Buffy Acacia
This year is my fifth clock, a time + tide wonder, and I’ve noticed a certain downward trend. When I started here, absolutely everything was about diving watches. Retro reissues, vintage-inspired homages and feature-first tool watches were particularly popular, with new micro-brand divers being sold out on Kickstarter every week. now? It seems like people are full, and the clear drought of the new dive watch release in Geneva this month is a powerful indicator of how times have changed.
Let’s jump a bit and go back to Watch & Wonders in 2022. Rolex has released its deep diving diver, the Deepsea Challenge. TAG Heuer has announced Aquaraser Super Diver and Aquaraser Solar Graph. Grand Seico pressed Spring Drive Diver SLGA015. And even Jaeger-Lecoultre puts perpetual calendars into Polaris. As a Prestige Watch Fair, there was no prioritization of sporty casual releases, but the popularity of dive watches certainly felt.
What will you have this year? Does the blue ceramic Chanel J12 come with baguette cut sapphire as a time marker? Even though it is water resistant up to 200 meters, it is not designed for diving. Ulysse Nardin’s diver (air)? Technically it’s a diving watch, but it’s more about technical achievements than beach day. The new 1,000m Tudor Pelagos Ultra has arrived. So I will admit it. Panerai’s new 500-meter diving specification is also an impressive upgrade for the Luminor Marina, but it’s not much to say given that Panerai’s entire identity revolves around diving. The focus has definitely changed, but why and what?
Well, it’s not revolutionary to notice that trends come and go. Customers get tired of seeing similar things after a while, and are less likely to buy more if most collectors already own a diving watch. However, dive watches are no longer top dogs, and not so much fun, rather they replaced them. Integrated bracelet sports watches are just as popular as diving watches, and have thoroughly created the genre for themselves.
We are now far from a simple homage to Ardmar’s Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus. Baume & Mercier Riviera, Chopard Alpine Eagle, The Czapek Antarctique, Chronoswiss Pulse, Eberhard & Co. Check out Contodat, IWC Ingenieur and more. All of these collections represent this year’s watch and new integrated bracelet release at Wonders. In fact, of the over 30 watches released on bracelets, more than half of them were integrated. It’s huge.
Another thing to remember is that wristwatch technology is generally constantly improving. It wasn’t long ago that hacking seconds and letter rewinding weren’t expected in the automatic movement. A major contribution to the popularity of diving watches was the general concern about water resistance during swimming, and the belief that dipping in paddle pools would absolutely require a 100-meter rating and a screw-in crown. It has mostly passed and consumers are comfortable to swim at a 100m rating. This is extensive specification across all types of watches, regardless of the intended use case.
Given these considerations and the fact that smaller, slimmer cases are more fashionable for years, typical dive watches can be even lower priority. It will be interesting to see what other knock-on effects look like, such as the shift focus of dive-centric brands. Does Omega’s Seamaster catalog receive fewer updates in favor of the underrated De Ville model? Will wearing a dive watch in formal wear once again be a fashion fake? Personally, I hope we continue to see a surge in original designs, rather than the retro reissues that flooded us five years ago…
