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Re: Just curious
I'd guess about 1/3 of my small collection is of the dive type but several were in spite of, rather than because of, the dive features - dive watches are everywhere and unless one actively dislikes the things one will wind up with several because they'll have other features one likes. Better choices are available for timing boiled eggs but they suffice.
The ratings are, however, pretty funny.
The Japanese got it mostly right in that everything past 200 meters is pretty much marketing masturbation. There's some small degree of sense in 300 meters but, in a rare moment of Wikipedia snark, it would make you pretty special.
Ultra-deep diving
Amongst technical divers, there are certain elite divers who participate in ultra-deep diving on SCUBA (using closed circuit rebreathers and heliox) below 660 feet (200 m). Ultra-deep diving requires extraordinarily high levels of training, experience, fitness and surface support. Only eight (or possibly nine) persons are known to have ever dived below a depth of 800 feet (240 m) on self contained breathing apparatus recreationally. That is fewer than the number of people who have walked on the surface of the moon.
Bold mine.
As far as non-recreational, the situation is hardly less grim, consisting of a couple Comex records.
There are valid reasons why most of Oceanic's dive computers max out at 200 meters or less none of which pertain to available technology.
The inescapable conclusion is that undergoing the cost of ISO testing and third party evaluation of any watch past 200 meters is marketing directly to a demographic that numbers less than that subset of astronauts that have walked on the moon and indirectly to those that feel that a watch built to those standards is worthwhile including the cost associated with the testing - let's say 500.00 unless the redundant portions of ISO are circumvented.
At 1,000 meters the watch is obviously marketed to those who have walked on the surface of Venus. At 3,000 meters the marketers have clearly put the "magic" back in mushrooms.
200 meters ISO / JSI / DIN is like putting "Y" rated tires on a Fiesta. Overkill but harmless. 3000 meters is like putting tires claiming a rating of 20,000 mph on a Fiesta - somebody would want JPL or CERN to certify the claim - and perhaps rightly so - they are expensive after all.
The more rocks I turn over the less I give I flip about ISO, a pressure test would be nice but it'd be all I need to believe the claim had merit. On a tangential note, a helium escape valve is nothing more nor less than an unnecessary blemish on the watch.