Cousteau’s equipment may seem antiquated to today’s skilled divers. A dive watch, however, is a must-have item for both recreational scuba and free divers, as well as regular landlubbers who just appreciate wearing a precision-crafted, elegantly-designed piece of technology.
Can a dive watch help you save your life?
“No diver should enter the water without a dependable timekeeping device,” scuba-diving specialists and doctors Michael B. Strauss and Igor V.”Diving Science: Essential Physiology and Medicine for Divers” by Aksenov. In order to stay within your body’s limitations, you must monitor your time below and above the surface between dives. This allows you to plan your slow rise and avoid blacking out before the peak.
With scuba, you’re likely to travel deeper for extended periods of time, relying on a restricted oxygen supply. Thus, diving timepieces are designed to survive extreme water conditions while still transmitting vital data to divers.
These factors were taken into account when the Omega Marine, the first watch designed exclusively for serious diving, was introduced in the 1930s. Designers housed the watch’s time-keeping mechanism in a then-innovative stainless steel casing to protect it from temperature fluctuations and pressure. To test the watch’s endurance under extreme conditions, researchers immersed it in 185°F (85°C) water for several minutes before submerging it in near-freezing water. In another test, the watch was thrown 240 feet (73 metres) into Lake Geneva and left for 30 minutes. Finally, in 1937, the Swiss Laboratory for Horology certified the watch to withstand 13.5 times the surface pressure. Finally, they got deep sea explorer Charles William Beebe to test the watch.
Dive Watch Specifications
Swiss researchers have even created a specialist diving watch that, when linked with a sensor placed to the diver’s chest, continually measures the diver’s heart rate.
Dive watch casings are composed of highly strong, rigid materials to endure high pressure and safeguard the watch mechanism. Stainless steel is a popular choice since it is resistant to water, pressure, and corrosion. ( It’s so durable that some manufacturers employ it to make structural sections of automobiles more accident resistant.
Make sure your diving watch fulfils ISO 6425, the worldwide recognized standard that assures a watch can endure pressure, moisture, and perform underwater for extended periods of time. A watch must perform for 50 hours underwater to get this honor. After 20 minutes of heating to 113°F (45°C), testers pour water on the watch face. The watch will not work if moisture collects inside. It must sustain 125 percent of the pressure for two hours to be certified for 656 feet (200 meters).
ISO 6425 also requires a rotating bezel, a ring around the watch face for five-minute time increments, and a calendar. The watch must also perform in salt water and a magnetic environment, and have a dazzling second hand tip.
Other options are available depending on how much money you have to pay. Some dive watches contain various gauges that track the amount of time spent on the bottom, as well as alerts that flash or vibrate so you can hear them even when the water muffles sound. Others are composed of high-tech ceramic composites, which are at the cutting edge of pressure resistance, rather than steel or titanium. Some of them even feature anti-glare crystals on their faces. It’s up to you to decide which characteristics are appropriate for your diving requirements!
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