but I'm just reading about it on Wikipedia...  my apologies if these things are part of the standard already, and just not mentioned in Wikipedia).  First, the specific marker should be chemiluminescent.  It should also be readily visible in any light conditions.  AT A MINIMUM, you should be able to read three things in any light conditions: the location of the minute hand, the location of the "12", and the location of the bezel marker.

Second, the bezel should have some kind of grip on it, so that it can be easily turned, even with gloves on.

Third, the bezel should "click" every minute (or half minute). None of this free-wheeling bezel stuff - you need a bit more accuracy than that.

Fourth, ideally, the bezel should be designed so that sand and salt won't gum it up.  I don't want to have a "stuck" bezel, just because I've been in the sand or sea - that's what it's for!  I'm a bit torn about whether this means that the bezel needs to be an internal bezel (like the one on some of the IWC aquatimers).  With an internal bezel, you just turn a crown to turn the bezel, but the bezel is under the crystal, and is therefore protected from sand and salt.  However, it does change the look of the watch a lot - I'm not sure if a "perfect" dive watch should have an internal bezel...

Finally, I'm a bit torn on whether the bezel should be one colour or two - in a lot of traditional dive watches, the first 15 minutes of the bezel are a different colour.  Not sure why that is - I would understand it if we were counting down (last 15 minutes you can be underwater) but on almost all of these bezels, we're counting up.  I'll have to look into the significance - now it's really staring to bother me.

4.  Tough, reliable watch

The ISO certification has requirements for magnetic resistance, shock resistance, chemical resistance, strap/band solidity.  It also nees an End of Life indicator on a battery powered watch, and an indicator that the watch is running.  Makes sense to me.  You don't want the watch falling off in the middle of the ocean.  You want to know that you're not going to run out of batteries in the middle of a dive.  You want to be able to glance at the watch and confirm that it's still running, and doing what it needs to do.  Theoretically, you are depending on the watch for your health and safety.

Also makes sense that the watch should be able to withstand the corrosive nature of seawater.

5.  Looks like a Dive watch

I think it's important for a dive watch to look the part.  It should have a metal, rubber, or fabric strap.  A big, easy to read, black face.  A serious piece of metal on your wrist.  It should be devoid of fancy features that decrease legibility - no chrono dials, preferably no date indicator (though, if you must, one with a black background).  Although the quintissential dive watch (the Rolex Sub) has a cyclops magnifier for the date window, I would do without - it distorts the face, and sticks up too much (it will get banged up and scratched).  This is a utilitarian watch.  Oh - and I think it should have a wetsuit extension clasp if it's a metal band, or an extra-long bracelet if it's rubber or fabric.  It should have a safety clasp.  Big thick hands.  And a screw-down crown.  I'm not too fussed about fancy shmancy "helium release valves", depth guages, trip computers, or any of those things.

So this wednesday, we'll take a look at our first dive watch.  And we'll look at another every Wednesday 'till I get bored and decide to look at other types of watch for a change.

First Blog is the Deepest

OK, so the concept here is a new watch profiled, every week. An interesting exercise. But where to start. There are so many watches, and the first post had better be good. Do I pick the watch I like the most? The most complex? The one I like the most from my collection? My most recent acquisition? Or the one I'd like to buy if I had the cash?

So many different ways of doing this. And yet, the answer came to me as I was, well, checking the time.

I'm going to start this "watch of the week" site with a comment on the watch I'm wearing today: A Breitling Aerospace "Repetition Minutes"

Breitling has been designing watches, primarily for marine or aviation use, since 1884. They are well known, and a bit of a "poseur" watch if you don't have a flying license. Great branding, but not all that common. The most common and well known Breitling is the Navitimer, which has a circular slide rule as a rotating bezel - so people who know how to use a slide rule can do essential flight calculations at the drop of a hat - pounds of fuel to litres, anyone?

The Breitling “flying B” is a scripted B incorporated into an anchor, having wings. This way, the Breitlings appeal to both flight professionals and sailors, though they're really more known as a flight watch. Richard Branson's solo flight around the world in a hot air baloon was sponsored by Breitling, and you don't get tougher (or more "poseur") than that... Imagine a big silver hot air balloon with BREITLING in huge letters and you'll understand what I mean.

