The weather recently has taken a rather wet turn, which I guess was inevitable really with the amount of good sunshine we had over the weekend especially here in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Keeping on topic of water I decided it would be a good time to take a look at our most expensive divers watches which are available both in our store and on our website. You can either watch the video that I made to see all of the watches in the list or read the article below it for all the details about each watch that made it into our top 4.
I took four watches from our luxury watch brands which include Oris, Citizen, Certina and Ball Watch Company. These are a combination of the best and most expensive watches that we sell for Divers or just people who love the style of divers watches. There are three men’s watches and even a women’s which has made it into our top four!
So lets take a look at the top four watches which made it into this guide, we will start with the cheapest and work our way to the most expensive however please note that just because it isn’t as expensive doesn’t mean it lacks in professional quality of features.
Certina Women’s Ds Action 300m Divers Watch (C0322511101101) – £390.00
This spectacular women’s divers watch will make your wrist sparkle no matter how far under the sea you are. It’s a luxury watch with incredible potential for divers all compact into a petite timepiece that looks great on any female wrist. The watch is mostly made from 316L stainless steel with the case, bracelet, bezel and crown made from the corrosion resistant material, the watch itself is also Swiss made so it has all the reassurances that come with a Swiss timepiece.
The glass of the watch is a premium sapphire crystal for optimal scratch resistance and it is also coated with an anti-reflective coating for easy reading in strong light and glare environments. The movement of the watch is an ETA F04.411 Precidrive Chronometer, for those who would like to know what a chonometer is, its a watch which has had its precision officially tested and certified by an independent testing laboratory. For the Certina brand their independent testing laboratory is the Controle officiel suisse des chonometres or COSC for short. COSC have put the watch through their tests and it has met the requirements and therefore been awarded the COSC quality certificate.
This wave inspired timepiece has a water resistance of 30 BAR or 300 metres which is an incredible depth for such a small watch, the water resistance of a watch indicated the maximum pressure and depth that the watch will continue to function at. This specific Certina watch has been tested to an impressive 30 BAR which is significantly more than in similar watches from other brands of which many are only water resistant to 10 BAR. This is a concept that Certina are able to easily overcome all thanks to the DS Concept that the brand introduced.
The dial of the watch has been decorated with rose gold outlines hour markers which have been coated with luminous paint for optimal viewing in poor lighting a, date display window at the six o’clock position and a subtle smooth wave design on the back dial which gives it an elegant maritime feel. Fans of the big blue are drawn to this watch thanks to its stunning hints towards the beautiful landscape that covers over 71% of the planet. The case back of the watch even has the turtle embossed into it which is a staple iconic for the Certina watch brand.
Citizen Promaster Diver Marine 1000M Divers Watch (BN7020-17E) – £1500.00
The second watch on our list makes a huge statement and a huge impression on your wrist, it has a case width of a whopping 53mm and a case thickness of 22m, its definitely designed for divers who like to dive on a serious level. If you are looking to take your diving to new depths then this Citizen Promaster Marine watch is for you, the watch has been built to withstand incredible depths whilst also being lightweight and packed with features.
The bracelet for this watch is made from a polyurethane and the case is made from a Super Titanium to ensure optimal weight whilst wearing and using the watch. The dial of the watch is black however it is mostly taken up by the huge hour marker batons which have been coated in super luminous paint to ensure their visibility in low lighting such as deep dives. The watch is fully ISO compliant and even comes with a helium release valve.
For those interested the helium release valve is an important feature on many dive watches due to the amount of helium that can get trapped under the watch glass. As helium is a smaller molecule than air it can sometimes get under the seals in a watch and build up under the watch glass under immense pressure, this then needs to be released to relieve this pressure build up which is where the helium release valve comes into play. The valve depressurises the timepiece when it is returned to a normal sea level pressure environment.
The water resistance of this watch is 100 BAR or 1000 metres which is an incredible depth for any diver or divers to reach when free diving so ensuring that you can rely on your equipment is paramount. The Citizen Promaster Marine watch also has a one way rotating time bezel with a lock to keep it from getting knocked or moved out of position. It’s little things like this that Citizen have thought of which really draw me to them as a brand.
