A Tribute to Underwater Exploration
Charlotte StapelfeldtA watch with a purpose
A tool watch is a watch with a purpose. It does at least one thing beyond simply telling the time.Since mankind first began exploring beneath the surface of the sea, a watch has been an essential companion. Knowing the correct time can be a matter of life and death, and the importance of a robust and accurate timepiece cannot be overstated.
The diver’s watch was born out of necessity, making it perhaps the ultimate tool watch.
To understand how the diver’s watches gained such popularity, it makes sense to look at the history that inspired them.
Cousteau and early diving pioneers helped make underwater exploration part of modern imagination - and shaped the functional world that dive watches still belong to.
Cousteau and the birth of modern scuba diving
The innovation of modern scuba diving is often credited to one man: Jacques Cousteau. Working alongside engineer Émile Gagnan, he helped develop the demand regulator, a breakthrough that dramatically improved underwater breathing technology.
When fitted to a breathing apparatus, the regulator made longer dives possible. This invention allowed Cousteau and Gagnan to explore and film beneath the waves more effectively, paving the way for scuba diving as we know it today. In fact, the word SCUBA is itself an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
When timing became critical
With longer dives now possible, timing suddenly became a critical issue. Divers needed to know exactly how long they had been underwater and how much air remained. It was quite literally a matter of life and death.
At the time, diving watches were still in their infancy. Rolex had introduced the Oyster case as early as 1927, featuring a hermetically sealed construction that significantly improved water resistance.
The Omega Marine.
The early search for water resistance
In 1932, Omega introduced the Marine, a rectangular watch featuring a patented double sliding and removable case. Unlike the Rolex Oyster, the Marine achieved its water resistance by encapsulating the watch within a secondary protective shell. The design earned certification from the Swiss Laboratory for Horology, proving it could withstand 13.5 ATM of pressure without water ingress. That equates to approximately 135 metres or 443 feet.
By 1935, the Royal Italian Navy began searching for a water-resistant and highly luminous watch for its divers. Panerai rose to the challenge with the Radiomir, a watch that was, interestingly enough, manufactured by Rolex.
The Fifty Fathoms helped define the modern diver’s watch: high legibility, rotating timing bezel and purpose-built underwater reliability.
Fifty Fathoms and the modern diver’s watch
The outbreak of World War II slowed further development, but in 1953 Blancpain introduced its legendary Fifty Fathoms and laid the foundation for the modern diver’s watch. Indeed, Jacques Cousteau and his team wore Fifty Fathoms watches during the filming of Le Monde du Silence (The Silent World), the groundbreaking underwater documentary that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956. The Fifty Fathoms has evolved considerably since then, yet remains one of the most respected and desirable diver’s watches ever produced.
The Submariner and Sea-Dweller turned the diver’s watch into both a professional instrument and a cultural icon.
The Submariner and the age of icons
The Submariner is arguably the most recognisable and desirable watch in the world. Few objects communicate adventure, robustness and understated confidence quite like a Submariner.
Introduced at the Basel Watch Fair in 1954, it became an instant classic. Its reputation grew even further when James Bond adopted it as his watch of choice during the first ten films in the series. This was long before the era of product placement, and legend has it that Sean Connery simply borrowed the Submariner worn in Dr. No from one of the film’s producers. Rolex did not pay a penny for its appearance on the wrist of 007.
The Omega Ploprof pushed the diver’s watch into the professional saturation-diving era - bold, unusual and built around extreme underwater use.
Omega, COMEX and the professional era
Omega launched its iconic Seamaster line in 1948, and the battle with Rolex was well underway. During the 1960s and 1970s, the two brands exchanged blows as they pushed the limits of diving watch technology.
Omega introduced the unusual but highly capable Ploprof (Plongeur Professionnel), developed to meet the requirements of professional diving companies such as the French firm COMEX (Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises).
Rolex responded with the Sea-Dweller, offering a water resistance rating of 610 metres (2,000 feet). Special COMEX-issued versions of the Sea-Dweller are now among the most sought-after vintage Rolex watches in existence. If you can find one, expect to pay well in excess of £100,000.
Today, virtually every premium watch manufacturer offers a range of diver’s watches.
Our take on the Dive-Watch Tradition
For Enoksen, the diver’s watch has never been a passing category. Our first Deep Dive was our own tribute to underwater exploration: a larger, tougher dive watch built around serious water resistance and inspired by the pioneers who opened our eyes to the world beneath the sea.
Its no-nonsense design, strong legibility and functional specification reflected what we have always valued in a tool watch: purpose, reliability and materials that make sense. A good diver’s watch should not be desirable because of the name on the dial alone. It should be desirable because of what it was built to do.
Our first Deep Dive - Enoksen’s own tribute to underwater exploration: a larger, tougher dive watch built around serious water resistance.
Today, we are proud to see it worn by customers in more than 50 countries across the globe.
The Skin Diver - A Lighter Expression of the Diver’s Watch
The Dive II Skin Diver takes a different route, but belongs to the same tradition.
Where the Deep Dive expresses the diver’s watch at its most robust, the Dive II returns to the lighter, cleaner proportions of the 1950s and 60s. It carries the spirit of the golden age of underwater exploration, but is shaped for the way a watch is worn today.
Domed sapphire. 300 metres of water resistance. A proven automatic movement, assembled and calibrated in Denmark.
Built for water. Easy to live with on land.
Two expressions of the same Skin Diver:
- White Dial Edition: bright, crisp and quietly bold
- Black Dial Edition: confident, understated and built to blend in