and Under $2K INTERNATIONAL WATCH

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1 Left to right: Oceanaut, Ocean 7, Bathys, Reactor By Steve Lundin and Under $2K Our own scuba diver tests a selection of dive watches that are both sub-marine and sub-two-grand The traffic on US 1 towards Key Largo, Florida, was unusually light as my buddy Aldo Busot and I blazed South, past the prairies and swamps and livestock, on our way to test a crop of sub-$2,000 dive watches in the warm May water. Aldo related the latest saga of Cowboy Mike, our favorite wannabe watch collector. Someone had told Mike he wasn t a real diver unless he had a watch with a helium release valve. Mike picked up a Major Brand dive watch and took a giant stride into Miami Bay. At fifteen feet Mike figured he better release some helium to protect his watch. Unable to find the valve, he assumed it was part of the winding mechanism so he unscrewed the crown, and tapped the watch to get all the helium out. A few sad days later, Mike s $8,200 watch stopped running and his jeweler said it needed a thorough cleaning. But Aldo and I weren t out to test $8,000, $5,000 or even $3,000 dive watches. This selection of watches represents brands that don t swim the mainstream waters, many developed by single proprietors and small companies that have infused them with as much passion as function, and all for less than $2,000. Nothing in Cowboy Mike s waterlogged watch collection would even qualify. 54

2 The Ocean 7 LM7 on the ocean floor and on the wrist (right). Key Largo, Florida We met up with Captain Jim Spotts of the Island Adventure dive shop who immediately proceeded to tell us that all the areas we were interested in diving were no good. I ll take you boys to the places we don t bring everybody else. We boarded Jim s boat and headed out for Carysfort Reef, a relatively shallow dive site composed of Elkhorn and Staghorn Coral, ranging from 25-feet to 75-feet in depth; a terrific place to photograph and test our equipment. (see Ocean 7 LM-7 The LM7 is an homage to a soughtafter aficionado collectable: the Omega Seamaster 600 Professional. The LM7 looks like something out of Kubrick s 2001: A Space Odyssey, a sleek, functional brick of stainless steel with a well designed and solid solution to the rotating bezel: a sixty-click turning bezel with red locking push button. The man behind Ocean 7 is Mitch Feig, one of a handful of American entrepreneurs who are producing small batches of brilliant watches that reflect high quality and style, through the lens of the owner. Feig always wanted to develop watches and, after a career in software, decided to make a go of it using an online distribution model. Feig listens to the community, posting his designs on watchuseek.com for feedback. Omega s announcement of a $8,800 Seamaster 600 reissue has only increased demand for the LM7, says Feig. The watch is 55 mm x 42 mm brushed steel or black PVD case, Swiss automatic movement, Super- Luminova, flat sapphire crystal with antireflective coating, water resistant to 1,000 meters. Price: $999 (See Deep Blue Master Explorer 1000 Deep Blue is a product of Stan the Man Betesh, one of the legendary names in online watch culture. Stan has always been exhaustive in his production of products, developing and bringing high quality, price conscious watches to the market. The Master Explorer is one Sea Dweller/ Explorer-influenced mean chunk of metal. This monster sports a 45mm X 17mm case and comes in stainless or PVD with black, blue, orange or white carbon dial, 4 mm sapphire crystal and helium release valve. It is water resistant to 1,000 meters and features a Miyota 8215 movement with a 45-hour power reserve. See Price: $449 (steel). Seiko Orange Monster Having spent years among divers, dive masters and dive captains I ve found that a Seiko is the most common watch worn by those who simply want to dive. And there s a good reason: Seiko makes possibly the largest assortment of dive watches in the world, at a variety of price points. And the Seiko every diver knows is the legendary Orange Monster. Technically it s the SKX781, but for all practical purposes it s just called the monster, and it has a brother, the lesser-known Black Monster, which sounds like an old Henry Rollins song from his Black Flag days. INTERNATIONAL WATCHSEPTEMBER

3 The watch itself is pretty straightforward and is reminiscent of Russian military manufacturing. It is clearly designed to get two jobs done: tell time underwater and take abuse. Far from having the taut robustness of a Sea Dweller or the refined panache of a Bathys Benthic, the Monster is nonetheless a heavy, fun chunk of steel to wear. Its heart beats with a Seiko 7S26 day/date automatic movement with a good hour power reserve. On the downside, its Hardex, non-sapphire crystal tends to scratch, its movement is said to lose some precision over time and its bezel is a bit loosey goosey, but for the price it s almost impossible to beat. Hint: Shop ebay for this gem or see www. seikowatches.com. Price: $475. Seiko Men s Kinetic Dive Watch (Model SKA413) Seiko s Kinetic movement is quartz green technology, providing high accuracy without batteries. Like an automatic caliber, the wearer s wrist movement powers it, but here an oscillating weight charges a generator instead of winding a spring. This is a no-nonsense diving watch with a unique technology at its core that provides a six-month power supply. The watch is 43 mm in diameter and water resistant to 200 meters. See Price: $495. Above left: The author and the Deep Blue master Explorer 1000 Above: Seiko s Orange Monster Left: Seiko s Kinetic Dive Watch SEIKO Velatura Chronograph Diver The Velatura is solid, cool and chunky with a very nicely curved case that literally wraps your wrist. It features Seiko s Caliber 7T92 quartz movement, sapphire crystal and elapsed timer. The Kinetic Direct Drive technology here generates electrical energy to power the quartz movement, which can also be powered by winding the crown. The 50 mm case insures you won t forget it s there, and it s water resistant to 200 meters. See com; Price: $

