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Freedivers Watch (not computor)!!!!

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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DivingDane

DivingDane

1BREATH Freediving
Jul 24, 2007
997
93
88
ok guys and girls,

i have a question. if you were to have a nice time piece to wear day to day and out on the town what would it be?

i've been wanting to find something that has the following:
- class
- strong links to freediving
- if possible an analogue depth guage as well (wishfull thinking)
- water proof to 200m

historically i have found:
- Sector No limits , limited edition for Umberto pelizzari
- Omega Sea master apnea (designed with Mayol)
- Reidenchild freediving (fred buyle edition)
- Oris Carlos Costa edition

anybody got any ideas?
i know Breitling, Bremont, Tag, Ball all have sponsored freedivers but havent made a "Freedive" model.

anybody out there have connections with a watch company that would like to make a nice time piece for us freedivers?

DD
 
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There are indeed a big number of freedivers affiliated with a watch company. The watch industry seem to be the very most important sponsor of freediving. In the following thread we counted 18 such sponsorship relations:

http://forums.deeperblue.com/general-freediving/86675-freedivers-watches.html

You may check some of the watches, but as you tell yourself, practically all of them are useless for a freediver. Well, they are classy, that's for sure, but offer practically nothing useful to a freediver. Even those that are intended for a freediver (i.e. the one of Mayol), are not easy to read, difficult to manipulate, and offer only a very tiny fraction of functions of a common freediving computer.

Then, of course, you have plenty of models from Casio, Citizen, Seiko, or others that come with a depth-meter, but other than that they rarely offer any useful functions to a freediver. Mostly they are rather designed as a backup watch for tech divers, and therefore some of them are also helium-proof, preventing so explosion on the ascent.

The only exception I am aware of, a mechanical watch with (almost) full featured freediving computer functionality is the Immersion Challenger. It is the same instrument as the popular Immersion Prowler, just it has the mechanical clockwork in plus.

Well, then, there is the Linde Werdelin combo Oktopus + The Reef. Linde Werdelin is a manufacturer of high-end luxury watches and instruments for skiers and divers. The Oktopus is a stylish watch waterproof to 1111 meters, and you can combine it with the Reef instrument - they have an interesting lock mechanism, so you can attach the Reef to the Oktopus. The Reef has also freediving mode, but I did not manage to get closer information about it. However, the scuba mode offers some dream functions. It comes with WiFi, interface to a GPS, digi compass, full color matrix OLED display, and much more. And you can get it also with buttons in massive gold :D

More about The Immersion Challenger and Linde Werdelin The Reef here:
APNEA.cz - Freediving Computers

The Challenger:
challenger.jpg
​
Look at LINDE WERDELIN • The Reef - the demo video of the Reef locking on the top of the Oktopus is at the bottom of the page. On photos the Reef look rathe big, but on the video yo can see that in fact the size it pretty small and definitely wouldn't be disturbing at freediving.

The Oktopus:
Oktopus-Moonphase-1178.jpg oktopus-titS-1105.jpg oktopus-dlcS-1107.jpg
​
And The Reef:
reef-alu-250-895.jpg
​
 
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the prowler wasnt really what i was chasing.

i have the f10 for actual freediving. but was looking for a nice time piece to suit going out with: DInner, functions, out for a night on the town that kind of thing, but still had the essence of freediving.

legibility underwater is not a concern it doesnt have to have really practical functions:

my ideal unit would be:
- Stainless steel housing
- unidirectional bezel
- analogue stop watch
- analogue depth guage (just a small one like on the citizen)
- waterproof to 200-300m
- available with stainless band (option for rubber aswel maybe)
- a face which links to freediving
- "apnea" or "freediver" on the face
- little monofin diver or
- some design illuding to freediving and the deep.

like i said not looking for a truely functional unit (the f10 is for that) but something classy to wear day to day. (i guedss its just a bit of bling really)

DD
 
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hmmmm yeah it is nice, but again noit really the key. analogue watch is much more to my taste for something nice to wear.

the watch carries the right idea. no doubt about it, but not quite.
 
NZ 676 NOW we are talking! Freedivers Bling!!!!!!

that is very nice i also very much like the Fred Buyle watch as well! now i just need to find one to buy!

DD
 
DivingDane said:
the prowler wasnt really what i was chasing.

my ideal unit would be:
- Stainless steel housing
- unidirectional bezel
- analogue stop watch
- analogue depth guage (just a small one like on the citizen)
- waterproof to 200-300m
- available with stainless band (option for rubber aswel maybe)
- a face which links to freediving
- "apnea" or "freediver" on the face
- little monofin diver or
- some design illuding to freediving and the deep.

