The world’s first water-resistant watch was debuted by Rolex in 1927 with the “Oyster”, however, the modern dive watch didn’t arrive until 1953 when Rolex, Blancpain and Zodiac introduced the Submariner, Fifty Fathoms and Sea Wolf. These timepieces had chunky water-resistant cases, and rotating dive bezels that were used to calculate the amount of time spent underwater.

Since then, as recreational diving became an extremely popular hobby; many more dive watches have been designed and released. Watchmakers have continued to improve and alter the hallmark design traits and add extra features, although many dive watches seen today are inspired by the original watches released over 60 years ago.

While dive watches were originally designed as an essential piece of SCUBA kit to tell divers exactly how much time they had spent underwater, the dive computer surpassed the timepiece a long time ago. Many divers continue to wear a dive watch as a backup to a dive computer; however, dive watches today are mostly worn as style pieces.

Today a dive watch is largely symbolic of lifestyle. These watches are clearly made for diving but are still largely practical for swimming, skiing, sailing and any other sport in which your watch may get wet.

All dive watches share certain characteristics such as unidirectional rotating bezels, secure screw-down crowns and higher-than-typical water resistance. Most dive watches’ water resistance ranges between 100 to 500 metres, whereas some can descent to a whopping 3,000 or even 4,000 metres.

The Rolex Deepsea Sea-Dweller is an extreme dive watch. It has a remarkable water-resistance level of 3,900 metres and thanks to a special case designed by Rolex, it is more than 10 per cent slimmer than it otherwise would have been. The three pressure-absorbing elements include an inner ring made of steel, a 5.5 mm thick sapphire crystal and a 3.28 mm thick case back made of grade 5 titanium.

The Zodiac Super Sea Wolf is the most affordable of the original diver designs. It is similar to the vintage Sea Wolf and is very slim compared to many others.

It maintains the brand’s definitive style and features a matte blue dial, a stainless steel case, unidirectional mineral crystal top ring and C3 SuperLuminova hands and indexes. It has a much shallower water resistance compared to the Deepsea Sea-Dweller at only 200 metres, however, retails at considerably less. The Super Sea Wolf retails for $1,195, whereas the Deepsea Sea-Dweller is listed at $12,350.

The enhanced Omega Seamaster 300 Master CO-AXIAL is ready for a new generation of adventurers. Featuring a light case, and great resistance to corrosion and scratches, this watch will wear well throughout the seasons.

Omega Seamasters have famously been worn by James Bond in every film since 1995.  This has led to some limited edition timepieces being created with special features to honour James Bond and his legacy. Casino Royale features the 300 Master CO-AXIAL while Bond is at a casino gaming table, perfectly suited as Bond is a diver and a naval man.

While these watches are visually stunning and have impressive features, it is clear why the dive computer overtook the watch. Dive computers use an electronic depth sensor to indicate current and maximum depth, dive time, water temperature and sometimes the amount of air left in the tank.

The computer also calculates no-decompression limits and remaining time at any given depth by using time and depth data in a computerized algorithm. The beauty of the dive computer is that all of this information is calculated automatically and is contained in a watch-sized package that can be worn on the wrist.

With features such as these, calculated by the computer’s algorithms, it is no wonder why many divers today prefer a dive computer. It allows divers to enjoy their time under the water without having to manually calculate the time they can stay at a certain depth for.

All in all, while the dive computer is an essential piece of many divers scuba kits, many divers employ both a computer and a watch as they follow the saying “two is one, one is none”. So while the dive watch is predominantly worn as a style piece, it is still worn by numerous divers as a backup to the dive computer.