![]() Water pressure enters the tube, causing it to unfurl ever so slightly, which then moves a calibrated needle by means of a lever. The best known example is the Bourdon tube, which makes use of a curved tube of metal that is coiled inside the gauge. The simplest form of depth gauge is a mechanism that translates increasing water pressure into a depth reading. This was no easy feat, since watchmakers up to that point were intent on keeping water OUT of the watch case and a depth gauge requires some penetration of water to activate the gauge. In the late 1960s, companies such as Favre-Leuba, Nivada and Aquadive developed dive watches that incorporated the depth gauge into the watch itself, putting both instruments on one wrist. In the early years of scuba diving, a diver would strap his dive watch to one arm and a bulky mechanical depth gauge to the other, comparing the two as he calculated his no-decompression time while underwater. Let’s take a look at some significant depth gauge dives, both historical and current, as well the various ingenious ways watch companies have devised them. The depth gauge dive watch is also perhaps the purest diving complication in that its utility is limited to actual use while diving, and its function is only accessible to those who take their watches into the briny depths. ![]() But there is one “complication” that is truly useful, even essential underwater: the depth gauge. ![]() ![]() While most of these are fun demonstrations of the watchmaker’s art, their usefulness to a diver for anything beyond a playful diversion is questionable. Chronographs, moonphases, tide times, and even perpetual calendars are all complications that have found their way into dive watches. ![]()
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