Bottom Time
I think it’s safe to say, I’m done diving for 2023. Then again, given the way this year went, maybe I’m speaking too soon. After all, there’s a month left. A surprise opportunity may pop up before the New Year. So let’s call this a provisional dive log, to be updated should I decide to shoulder my air cylinder and break the skin of ice that’s formed down the road on Lake Nokomis. (Little known fact: Lake Nokomis was the site of the first closed circuit oxygen rebreather test in the United States, in 1940!)
It was just about two years ago that I proclaimed: “I’ve written my last dive watch review. After ten years of taking every manner of subaquatic timepiece deep, it’s time to move on, to pass the baton.” Well, see how well that has gone? I’ve been diving during seven of the eleven months so far this year, and written at least three stories about the watches I wore, photographed others, and took part in a yet-to-be-released film about another, not to mention several hours talking about diving on the podcast. Clearly I’m not done writing about diving with watches.
I know I’ve written at length about most of my adventures this year already but December always inspires reflection, and I thought I’d post up a sort of dive log here, if only as a record of a pretty remarkable year underwater.
January: under the ice. White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Max depth: 24’ freshwater (ffw)
Dive time: 12 minutes
Watch worn: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Titanium
Notes: The significance of this dive, besides it happening on just about the coldest day of the winter, was the maiden voyage of my new Fifty Fathoms. I’d received the watch that very week from Blancpain, ahead of an assignment (see below). It arrived on a rather short sailcloth strap that came nowhere close to fitting over my drysuit cuff, so I swapped on a long NATO strap. Needless to say, the watch performed fine in the extreme conditions, which is more than I can say for myself. After standing around in the middle of a frozen lake in the wind for most of the day, slipping under the ice was almost a relief. But it was a very short dive in almost zero visibility. A glutton for punishment, I’ll do it again in a few months.
February: looking for sharks in the South Pacific. Rangiroa atoll, French Polynesia
Five dives, max depth: 75’ seawater (fsw)
Watch(es) worn: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Titanium / Blancpain Tech Gombessa
Notes: I’d heard so much about French Polynesia and Rangiroa and finally got to experience it. This was a work trip, as I was there to moderate a panel discussion around the hammerhead shark research being conducted in Rangiroa and to attend the launch of Blancpain’s newest watch, designed for use with a closed-circuit rebreather. To this last point, I had the opportunity to dive with a rebreather for the first time. While it was a fascinating revelation, I won’t be adopting this very expensive and arcane discipline any time soon, but it was a blast trying. Also, dolphins. Lots and lots of friendly dolphins.
May: diving an historic shipwreck. Lake Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Max depth: 109 ffw
Dive time: 27 minutes
Watch worn: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Titanium
Notes: My good buddy, Chris, rang me up and asked if I was keen to do an early season dive on the Car Ferry Milwaukee. He had a particular photo in mind for the wreck and I was a game assistant/model. The dive didn’t go as well as planned. The stern mooring buoy was not in place yet, the sea conditions choppy, and Chris’s drysuit leaked badly. Still, even a bad day diving is better than a day doing almost anything else. Note that I was still wearing my Blancpain. It was definitely the watch I wore the most for the first half of the year.
June: Kelp diving. Monterey Bay, California
Max depth: 38 fsw
Dive time: 52 minutes
Watch worn: Bulova Snorkel Oceanographer
Notes: I flew out to California for a film project about which I can’t say too much. It was only a single, long dive, but my first experience diving in the much vaunted Monterey Bay. I also got to reconnect with an old friend from the watch forums, and my Alcatraz swim coach, who I roped in to act as safety diver/navigator. It was a cold, shallow dive, but spectacular in that California Pacific sort of way—lots of small critters, light filtering down through the eerie kelp, and the constant feeling of being watched by a great white shark. The orange dial of the Bulova glowed like no other watch I’ve worn underwater.
July: Virgin shipwreck. Lake Michigan, Chicago, Illinois
Max depth: 48 ffw (two dives)
Watch worn: Benrus Ultra-Deep
Notes: This dive day was near the top of my list of best ones of the year. I was onboard a chartered boat with a group of watch journalists and enthusiasts, and representatives of the Benrus watch company for the launch of a new (re-issued) dive watch. This would have made it a good day, but diving on a freshly discovered, and yet unnamed, wreck put it over the top. It was a spectacular dive day with clear skies, calm seas, and great visibility. The watch was pretty amazing too.
