GREATER DEPTH?
Every man loves a dive watch, but rarely do they encounter a sea bed. No matter – the best divers perform as well above water as they do below
When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.’ Thus spake the villainous German, Hans Gruber, in Die Hard. In actual fact, Alexander the Great did nothing of the sort, but that’s not relevant here. The point is the idea that conquering was completed more than 2,000 years ago is now risible. Imagine Big Al’s reaction on learning that not only has mankind been to the moon, but its wealthiest few are treating space flight like a hobby. Hundreds of people climb the world’s highest mountain every year and the record for diving to the deepest points in the oceans is now held by an investment banker.
All of which is to say it’s easy to underestimate how hard these things are, and perhaps none more so than diving. We’re ill equipped for life underwater. Every 10m you descend adds an atmosphere’s worth of pressure; at 100m – an entry-level depth for a diver’s watch – the pressure is 10 times what you’d feel at sea level.
It also has to be said that watches aren’t really suited to aquatic life either. Or rather, they weren’t, before WW2 commandos decided that they could really do with knowing how long they’d been underwater. Today, watches capable of withstanding dips of half a kilometre or more are everywhere. And in their ubiquity we overlook how impressive that is. Perhaps it has something to do with the numbers: in most minds, 300m underwater is fairly indistinct from 500m. After a while, it’s all just cold, dark and alien. But in reality, anything over 100m is ample for even the most ambitious amateur diver.
Nevertheless, not so long ago, brands were intent on creating watches rated to ever more extreme depths. Only recently have some of the biggest names brought out models with a lower water resistance, presumably in the realisation that if the hardware isn’t quite so industrial in construction, you can have more fun with it. Others have noted that their watches can keep the tech specs, yet not take themselves so seriously – hence the introduction of arty dial designs or retro bronze cases. Take a look at six new watches that show the dive watch in all its current forms.
Chris Hall is Mr Porter’s senior watch editor