Dive watches 1000m any use?

[tisoris]

I'm not diver but just interested to know in what professional field or in normal diving will we go until such depth? I heard that in normal diving only goes till like 30-50 m rite? so even the conventional dive watch 200 m is good enough.

Pls educate me, thanks!

[jdub]

Hello mate,

I'm a commercial diver and I will try and explain in laymans terms.

The human body can withstand massive amounts of pressure, because our body's are mainly liquid and as you know you cant compress a liquid.

The problem comes with the gas with are breathing at depth. As you will probably know the air we breath on surface consists of about 21% Oxygen and 79% Nitrogen.

Below 30m Nitrogen starts to have a narcotic effect on the brain, this effects some worse than others, you can get used to this and the more times you dive below 30m the lesser the effects can be. The limit for the use of air in commercial diving is 50m the reason being that at 50m on air your judgement can be seriosly impared making doing complecated tasks difficult and dangerous. There are other reasons to do with the rates in which nitrogen is absorbed in to the blood etc.. risk of the bends.

So below 50m we have to replace the nitrogen gas with another inert gas that does not have any narcotic effect, the choice of gas used is Helium. So this is called mixed gas diving. In the sports diving world they may use something called trimix which contains Helium, oxygen and nitrogen however this gets very complecated so I will stick with commercial use.

So we are below 50m and now breathing Heliox, more problems now arise as the deeper we go oxygen becomes toxic due to the pressure but our bodies still need it to survive. So we have to reduce the amount of Oxygen contained in the gas we breath. So say at 300m we might be breathing a mixture of 98% Helium and 2% Oxygen as at this depth 2% O2 is all we need. It is to do with the partial pressure of gasses and would be done with saturation diving. At this depth if you breathed the normal amount of Oxygen it would kill you instantly. This is where many deaths occur in deep scuba diving ie a wrong gas mix.

This is why a human being will not be able to withstand going to a depth of 1000m. It is not the effects of pressure acting on our bodies exactly but the pressures acting on the gases we breath that makes it impossible. There are other reasons invovled but this is one of the main.

If you are still intrested in the subject and would like a more scientific answer look up the following:
General gas law
Boyles law
Daltons law
Henreys law
Saturation diving

I hope this has helped, so why make a watch waterproof to 1000m? beats me!!

[lysanderxiii]

so why make a watch waterproof to 1000m?

Why? In the unlikely event your strap breaks and the watch falls to the bottom of the sea, you can send a deep sea ROV down and retrieve it in working condition.

[steve6387]

Bragging rites and as a conversation piece. My HEV also can be a conversation starter as well.

[SonnyD]

Hello mate,

I'm a commercial diver and I will try and explain in laymans terms.

The human body can withstand massive amounts of pressure, because our body's are mainly liquid and as you know you cant compress a liquid.

The problem comes with the gas with are breathing at depth. As you will probably know the air we breath on surface consists of about 21% Oxygen and 79% Nitrogen.

Below 30m Nitrogen starts to have a narcotic effect on the brain, this effects some worse than others, you can get used to this and the more times you dive below 30m the lesser the effects can be. The limit for the use of air in commercial diving is 50m the reason being that at 50m on air your judgement can be seriosly impared making doing complecated tasks difficult and dangerous. There are other reasons to do with the rates in which nitrogen is absorbed in to the blood etc.. risk of the bends.

So below 50m we have to replace the nitrogen gas with another inert gas that does not have any narcotic effect, the choice of gas used is Helium. So this is called mixed gas diving. In the sports diving world they may use something called trimix which contains Helium, oxygen and nitrogen however this gets very complecated so I will stick with commercial use.

So we are below 50m and now breathing Heliox, more problems now arise as the deeper we go oxygen becomes toxic due to the pressure but our bodies still need it to survive. So we have to reduce the amount of Oxygen contained in the gas we breath. So say at 300m we might be breathing a mixture of 98% Helium and 2% Oxygen as at this depth 2% O2 is all we need. It is to do with the partial pressure of gasses and would be done with saturation diving. At this depth if you breathed the normal amount of Oxygen it would kill you instantly. This is where many deaths occur in deep scuba diving ie a wrong gas mix.

This is why a human being will not be able to withstand going to a depth of 1000m. It is not the effects of pressure acting on our bodies exactly but the pressures acting on the gases we breath that makes it impossible. There are other reasons invovled but this is one of the main.

If you are still intrested in the subject and would like a more scientific answer look up the following:
General gas law
Boyles law
Daltons law
Henreys law
Saturation diving

I hope this has helped, so why make a watch waterproof to 1000m? beats me!!

Thank you very much!.........That's way more then I ever imagined. It's also very interesting, and has spurred me to read more on the subject.
Again, this forum has the most knowledgeable people about a myriad of different subjects

Regards Sonny

[SHANE 1000]

Just the fact that it has been tested to withstand the pressure of whatever meters it is deemed good for,1000m means to me a more substantial robust watch (build wise, quality too ? maybe) 200m or a 1000m? the 1k will naturally have a thicker case and crystal too, 9 times out of 10 a better mvt.

Why build a car to go 300MPH??? when the speed limit is way less, BUT at least with the car you can cane it, when the right situation presents itself.

[Willith]

Just the fact that it has been tested to withstand the pressure of whatever meters it is deemed good for,1000m means to me a more substantial robust watch (build wise, quality too ? maybe) 200m or a 1000m? the 1k will naturally have a thicker case and crystal too, 9 times out of 10 a better mvt.

Why build a car to go 300MPH??? when the speed limit is way less, BUT at least with the car you can cane it, when the right situation presents itself.

Well said! I like "chunky" watches too and most deep divers fit the bill. Also, like mentioned before it's a great conversation piece too. I have a 12000' chrono diver, I'll never go that deep or time myself at that depth, but a ~1 pound watch gets a lot of attention and makes for great conversations.

[steve6387]

...1000m means to me a more substantial robust watch (build wise, quality too ? maybe) 200m or a 1000m? the 1k will naturally have a thicker case and crystal too...

All kidding aside, I echo Shane's sentiment exactly. I only own one 1000M watch right now, but am wondering if I am actually hooked on large cased divers for these very reasons.

[Tragic]

The main reason for 1000 m watches is forums like this.

[Isthmus]

As far as I'm concerned, the only reason watches with ridiculous depth ratings exist is to satisfy the "my horse is bigger than your horse" crowd. The same goes for most instances of HRV's, as the overwhelming majority of divers will never be in the helium rich environment of a diving bell, let alone be there fo a prolonged enough period of time to allow for the accumulation of helium in the case.

Also, as for increased quality of construction, quality of movement or increased case size, none of these things are requirements for building a watch capable of withstanding 1,000m. I won't argue that in many cases this is in fact the case, but it is not necessary. For example, look at the modern Auto-zilla: Big case, but not particularly thicker than lower end models; the movement is nothing special; and overall construction is good but not exceptional. Look at a 1,000M rated vintage Orient King diver. it is relatively small, doesn't have a screw in crown, and uses an acrylic crystal. Compare that to a 600m seiko shrouded diver and then argue which is the better or more capable watch.