Best diver for up to £600

[imb1]

Actually, you could do a lot worse - I shot this for Scooter when I photographed his watches for him, and I was pretty impressed with the build quality.

I actually sold my Omega PO as I prefered the Trident.

[GTuned]

Based on actual watches I own, or have owned

TWCO is the best quality I have seen for this price range in a long time; it comes in well below your budget at £530 (including VAT). May be a tad large for you though (43mm), although it wears well. Extremely solid, and well accessorized and boxed (Peli case). http://www.twcowatches.com/

If your budget stretches to £800 (£600 without VAT) and you could find one, the Crepas Cayman 3000 is hands down the best quality watch you could find in this price range that easily challenges £5,000 diver watches, heck practically any diver's watch for quality. Yes, I also own Rolexes (new and old) and most of the usual suspects; I am not making this comment lightly. Perhaps a used one may be cheaper, although I doubt they are discounted much due to no one wanting to sell one once they get one :D Not that I usually care, but the box is also very nice (quality glossy black painted wood) and comes with a generous selection of spare straps and tools.

Deep Blue watches are also excellent, although some are very big in size. Also very solid :)

Christopher Ward Trident: Elegant and refined, but perhaps a bit more "fragile" feeling. i.e. I wouldn't take one to the sea even if it will work just fine; it's more of a suit and tie type watch in my eyes.

Steinhart Triton (I have the bronze one): Solid watch; horrible strap, but once swapped out it was good.

Magrette: Very original designs, well below your budget and good quality build. Strap deployment a bit finicky, but overall really hard to pass up on this brand.

[Jennycaribbean]

Orient Saturation 300m!!!

- - - Updated - - -

Orient Saturation 300m!!!

[ralphy]

Either a PRS-68 or PRS-82, the latter being a superb dive watch: well below your budget but the equal of many more c. £600 dive watches.



R

[bedlam]

For me the Orient Sat Diver is the undisputed king in this range. Honorable mention goes to the Seiko Shogun or the Tuna (sbbn015/sbbn017) if you are ok with quartz.

[TakesALickin]

I've owned about 200 watches over the course of the last decade, and very seldom have any fit neatly into that range (£500-£600 = $850-$1020). It's just a weird sort of "no man's land" for divers. Of what has been mentioned already (and things I have owned), I concur that the Squale 50atmos is a good choice - well built, with a great lineage. The Fortis is a nice suggestion. I've owned one for about six years now and I often open sales posts to see what owners are listing them at. If you can score a used one for $1000, it'll most likely be missing the bracelet. For the full kit expect to pay closer to $1200 (£700).

A watch not mentioned yet that is on my radar is the Tutima Di300. I've owned the Tutima NATO chrono, so I can vouch for the brand's build quality. Hoping to bring one of these home soon.

(pic shamelessly pilfered from the internet)

[w2w]

Just bought myself these 2 divers. Both under £600

The Deepblue Depthmaster 2 3000m. Upgraded version of the old DM with a new maxi dial. Still has the extraordinary WR of 3000m [tested at 3750m and was still watertight] It's a great achievement to get a watch under $1000 to this depth rating. Maybe a bit on the large side at 49mm and 19mm thick, but we'll see



and whilst I was browsing their site, I grabbed this as well




Not as deep as the DM as it's 200m. But it's a cracker of a watch for under £300

[GTuned]

Just bought myself these 2 divers. Both under £600

The Deepblue Depthmaster 2 3000m. Upgraded version of the old DM with a new maxi dial. Still has the extraordinary WR of 3000m [tested at 3750m and was still watertight] It's a great achievement to get a watch under $1000 to this depth rating. Maybe a bit on the large side at 49mm and 19mm thick, but we'll see

It's big and heavy, but it's built like a tank.. It started my love for Deep Blue, which IMHO is a really great brand, just probably a bit on the big side for the OP's requirements :)

[Jim W]

Difficult price range. I would either go up or down some more. Must say I am one of the few people who feels no love for the sumo. Down to 007 or up to MM300.

Forced to choose: second hand 6105.

Yep, that works for me.
A good 6105 isn't going to devalue either....

