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The best freedive watch?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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I checked the specs for the X6HR, and it says it records absolute barometric pressure -- does this mean it can measure the pressure underwater? It would be a simple task to convert it to depth in metres.

I wonder if it works in salt water (most HR monitors only work in fresh water).

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
Hi Eric

I am not sure how it will do with the pressure,
but as soon as I get mine from Suunto, I'll let you know.

Luckily we do 80% of our diving in fresh water,
so Ill see if it works in salt and fresh.


Herman
 
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Reactions: gitano
D3 is awesome

Just tried out my D3 this weekend and the thing is awesome. Story behind getting it goes somehting like this. I wanted a watch with a dive guage so I went to the all watch store that Don Moore posted on and got one for less than a $100. I tried it out and was very happy with it. It showed max depth, bottom time, and looks very stylish with it's metal band. Oh, my friend is a jewelry maker and polished it for me: bling bling man. Anyway, I ordered a bungee from Blue Water Hunter Kona and being on the other side of the island, I asked my dad if he could go get it for me and I would give him a check for the price plus tax. He pulled the psyche saying he couldn't because they open too late and he already leaves Kona (for work) by that time. Friday comes around and he tells me to stop by because he picked up the bungee unbeknownst to me. He also told me that he has a surprise coming and that it would be there in a week. Despite pleading, and even calling the store itself, I had to wait another week before I found out that pops bought me a Suunto D3. I never asked for such a thing he just did it out of love. Yeah called me spoiled, lucky, whatever. Pops was, is, and always will be the man.

To clarify, I could hear the alarm even though I wore a 3mm hood. It is not blaring like an alarm clock at 4 in the morning, but is definitely audible enough to hear underwater. The functions are awesome. While blue water hunting, I was able to find the exact depth where I go completely neutral and hover waiting for those pelagics to come check me out. The alarm sonded everytime I dropped below the programmed max depth. I didn't push for max time but the feature is there. Very good instrument. If you got the money or doting loved ones, I would say get this. It improves not only safety while diving but also help you become a more effecient hunter. Props to Suunto for the D3.

Brad :martial
 
My D3 is toast. My stinger was stolen in July 2002, and shortly after I bought the D3. I loved it as a freedive watch, while it still worked. Now, it reads depths which have nothing to do with reality, and it often doesn't go into dive mode until I'm 15m down, and then it will show a depth of 1.2m or something, then it will suddenly switch out of dive mode, and sometimes it never goes into dive mode at all, unless I manually make it go into dive mode while holding my breath down there. Sometimes it shows a depth which is close to reality, say off by 40% (as I measured by using my friend's D3 which still works).

The bottom line is that the only dive computer I have ever used which never malfunctioned under any conditions was the stinger. Too bad I can't afford to buy another one.

Does anyone know where I can send my D3 to, in case it can be fixed or replaced? Seems like a major pain.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
I love my Stinger too...what bothers me about it though, is that it goes back to watch-mode after only 5 minutes on the surface, but thats a minor complaint...the life time memmory might also have been an overstatement..I had mine in for service last fall ( the battery and one of the buttons didnt work ) so now the maximum depth reds 4,9m ( the pool...)

Erik...sorry to hear yours got stolen and the D-3 dont work...isnt it still under warranty?...when mine gave me troubles I just sent it to Suunto...I would be suprised if they dont have a service center in North America.
When it was away I had contact with Sten Stockman at Suunto and he was very helpfull. contact him at sten.stockmann@suunto.com

Johan
 
Suunto D3

I won one of these at the SA Champs this weekend. A neat feature that i didnt realise it had was a programmable down counter as well as a up counter.

You set the timer to count down from what ever you choose ie two minutes to zero. When it reaches Zero, it beeps three times and will start counting down from two again if you have set it to do this.

