That's one thing I'm wondering. The USN had the Bureau of Shipping canteen type watch, and IIRC the Russians had French made watches for hardhat divers and a unusual very large watch with a low depth rating for use by divers working on bridges and such in rivers. The Japanese weren't adverse to buying European products if they were deemed superior to home grown, and Japanese officers could carry personal purchase weapons such as European or American handguns. Role made their Oyster case and there were a few competitors. PS Since in the days of the rebreather divers, other than hard hat divers, seldom ventured below 50 feet depth I suspect that many early waterproofed watches could have been used with greater or lesser reliability. There were a few pre WW2 watches housed in separate waterproof cases with view window. and I found one image of a Japanese military watch housed in something like this. It didn't look that resistant to me, but may have originally had a thick rubber gasket.
Love it. Every time I think about getting a different type of dive watch I remind myself about the awesome of vintage seikos.
How about this Turtle SRPC49? The PVD coating is done incredibly well: matte on the top of the lugs, glossy on the sides of the case. Limited edition, released in 2018
I like them both but my fear is the size, I already feel like my Speedy pro is on the "too large" side on my wrist, while at the same time I think I pull off my turtles pretty well. I would really need to see them in person.
I’m all about the past... 6309-7040, 7049 6306-7001 6105-8110 6105-8000 A rare 6105-8110 Proof-Proof Finally, but not least 6217-8001 aka Gmas
