5 Things You Should Know About Your Dive Watch - A Comprehensive Guide

Despite how few people actually scuba dive on a regular basis, dive watches are without a doubt one of the most important and popular areas of watch enthusiasm. However, as popular as dive watches are, there are a lot of things about dive watches you may not know as well as aspects of dive watches that are commonly misunderstood. In this video, we'll go in depth by presenting five things to know about your dive watch to give you a better understanding of the underwater watch world.

Reviews of Watches Featured in This Video:

More Videos About Dive Watches:

1:33 - 1. Brief History
4:20 - 2. Working Under Pressure
6:15 - 3. Essential Dive Watch Elements
12:02 - 4. ISO 6425
13:32 - 5. Do Divers Wear Watches?

[AhmadRiyal]

Went to therapy with it. That was a lot deeper than i expected to go

[davidofglenbrook]

While dining at my club the other day, the waiter inadvertently sprinkled some water on my G.O. Sea Q while serving my lobster. The watch handled the situation like a champ.

[luispadilla]

My good friend Hugo is an underwater welder for the Navy he told me that they still use Dive watches because computers do fail more often then we might think. He has never seen one fail but has heard many stories of people that had a good scare. I don’t normally comment on YouTube videos but I must say that content you bring for us is next level. Thank you.

[marcusciantar]

Something worth mentioning on the rotating bezel is that in a proper dive watch, it should only rotate counterclockwise and not both ways. Reason being is that if it's knocked and turned slightly by mistake, it'll always increase the time discrepancy, meaning that your calculation will always be more conservative than otherwise.

For example if you start your descent at the 12 hour mark and after a 30minute descent you bump your bezel by 10 minutes so that the bezel now ready you descended at the 11 hour mark you'll think it took you 40minutes to descend so you plan for a longer ascent and never a shorter one.
If it were to rotate both ways, you could accidentally knock it to show it took you 20 minutes instead of 30, and you'd underestimate the time needed to resurface.

[timmanion]

Because I received my dive training in the military some 50+ yrs ago, I was trained using a watch . Even today, although I use a dive computer, I still don't go down without a watch on my wrist . Redundant systems were drilled into my head all those years ago and I still find myself looking at my watch when I'm under thewater . Great video Teddy . Thanx

[DCTag]

I use the helium escape valve on my Seamaster professional because I hug it really tight from all the love I give it otherwise it may blow up.

[RaymondTusk]

The deepest I've been with my Tudor is 102 feet, last night actually. It was a wreck dive at night and my dive computer failed as we got to the bottom, I think from battery. It doesn't seem to be charging properly and needs to be replaced/warrantied. It happens, and it was nice to have a watch to time my safety stops on the way up. My buddy's computer was obviously very useful since we were together all day, but when it's pitch black and you have something you can reference it's nice to have and fun/nostalgic/comforting. I'm sure I'll take my Tudor deeper, I just don't wear it all that often. Now I think I will though, I was happy to have something to time with when my computer went blank.

[noobfl]

Divewatches are just perfect toolwatches today for everyday-use. your out hicking? great legibility, no wories about some dirt or water, use the bezle to track, when you start or use it to make to check for north/south with the sun easyier. when are your loundry finished? just use the bezel, you want to track, how many minutes you work for a customer to charge him reasonable, use the bezel.. a divewatch is just the essential versitail watch, and thanks to james bond, even accepted to wear in a bit more formal occasion ;)

[looseunit]

I have a Seiko dive watch I bought in 1985. Countless dives later and its still running perfectly. It is a quartz though.

[Wirbelmeister]

I'm a diver and I wear my watches when diving... Well, at least my Seiko, scared about my seamaster :D

[lawsonmarr]

Would love to see more videos in this style

[Hangfire]

I'm not a diver, however I do wear a dive watch for chores around the house like manually washing dishes or watering my lawn. I couldn't imagine wearing a "regular" watch or solely relying on my smart phone while performing these duties. It's a great time to be alive.

[gssnyder]

While I do use dive computers, I also dive with my Oris Aquis…mostly to keep track of time of day. I am an Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver certified recreational diver and have had my Aquis to about 110 feet deep. There is definitely a nostalgia factor, having grown up watching Jacques Cousteau and Sea Hunt and always wanting to be a scuba diver. I didn’t have the opportunity to get certified until age 57. I also really like the Aquis for it rugged design and durability as well as the craftsmanship of a Swiss automatic. Thanks for the great video.

