Divers are always meant to dive. So are these.
Which watch can be more associated to diving than the Rolex Submariner? The Rolex Deepsea. With its capacity to withstand water pressure at 3900m, it is a beast you can rely on when you someday for some reason have to dive into that depth to look for your lost wedding ring. This D-Blue special edition is even better. This watch is to commemorate James Cameron’s dive in his green Deepsea Challenge submarine to the Mariana Trench. It features a D-Blue dial, which is a gradient dial that goes from blue to black to manifest the change of sea water color during a dive.
The watch is water resistant up to 3900m and it has a ceramic bezel with numerals and graduations coated in platinum. Inside beating is a Rolex 3135 movement, Rolex’s most famous workhorse. The case back is made of Grade 5 titanium. At 44mm, this could well be the ultimate dive watch in the world.
But what if the Deep Sea D-Blue is not elegant enough? Try the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver at 42mm. Manufactured by one of the most prestigious watchmaking houses, the Royal Oak Offshore Diver, in both black dial and white dial, in every way demonstrates power, elegance and reliability.
The watch features the brand’s signature octagon bezel with polished edges and polished white gold screws each of which is aligned according to their positions. The screws are parallel to each of their bezel edge. It demonstrates very strict craftsmanship. The inner bezel of the watch is controlled by a crown at 10 o’ clock and it is water resistant to 300m. With its display back, you can see AP’s signature 22k gold engraved rotor and the beautifully finished cal.3210 movement.
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is a bit different from the AP Diver. Very different actually. Introduced even before the Rolex Submariner, the Fifty Fathoms has a case that is way different from any dive watch. It does not look rugged. Instead, it looks more elegant than any of its counterpart. Thanks to the bezel which is made in sapphire, it is one of the most robust bezel on a dive watch. Not only that, the sapphire bezel adds a lot of shine to the watch as well.
Another distinct feature on the bezel is that every numeral and graduation has Superluminova applied. That definitely makes your dive much safer. At 45mm, this watch is very wearable. Beating inside is a Blancpain in-house Cal 1315 movement that has 120 hours of power reserve.
Thinking 300m is not good enough? What about ten times more? The Hublot King Power Oceangraphic is such beast. It will still work at 4000m depth, just 100m more than the Rolex Deep Sea.
At 48mm, the case is huge and thick. However, as it is made of titanium, it wears on your wrist very much like a 300m diver. According to some additional tests, this watch can go as deep as 5000m.
The case of this watch absolutely looks very rugged. The screws on the bezel may remind you of the AP Diver, although they are not quite the same breed.
Something in the middle,simple and without so much depth rating can be a good daily beater and we have the Panerai 389 Submersible here with us. Panerai has been renowned for making military dive watches for the Italian navy in the Second World War. Their watches are big and bold in a fashionable way. The Submersible series is their best dive watch line.
The Pam389 is water resistant to 1000m and it has a very beautiful sandblasted ceramic bezel. The bezel keeps you from scratches and makes it more care-free when you dive with the watch. The bezel will remind you of the windows of ships that are screwed to the body of the ship. This watch has a date and small seconds display. More to that, the Pam 389 is also anti-magnetic, which is not very commonly seen on a diver. The watch has a three-day power reserve with its in-house P9000 movement. The whole watch is in titanium, which makes diving with it a joy.