[murkeywaters]

Based on actual watches I own, or have owned
If your budget stretches to £800 (£600 without VAT) and you could find one, the Crepas Cayman 3000 is hands down the best quality watch you could find in this price range that easily challenges £5,000 diver watches, heck practically any diver's watch for quality. Yes, I also own Rolexes (new and old) and most of the usual suspects; I am not making this comment lightly. Perhaps a used one may be cheaper, although I doubt they are discounted much due to no one wanting to sell one once they get one :D Not that I usually care, but the box is also very nice (quality glossy black painted wood) and comes with a generous selection of spare straps and tools.

WOW.. just looked this watch up, what a beauty..that's on my wanted list now..for what I own I have to say the Fortis B42 it is so much watch for the money second hand..but the Crepas is looming!!

[TBKBABAB]

Is it a Diver for diving or for the look, if its more for the look but also functional, as someone else said the Helson Skindiver, light and not a dinner plate. I also have a Helson Sharkdiver and an Armida A1
but both are somwhat bigger/heavier.

[Binsull]

Davosa Ternos ceramic 161.555.40

I also have one of these and if you can get past the fact that it is trying to look like a sub the quality is fantastic.

[EdHughes1]

Right it's time to update the thread. Perhaps a slightly left field choice but I've got a MKii LRRP on the way.

Not tried one before but I had a Vantage for a couple of years and really liked it.

Will update again when I receive it (I hope it's not too big).

Thanks for all of the ideas, an interesting thread on 'the middle ground' of watch buying.

[Binsull]

Right it's time to update the thread. Perhaps a slightly left field choice but I've got a MKii LRRP on the way.

Not tried one before but I had a Vantage for a couple of years and really liked it.

Will update again when I receive it (I hope it's not too big).

Thanks for all of the ideas, an interesting thread on 'the middle ground' of watch buying.

I don't suppose you bought the one that just finished on ebay did you Ed? I was quite tempted with that!

[EdHughes1]

I don't suppose you bought the one that just finished on ebay did you Ed? I was quite tempted with that!

Guilty as charged. I was originally bidding on a JDM Citizen diver that the same seller had, but spotted the MKii at the last minute.

[jmarchitect]

Excellent choice Ed. The LRRP has been on my search list for some time now. I look forward to reading your review when it arrives.

[Binsull]

Guilty as charged. I was originally bidding on a JDM Citizen diver that the same seller had, but spotted the MKii at the last minute.

It certainly looked nice!

[GTuned]

WOW.. just looked this watch up, what a beauty..that's on my wanted list now..for what I own I have to say the Fortis B42 it is so much watch for the money second hand..but the Crepas is looming!!

It really is elegant in the "steel". Just keep in mind that at 3000m rating, it's not that thin. But what a beauty..!




I have gone out and played with (and perhaps acquired ) a watch or two based on recommendations here and can now rank them the following way:

(1) Orient 300m - (2) Zixen - (3) Orient 200m Titanium M-Force - (4) Squale

(1) The Orient 300m with a white dial is simply beautiful, the bezel action is perfect, however the watch is really big (in a solid way) and chunky and comes in close to if not identical thickness to many 3000m watches (almost 17mm!).. a tad unnecessary I would think. The power reserve indicator on the dial is very cool and gives the watch a nice, unusual touch not usually found diver watches.

(2) The Zixen is light, and attractive in a purposeful way (GMT model with the extra sexy hand), however value for money places it in the "fair price category" in this crowd, but not exactly a bargain. Bezel was very good and unusually it uses screw in bars for the strap instead of springbars; a tiny negative, but not a deal breaker for me and it looks like they could be swapped out for springbars. I like it, and can't help feeling like it was made by the same factory that made the Tiburon watches, will need to put these two side by side to one day to see..

(3) The Orient 200m Titanium M-Force, is arguably the best bang-for-buck of these four, and there are some nice variants out there. My favorite one is the variant with a yellow inner ring for a splash of colour. It is also a considerable step up from the Orient EM65008B, the "lowest" in the range of Orient Divers. The M-Force is exactly half the OP's £600 target and a pretty decent watch. It is also really light for its size due to the titanium, however if budget and weight aren't and issue and it's an Orient you want, it's daddy, the 300m, is prettier and clearly superior in build quality.

(4) The Squale was the least impressive as far as this collection goes.. Bezel looks properly dated for a modern watch (it appears to be printed Aluminium) and has quite a bit of "wiggle". I know that it has a retro vibe and the watch overall is good, but perhaps it has too many generic features of retro watches and just nothing really original. If other micro-brands were not so common it may have been great value for money, but.. considering what's out there it's not worth the price you pay if I can be truly honest.