Tag: Omega Seamaster
Safe in the Hands of a Classic Swiss Dive Watch
by on Jan.12, 2010, under Sport and Dive Watches
For many of us, a watch has become an unnecessary luxury. To get us to work on time we can easily turn to our televisions, cellular phones, iPods. In fact it is hard to find a digital device these days that doesn’t tell the time. But for a scuba diver who enters an unforgiving environment and has to time every move down to the last minute, survival quite literally rests on the quality of the dive watch they are wearing. So it is no surprise that many of the most famous Swiss watches built their reputations on the quality of their diving watches. Take Blancpain, an uncompromising producer of mechanical watches that shuns digital electronics. Although its roots date back well over 100 years, its cemented its reputation in the 1950s for specialising in selling dive watches to navies around the world.
The Blancpain Dive Watch
Among the first forces to adopt the Blancpain dive watch was the French navy, which set up a “combat swimming” unit in 1952. Its 50 fathoms waterproof watch went on to become a classic when it was adopted by Jacques Cousteau, the father of modern scuba diving. Towards the end of that decade Blancpain designed a watch to meet an American military specification with special high-visibility hands and a non-magnetic case. It was adopted by the US Navy in 1964. A slightly modified version was later taken into service by the German navy. Unfortunately Blancpain subsequently went bankrupt and was later only saved and resurrected by Jean-Claude Biver, a charismatic and insightful watchmaker who coined the phrase that Blancpain had never made a quartz watch, and never would.
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner
Another storied Swiss watch maker that staked its reputation on making diving watches that could stand up to the toughest abuse was Rolex. The Rolex Oyster perhaps deserves recognition as the worlds first dive watch. The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, which went into production in 1953, claimed to be the first watch that was waterproof to 100m. Its popularity soon spread among military and commercial divers because of its reliability and resistance to extreme conditions. Rolex also marketed it cleverly by getting explorers and divers to use it and then featuring them in its advertising campaigns. Among the more gelling publicity stunts the watch was put through was to have one descend to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, one of the deepest parts of the ocean. Even after being exposed to the crushing pressure of water at a depth of 11km below the sea it emerged unscathed. The Rolex Sea Dweller dive watch has also accompanied divers on the deepest recorded dives by humans swimming freely. This, however, was to a depth of little more than 500 meters. It is clear, under these circumstances, that the weak link in the chain is the human diver.
Omega Seamaster
A relative newcomer to the world of Swiss dive watches is the Omega Seamaster. Omega had another claim to fame in that its watch was the first on the moon, but it didn’t want to be left out in the dive to the bottom of the ocean. The seamaster had been around for decades but was really a statement of style rather than a functional tool for divers until the 1970s. Yet now Omega has raised the bar adding a helium release valve to depressurise the watch. It also claimed to have produced the first chronometer that could be used under water. Many people who want a titanium watch go for one of these, partly because it was made famous by James Bond in the mid 1990s when Mr Biver (yes, he of Blancpain fame) bought the rights from the producers to get 007 to switch away from Rolex. Ever since the Seamaster has been know by many as the 007 watch.
Dive Watch or Computer?
Classical or mechanical dive watches have, to some extent, been superseded in diving by sophisticated dive computers that monitor and calculate all the minutia related to avoiding getting the bends by staying deep for too long. Yet there is still something beautiful and simple about a mechanical dive watch with a rotating bezel and luminous hands that tells you at a glance how long you’ve been under the water. There is also something comforting about a technology that is tried and tested with little that can go wrong. And even if you don’t dive, owning a Swiss mechanical dive watch is like owning a piece of history.
Related Posts:
-
Welcome to Swiss Watch Guide
You can also subscribe by email by filling the field below:
