“When you’re not a bit of nervous, then there could be one thing incorrect with you,” Jeff Milisen, the divemaster, says as our dive boat cruises out from the Honokohau Harbor below the duvet of darkness, towards our dive website about 5 miles off the coast of Hawaii’s Huge Island. “That is meant to get you out of your consolation zone, and now we have self-preservation mechanisms for a motive. It is okay to be apprehensive.”
And I’m. Three different divers and I are about to carry out a “blackwater dive,” the place we’ll be connected to a 60 ft. tether and drift above four,000 ft. of pitch-black water.
One of many world’s most luxurious migrations occurs each single evening, however with out the charismatic megafauna and supporting documentaries by streaming companies, it goes unnoticed. The billions of sea creatures that populate the ocean’s mesopelagic zone (660 to three,300 ft.) transfer vertically up the water column to the floor to feed. A blackwater dive would possibly reveal something from siphonophores, an usually huge colony of stinging organisms that appears straight out of a horror film, to the elusive cookiecutter shark, a one-foot-long predator that, like a round drill press, suctions out spherical plugs of flesh from any organism giant sufficient to bore into.
Previous to the blackwater dive, I would spent ten days exploring Hawaii’s reef methods and mountain climbing by way of its tropical broadleaf forests with a Certina DS Tremendous PH500M on the wrist. The watch was a 2020 reinterpretation of 1 that performed an necessary position within the 1969 Tektite I and Tektite II experiments carried out in an underwater residing habitat, a joint undertaking between the Workplace of Naval Analysis and Normal Electrical. The unique DS-2 Tremendous PH500M was provided to aquanauts who lived within the undersea habitat and pushed the boundaries of saturation diving with 58 straight days conducting marine scientific research. I figured sporting the fashionable reinterpretation whereas pushing my very own private boundaries when it got here to aquatic experiences would assist me get nearer to understanding what kind of watch the ’60s DS-2 Tremendous PH500M(ref 5801 123) was, and what the 2020 iteration is supposed to be.
When the DS-2 Tremendous PH500M was launched in ’67 it was Certina’s top-tier dive watch providing, promoting for considerably greater than a Rolex Submariner or Sea-Dweller. The Certina and the Rolex Submariner and Sea-Dweller had been provided to the Tektite aquanauts in 1969. One aquanaut who participated within the Tektite program, Ian Koblick, informed the weblog Vintage Certinas that “he would put on the Rolex primarily for the celebrated events, however his foremost working watch, which he used within the diving missions of Tektite I and II was the DS-2 Tremendous PH500m.”
The mannequin from the late ’60s had supreme technical chops on the time and the real-world use by professionals to again it up. However is the 2020 reissue worthy of reviving the title of one in all Certina’s greats? Over a couple of weeks within the Pacific tropics, I would attain a conclusion.
We bounce in, clip to the tether, and descend to a depth of 70 ft. to start out the dive. In full darkness, there are not any visible reference factors to orient myself in the course of the descent, so the perfect I can do is observe the depth gauge that encompasses a absolutely lumed dial akin to some Citizen and TAG Heuer divers from the ’90s. It makes me marvel why extra divers did not characteristic a fully-lumed dial. I fiddle with the buoyancy management machine till the gauge stabilizes at round 70 ft. and take a look at my greatest to gradual my respiratory earlier than taking an hour to slowly ascend and observe nightmarish creatures glowing with bioluminescence whiz by.
Reviving a Diving Legend
The DS-2 Tremendous PH500M from the ’60s got here with two dial executions – each in black. One was fully monochromatic and featured white markers and arms towards a black dial, and the opposite included shiny orange for the minute hand and markers. The 2020 DS Tremendous PH500M is considerably of an amalgamation of each designs, however probably the most hanging replace is a shiny orange dial that by no means appeared on the unique. So the place precisely did such a loud dial coloration come from when the unique watches had been comparatively conservative?
When Certina got down to re-introduce such a traditionally necessary watch, it turned to the Verband Deutscher Sporttaucher (VDST), a German diving group very similar to PADI, to supply enter on the watch and collaboratively launch it. The watch is an infinite “particular version,” in order that they emphasised case-specific usability over mainstream enchantment. They designed it with diving in thoughts, so why not have divers weigh in in the course of the design section?
A VDST panel selected orange for the dial coloration as a result of they believed it is best to learn underwater. Jason Heaton as soon as wrote that orange doesn’t necessarily offer the best visibility underwater, however I feel there’s one thing concerning the shiny orange dial that thematically works with the brand new DS Tremendous PH500M, even past its supposed enhanced visibility. Many dive watches at the moment are conservatively designed, as a result of producers know that only a few finish customers ever get them moist. This Certina is the other. With such a extremely specialised watch with a slender goal market, it is acceptable – actually, most popular – to take design dangers. Once I spoke with Certina CEO Marc Aellen and product director Martial Bringolf, they made it clear that since this watch was a part of the heritage assortment, which accounts for lower than 15 p.c of Certina’s international gross sales, they actively inspired VDST to take liberties with the design and give you one thing that they’d use particularly for diving. They selected orange, and the divers had the ultimate say.