DD
Click to expand...

Hi DD,

What would be wrong with the Citizen BJ2000-09E? It's their completely analogue Aqualand, including analogue chronograph & analogue depth indicator and it doesn't look dorky like the analogue/digital JW0030 series.

Can be viewed here:

CITIZENWATCH.com | Welcome to Citizen Watches Online
 
Hi DD,

Yes, youre absolutely right, the BJ2115 looks way better than the BJ2000.

Heh, heh. Yeah, Sector only has an Italian version of their page for the Shark Master- they're is infamous for doing stuff like that (leaving some products off of the English side of their site).

I hadn't noticed because I just read the Italian version of the specs.. here they are:

- Swiss auto movement
- Screw-down back & crowns
- W.R. to 1000m (any watch waterproof to 1000m has to have screw down crowns! :) )
- Helium safety valve
- Diving watch band (in specialty rubber)
- Sapphire glass crystal face
- Stainless steel case
- Internal rotating bezel

This is one tough watch! But some freedivers are going below the 200m mark, so I guess this is the kind you've gotta have when you go to depths that would do in a regular dive watch.
 
I am enjoying this thread, definitely some nice watches out there!
I went though a similar situation about 10 years ago but there was not the choice available at that time.
In the end I bought an Omega Seamaster - no thrills but fantastic quality & really tough.
I have been wearing the watch every day since & it still looks like new.
 
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foxfish said:
I bought an Omega Seamaster - no thrills but fantastic quality & really tough. I have been wearing the watch every day since & it still looks like new.
Click to expand...


The Seamaster is one of the great watch classics! Definitely 1st class.

One of the lessons I've learned is that you should get a watch with a sapphire crystal face, like the seamaster does. It seems sapphire never gets scratched.
 
I thought I would post some photos of my "bling" dive watch. The Traser Super Sport Chrono was made by Microtec of Switzerland up until a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it is now discontinued, because I would buy another one in a minute once its radioluminescent tubes wear down.

It is a true 200 m w.r. dive watch with screw-down crown, unidirectional elapsed-time rotating bezel, and a chrono function with buttons that work underwater to depth. It has a tachymeter scale for measuring things like average speed when you're driving. The inox bracelet has an interesting feature: in the end of the bracelet closure is a little pop-out section that increases the band length by 2 cm so that you can wear it over a wetsuit, or over a windbreaker jacket for easy reading outdoors. The stainless steel case is holding up well after 5 years, and the sapphire face is still unscratched. A PDF brochure with specs is still available for download here:

http://www.fairmgt.com/fair-mea-companys/traser-systems-new/Traser-7-Super-Sport-Chrono.pdf

The major feature of this watch is actally its radioluminescent tubes on the hands face & bezel that glow in the dark all the time from tritium hitting phosphor coating the inside of the tubes. You don't have to charge up the luminescence by exposing the watch to light beforehand like watches with luminescent coatings. The glow-in the dark feature is quite remarkable, and reading the time in the dark is super-easy with this watch.

The catch with tritium-phosphor illuminated watches is that tritium has a half-life of 12 years, and so the glowing tubes "wear down" and probably by 15 years or so, you'll find the brightness has declined to the point where you'll want to replace the watch. That's why you should always buy a newly manufactured H3 watch, rather than old stock.

I actually find it very useful for freediving in some situations, where I use it to time dive duration & surface interval for moderate depth dives & I find the analogue chrono much more intuitive to use than a digital computer readout. That's really just ex post facto justification for getting the watch, though. A computer is what you need for most diving.

I definitely got the watch for its "cool" factor, and people do rave over it. It's the only watch I've got that gets people asking about it, and saying how much they like it. Couldn't ask for a better watch that can take the punishment, but looks good for dress wear.

Here it is (daytime & nightime views):
 

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foxfish said:
Cool but how much does the 15 year watch cost?
Click to expand...

Well . . . it's actually a great deal for a watch with a sapphire crystal and an ETA 251 movement in it.

Microtec-Traser was recommending a retail price of approx. $850, but a lot of stores were retailing it for as low as $650, and I got mine for $550 in a store closing sale.

Yeah, maybe it was a splurge on a watch with a relatively limited lifespan, but a decade from now when it's getting unacceptably dim, if I can find another dive chrono with H3 illumination that's as nice, I'll snap it up in a minute :inlove
 
In fact I can imagine "in some strange way" that the set life adds character & personality to your watch! :)
 
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