This is super for giving yourself your own two minutes to top counts without having to look at the watch all the time. Also it can give you static markers ( beeps ) in minute or two minute or whatever equal increments you want. This will help me plenty as each time i look at the watch it really throws me off my static. Now i can just wait for the beeps to know my time.

Skin.
 
Reactions: loopy
I know for sure that next time ,
i set mine to beep every 20 seconds.

The results of the competition wil be up today .

Well done my deep diving friend Skindiver !
 
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D-3 problems

I just got back from diving with my buddy, Ted, and my D-3 screwed up on me. It was reading 18' on the surface- before I even went down! When I was at about 25' it was reading 46'. It also wouldn't shut off untilI came home and ripped the battery out of it. :head

I gave my Stinger to Ted to wear and it suddenly decided the battery would die. It only recorded a few of the dives made and wouldn't show the max depths once back on the surface. The low battery light came on, but has since gone off since getting out of the 39 degree water.

This sport is so low tec that I can't believe all of my watch/computers died at once!

I changed the battery in the D-3 and will try it one more time before I send it back to the company to fix. With the Stinger I have no choice but to send it back and get the battery changed.


Jon
 
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I just got another report from mark barville's 'freedivelist' that another guy had his D3 malfunction after 8 months of use. He just sent it in. I'll be sending mine in tomorrow.

I also have a prototype D3 which has the same problem Jon had, about staying in dive mode forever, and beeping every 5 minutes as it switches in and out. I have taken the battery out so many times that I can't take off the plastic battery holder any more (too worn down).

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
best watch?

So back to the main subject of this thread. What other options do we have for freediving watches?

I have had many different watches in the past couple of decades.

I had a Citizen Hyperland about 12 years ago. The straps kept wearing out and cost me $50 each time I had to replace them. The watch finally fell apart- literally! The back popped off and I lost all of the screws. I gave up trying to repair it after that.

Next, I bought a Sunnto Spyder. That was the worst watch ever. It would go into dive mode if I sweated even a little bit. The watch also went through batteries like crazy. It spent more time at the company than on my wrist. The most dives I ever got out of it inbetween battery changes was 44. Not a great record.

I upgraded my Spyder to a Stinger as soon as I could. The Stinger was better, but I still need to send it back to get the batteries changed and she doesn't have all of the features of the D-3.

Now I have a D-3 that's less than 8 months old and totally messed up on me yesterday.:head

How can it read 18' before I even touch the water. From what Eric posts I can see that I am not the only one with this problem. I have had many problems with Sunnto dive computers in the past, but others that I know have never had a single problem. I had one computer, the Solution, that gave out on me over a dozen times, usually when I had over 40 minutes of deco to do at the time- that was a huge push for me to switch to DIR for scuba diving. I sent the thing back 4 times and it was completely replaced two of those times.:head :head

I know that Seiko and Diverite have made divewatches in the past, but I don't know if you can freedive with them. From what I have heard about the Mares/Sporasub Raptor's they fall apart even quicker than the Sunnto's.

Now, I am ready to just buy a basic UWATEC bottom timer and forget about seconds altogether, or I might just grab one of my old oil filled depth gauges and dive with that.

So my question is, " What other watches are people diving with out there?"
 
The rich man's solution would be to have two suunto stingers -- one which stays at home with a fresh battery, and one which is 'in the mail' getting its battery changed.

My stinger battery eventually died after 2 years of use, but otherwise it never failed in any way, and I still think back to before it was stolen, and I remember looking at the indestructible mineral glass and thinking that 'this is a watch I can trust down there.'

Remember that the suunto stinger & D3 are the same circuit board, just different software. I wish we could get a stinger casing with the option to change / upgrade the software.

Did you know that the D3, although it can only display up to 99.9m, actually measures over 100m, and it will show depths of 100m+ if you download the data into suunto dive manager software.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
Aqualung

Eric,

I just talked to the repair department at Aqualung and they said that they have had no problems with the D-3 so far. They did give me a return number to send it back in to them. Why don't you just go to your local Aqualung deaper and have them send it back for you.