A diagram exhibiting the big O-ring (1) that enables the motion to “float” within the case and take in shocks.
The brand new watch additionally maintains the double-security (or DS) know-how upon which Certina constructed its sterling fame in the course of the ’60s. The system is made up of a thick O-ring that fills the area between the motion and the case, defending it from shocks. The motion basically “floats” contained in the case and cushions any blows.
Certina and the U.S. Market
The DS Tremendous PH500M was the second Certina I would ever had on my wrist. The primary was a good-looking DS-2 PH200M from 1974 that I purchased at a classic market in Bangkok. I would by no means seen a contemporary Certina in America, and there is a motive why. Because it stands, Certina shouldn’t be current in any vital capability within the North American market. There are not any bodily boutiques or ADs to go to to see any of Certina’s wares. Head to Certina’s on-line retailer locator, and also you’re met with the message that “CERTINA shouldn’t be at present represented within the USA.” To get one, you must order from Switzerland and have it shipped.
The creator’s Certina DS-2 PH200M from 1974.
Aellen defined that in Nicolas G. Hayek’s restructuring of Swatch Group within the ’80s, he “put Omega and Longines out entrance, as a result of it was inconceivable to restart all of the manufacturers on the similar time. Whereas Omega and Longines led, Certina by no means adopted them to the U.S. as a result of it takes a really excessive advertising and marketing funding.”
The strongest markets for Certina at the moment are Europe and China. “Staying centered on fewer markets has allowed Certina to supply the perfect price-to-quality ratio in all the business,” Aellen stated. He added that most certainly nobody within the U.S., and even France, would know what VDST is, however that it did not actually matter for the reason that watch wasn’t constructed for mass international enchantment. I actually hadn’t heard of VDST earlier than seeing the watch, and in a humorous means, its foreignness made the watch enchantment to me much more. A shiny orange dial linked to an obscure diving group is proof that Certina is not watering designs down in an effort to attain extra shoppers. And, in any case, a part of the enjoyment in gathering watches is in discovering one thing new.
A Report From the Blackwater
Larvae come up from the mesopelagic zone to feed at evening and might be seen on blackwater dives. Jeff Milisen, the divemaster featured on this story, snapped this photograph of a flounder larva.
On dive watches, Jack once wrote, “A dive watch works or would not, on its most simple degree, when it comes to how profitable it’s functionally.” The Certina works. Past telling the native time, it precisely shows the elapsed time of my blackwater dive with its push-to-turn bezel. Zero water ingress happens. The deepest max depth I report within the blackwater is 76 ft., nowhere close to the 500-meter depth ranking.
A cutaway of the Tektite undersea habitat. The Certina DS-2 Tremendous PH500M was worn for the Tektite 1 experiments by the aquanauts that lived on this vessel for 58 straight days.
The Certina additionally holds its personal towards the Titan of the dive watches, the Rolex Submariner. They had been each issued to Tektite Aquauats in ’69, so it is a truthful – and attention-grabbing – comparability in 2020. Do not imagine me? It is all within the numbers.
Vice President of america Spiro Agnew with Tektite I aquanauts and mannequin of Tektite I habitat. Credit score: NOAA Central Library Historic Fisheries Assortment
The chrome steel DS Tremendous PH500M is 43mm huge and 15mm tall, comes on an accordion rubber dive strap (these straps are supposed to be pulled tight sufficient to stretch out the “waves” on the floor, and so they take up slack when a wetsuit compresses at depth), and is waterproof to 500 meters. Inside is an ETA Powermatic 80.611, full with 80 hours of energy reserve and an anti-magnetic Nivachron stability spring. The watch encompasses a spring-loaded 60-click elapsed-time bezel in aluminum. It is constructed to ISO 6425 specs.
The Submariner’s 904L metal case is 41mm huge and a tad over 12mm tall, barely smaller than the Certina. And the facility reserve is smaller, too, at 70 hours, though it does characteristic a paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring. Lastly, it is waterproof to 300 meters. That is 200 meters lower than the Certina.
And but, the Submariner prices eight instances extra. The Certina sells for CHF 895 at retail, whereas the Rolex – when it may be had at retail, which ain’t usually – sells for CHF 7,700.
7,000 identified species inhabit Hawaii’s reefs.
The Certina DS Tremendous PH500M at house exploring Hawaii’s reef system.
Sizing the Certina up subsequent to a benchmark dive watch underscores its worth proposition. However there’s one different intangible that may’t be measured: It is the form of watch that makes you wish to get on the market and do one thing far exterior your consolation zone. A shiny orange dial and a rubber dive strap do not precisely scream, “Put on me to the grocery store!” however as a substitute, one thing like, “Strap me on and bounce in four,000 ft. of pitch-black ocean. Neglect concerning the sharks!”
