By RIO ROSE RIBAYA
As the original was published on 1 August 2017
Dive watches are among the most popular types of sport watches. Specifically designed to withstand extreme pressures that can be felt around 200 to 300 metres under water, they’re great tools for measuring a diver’s elapsed time in the depths of the sea or ocean.
While they’re clearly built for diving, these timepieces are also great for swimming, skiing, sailing, surfing, and other water sports. But you don’t really need to be a diver or be active in aquatic sports to love these high-performing, utilitarian-chic watches. With their classic designs, sophisticated features and cutting-edge technology, these watches tick all the right boxes when it comes to form and function.
Often bold and chunky, dive watches are anything but restrictive or difficult to wear. They are actually perfect for everyday use due to their high-quality, water-resistant features. So, which one is for you? Whether you’re getting your first dive watch, or adding another one to your growing collection, you’ll find this list useful. From the old-school Longines Legend Diver to the James Bond-inspired Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Commander’s Watch, here are 5 newly released dive watches you need in your collection now.
(Main and featured images: Bell & Ross)
IWC Aquatimer Automatic 2000 Edition
IWC Schaffhausen came out with the Aquatimer Ocean 2000 for the first time in 1982. To celebrate its 35th anniversary, the Swiss watch manufacturer has redesigned it to have a thickness of just 14.5 millimetres. Thanks to the newly-improved shape of its titanium case, the thinnest deep-sea diver’s watch in the IWC collection is pretty reliable even if you reach 2,000 metres underwater. Limited to only 350 watches available globally, this dive watch is made of titanium that is surprisingly lightweight and resilient.
Longines Legend Diver Watch
The Legend Diver is one of the classic watches from Longines’ catalogue. Inspired by old-school super compressors, it first came out as a reissue of a 1960 diving watch in 2007. A decade later, Longines celebrates the watch’s 10th birthday by popping on a new strap option – a Milanese mesh bracelet. This handsome 42-millimetre watch with a black-lacquered polished dial beats at 28,000 vibrations per hour — providing 38 hours of power reserve. With a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and layers of anti-reflective coating on the underside, it’s water-resistant to 30 bar.
Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Commander’s Watch
Inspired by James Bond — who has often been portrayed as holding the rank of Commander in the Royal Navy — Omega has created a stainless steel case that features a ceramic bezel with a Liquidmetal diving scale and red rubber covering the first 15 minutes. The new Commander’s Watch is presented on a five-stripe blue, red and grey polyamide NATO strap with a polished buckle. Powered by the exclusive Calibre 2507 with coaxial escapement, the 41-millimetre watch comes with a polished white ceramic dial, faceted blue skeleton hour-minute hands and a varnished red seconds hand with a “007” gun logo counterweight.
Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver
With a water resistance to 300 metres, Bell & Ross has created a new 42-millimetre dive watch that for the first time features its iconic square shape. It has legible, black metal applique skeleton Superluminova-filled numerals and indices, and a luminous second hand that makes time-reading easy even from a distance of 25 centimetres in the dark. It also has a time pre-selection device in the form of a 60-minute calibrated uni-directional rotating bezel, which is protected against accidental rotation or incorrect setting.
Bulgari Diagono Scuba Watch
Coming out with Diagono Scuba Watches since 1994, Bulgari has proven that it’s capable of producing dive watches. Just this summer, the Italian watch and jewellery label introduced the Diagano Scuba Watch in new cheerful colours of orange, yellow, and white with a matching rubber straps and dials. The 41-millimetre stainless steel timepiece has retained its rotating diving bezel and 18k rose gold curved case, and is set with brilliant-cut diamonds and mother-of-pearl elements. But don’t let this beauty fool you. With its time and date functions housed within a solid case, it can withstand pressure up to 300 metres of underwater resistance.
Reveries and Reviews 