Admittedly, dive computers have more or less taken over the job traditionally held by diving watches—that of measuring depth and time spent in the water and using this information to plan ascents.

And, going beyond your standard power reserve indicator, the Instinct Solar also has a power manager, which means you can make battery-extending changes on the go. Launched in 1967, it quickly became the watch of choice for many professionals, and its bright orange dial is now an icon for dive watch enthusiasts.Rumors swirled in late summer 2021 among Tudor enthusiasts of a new Pelagos with ties to the French Marine Nationale, after an Instagram post by famed brand ambassador David Beckham posted a teaser in his stories and a dealer posted a military-issued version of this previously unknown model. The combination of the midnight-blue dial with the beige hands and brown leather strap conveys a retro mood that also feels highly sophisticated. We’ve put our dive watch geeks to work and they’ve compiled a thorough list of the best dive watches available in 2023.

But Rolex also decided to keep certain traits of the watch’s predecessors; namely, the matte dial with painted hour markers, which lends it some additional vintage charm. With dial colors and matching bezel inserts to satisfy nearly any color preference, the Doxa Sub 200 has very wearable dimensions, is simply a lot of fun, and is easily one of the better recent affordable diver’s watches to grace the scene. Panerai’s Submersible collection is a homage to the brand’s distinguished history as a supplier of watches to the Italian Navy. Certina supplied watches for the Tektite I project in 1969, where a team of scientists and divers spent two months in an underwater laboratory, and is also known for having been the issue watch for some lucky Royal Australian Navy divers in the 1970s.It incorporates a uni-directional rotating bezel, 300 meters of water-resistance, and a self-winding automatic movement.