The Breitling aerospace is one of my favorite watches, and a perfect example of an “ana-digi” watch. I've got a bit of a weakness for ana-digi watches, as you'll learn over time if you follow this site. By perfect example: it's thin, lightweight (because it is made of titanium), water resistant, and simple to use. It has an easy to read analog dial with two apertures containing digital readouts. The digital readouts can be used to display time, date, a second time zone, a countdown timer, an alarm, or a chronograph. Or, the digital readouts can be left blank. All functions are operated through the crown: rotate to change the readout from one feature to the next; press to start the chronograph, timer, or toggle the alarm; pull out to set; hold down to reset.

The watch is a “repeater” (hence the “repetition minutes” in its name) - though this isn’t as complicated a feature as it would be on a mechanical watch. Pushing down the crown in "time", "date", or "blank" mode and the watch will count off hours, quarter hours, and minutes, using three different ‘chimes’. This allows you to tell the time without looking at the watch.

The watch is a COSC certified swiss chronometer. This is a bit of a gimmick, I think, for digital watches - they're all pretty accurate. Apparently, the COSC has a different accuracy tolerance for digital watches, so these are "really, really accurate", but I've never really noticed any digital watch gaining or losing more than a second or two a month. I guess when you make expensive watches that take batteries, you need to justify it somehow - a COSC certification is one way of doing that.

The watch features an all titanium watch body and band. The band is a premium band, with a double clasp, screw-type pins, and a wetsuit extension. I really like the look of the band - something about the brushed titanium looks really good. I think it has something to do with the bevelling around each rectangular piece. Nice integration with the face, too. Only one little annoyance - it's not the most comfortable band on the planet. The curvature on the double clasp is a bit wrong for my wrist, which makes that part of the band dig into my wrist. also, the "double clasp" part tends to dig in as well. Maybe I need to adjust the links so that more are on one side?

The watch features a gray dial that is exactly the same color as the body and band (other dials, such as blue and black, were also available for this watch, but I really like the monochromatic look). The dial features green luminescent hour markings with arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9. Hands are matching with green luminescence. The two digital apertures feature greenish LCDs on a black background. The top aperture indicates the mode (CHR=chronograph; T2 = second time zone, etc.) where the bottom aperture indicates 3 sets of two numbers from 0-9. The hands are gorgeous, simple, also titanium colored (though a little lighter than the face). I love how the minute hand extends beyond the middle of the watch, but the hour hand doesn't. the tapering on the hands make for very precise reading of the minute. Hands move once every thirty seconds, or 120 times an hour.

The dial is surrounded with the characteristic Breitling rotating bezel engraved from 0-59, with inserts at 0, 15, 30 and 45, and a luminescent dot in the insert at 0. The bezel, and inserts, are all titanium (the watch was also available with gold inserts). Rotation is bidirectional. There are screws on the side of the bezel, every 5 minutes. Part of me likes the look of this (since it's very different than any other watch), but something simpler might have been nicer. The inserts on the bezel, especially the one at 12, have a tendancy to catch thin pieces of clothing, and I worry that one day I'm going to bend it or break it. Hasn't happened yet, though.

Dial is covered in a sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. Mine has a tiny imperfection or scratch in the anti-reflective coating, close to the 6. I'm not sure how it got there - it was there when I bought the watch (I bought it used). I'm pretty hard on my watches, and the sapphire hasn't got a single other scratch on it, so the last owner must have banged it pretty hard to get this scratch.

Original crown, of course, marked with Breitling “B”. Not the flying wings or anchor, but just the scripted B.

Interestingly, the back of the watch contains metric conversion information purportedly useful for pilots. for example, it tells me that 2.54 cm = 1 inch, 1 cm = 0.39 inches. I guess this is a holdover from the Navitimers - I'm not sure how useful it is on this watch, since the watch doesn't have a slide rule.

Strangely, the back is a pop-off (I would expect a screw back on a watch of this quality). Probably because of the titanium - not sure how easy it is to machine a titanium screw back. Watch is considered waterproof to 50 m.

I love this watch. It's a "no excuses" watch. I can wear it anywhere - it's never "too good" (the titanium finish and the digital dials downplay it to a certain extent - no bling here); it's never "not enough" (it's a Breitling. Completely respectable in just about every circle). I can wear it in the shower, it'll wake me up in the morning (though the alarm isn't all that loud - maybe the titanium doesn't resonate as well as stainless steel?). I like the redundancy of a chronograph function and a rotating bezel. Just love this watch.