Description

Dive watches are popular, even among people whose only exposure to water is rain or a shower. The idea of wearing a watch good for the pressures of immersion at 1000m or even 2000m gives this chunky watch style a daydream factor that's hard to resist. There sure are a lot of dive watches on offer. Well, it's not my favorite style of watch, but I get asked about them often, so here's one I recommend: The Schaumburg Aqua Black 2.

Schaumburg is a small German watch company, formerly known as Lindburgh & Benson. The company uses precise Swiss commodity mechanical movements and packages them in massive hardware designed to take tremendous undersea pressures while keeping precise time. The Aqua series are rated to 1000 meters. This is a straightforward watch with hours, minutes, sweep seconds and date. The movement is automatic mechanical, so self-winding. The screw-in crown is protected by machined protectors. The timing bezel is unidirectional. The standard strap is water-resistant leather.

The Aqua Black 2, shown here, has a black face with orange hour markers. Aqua Black 1 has white markers on black face. The coming Aqua Black 3 has a fully enumerated orange face. The cases on all are steel with black PVD finish. This is probably the deepest black PVD finish you'll see on a watch. If you prefer silvery stainless alone, the same watches are available in the standard Aqua Diver series with a wider range of face colors. Also in stainless are chronograph versions. All have thick sapphire crystals and solid steel backs.

1000m rating too wimpy for you? The Aqua Titan series are rated to 2000m water resistance! (via Lindburgh & Benson)