A dive watch is a special wristwatch type.

Wristwatch type specially tailored to the needs of divers. This includes a high water resistance, a counter-clockwise rotating bezel for the measurement of the dive time and the best possible visibility under water. Also a scratch resistant watch glass is important (i.e. sapphire crystal), as scratching along objects cannot be ruled out when diving.

Before the dive, the diver turns the zero mark of the turning bezel to the position of the minute hand. While looking at the watch he can then immediately recognize the diving time passed off. The reason for the counter-clockwise adjustment only lies in the security thought If the turning bezel is accidentally rotated during the dive, the start of the dive seems to have been earlier, and so the diver is always on the safe side when taking the decompression into account.

• Blancpain Fifty Fathoms
• Compressor and Super Compressor
• IWC GST Aquatimer
• IWC GST Deep One (first mechanical dive watch with depth gauge)
• Omega Seamaster
• Panerai Radiomir, Panerai Luminor Base and other models by Panerai
• Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000 - legendary dive watch from the 1980's, waterproof to 2,000 m
• Rolex Submariner / Rolex Sea-Dweller
• Seiko Marinemaster

• Breitling Superocean
• Jacques Etoile Atlantis - dive watch with protection against magnetic fields by means of soft-iron inner case
• Vulcain Nautical - dive watch with alarm function
• Sinn 203 TiAr - dive watch with dehumidifying technology by argon filled case and patented copper-sulphate capsule
• Sinn U2, Sinn U1000 - dive watch/diver's chronograph with case in submarine steel

After the emergence of the quartz watch, the share of the mechanical watch in dive watches decreased, but because of the possibility of unpredictable battery failures, which can never be totally excluded, there is also a trend going back towards the mechanical watch.

• Dive watch history