4 Diving with the Seiko Velatura Chronograph Diver Ellis G.I. Joke Booker looks tough with the Reactor Gamma Haigh Quarry: Kankakee, Illinois Ask just about any diver in the Chicagoland area where they did their checkout for open water, advanced open water, rescue diver or even master diver certification and I ll bet seven out of ten will tell you at the Haigh. The Haigh is a massive body of water, teeming with freshwater fish and sunken manmade attractions. Diving ranges from twenty-five feet to sudden deep, dark and cold drops down to eighty feet, making it suitable for everything from 3-mil wetsuit recreational diving to serious dry suit or mixed gas s. I met up with my buddy Ellis Booker, the editor of Crain s B2B magazine on Father s Day to dive some more sub- $2,000 watches. Luminox Series EVO Ultimate SEAL Luminox has been closely associated with all branches of the military for years. The watches share a family look, are well made, rugged and feature varying price points. They are entirely Swiss made with an incredibly bright illumination system that s guaranteed for ten years. This diver is rated to 200 meters, with a 45 mm stainless steel and PVD case, antireflective sapphire glass crystal and multi-jewel quartz movement. See Price: $550. Oceanaut Aquamar Limited Edition Danny Blair founded Oceanaut in He was tired of his career selling other people s overpriced watches and decided to bring a product to the market that reflected an accurate value for the money. He designs every aspect of his watches, down to the buckles and straps, and is a stickler for movements. Various Oceanaut models carry the ETA 2824, 7750 and The Aquamar is imbued with the styling sensibility of a European driving watch, from its carbon fiber dial, unique under-the-crystal rotating bezel and case-fitted silicon strap. This limited edition of 599 is built around an ETA 2824 automatic movement, is water resistant to 100 meters, has a sapphire front and back crystal and SuperLuminova markers. The watch is also available with an ETA Valjoux 7750 complicated movement for $2,495. See www. oceanautwatches.com; Price: $1,695 Reactor Gamma Quartz movement, tachymeter, SuperLuminova markers, antireflective mineral crystal, 45mm case is water resistant to 300 meters. See Price: $400. Montrose Harbor Ellis and I headed downtown to Chicago s lakefront for a shore dive and were channeled by the wall-to-wall traffic into Montrose harbor on the city s northern lakefront. Lacking a safe entry point to get us directly away from the path of any number of speeding boats, we determined that any diving in this lake would have to be well offshore. As luck would have it we ran into his friend and aspiring actress Kristin Henry, who was practicing for a part in a James Bond movie that had yet to be written. She asked Ellis to role-play the villain to her Jane Bond character and handed him a dive knife. While the rest may not be cinematic history, her performance was seething with enough Kill Bill mojo to gather a small crowd. Of course we took advantage of the moment for some topside dive watch testing. INTERNATIONAL WATCHSEPTEMBER

5 Below:Oceanaut Aquamar Limited Edition Below Right:Luminox EVO Ultimate SEAL The Bathys also looks good. Luminox Evo SEAL Reactor Fallout Bathys Benthic The Benthic is a diver s watch, channeling the DNA of a Studebaker Avanti or Lamborghini Miura. Beyond its Bauhaus-level design sensibility, the Benthic delivers on the promise of both elegance and utility. The markers are easy to read at varying angles, with six numbers called out instead of the standard four. The bezel is black and flush with the case, maximizing the size of the dial and contributing to the appearance of a massive display. The Benthic is a grand 44.1 mm watch that sports a domed antireflective sapphire crystal, PVDcoated case with a two-micron silver titanium carbonitride (ceramic) coating, engraved caseback and water resistance to 200 meters. But peel back the Benthic s skin and you ll find something that elevates this watch into a whole new category: at its core is an automatic ETA movement, a very accurate, high quality piece of clockwork. Bathys founder and designer John Patterson, Ph.D., explained that his life on the rural island of Kauai has had a profound impact on the watches he manufactures: Bathys is taken from the Greek word for deep and this watch is designed to handle the extreme climatic changes of the islands; it will perform flawlessly 13,000 feet atop Mauna Kea or 200 meters below Maui, he says. See price: $1,495. Luminox EVO Navy SEAL Colormark series This original Swiss quartz model has been retooled for the new millennium features a 44 mm carbon reinforced polymer injected molded case that boasts 200 meters water resistant. See Price: $269. Reactor Trident The Trident is a neatly compact 40 mm watch with a 10-year lithium power cell, Miyota movement, 316L stainless steel or titanium case rated to 200 meters. What makes it shine is the Never Dark technology on the hands and markers that Reactor and others claim to be brighter and longer lasting than tritium or SuperLuminova. This triple-black gem has been spotted on the wrists of army snipers, so it ll probably be able to handle whatever you throw at it. See price: $300. Reactor Fallout A very cool inset-curved bezel, 40.1 mm 316L stainless steel case with three subdials and a one-hour Miyota quartz chrono timer make this a great buy for the money. Super- Luminova hands and markers and a unique gasket system maintain the watch s water resistance even when unscrewed. See com, price: $300. C 58