[James.]

I did my dive training in 1976 with aspirations of seeing the world above and below the water , but life had other plans for me. wife, house payments, kids, dogs, cats, and horses took me in other directions, but the knowledge gained from diving was equally useful in many other persuits, canoe and kayaking , Sailing just to name a few and has saved my life on many occasions !!!. my dive watch has been a constant in the equation, to take what ever has been thrown at it and keep on ticking, and just as life would have it, out of the blue... ive recently started diving again, no longer chasing exotic destinations, fish , mermaids or sharks, it's more of a commercial and salvage nature around the marina my sailboats moored at. my dive instructor used to say (all the best diving in the world happens between 30 to 60 feet ) ill be 60yrs young in a few weeks and enjoying life again, its a good bench mark for the next chapter in diving. I think the reason dive watches are so popular is that they are built to take what ever life throws at them and carry on !!!

[Nilsscar]

Dive watches are still very useful in the harsh environment of the professional kitchen. Very durable and the timing bezel is great when preparing fish. High resistance for grease stains.

[jonathanstoddard]

I am not now and won't ever be a diver but my employment does find submersion of my watch a necessity from time to time. An SKX is my everyday piece as it's tank-tough, even if very basic, and allows me to keep my nicer pieces, well, nice. Lol.
In regards to some marques' use of a HEV in saturation dive-capable pieces this is another reason for my Seiko fandom. Their construction of mixed gas divers that are buttoned up tightly enough to forego the use of an extra point of egress is highly impressive to me.
As always a great vid, Teddy, both for those already a fan of this particular genre of watch and those just becoming interested alike. Keep up the great work!

[jamessymington]

I haven’t worn a dive watch whilst diving in over 20 years now and just use a computer although when I learned to dive you had to use a watch and deco tables as computers didn’t exist. This process helped along by the clasp on my Sea Dweller (now long sold) opening after receiving a blow on the boat ladder. The watch fell into my fingertips over a 300m drop at the Straits of Tiran.

[joshdesj]

I was a commercial diver in the gulf of Mexico for a number of years, including several runs in saturation. I really only ever wore a watch while working if we were gas diving and had multiple in-water decompression stops on the open bell. And really then it was just to make sure and keep the guys topside in check with my deco times at each stop as well as deco stop depth with the digital depth gauge on the watch. More than once i caught them miscounting my deco stop time as well as depth! A really great dive watch that i rarely see (the one I used) is the Citizen Promaster Aqualand Eco-drive 20th anniversary watch. tough as hell, great functionality as basically full-blown dive computer with digital and analog readouts. Sweet watch!!
All in all a watch is not very necessary for commercial diving anyways, i'm just a gear head and love watches that happened to have a great and robust dive watch that was helpful on occasion. it'll get beat up pretty bad tho, which is why, in my experience, guys usually wore a casio g shock, at most while diving. In saturation diving, it's nice to have a timepiece with you, especially with a helium release valve, but not super necessary. again i saw guys bringing their casio watches in just fine. I brought my Oris diver with me, worked great. Thanks for the video, it was cool to see that as an ex-commercial diver and scuba instructor!

[GarrySibbald]

Great video Teddy! I was a clearance diver in the Royal Navy back in the 80's and like most of my colleagues we passed up the opportunity of a military Rolex as their timekeeping was far poorer than our own watches which we chose to wear instead. Many of us wore Seiko's and G.Shocks and many divers still do. If your want to pick a brand that has clocked up more minutes underwater it hands down has to be Casio!

[Jeaglelol]

Been down to 40 meters with my Sinn U1 B on the duoflex diving strap system (cannot recomend it enough for drysuit diving). I have depth gauge, air pressure gauge and compass on my instrument console. So together with my dive watch I have a complete backup set. I have never had the computer fail so I need it so far. But I have saved several other peoples divetrip when they are about to go into the water and the dive computer they brought is out of battery. I simply lend them my dive computer and do an old school dive using the analog instruments. Its a fun way to dive!

Great and informative video!