The Greatest Dive Watches of 2024: Timepieces For Each Price range

How We Tested Dive Watches

Because dive watches are extremely varied, we broke this guide into two sections. First, there are a couple of watches focused on actually diving. These are technically dive computers, which aid in bottom-time calculations. For most scuba divers, these are the way to go, eliminating time-consuming calculations with dive tables.

The next section covers traditional analog dive watches. While these are capable tools for scuba diving, most analog (or digital display non-computers) spend their lives on dry land. These vary from inexpensive quartz watches that can withstand significant water pressure to luxury watches renowned for their appearance as much as their performance underwater.

While dive watch prices can easily vault into the stratosphere, we’re GearJunkie, a site that focuses on gear that you can actually use in the outdoors. And that means not bankrupting your family if you break a watch. So, we kept the prices here under the $2,500 mark. If you want a Rolex, Omega, or Tudor, well, you already know it’s the name you’re after. This guide focuses on function and also fashion, but not brand-name prestige. So whether you’re excited to dive safely or just want to know what time it is in style, this guide should have you covered.

This guide is brought to you by two of GearJunkie’s top watch enthusiasts, Josh Wussow and Sean McCoy. Wussow is a freelance writer for GearJunkie and an avid outdoorsman and contractor. McCoy is the Editorial Director for AllGear Digital, GearJunkie’s parent company. He is also the former editor-in-chief of GearJunkie. He is an avid outdoorsman and PADI-certified open-water diver who lived in the Caribbean for 10 years, where he dove regularly.

McCoy is also a total watch nerd and enjoys the horological elements that make fine watches tick. While his passion for watches and timepieces is rather new (he’s been writing about watches for less than two years), he has a deep understanding of gear and outdoor sports developed over 10 years of writing at GearJunkie.com. He has published more than 2,500 articles on the outdoors.

Our goal for this article is to provide the most useful advice for those looking to buy a dive watch. Here, we share the same advice we would offer our friends and family. If you have any feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll be updating this article regularly to offer the best, up-to-date advice for dive watch shopping.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Best Dive Watch

Movement

If you’re in the market for your first diver’s watch, there’s no more important factor than your choice of movement. It will deeply affect your relationship with the piece from both a timekeeping and power perspective. Let’s cover the three basic options.

We’ll start at the top with the automatics. By “top,” we’re referring to the most expensive option. Automatic watches are mechanically operated, keeping time through a series of tiny springs and gears working their magic while strapped to your wrist. Their ticks and spins produce the smooth, lovely sweep of the second hand instead of the more common second-to-second lurch of quartz.

But what the heck is “automatic” supposed to mean? In this case, the term refers to a mechanical movement that’s been fitted with a small inner counterweight and rotor. This piece swings around when you move your arm about, winding the watch’s spring and providing power.

Reserves vary, but you’ll usually be getting around 2 days of timekeeping from a fully torsioned spring. These can also be hand-wound using the crown, but so long as you’re wearing the watch for several hours a day, the mechanism can run almost indefinitely.

Now, the downsides. Because of their inherent complexity, automatic watches are less accurate than their electrically operated kin. Unless you plan on spending thousands of dollars, you’re going to be hoping for a piece that gains or loses less than 8 seconds a day.

Some poorly tuned models can be off by as much as half a minute, making precise timekeeping difficult. That’s why it’s important to find a movement that allows the gears to “hack.”

This means when you pull the crown all the way to the setting position, the second hand stops in its tracks. Some of the more iconic dive watches (like the Seiko SKX mentioned above) lack this important feature.

One step down the ladder in mystique and several rungs up in function comes solar quartz. These timepieces utilize a tiny cell to draw energy from the sun. They usually feature a capacitor capable of holding at least several months’ worth of charge.

Solar quartz is also remarkably accurate, usually straying as much time in a month as some mechanicals would in a single day. They’re relatively cheap and incredibly reliable and have the eco-friendly cool factor. Downsides are few, especially if you’re after practicality instead of prestige.

