These days hardly anyone wears a mechanical or quartz watch to tell the time. I mean we are surrounded by devices that will tell the time far more accurately than any mechanical anachronism such as a Swiss Military Watch strapped to our wrist. We have phones and computers and MP3 players that all tell the time. We have devices that can connect to atomic clocks around the world in places such as Rugby, England in the UK that set the standard time for the whole world. Compared with the accuracy of these atomic clocks even the most finely crafted mechanical or quartz timepiece is positively antiquated and inaccurate.
Yet there are some groups of people who have to have accurate timepieces because they are far from the normal trappings of civilization and can’t access the internet or rely on mains-powered devices. That’s right, I’m talking about extreme sportsmen and women such as mountaineers and SCUBA divers who not only need accurate timepiece. More to the point, when you are 60 feet under water, you life may often depend on the reliability and accuracy of your diver’s watch.
The choices are bewildering when it comes to finding a good wrist watch that will be up to the demands of these sorts of extreme sports. At one end of the scale are the digital or Japanese-made watches such as Casio’s G-force that will probably stand up to just about anything you can throw at it. Yet they lack the cool factor that makes anyone but teenage boys want to wear them. On the other end of the scale are the beautifully crafted Rolex watches that cost more than a small car. In the middle though is a sweet spot of beautifully made and cool looking Swiss watches such as the Swiss Military Watch that will not only stand up to all sorts of knocks and bangs, but will look good too, whether you are wearing as a dive watch or taking it out on the town.
