High and dry
The best dive watches of a year spent (mostly) topside
I thought I would miss diving more than I did this year. Normally, Gishani and I would have done one or two trips to the Caribbean, maybe one to Sri Lanka, and I would have done some dives with my old chum, Chris, in one of the Great Lakes. For reasons with which we are all familiar, the dive gear stayed largely dry this year. We sneaked in a grand total of three dives—one in a flooded quarry, one on a shallow wreck in Michigan, and an annual visit to my “backyard shipwreck," the Madeira, up in Lake Superior. And that was fine. Keep up the proficiency while abiding by the common wisdom and staying close to home this year.
In the past decade, my calling card has been diving with watches, for photos and editorial reviews. This has meant that any dive trip we planned usually involved some work, photographing watches underwater and topside. Now, I’m not looking for sympathy. It’s certainly not unpleasant work, but it does have its challenges (photographing a tiny, shiny object underwater with variable conditions and a lot of heavy, expensive gear) and stress, like any job. It also requires spending a good part of a 45-60 minute dive swimming around with my wrist held in such a way as to be visible to the camera and not really taking in a lot of what most people dive for: the critters and scenery. Diving had ceased to be a purely pleasurable pursuit. So a year of doing other things like hiking, camping, and gardening was an oddly nice change of pace.
On the other hand, it was tough to not be able to try out some new dive watches, because 2020, for all its downsides (and there were many), was a pretty spectacular year for those of us who favor watches that go deep. I’ve made it a sort of annual tradition to revisit the best dive watches of the preceding year, and despite not handling, or diving with, many, I’ve decided to round them up here.
Right off the top, my favorite release of 2020 is one that I did manage to take diving: the Aquastar Deepstar. I wrote a long review of it for Hodinkee in September, in which I called it perhaps the best reissued dive watch of the decade. After half a year wearing it, I remain convinced of that. The combination of meticulous attention to details, like the quaint script font used on the dial and toothy case back tool grip, a buttery smooth column wheel chronograph movement, and overall build quality make it an incredibly satisfying watch to wear. It also revives a brand that is worthy of recognition. The watch works on any strap, from leather Bund, to NATO, to rubber, thanks to the genre-agnostic aesthetics of steel bezel, sleek lugs, and prominent pushers. In many ways it doesn’t feel like a dive watch at all, and I mean that in the best sense. But then you can take it 200 meters deep and use the pushers. Outright winner for 2020 in my book.
Seiko had a banner year. On one hand, we got the khaki and olive analog-digital “Safarnies” (another one that I did manage to take diving) and on the other, we got a quiver of higher end SPB references that give those of us who love the no-nonsense durability of Seiko divers but wanted just a little more refinement. The SPB14x models offered a subdued but fetching take on a mid-60s “skin diver” but the ones I was sorely tempted by were the SPB151 and 153 “Captain Willard” watches. These riff on the bulbous and distinctive 6105 divers of the early ‘70s, when Seiko dive watches came into their own with a shape that became iconic and synonymous with tough divers. The fact that they are driven by higher end 6R35 automatics make the price premium over more entry level divers worth it. I’ll take the green version, just to be different.
Sometimes I wonder why I don’t own a Sinn. I have owned a couple in the past but their stark styling never stuck with me. I like a little romance with my watches and the Teutonic “function first” aesthetic has always felt a little too severe unless I was out diving a wreck with it. That said, the U50 that the Frankfurters dialed up this year is a pretty ausgezeichnet watch. The svelter dimensions mitigate one of the gripes I’ve had with Sinn divers. All that slab sided, matte finished submarine steel just seemed too much on a bigger watch, but at 40 millimeters, it tightens up the dimensions enough to seem almost… cute? I still prefer Sinn’s pilot’s watches because they retain a bit of nostalgia, but for subaquatic maneuvers, they really nailed it with the U50 this year.
I’d be remiss not to include everyone’s darling for 2020: the Tudor Black Bay 58 Navy Blue. While I do feel that the general offering of any Black Bay is not so different from a Rolex/Tudor diver of the past, oh… 70 years, they continue to freshen the references to seem irresistible. And nobody really does blue like Tudor. I’d love to see this watch in person. I’ve had enough Submariner style divers cross my wrist to know what they feel like, but never in blue. Who knows, maybe I’d find it hard to resist?
