“Deep” Discounts: Three Dive Watches Under Five Grand

• Luxury dive watches are more obtainable than commonly believed.
• watchuwant.com offers many options, including these three standouts, each below $5,000.
• Each of our luxury dive watches featured here offers substantial discounts from MSRP.
• Omega, Girard-Perregaux, and Doxa offer compelling divers with unique identities.
• Each of these watches appeals to a unique personal style; which one is for you?

When collectors speak of “grail” watches, talk turns to the esoteric, the exotic, and – inevitably – the very costly.

But that kind of hero-watch worship doesn’t fly at watchuwant.com, because like you, we want it all. The true “grail” of the luxury watch market is a timepiece from a top maison that delivers exclusivity, substance, and value in one package. And this trio of luxury watch sleepers from Omega, Girard-Perregaux, and Doxa delivers on every count.

Omega’s Seamaster Planet Ocean is a mainstay of the dive watch market, and it has been since the 1957 Seamaster Professional line debuted. Always locked in a Yankees-Red Sox style death match with its arch nemesis, the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Seamaster yields nothing to the Rolex in style, capability, or value.

The imposing Planet Ocean sports a broad-shouldered build that satisfies contemporary tastes for large watches. While Rolex hews to its 40mm sport watch cases with few exceptions, this Omega Seamaster lives large with a 45.5mm case that is unmistakably Omega. Its calibrated diving bezel and high visibility dial are vivid, useful, and stylish. A helium release valve at 10 o’clock makes diving bell excursions possible – in theory – and ensures that this heavy-duty diver looks the part.

Seamaster and Submariner fans debate the merits of each generation of their favored sons, but this Planet Ocean makes the best case yet for an Omega advantage. The large “broad arrow” hands, stick indexes, and partial Arabic numerals enable the owner to note the time at a glance.

At three o’clock, the dial-colored date disc keeps the feature unobtrusive; it’s there when you need it, and almost invisible when you don’t. Seamaster fans will sing the praises of this arrangement, which retains the date while eliminating the white patch and “cyclops” eye that can clutter the visage of the Submariner.

Omega equips the Seamaster with a bracelet worthy of a watch designed with rough use in mind. The three-link design is robust, handsome, and incorporates one of the best clasps in the business. A double-trigger release opens the clasp while preventing accidental deployment, and a small diving extension is present for quick fitment over wet suits or even winter coats.

watchuwant.com is proud to offer the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean at substantial discounts over authorized dealer retail prices.

While Omega and Rolex fight for the meat of the dive watch market, Girard-Perregaux appeals to the connoisseur who prefers to sit above the fray. An ancient watchmaker with origins dating to the eighteenth century, GP often is mentioned in the same breath as “watchmaker’s watchmakers” including Jaeger-LeCoultre and Zenith.

The Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk II for John Harrison is a diver for the watch-savvy collector who wants something far more exclusive than the mainstream players can offer. As a highly self-sufficient maison, GP builds most of its 20,000 annual watches using parts of its own design and manufacture; only a portion of this output will consist of dive watches. This modus operandi means that few will have the opportunity to own a Girard-Perregaux diver, but those who do will enjoy a true gem.

GP’s Sea Hawk II features a distinctive case and dive bezel in stainless steel and white gold. The unique case profile is designed to eliminate the “wrist digging” tendency of large crowns and shoulders that plagues owners of many conventional dive watches. This consideration is of particular importance in salt water, where irritation is accelerated and open sores can attract infection – and sharks.

A large uni-directional bezel confirms the Sea-Hawk II‘s diving credentials, but Girard-Perregaux reinforces its upscale status with an insert of white gold (think Rolex Yacht-Master). All markings on the bezel are three-dimensional raised characters, so scratches will not remove the calibration scale as on PVD or anodized bezels.

Never afraid to be different, GP incorporates a date window at 1:30. The upshot of this measure is room for a power reserve module that displays the state of wind at 6 o’clock. GP reasons that one should never dive with an unwound watch, and they’re not wrong, to put it mildly.

This Sea Hawk II‘s “John Harrison” nomenclature arises from GP’s tribute to the seventeenth century Englishman who invented a method for deriving longitude while fixing position at sea. In addition to a special white dial, the John Harrison model receives a small seconds dial at 10 o’clock; Harrison also invented the marine chronometer, whose ability to resolve accurate time down to seconds per day sparked a revolution in maritime navigation.

The elite club of low-volume luxury watch ownership has never been this accessible.

If Girard-Perregaux aligns with the elite of luxury watchmakers, Doxa unabashedly declares itself to be the ultimate tool-watch specialist.

Doxa believes that luxury means excess, and “excess” in the dive segment means capability. Next to the Seamaster and the Sea Hawk II, Doxa’s Sub 800Ti Limited Edition looks like a military Humvee next to a couple of civilian Jeeps; the Jeeps are purposeful, but the Humvee is hardcore.

As the first watchmaker to include a high-viz orange dial on its divers (circa, late 1960s), Doxa continues its tradition with the Sub 800Ti. The new twist comes in the form of Microtec’s H3 tritium trasor technology. While the Superluminova on the Seamaster and Sea Hawk II will fade after several hours removed from light, the self-sustaining trasor capsules on the Doxa will glow brilliantly even after a year in a dive locker.

Doxa loads the 800Ti with diving tech. The double-calibrated bezel features the U.S. Navy chart for non-decompression dive times at common free-dive depths; set the index to the minute hand, and ascend when the hand reaches your marked depth. A vault-like case machined from a solid billet of titanium resists pressure like Adam Vinatieri.

Doxa’s bracelet is a masterclass in functional art. The polished and brushed grade 5 titanium links are supple enough to evoke the “beads of rice” bracelets from the 1970s, and the clasp may be the smartest design under the sea. Double-triggers release Doxa’s deployant, and a ratcheting slider with separate triggers extends the bracelet in tool-free fashion. The entire assembly opens and closes with the sensation of a German car door.

This Doxa Sub 800Ti Limited Edition is one of only 500 manufactured, and our example features factory warranty in effect through 2015.

Whether shopping for a versatile luxury watch “daily driver,” a starting point for a new collection, a graduation gift for a special student, or a no-holds-barred sub-surface tool, watchuwant.com has the dive watches to suit any tastes and any budget.