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10 dive watches for a cool, cool summer
Trend Forecaster

10 dive watches for a cool, cool summer

Thursday, 27 June 2019
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Marie de Pimodan-Bugnon
Freelance journalist

“One must be absolutely modern.”

Arthur Rimbaud

It takes passion, a healthy dose of curiosity and a sense of wonderment to convey the innumerable facets of watchmaking…

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5 min read

Slip on your diving suit, adjust your mask and make a splash with one of these ten new dive watches.

Are you planning to tickle a manta ray’s tummy in the Maldives? Play hide and seek with hammerhead sharks in Costa Rica? Unless, that is, you’re thinking of casting your net for congers in the waters off Brittany (sub five metres, bring a torch!). Whatever the colour or the temperature of the water you’ll be relaxing in this summer, a dive watch is a must – and all the features that go with it: water-resistant to at least 100 metres, legible in darkness, resistant to shocks and magnetic fields, a device for measuring immersion time…

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Barakuda

Better than a tête-à-tête with a barracuda, this limited-edition Fifty Fathoms originates with a late 1960s model that was supplied to divers of the German Bundesmarine by Barakuda. Blancpain has reprised the principal design codes of the original, including a black dial with “old radium” Super-LumiNova coating, pencil-shaped hands and a prominent date window. This vintage spirit is firmly anchored in the present, nonetheless, with water-resistance to 300 metres, a unidirectional bezel with domed sapphire insert and, keeping it ticking, the automatic Calibre 1151 movement.

Fifty Fathoms Barakuda © Blancpain
Fifty Fathoms Barakuda © Blancpain
Breitling Superocean Automatic 44

Breitling jumped in at the deep end with its first dive watch, the Superocean, in 1957. Multiple evolutions have followed ever since. This year’s offering comes in five diameters, ranging from 36mm right up to 48mm. Cut from steel and topped with a ratcheted unidirectional bezel, this 44mm model features a blue or black dial matched with a coordinating Diver Pro II rubber strap. COSC chronometer-certified and powered by the automatic Breitling 17 calibre, it makes the ideal dive buddy for underwater adventures down to 1,000 metres.

Superocean Automatique 44 © Breitling
Superocean Automatique 44 © Breitling
De Bethune DB28GS Grand Bleu

While this new De Bethune may not look like your typical dive watch, it has all the requisite attributes to explore the ocean’s deep down to 100 metres, where even the inky black won’t get the better of its readability thanks to an ingenious mechanical lighting system. A pusher at 6 o’clock activates a geartrain (driven by the twin barrel) which, dynamo-style, illuminates the dial for several seconds. Another singularity, the sapphire crystal rotates with the bezel. These innovations are contained inside a 44mm case in titanium. The heavy lifting is by a manual-wind movement, the brand’s 27th in-house calibre, that guarantees five days of power reserve.

DB28GS Grand Bleu © De Bethuneq
DB28GS Grand Bleu © De Bethune
Doxa SUB 200 T.Graph "130th Anniversary Celebration"

In 1969 Doxa launched the 200 T.Graph, a reference among professional divers. Fifty years on, the brand is tempting collectors with a revisited version of its icon, proposed as a limited edition of 13 in reference to the brand’s 130-year existence. As well as boasting fabulously vintage, 43mm forms, made for the first time in 18k gold, this anniversary model houses an original Valjoux 7734 movement, carefully conserved by Doxa for 30 years. Collectors won’t resist the pleasure of testing its reliability to a depth of 200 metres.

SUB 200 T © Doxa
SUB 200 T © Doxa
Glashütte Original SeaQ Date Panorama

“Spezialist” is the latest – and fifth – collection from Glashütte Original and home to the SeaQ Date Panorama dive watch. Inspired by the Spezimatic Type RP TS 200, released in 1969, it builds on the brand’s history as a manufacturer of tool watches. Standout features include a 43.2mm steel case that is water-resistant to 300 metres, a highly legible (including in the dark) blue dial with a large date display, a tone-on-tone rotating bezel plus a reliable, and of course precise, calibre that delivers a remarkable 100 hours of power reserve.

SeaQ Date Panorama © Glashütte Original
SeaQ Date Panorama © Glashütte Original
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph

At home in every situation, the Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph really comes into its own beneath the waves. This is where its multiple attributes can really shine: a 45.5mm titanium case, orange ceramic rotating bezel, ceramized titanium dial, NATO strap and, because every second counts, the Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9900 chronograph movement with METAS certification.

Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph © Omega
Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph © Omega
Oris Dive Control Limited Edition

An impressively sized (51mm) case in ultra-light titanium, a patented security system that locks the unidirectional rotating bezel securely in place, the Oris Calibre 774 chronograph movement, water-resistance to 1,000 metres… the Dive Control Limited Edition (just 500 pieces) has everything going for it. Don’t be surprised, on your next dive, if its yellow, black and white colours attract a shoal of butterfly fish.

Dive Control Limited Edition © Oris
Dive Control Limited Edition © Oris
Panerai Submersible Marina Militare Carbotech 47mm

Muscle, spirit, stamina… be warned: the Submersible Marina Militare Carbotech 47mm can trigger a serious urge to play frogman, camouflage-mode, in among the seaweed. Because this 47mm Submersible is military not just in name. Sculpted from Carbotech, Panerai’s own carbon-fibre based composite, this 33-piece limited edition is clad in black and khaki green Super-LumiNova on the carbon dial and the unidirectional rotating bezel, whose indices match the rubber strap. What better to protect the automatic Panerai P.9010 movement to a depth of 300 metres.

Submersible Marina Militare Carbotech 47mm © Panerai
Submersible Marina Militare Carbotech 47mm © Panerai
Tudor Black Bay P01

Dive into the second half of the 1960s with Tudor as it revisits one of several prototypes developed for the U.S. Navy. Codenamed “Commando”, the project never came to fruition, but one of the prototypes, conserved in the brand’s archives, comes to life this year as the Black Bay P01. Part dive watch, part navigation watch, it features a novel locking system for the bidirectional rotating bezel by way of a mobile end-link at 12 o’clock. An original solution for a watch that is water-resistant to 200 metres and driven by the chronometer-certified MT5612 in-house calibre.

Black Bay P01 © Tudor
Black Bay P01 © Tudor
Rolex Oyster Perpetua Sea-Dweller

Nothing can be too beautiful for an exploration of the ocean’s deep. Not even the combination of steel and yellow gold that makes its way, for the first time, onto the 43mm case and bracelet of the Sea-Dweller. As always, performance and reliability are of the highest level, starting with guaranteed water-resistance to 1,220 metres and the Calibre 3235 automatic movement, developed by Rolex to resist shocks and magnetic fields.

Oyster Perpetua Sea-Dweller © Rolex
Oyster Perpetua Sea-Dweller © Rolex
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