So here’s a true dive watch with wonderful functional excellence, and a connection to a great history – and the price? Pretty much any day of the week, you can find one for sale on Amazon for less than $170, which seems unbelievable, but it’s true. I can’t think of very many things horologically related, period, that are that inexpensive (okay, NATO straps and... I don’t know, spring bars, maybe) and absolutely nothing at this price point that is even remotely competitive. To get the same functional excellence, you would probably have to look at a G-Shock, and the latter, while a fantastic tool watch in its own right, is not ISO 6452-compliant. SKX007 has been for many years, and remains today, a rebuke to over-priced, over-decorated “luxury” dive watches everywhere – and a perennially fantastic Value Proposition.

For a more expensive ($675) but comparable version on the Seiko website, take a look at the Prospex Automatic SBDC001 here.