Waterproof watches are a tradition at Omega. In 1936, the Marine Model earned praise, and in 1957, the Swiss made the first Seamaster, which was deep-sea capable. And, just under 50 years ago, the first prototypes were built of a watch that was supposed to be “more watertight than a submarine.”
The praise from the inventor of the bathysphere diving bell was highly personal. “It is water and dustproof, its robustness and rust-resistance represent a significant advance in watchmaking”, wrote Charles William Beebe on 23 June 1936 in a letter to Omega. With a Marine on his arm, the American dove several times to a depth of 14 meters and found that his Omega “successfully withstood the repeated stresses.”
By about 20 years later, the stresses for divers and their watches were quite different. Exploration of the seas and their inhabitants, as well as their natural resources, took divers to ever-increasing depths. This trend also saw increased demands on the diver’s watches, which at that time represented a sort of life insurance for the underwater worker. At that time, the state-of-the-art was represented by Rolex with its Submariner and Omega with the Seamaster 300, introduced in 1957, both of which were officially approved to depths of 200 meters. Here Omega’s naming practice was not quite consistent. The control devices then in production and available to watchmakers could only be checked to a maximum of 20 atm of overpressure, which is why only 200 meters was guaranteed for the Seamaster. In laboratory tests, the watch stood up to significantly greater loads, which was documented in the name Seamaster 300.
Admittedly confusing for the customer, this did not bother the specialists: according to the Omega archive, in 1957 and 1958 deep-sea diving specialist Alain Julien made about 1,500 dives with his Seamaster, laying cables on the sea floor with colleagues or working in sunken shipwrecks, during which the watches were not spared. The Frenchman was quoted in the book Omega: Journey through Timereleased by the watchmaker: “The Seamaster 300 never displayed any kind of weakness, even after extremely harsh blows, in cold water and at great depths where this work was carried out. Thanks to their astonishing robustness, they remained reliable and accurate.” Omega again earned laurels in 1968, when two divers in a diving bell set a world record, reaching a simulated depth of 365 meters. Both wore Seamaster 300 watches.
