A watch that’s water-resistant for kilometres? Why makers are diving deep

Don’t know what to buy your sister-in-law for Christmas? How about an “improved pickle fork” or a “self-ventilating top hat”? They’re just a few of the entries in Inventions That Didn’t Change the World, a book that documents bizarre innovations of the 19th century. Faced with oddities such as the “anti-garrotting cravat”, creative ingenuity has never felt so gloriously misdirected.

That book sprang to mind with the release of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge, a 50mm wide, titanium diving watch that’s water-resistant to an extraordinary 11,000 metres. It follows the Omega Ultra Deep that can laugh off depths of 6000 metres.

From left: the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge; and the Omega Ultra Deep.

Technically, these watches are remarkable feats of horological engineering that continue the brands’ proud traditions of deep-sea exploration. Rolex, for example, has supported the work of marine biologist Sylvia Earle – nicknamed “Her Deepness” for her boundary-pushing dives – since 1982.

So it feels somewhat mean-spirited to flag these watches’ real-world limitations.

Nevertheless, the world record for the deepest-ever scuba dive is 332 metres. Deeper dives have been achieved in hyperbaric chambers used to stop divers from getting “the bends”. But even they’ve bottomed out at 701 metres. Clearly, necessity is not the mother of invention here. In fact, a cynic might identify the real parents as brand egotism and marketing hype.

Marine biologist Sylvia Earle, known for her boundary-pushing dives, is supported by Rolex.

Except that, for me, the value of the Deepsea Challenge is more poetic than practical. Rolex describes its creation as “a watch that defies the limits”, and here its true purpose is revealed. Forget functionality: the goal is to demonstrate brand capabilities, perhaps even human endeavour.

As Robert Browning put it: “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp” and that spirit informs this watch with every tick. For it’s this sort of restless aspiration that can foster genuine progress. It’s this refusal to accept complacency that helped put men on the moon.

So rather than mock this watch’s technical audacity, it should be celebrated alongside all those other pioneering souls who clung to their crazy dreams. After all, if it wasn’t for them, the next time you fancied a gherkin you might be forced to resort to a sub-standard pickle fork.

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