For all my love of Oris, I’ve never warmed to their Aquis line, which is their best selling dive watch. Don’t get me wrong, they make a superb diver, going back to the gone but not forgotten “TT” line, but, like Sinn, they’ve always felt a bit too stark and expansive for me. I guess I’m a retro, re-issue, nostalgic kind of guy, so the Diver 65 suits my taste better. But for 2020, it was the Aquis Calibre 400 that made a big splash for Oris, due to the namesake movement inside, Oris’s all new in-house motor. Anti-magnetic, long power reserve, 10-year service interval… if you like the looks of an Aquis, I’d say the Calibre 400, even with its price premium over the standard Aquis, is worth a look.
What about Doxa? My old favorite brand has been knocked from its pedestal of late due to some questionable decisions and oddball releases (the SUB 200 C-Graph is a monstrosity) but the carbon SUB 300 was a hit. Mashing up the retro-tastic SUB 300 with a new material was a bold move that turned heads. I have a feeling the novelty of it would wear off with me after a while if I owned one, but it’s definitely in the crop of prominent divers this year.
Blancpain, that graybeard of dive watch makers managed to get in under the wire this month with the Mil-Spec Hodinkee edition. The watch takes everything that was great about the 2017 Mil-Spec (40mm case, moisture indicator disc, domed sapphire bezel) and does away with wasn’t so great (polished case, engraved case band, odd date placement). I would love one of these watches. It’s possibly the best modern Blancpain diver, full stop. But it was also $15,000 and sold out in less time than a no deco limit on a 110-foot dive, so entirely a moot point. Congrats to anyone who snagged one.
Another Hodinkee edition diver this year was the reissue of the Benrus Type 1. This was based on a watch archetype I’ve long loved for its utter minimalism and function-first design. The reissue does a great job of capturing the original’s appeal but I can’t help but think I’d still choose a MKII Paradive, which I once owned, that is virtually identical (and superbly made).
What about the little guys? One that stood out this year was the Nivada Grenchen Chronomaster Aviator Sea-Diver. I’ve not seen one in person but I bet if I did, I’d be smitten. It ticks all the boxes for me: dimensions, movement options (hand cranked or auto), functions (12h bezel, dive scale, chronograph), attention to detail (those hands!), and more than ample nostalgia. This thing drips with 1960s goodness, all in a 38-millimeter case for less than $2,000.
Another resurrected small brand that got very little notice this year was Ollech & Wajs. I remember when I first got into watches and was looking for affordable choices, O&W would pop up but availability was slim—mostly new old stock Early Birds and some hand wound pilot’s watches. Well, in 2019, the brand was rejuvenated and this year came two divers: the Ocean Graph and the C-1000. Both appear to use the same case and similar dials and hands, but the former adds the Jenny Caribbean decompression scale bezel that was on the vintage O&W divers, and the C-1000 has a more conventional elapsed time ring. These are both smartly updated dive watches that keep the charm of their forebears, with solid build and good pricing for a mechanical Swiss diver. Between Aquastar, Benrus, Nivada and O&W, it’s been a good year for bringing old dive brands back.
What did I miss? Bell & Ross came out with some new dials for their oddly appealing BR03 square diver. Panerai introduced some new materials for its Submersible collection…. I think. I’ve lost track of Panerai, if I’m honest. Oh, and Rolex tweaked the Submariner which turned out to be a big improvement, but also a bit of yawner in terms of fireworks. The Sub remains perhaps the best, most solidly built and capable dive watch on the planet, but one that’s hard to get excited about in the way a new Deepstar, carbon Doxa, or even a blue Tudor is.
So there we have it: impressions of an amazing crop of dive watches in a year when I, and so many others, could only dream of biting down on a regulator mouthpiece, spinning a bezel to zero, and back-rolling into a balmy blue sea. And while it was a year of finding silver linings closer to home, I’m ready for some bottom time in 2021.
What did I miss? What did you like? Leave a comment! Thanks for reading — JH
I think I have resolved to enter my Tudor AD on Monday and come out with a hefty charge on my credit card if they have the BB58 Blue.
All great dive watches, Jason. Still, none that will knock the Pelagos off my wrist.
Two high-end divers (an oxymoron, I know) that I would have liked to have seen in the metal are the Glasshutte Original SeaQ Panorama Date and the JLC Polaris Mariner Memovox.
Both are way too pretty to take in the water, but my old eyes love a big date complication, and the Memovox divers seem like a cool complication (not sure how our marine friends feel about the alarm, though).
Cheers!