Dive watches are not just for men: three models that add style to subaquatic activities

Blancpain, Longines and Bell & Ross have brought their A games to – and below – the surface

Timepieces

Abid Rahman

Published: 9:00pm, 17 Jul 2019

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Look, I know you come here for the watches, but I feel some of you stay for t he swimming chat, so here’s an update – and it’s a sad one at that. I recently took my new-found swimming skills to the Maldives and endeavoured to capture my triumphant splashing in the Indian Ocean using my drone camera. A drone camera I’ve had since November and never used or even opened. A drone camera I took to Australia and Southern Africa but was too scared to peel the plastic cover off. But here, in the usually placid Maldives, buoyed by the promise of capturing myself conquering the high seas like a bloated Neptune, I felt confident that now was the time to let that drone fly.

And I lost it. On its maiden voyage. Like a watery Icarus, my drone flew too far out to sea. Not only that, I have no proof that I mastered the oceans. Well, no aerial proof any way. Bah!

Three of the best dive watches, including one beloved by Japanese hipsters

Back to the watches. I had planned to celebrate my aquatic feats by looking at dive watches this week, and despite my tragic loss and unlike my drone, I won’t be deviating from that course. We’ll start proceedings with a watch that is making a strong case for inclusion in my top 10 timepieces of the year, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Barakuda (above).

Among Swiss watchmakers, Blancpain has one of the richest heritages when it comes to dive watches, with the original Fifty Fathoms introduced in 1953. The Barakuda is based on a Fifty Fathoms spin-off created for the German market in the 1960s and will appeal to nostalgia nerds with a design that remains faithful to the original. The black dial has markers coated in Super-LumiNova, but in the retro beige patina rather than the more modern white, with a splash of red.

The watch is sized at 40mm but wears smaller on the wrist, which is a good thing. Inside is a calibre 1151 movement with an impressive 100 hours of power reserve. The only additional feature is the date indicator. The dive elements of the watch include a unidirectional bezel – with the domed glass insert that I adore – 300 metres of water resistance and a rubber strap. Needless to say, if you ever want to take this deeper than a swimming pool, you are good to go. Limited to 500 pieces, the Fifty Fathoms Barakuda is priced at HK$109,000.

Longines’ L3.374.4.80.6 from the brand’s Longines Legend Diver series.

Sticking with retro, we have a piece from the Longines Legend Diver series. The new women’s watches in this collection caught my eye, with the brand shaking up the dive concept, and in the case of the L3.374.4.80.6 (yes, Longines has the worst naming system) adding a mother-of-pearl dial. Imagine diving for pearls with a mother-of-pearl-dial dive watch? No? OK, maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, I’m probably in the minority who thinks this watch works and adds a nice dash of elegance to what is essentially a practical timepiece. The design is straight out of the 60s, and I’m a big fan of the Milanese mesh steel bracelet. The steel case is sized at 36mm and inside is an ETA-based movement with 40 hours of power reserve. The watch is priced at HK$17,400.

Finally, we have a more modern rendering of the dive watch with the Bell & Ross BR03-92 Black Ceramic. Despite what the company might say, this watch has the look and feel of a military dive watch rather than something pro divers would use, but the ruggedness will appeal to many.

Bell & Ross does make more rounded dive watches, but here it has taken its signature square case and jacked up the water resistance to 300 metres. The case is hard-wearing but light matte black ceramic and measures 42mm x 42mm. There is a unidirectional bezel and a heavy-duty black rubber strap. The BR03-92 is priced at HK$33,000.

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