A watch like this was made for the water. It seems a shame to leave it on dry land
Dive deeper with Seiko’s workhouse dive watch.
Last week, a friend, who shall remain nameless, took his watch, the brand of which will also remain nameless, to the shop that it came from for some necessary repair work. It is an expensive sailing watch, gifted to him by his wife on the occasion of their wedding, so he wore it while competing in a few sailing competitions. It was, unsurprisingly, a bit salty. The shop staff were baffled, but overjoyed. According to them, my friend was their first customer to use the watch as it was intended to be used and to make the most of its extraordinary roster of features.
Sure, these watches work just as well accessorised with a suit in London’s Square Mile, but you wouldn’t buy a speedy sports car and take it to Tesco. Luxury watches and cars are beautiful feats of impressive engineering and not using them to their full potential is a middle finger to the brains behind them. (The exception here is the proliferation of timepieces designed to operate in space. I’m not suggesting you all retrain as astronauts.)
Enter Seiko’s new offering. The Prospex Mechanical PADI 60th Anniversary Limited Edition ‘King Turtle’ watch, designed for another watery pursuit — diving. Seiko is a Japanese manufacturer of watches, clocks and electronic devices. It was founded in 1881 and is probably most famous for producing the world’s first commercial quartz wristwatch in 1969 and Japan's first diver's watch, rated to 150 metres, in 1965. This year, they’re celebrating a decade of collaboration with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
PADI is the world's largest recreational scuba-diving membership and training organisation, and operates through thousands of dive centers in more than 180 countries. It has certified more than 30 million divers globally — that’s a lot of available wrist space.
The Turtle design is one of Seiko’s most recognisable dive watch shapes and gets its name from the cushion-shape case, which resembles the animal’s shell. This latest iteration is water resistant to 200 metres which is more than you’ll likely ever need because while advanced recreational divers can sometimes reach 40 metres, only extreme technical divers can push past the 100 metre mark.
The day-date display has a handy magnifier tool and the hands and indices are coated in Seiko’s Lumibrite, a luminous paint that absorbs light quickly and glows briefly in the dark, so that you can tell the time in murkier conditions. Most importantly, the bezel can only rotate anticlockwise so you can track time spent underwater, safe in the knowledge that you cannot knock it clockwise, which would make it appear as though less time has elapsed.
The timepiece comes with a deep blue dial, to symbolise the colour of the ocean, and two straps. The silicone one (above) is designed to fit over a wetsuit.
Limited to 8,000 pieces, the King Turtle is remarkably well priced (from £650), especially considering its blue ceramic bezel, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal case and excellent construction.
Before you buy, however, please ask yourself where and when you’re going to wear such a wonderful thing. Afterall, the greatest luxury is not just owning a watch capable of going 200 metres beneath the surface, but having the good sense to take it there.
