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Skin diver watches are becoming more and more popular due to the luxury watch industry producing an abundance of dive watches in order to keep up with demand.
As a short summary, the meaning of skin diving is simply to perform basic snorkel and flipper activities rather than wearing a full wetsuit with an oxygen tank. Skin diving therefore, means that if you were to wear a dive watch, it should be worn on your skin like a normal watch, rather than over the top of a diving costume. This makes a skin diver suitable for the water, but not hugely bulky like a traditional dive watch.
Due to the increased popularity of dive watches, skin divers have also benefitted from this surge. In modern day, most dive watches are not used for diving, since computerized watches are far superior in almost every way. Therefore it makes sense to have a dive watch that is more suited towards everyday use.
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Skin Diver Watches Defined
It is hard to pin down the term skin diver watch to an exact definition, but there are some key concepts it must align with.
Firstly, skin divers have shorter bracelets since they do not need to be extended to fit over a wetsuit. Secondly, skin divers watches do not need as much water resistance as a traditional dive watch since they are never involved in deep sea scuba diving.
Lastly, you will not find features such as ultrabright lume paint, helium escape valves, and bulky crown guards on a skin dive watch.
In short, skin diving watches are a lot more streamlined and cut out the unnecessary oversized features that regular fashion divers watch use.
Why Buy A Skin Divers Watch?
The main reason why you would purchase a skin divers watch are that you are a man with small wrists and hands. Rolex Submariners and their alternatives are not for everyone. Submariners have a 40mm case size, with many other dive watches approaching 50mm. This one size fits all approach is not suitable for everyone.
Secondly, some people prefer not to follow the crowd and wear a bulky dive watch. This is a matter of personal preference, with the upside being you can find a real bargain when comparing the prices of skin dive watches to traditional divers.
Lastly, there is a much larger variation in design of skin dive watches. Not everyone is watching Rolex to see what colours they will produce next. Instead, you are left with a choice of original designs from a series of brands which you might have previously overlooked.
The Best Skin Diver Watches
Fossil FB-01
One of the best looking fashion skin divers watches you can buy. It goes without saying that Fossil are a fashion brand and doesn’t produce watches that are too fantastic from a pure technical point of view. However, Miyota quartz movements are good enough for most people, especially if you don’t care about mechanical watches.
This watch doesn’t just look good but is also water resistant to 100 meters, so can easily be used for shallow water activities such as swimming and snorkeling.
It is unusual to find a dive watch that is plated black, as well as having a chronograph function. Therefore it’s safe to say that this is pretty much a pure fashion watch, but can be used for water related means listed above.
Pantor Nautilus
Whilst Pantor are a brand well known for making some very serious professional divers watches, the Nautilus is one of the cheapest and lower spec watches they have created.
For a start, this watch has a 42mm case size but looks considerably smaller when worn on the wrist due to its ultra small lugs compared to a regular dive watch. You will also notice that the Nautilus has no bulky crown guards, which doesn’t matter too much given this is more of a fashion watch than a diving piece.
Lastly, to keep costs low, the Nautilus uses a quartz movement rather than mechanical. The benefits of this are greater accuracy and far lower costs as no servicing is required.
Gucci Dive Watch
It’s quite simple to see that this watch is not intended for deep sea diving based on the gold plating and giant cat head in the center of the dial.
With that being said, the Gucci dive is a legitimate divers watch and has 200 meters of water resistance. Based on this factor alone, it is easily good enough to be used as a skin diver and has enough lume to be seen underwater at shallow depths.
Gucci watches are somewhat expensive given the specification you get for the money. But with that being said, they are made in Switzerland and are much better build quality than the basic fashion brand watches you will find littered throughout the industry. You can certainly get better value for money elsewhere, but for fans of the Gucci brand this is certainly not a terrible deal by any means.
Hamilton Khaki Scuba
Despite being named the “Scuba”, you certainly cannot take this watch scuba diving since it only has 100 meters water resistance.
The dimensions of this Hamilton Khaki watch are somewhat typical of a regular divers watch being 40mm wide and 13mm thick. However, the width of this watch is not overstated by overly large lugs and the fact it has a Nato style strap makes it wear a lot smaller than a stainless steel bracelet, as well as being a lot lighter.
Of course with all Hamilton watches, you receive a watch made to high specifications with sapphire crystal glass and in this case a reliable ETA movement. Granted the price is higher than that of a fashion watch, but it is built to a much higher standard to reflect this.
Bulova Oceanographer
Although the Bulova Oceanographer is a legitimate dive watch. It is a throwback to the 1980s where dive watches were a lot more rounded and not the bulky oversized models we see today.
If you compare the lug size of this watch compared to a classic design such as the Omega Speedmaster or Rolex Submariner you will notice that the Oceanographer is considerably smaller. Not only this but there are also no crown guards at all on this skin diver.
Perhaps the main selling point of this watch is that you’re able to get such a retro green dial with an automatic movement for under $500. Whilst the specifications on this watch aren’t fantastic, there is nothing quite like it in terms of design.
Spinnaker Dumas
The Spinnaker Dumas certainly has an unusual case shape, featuring an octagon, rather than a traditional circle. This watch has 300 meters water resistance, so can be used for scuba diving as well as skin diving.
The great thing about this watch is that it has no lugs at all, so will fit easily around your wrist. In addition to this, it features a mesh strap that keeps the watch lightweight, which is useful when snorkeling or performing any kind of shallow water exercise.
As shown, the crown guards aren’t too intrusive either and still offer a sensible level of protection.