Anyone have a suggestion for a good, cheap , digital watch to buy for freediving in the meantime. I just want something small, waterproof and has plenty of stopwatch features.

Jon
 
Cassio watch

Jon,
http://www.allwatchstore.com/list.asp?CtgID=9
Don Moore posted on this earlier and I actually bought a watch from this place. Really nice watch for above and below. Total cost was less than a $100 to get it shippied to Hawaii within a week. Good depth guage although you have to remain at a certain depth for more than 2 seconds (I think) for it to display. I don't know how good of a dive log it has but it will display your deepest dive and bottom time. Very good for the price.

Brad :martial
 
cheap digital watch

Jon

If all you want is a cheap, waterproof digital watch with stopwatch features, Timex Ironman-200m is a very durable instrument. It is strictly a timepiece only, but the chronograph is fully functioning under water. They are only $32 at any WalMart and I would suggest buying the 5 year extended warranty for $5. I've had one for about 7 years now and used it in fresh and salt water before buying the Mosquito, which I've had great luck with. The Timex of course has no diving functions, but it will get you through the times your computers are being repaired.


Charlie
 
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Citizen Promaster

Originally posted by Jon
So my question is, " What other watches are people diving with out there?"
Click to expand...

I use a Citizen Promaster which is primarily intended for recreational scuba and not freediving, but it works well enough. It will measure depth and time as accurately as freediver watches and it has memory for the last four dives (which is rather limiting for freediving, I know).

Some points I really like about this watch are:

It is VERY rugged being made from stanless steel and mineral/saphire/whatever glass. A salesperson claimed he had had one watch driven over by a car without it being even scratched which I don't beleve for a second, but I would think it could withstand that and still function! (But I'm not going to try with mine! )

The alarm is loud and clear and can easily be heard with a 5mm hood on. I also know for sure it can be heard from the surface when at 25m depth!

Apart from being slightly large and heavy, it looks rather like a normal watch, so while large watches are in style I can wear it when I'm not diving too without looking lika a dive-nerd (or maybe that is a disadvantage? )

This is a slightly newer version at the Deeper Blue Shop, and as you can see depth and dive-time measurements are digital, while the general clock i s analog. The light parts of the display on the watch shown are flourescent, which looks kind of weird. Mine is black but it does not seem to be manufactured in that color anymore.
 
I already went the Promaster route over 10 years ago. That was the one with the really expensive watch bands that finally just fell apart as I was wearing it.

While I was digging in the basement for my watch box to mail my Stinger and D-3 back to Aqualung, I found an old Casio G-shock that I had buried away. It has no depth gauge, but it does have many different timing features. It will have to work for now.

Thanks for all of the tips.

Jon
 
G-shock

Man, are you kidding me? G-shock is the best watch EVER. I still have my G-shock from 1989 and it still WORKS (no battery change). In the interim, I have tried Citizen, TAG, etc and they have all broken down. I still go back to my G-shock when I need a watch I wouldn't mind loosing and I know it will not let me down at any depth. Really, I am curious, has anyone ever had any problems with a G-shock?

Angelos
 
...I dont think its free, but they do leave a two year warranty on the battery when you buy it new ( at least here in Sweden... )

..my first battery lasted only 1,5 year...so it was replaced under warranty...only downside was i had to send it to Finland through my diveshop and it was lost in the mail for month :waterwork


...but luckily it reapeared again after talking to Mr Stockman at Suunto and i got it back :t

Johan
 
MY WATCHES ARE BACK!

Aqualung just returned my watches to me.

They put a new battery in the Stinger for $30.

They also replaced the D-3 with a brand new one.

I wonder if they are having a rash of problems with the D-3's that are out there?

I can't believe how few dives I had on mine before it went bad and how many others have complained about their's. Hopefully it's fixed for now.

Jon
 
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