Dear friends,
there are many IWC watches that I am passionate about. But there is one watch
in particular that I am very fond of, besides the Ocean 2000. It is the Deep
One.
A watch that I have owned for 20 years and also use passionately for the very
thing it was designed and built for: diving.
What makes this watch so special? For me, there are two things. Firstly, in
1999, in the days of the GST line and the GST Aquatimer, it already took up
the design of the later new Aquatimer line, introduced in 2004, with the
typical inner bezel.
Furthermore, I am fascinated by the mechanical depth gauge of the Deep One
based on the Bourdon tube.
So here are a few unusual and perhaps rare insights into the technology of the
Deep One and the patent that IWC acquired for this watch.
The Bourdon tube runs around the outside of the dial and movement in the case.
Water enters the tube via the crown at 4 o'clock, causing the wafer-thin tube
to expand and thus stretch slightly.
When the tube stretches, it deflects a lever at its other end at 12 o'clock,
which in turn moves the depth indicator from the centre of the dial, including
the drag hand, via a complex mechanism.
All this sounds simple in the description, but it is not in the technical
implementation.
You don't have to go diving to check whether the depth gauge is still working.
You can also do this with the pump supplied, which is a work of art in itself.
And even after more than 1000 dives (of course I also wear a dive computer and
of course the Deep One is in Schaffhausen every year for service), I never get
bored with this watch with its amazing and quite accurate depth gauge.
For me, one of the icons of IWC.
Which IWC is your icon?
Cheers,
Sascha