The other features of the watch include a power reserve indicator which can be useful for long expeditions or dives to deep depths where you are going to be using your equipment for a while and may run the risk of the battery getting low, a date display which is a nice feature to have on the watch possibly for recording the dates you are diving and marking up sheets pre or post dive, sapphire crystal glass to ensure scratch resistance of a high level as well as security when the watch face is under high pressure during dives and also Eco-Drive which is the famous solar power technology that almost all of the Citizen watches use nowadays, this allows you to never need to change the battery ever again thanks to a solar cell which absorbs natural and artificial light and stores it in a lithium capacitor for use.
Oris Prodiver 1000m Automatic Chronograph Titanium Divers Watch (01 774 7727 7154-SET) – £3200.00
The third watch is an Oris Aquis Prodiver 100 metres Automatic watch with a chronograph function which can be screwed down to ensure water resistance, this is down to their specially designed pushers. This innovative watch from Oris is one of the safest watches for divers that are currently available anywhere in the world which is all thanks to its innovative rotation safety system. The watch also features super visible counter displays and an automatic helium valve. It does come at a big super hero sized 51mm but thanks to its titanium case, bezel and bracelet it keeps relatively light weight considering the technology it contains and the depths it can dive too!
The watches glass is made from a sapphire crystal for premium resistance to scratches and to protect the watch face and sub dials that it contains, behind the watch face is the movement of the watch which is a Oris 774 Base SW 500 which is an automatic winding chronograph movement. This has a power reserve of 48 hours, vibrates at 28,800 A/h and contains 25 jewels. Its Swiss made and as such is made to the highest standard. There are centre hands for hours, minutes and a chronograph which can measure 1/4 seconds, the chronograph also has 3 sub dials for seconds, 30 minutes and 12 hours counters.
Other functions of the watch include a date window at the six o’clock position, a date corrector, fine timing device and stop-second. The strap of the watch is made from titanium with a security folding clasps for optimal reliance whilst being worn, it even has an extension slider so that you can put it on and take it off even over a divers equipment. The watch also comes with a waterproof presentation box, and additional rubber strap and professional strap changing tools.
Ball Watch Company Mens Engineer NEDU Hydrocarbon 600m Automatic Chronometer Divers Watch (DC3026A-SC-BK) – £3580.00
This is the fourth an most expensive of the top watches that we have chosen for you avid divers out there! This is the Ball Men’s Engineer NEDU Hydrocarbon automatic chronometer. This watch may not be able to go to the deepest depth out of the top four but it has some incredible features and is built to such a professional standard. The movement inside the watch is a BALL RR1402-C movement which has also been certified by COSC.
The watch features a patented helium system specific to the Ball Watch Company, they have been able to incorporate an innovative automatic helium release valve just like Oris with their Prodiver however what sets this brand apart is their clever designs, Ball have managed to put this valve directly into the crown of the watch itself, this then allows gases to escape as the watch resurfaces therefore relieving the pressure from the watch that has been crushing the watch during your excursion to the depths. As well as this Ball also designed an underwater operable chronograph which has accumulated measurement of up to 12 hours.
Ball watches also feature a new type of luminosity on their hands and hour markers / numbers, instead of being coated in a super luminova paint or other luminous coating the numbers and hands have tiny mineral glass tubes which have been filled with tritium gas. The gas tubes are made using Swiss laser technology and provide superior brightness which is 100 times brighter than luminous paint and it lasts up to 25 years before losing any brightness. The interior walls of the tubes are then coated with luminescent material which gives off cold light when activated by the electrons that the tritium emits, this is very similar to the way some televisions screens work. If you would like to read more about this then I would recommend checking out the full page on Ball Watches website here.
The watch also features Ball watches shock resistance technology which can withstand 7,500G’s, it has a water resistance rating of 600m or 2000ft and is anti magnetic to 4,800A/m. The case is made from a lightweight titanium which is just as scratchproof and corrosion proof as stainless steel, the unidirectional bezel is also made from titanium and it surrounds the sapphire crystal glass which protects the watch face from the harshness of the outside world.
The watch also has a stainless steel and titanium bracelet with a pateneted folding buckle and extension system so that it can be worn over divers equipment if needed or preferred by the wearer.
