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Watchmaking has several themes that decade after decade are timeless and well installed. One of them is dive watches. No matter if you are a professional dive master in Australia or just a tourist snorkling in Barbados, you definitely need a watch to do the job. And that watch will be the perfect companion for adventure. While some brands are well known for their divers collection, here is a short yet unexpected selection of dive watches you would not think about (and that you should). Generally when it comes to divers watches, we would think about Omega, Rolex, Tag Heuer or Even Seiko. Here are some interesting watches that would definitely surprise you.

1- Pontos S. Diver by Maurice Lacroix

Maurice Lacroix is a luxury brand of Swiss watches based in the Canton of Jura and headquartered in Zurich. It was founded in 1975 and since then the Swiss manufacture has excelled in terms of know-how and state of art. since 2006, they produce their own movements which is definitely a big difference. Maurice Lacroix Although the Pontos S Diver is a professional diving instrument, with a maximum water resistance of 600 metres, making it suitable for exploring deep seas, it is so much more than a diver’s watch. The Pontos S Diver exhibits a powerful appearance with its slightly retro aesthetics. You can use it in deep sea as well as in the city center. It is an interesting watch, quite minimalistic and has everything a diver might seek in a diver watch. With its helium valve and a clever bezel that rotates thanks to the secondary crown, the Pontos S Diver is the perfect watch, down to 600m. 

Pontos-S-Diver-Maurice-Lacroix

2- Pelagos by Tudor

The history of the TUDOR divers’ watch is closely tied to its intensive use by underwater professionals, particularly by the world’s major navies. The brand’s submersible products are genuine tools that have evolved over the years to take into account the needs of these intensive users. Readability is an essential characteristic of a good diving instrument, and the TUDOR Pelagos offers several solutions for this. The watch’s dial presents generously-sized square hour markers, complete with a large quantity of luminous material for excellent contrast. The luminescence is blue, the last colour on the spectrum to be discernible at great depths.

  • 42 mm Monobloc middle case, screw-down case back and winding crown, helium escape valve at 9 o’clock
  • Titanium, satin finish, case back in 316L stainless steel
  • Screw-down winding crown, triple waterproofness system
  • Scratch-resistant and anti-reflective crystal
  • Waterproof to 500 m (1,640 ft)
  • Blue or black rubber bracelet with titanium buckle

The titanium case and bracelet buckle guarantee a perfect stability in time, especially when exposed to salt water and outdoor activities. Pelagos translates perfectly the Tudor heritage and gives a bright future to the Swiss brand in terms of professional watches.

Tudor-Pelagos-watch

3- Heritage Divers by Longines

Today, Longines combines the original beauty of the most remarkable of its former products with cutting-edge watchmaking technology. The Heritage models are a tribute to the pioneering spirit that has inspired Longines designers since the company’s early days. Enjoy all the watchmaking savoir-faire of Longines even when you are exploring under the sea thanks to the dive watches of the winged hourglass brand. These automatic timepieces is watertight and will allow you to enjoy all your favourite underwater activities, including scuba diving. To this great robustness is added the unquestionable elegance that is peculiar to Longines, whether you are looking for an understated and refined timepiece of a sports watch with a modern design.

 

Longines-diver-watch-heritage

4- Bathyscaphe Flyback by Blancpain

Born in the late 1950s from a desire to offer a diver’s watch in a size suited to daily wear, the Bathyscaphe was reinterpreted by Blancpain in 2013. This year, the timepiece that is equally at home under water and in chic urban settings takes on board a new self-winding F385 movement featuring a flyback chronograph function. This new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe model houses a new 13-lignes Manufacture Blancpain movement beating at a rate of 36,000 vibrations/hour. It is equipped with a column-wheel chronograph mechanism and a vertical clutch. It also offers a flyback function enabling the wearer to reset and instantly restart the chronograph simply by pressing the pusher at 4 o’clock. Moreover, the water-resistant chronograph pushers also enable user underwater to depths of 300 metres without any risk of damaging the watch. The presence of a sapphire case-back on this diver’s watch is made possible by the use of a balance-spring made in silicon – a material endowed with anti-magnetic properties that enable the watch to dispense with the inner Faraday cage. This transparent back reveals the 18-carat gold oscillating weight clad in NAC (a platinum alloy) and featuring a sculpted Blancpain logo.

Bathyscaphe-Flyback-Blancpain

5- Calibre de Cartier Diver by Cartier

The Calibre de Cartier Diver watch is an authentic diving instrument. A powerful accurate watch with water-resistance to 300 meters, rubber strap, maximum-precision unidirectional turning bezel coated with ADLC and time-control displays in Super-LumiNova®. Powered by a 1904 MC movement, it combines the strict technical requirements of ISO 6425 and the striking design of the Calibre de Cartier watch.

  • Manufacture self-winding mechanical movement
  • Caliber 1904-PS MC.
  • Steel case, ADLC-coated steel bezel with Super-LumiNova indicator
  • Faceted crown set with a faceted synthetic spinel.
  • Partly snailed black dial with Super-LumiNova indicators, steel sword-shaped hands coated with Super-LumiNova.
  • Sapphire crystal.
  • Steel bracelet, triple folding steel security buckle.
  • Case dimensions: diameter: 42 mm, thickness: 11 mm.
  • Water-resistant to 300 meters. 

Caliber-divers-Cartier-watch

A diver watch is a promise of adventure. It is a reminder on your wrist that you can escape to another context that means exploring the unknown. It perfectly fits the modern life of a man. Some brands have developed a tremendous know how on diver watches and the word waterproof is for these brands a piece of cake.

Arsène Vargas

Info sourced at respective brands websites, wikipedia, ABlogToWatch, Hodinkee and Forbes. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.