Lastly, we get standard quartz. It’s the same as the solar described above, except it operates on traditional watch batteries. This is almost always the cheapest option and can be the most reliable. It’s not exactly glamorous, but it’s a familiar standby for a reason.

Don’t let the cool kids fool you — there’s nothing wrong with standard quartz. The downside? You’ll probably need to visit the jeweler every few years for a battery change.

Dive Bezel

See that outer ring above the face of the watch, painted with numbers in 10-minute increments? That’s the dive bezel. These were introduced in the 1950s to track both time elapsed and time remaining underwater. They can also be used as a slide rule of sorts for computing basic math.

Most of the time, these will be unidirectional. This keeps you from accidentally moving the bezel and leading yourself to believe that you have more bottom time left than you actually do. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, however. Some legendary dive watches, like the Vostok Amphibia, utilize a bidirectional ring. Still, more often than not, you’re going to want one that spins only a single way.

Lume

This bit of jargon is short for “luminous compound.” Basically, it’s a glow-in-the-dark coating applied to various parts of the watch. While some field or fashion watches paint only their hour and minute hands, most dive watches have it plastered across their indices and second hands, as well.

Some of the nicer models light up their bezels, too. This compound can be charged with just about any form of light and makes the watch readable in dark conditions. Whether you’re 50 feet underwater or rolling over in your sleeping bag at night, a good dive watch should glow like a swarm of orderly fireflies.

The big name to watch out for here is SuperLuminova. It’s the compound found on most of the highest-end timepieces, though it’s started to trickle down into more affordable territory.

Citizen and Casio both have their own versions of the stuff. Some are better than others, so be mindful of just how important nighttime visibility is to you before making your choice.

Strap or Bracelet

Again, it all boils down to a matter of preference. Stainless steel offers more of a jewelry effect and can often be very comfortable. The downside here is adjustability. Unless you have either a set of springbar tools (cheap but specialized) or a bracelet with a quick-adjust system (very expensive), you’ll be making a trip to a jeweler whenever you need to make a change.

The best method I’ve found is to set my bracelets at a happy middle ground, allowing it to slide along my wrist in the morning and then find a bit more purchase when the arm swells due to the day’s physical activity.

Straps, however, offer a world of possibilities. Rubber makes for a comfortable experience and easy cleaning and is a great companion to timepieces that will actually be used in the water.

Fabric NATO straps, while certainly feasible in wet conditions, will retain moisture as they sit against your wrist. Still, they offer a wide range of colors and patterns, making them one of the more comfortable and iconic choices.

The only material we’d avoid on a dive watch is leather. Yes, we did recommend the Squale in the picks above. (Come on, it’s gorgeous.) Still, if you plan to do anything more than sit at your desk, having something that can back up a diver’s seaworthy reputation is nice.

How To Use A Dive Watch

While modern scuba divers usually use dive computers to calculate their underwater adventures, a classic dive watch can still do the job. Indeed, many serious divers use an analog dive watch as a backup device. As Gustavson reminded us of the old saying, “Two is one, and one is none,” meaning redundancy can be an important safety measure.

To use a dive watch in scuba diving, you first must understand how to calculate bottom time. For recreational divers, that means fluency in using PADI’s Recreational Dive Planner. The only way to do this safely is by taking a course such as Open Water Diver. So please, don’t try scuba diving without the proper certifications.

With that caveat, you use a dive watch to measure bottom time — the amount of time you can stay underwater correlated with the depth of your dive. Once you’ve calculated your bottom time (with the charts mentioned above), you adjust the uni-directional bezel, pointing the bezel arrow or zero at the minute hand. Then, simply read the elapsed time on the bezel.

As for the finer hash marks over the first 15 minutes of some bezels, those allow for single-minute measurements during decompression stops. These “safety stops” allow nitrogen to leave the body when ascending from deeper dives. Without proper safety stops, divers can get the bends, a potentially fatal affliction caused by nitrogen bubbles forming in the blood.

So yes, your dive bezel can keep you safe while diving. However, most divers these days will never use it that way, as dive computers are much more accurate and easy to use. The dive bezel makes a great timer and is excellent for cooking or other needs.

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