July: Back to the car ferry. Lake Michigan, Milwaukee
Max depth: 118 ffw
Dive time: 35 minutes (with decompression)
Watch worn: Benrus Ultra-Deep
Notes: Driving home from Chicago (see above) with dive gear onboard, it only made sense to pass through Milwaukee and take another swing at the car ferry wreck we dove back in May. Conditions were better, though the stern buoy still wasn’t in, so we visited the pilothouse, with better photo success. This would be my last Great Lakes dive of the year.
August: South of the equator. Pacific Ocean, Isla de la Plata, Ecuador
Max depth: 90 fsw (three days of diving)
Watch worn: Doxa SUB 300 Sharkhunter US Divers / Carl F. Bucherer Patravi ScubaTec Verde
Notes: Back to the Pacific, but much further from home. It was a privilege to be asked to file dispatches from a research expedition by Manta Trust, and underwritten by Carl F. Bucherer. Despite the lack of mantas (blame el Niño), it was a spectacular place to dive and live among the team of researchers in such a far flung corner of South America. A true highlight of the year. Though I was there on behalf of CFB, I brought along my Doxa, which seemed like an appropriate expedition diver’s watch.
September: Playing Navy diver. Gulf of Mexico, Florida
Max depth: 68 fsw
Dive time: 46 minutes
Watch worn: Tudor Pelagos FXD / Tudor Submariner
Notes: Another example of how the satisfaction of a dive trip can come not only from time underwater but the people with whom you dive, and the location. Good friends, new friends, an eye-opening nerd-fest at the Man in the Sea Museum, then on to the boat for a dive on a Navy hovercraft wreck in bathwater warm seas. I had been hired by Tudor to take underwater photos from the dive, a task that was challenging but rewarding (I’m thankful for Sony’s fast autofocus). In the end, I opted to receive an FXD of my own in lieu of payment. Perhaps a bad business decision, but the watch on my wrist and the memories it conjures are worth far more.
September: To the lighthouse. Mediterranean Sea, Antibes, France
Max depth: 83 fsw
Dive time: 47 minutes
Watch worn: vintage Blancpain / LIP Fifty Fathoms
Notes: Back to where diving, and dive watches began, this was a privilege beyond compare. Not only was I diving not far from where Cousteau first tested his Aqua-Lung invention, but also where Blancpain first tested its Fifty Fathoms dive watches in the 1950s. I was handed an early ‘60s restored Blancpain to wear on the dive and jumped off the transom alongside the company’s CEO and rock star underwater photog, Laurent Ballesta. The dive itself was pleasant enough, diving below the Antibes lighthouse, but the overall experience of diving in the Med to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms made it extra special. It was a fitting bookend to a year underwater that started under the ice, also wearing a Blancpain.
A couple dozen dives over four continents, three lakes, three oceans, and ten different watches added up to a pretty amazing year underwater. Did you notice a pattern throughout this dive log? Other than brief dalliances with a Doxa and a Tudor, all the brands of watches with which I dove start with ‘B,’ from Blancpain to Benrus, Bulova, and Bucherer. A minor bit of trivia from all this, but one that occurred to me as I was surveying my bottom timers. And which watch was my favorite? They all had their allure, their strengths, and their weaknesses. The Bulova glowed like a torch but had a terrible strap. The Benrus oozes vintage charm, but its internal timing ring is impractical. The Blancpains (all three) have the advantage of their sheer importance and prestige, and I love my titanium Fifty Fathoms dearly, now even more so. The Tudor perhaps comes out on top, all things considered. It’s just got so much going for it. But the moral of the story is, it really isn’t about the watch. It’s about what you do while wearing it.
Can 2024 possibly equal, or top, 2023’s dive outings? I can’t say. I doubt it will, but then I have no hopes or expectations. Most of this year’s trips came up rather serendipitously, and I like it that way. I would love to get back out to Monterey for a few more dives, maybe hit some more spots in the Great Lakes (Apostle Islands? Lake Erie?), and Silfra in Iceland has long been on my list. First up though, I’m going to go back under the ice in early March, hopefully with slightly warmer conditions. Then I’ll take it from there. But for now, I’m servicing my well used gear and giving my dive watches some much needed shore leave. Then again, Bonaire in January sounds appealing…