Diving Watches

There are two reason because you should buy a watch:

A dive watch can be your primary safety device if you are diving without a computer! Or, if you have a computer, the watch can be a secondary timing device...in few words a dive watch is important for a safe dive and must be reliable and precise!

Second...it is cool! Nobody will care if you dive or not but it looks cool! And maybe you will get interest in diving!

On the serious side, let's speak about water resistant: for recreational scuba diving, 100m water resistant should be sufficient.

About band: Rubber, Stainless Steel or Titanium? It’s a matter of personal preference for recreational scuba diving but let's see the major differences:

• Rubber wristband: it is strong and pliable when it is new but it can become brittle enough to tear. It is comfortable to wear.
• Metal bands: to avoid rust and corrosion, they should be made by stainless steel or titanium. In these last years titanium has become more affordable and due to it's light-weight characteristic, it is also more comfortable and more corrosion resistant than stainless steel.

Maintenance: it is suitable to test your diving watch pressure by an authorized service, annually. It is also important to put your watch in fresh water after a diving to protect it from corrosion.

I will suggest to avoid low quality cheap watches.. because you know what can happen if your drive watch fails at depth.... you can experience a painfully crippling injury or even death. If your watch fails you will not able to knows if you are passed beyond the limits of a no-decompression and how many deco stops you need. You should not take chances with any gear on which your life may depend, like your dive watch!

For major information I will suggest to read, in Forbes magazine, the Connoisseur's Guide where Neal Santelmann provides a good comparison of several dive watches.