Dive Watches

The Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200M is a big, heavy, oddly shaped throwback to a time gone by.

For the 11th installment of our Timekeeping Selects series with Analog/Shift, we’re presenting an OMEGA Seamaster Professional “SHOM” ($3,500), designed for the study of French coasts in 1973 by the Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine.

Wearing a $20,000 watch with a white strap onboard a Great Lakes wreck diving charter is inviting ridicule. But duty called, and I strapped the Linde Werdelin Oktopus MoonLite ($20,000, limited to 59 pieces) over my drysuit cuff, clipped on the Reef digital dive module and waddled to the back of the boat.

The Superocean Chronograph Steelfish ($5,700) is Breitling’s latest addition to its dive watch lineup.

ISO 6425 is an international standard that spells out in great and unambiguous detail the criteria for what can be called a “diver’s watch”. Aside from the obvious water resistance requirement (100 meters, by the way), there are rules for legibility, salt water resistance and more.

Comparing two great depth gauge dive watches: the top shelf IWC Aquatimer Deep Three and an ingenious alternative from ORIS that works without any moving parts.

Vintage watches are flying off the shelves right now, but the Squale 101 Atmos carries out its heritage look without pretense.

The Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Galapagos Islands” ($11,100) shares more with theCharles Darwin Foundation than donations. It’s a prime example of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution — in Aquatimers.

DOXA and the Cousteaus have a hell of a history together.

For centuries, man has found countless ways to send ships to the bottom of the sea. Since the advent of scuba technology, we’ve found ways to explore them.

Last fall, we featured the Pontos S, a sleek dive chronograph. While the chronograph’s design could likely dress up with the best of them, the busy dial gives off more of a sporty feeling.

What self-respecting watch nerd hasn’t spent countless hours trolling eBay for that elusive vintage treasure that no one has discovered? The Pre-Moon Omega Speedmaster, the MilSub, the Cosmonaute — the names alone are enough to get palms sweating and the heart racing.

Shimmering a shade of blue clearly inspired by Caribbean waters, the Halios Tropik SS ($650) on my left wrist appears candy coated, looking infinitely more confident than I feel. A quick test of my regulator complete, I twist the Tropik’s unidirectional ceramic bezel to mark the beginning of this, my first real dive.

Dive watches are more popular than ever, despite most divers choosing not to wear them. Never mind.

The three watch companies at the vanguard of the British timekeeping renaissance — Bremont, Christopher Ward and Schofield — represent very different approaches, price points and designs. Yet they share one thing: a distinctively British take on the wristwatch.

When it comes to dive watches, many immediately think of iconic Swiss watches like the Rolex Submariner and the Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms. Of course, the story doesn’t stop here.

Most Japanese dive watches are the best suited for real-world use. Their simple movements have legendary durability, even if they aren’t the most accurate.

Since some press photos leaked from across the pond a couple of weeks ago, the online watch community has been buzzing about the next generation of IWC Schaffhausen’s Aquatimer dive watch family, which will be formally introduced in a couple of weeks at the Salon Internationale Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva.

If you’re like us, you have a long list of watches you’d love to own. But reality (almost) always steps in, and your desires remain unfulfilled.

The Fossil name usually elicits sneers and scorn from watch cognoscenti as an emblem for shopping mall fashion dreck. But Fossil has quietly upped its game with a small line of Swiss-made watches, not to mention being behind the latest darling of the American watch scene, Shinola.