The Best Budget Men’s Dive Watches – 5 Great, Affordable Watches for Diving

Dive watches are among the most popular types of wrist watches for men. Obviously, not all guys who wear them are actual divers. These watches are popular and expensive for a variety of reasons.

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One of the main reasons is that a diver’s watch looks good. It’s large and not exactly subtle, and it accentuates your masculinity. A diver’s watch looks great with a casual attire and it doesn’t look out of place when you’re wearing a suit. With luminescent features, extra buttons and gadgets, and bright colors, diver’s watches are truly eye-catching. Since they’re one of the few acceptable jewelry pieces for men, they’re very effective in improving your overall look.

A diver’s watch also offers lots of different high-tech features, and in a way it makes you feel like you’re James Bond after receiving a nifty hi-tech gadget from Q. You know what they say about boys and their toys.

And let’s not forget the durability of divers’ watches. Since they’re designed for diving, other less demanding activities won’t pose much of a challenge for it. So you can wear it to the beach and go swimming with it, and even out on the streets you won’t mind a little rain.

Then again, maybe you need a diver’s watch for diving. If that’s the case, you need at least 200 meters of resistance so that you won’t have to worry about depths. It should have a solid construction to withstand the pressures of the deep, and at the same time it should have a screwdown crown or a full seal at the back to ensure it’s leak-free.

It has to have a rotating bezel so you know how much time you’ve spent under water (and how much time you have left). And of course, the watch has to be readable under water, so it needs to be adequately luminescent and the dials should be legible.

But not everyone can afford an expensive dive watch that costs thousandths of dollars. Fortunately, it’s still possible to get a great, inexpensive dive watch regardless of whether you’ll use it for diving, for everyday use, or just for show. Start your search with any of these watches:

SEIKO ProspEx “Sumo”

The SEIKO ProspEx “Sumo” exemplifies many of the features you need in an actual dive watch. The hands and markers are visible in low light, and the bezel is unidirectional with luminous PIP at the 12:00 position. It comes with a solid-etched, screw-down case at the back and water resistant up to 200 meters. It’s very accurate to +25 to -15 seconds per day, and it is self-winding although you can wind it by hand. And it comes with a 50 hour power reserve.

The case measures 44 mm in diameter and 13.3 m thick. The band is 20 mm wide.

Orient Mako

With the Orient Mako, you can choose among 8 variations. They all have their unique dials and bezel colors, and they come with either metal or urethane bands. The metal bands offer a double-locking clasp while the urethane bands feature a deployment clasp.

Orient maintained its use of the elegant mechanical movement even during the heyday of quartz, and that’s what you get here. Like other great diving watches, it’s resistant up to 200 meters and it features a unidirectional bezel. That keeps it from being accidentally rotated backwards, which can cause you to overestimate your air supply.

The case measures 41 mm in diameter and is 13 mm thick, with a screw-down crown. The hands and the hour indicators are also luminescent. The bands are 22 mm wide.

Citizen BN0151-09L Promaster Diver

Citizen is another iconic brand in the dive watch industry, and the Citizen Promaster Professional Diver has all the features you need in a proper dive watch. It’s powered by the Eco-Drive technology, which means it just needs exposure to light.

Again, you also have a unidirectional bezel and luminous hands. The mineral crystal display is anti-reflective. The case is stainless steel and measures 42.5 mm in diameter and 12 mm thick. The dark blue dial is matched by the blue polyurethane strap, and in total it weighs just 3.2 ounces.

Seiko Prospex SRP581

The blue on black color combination is really eye-catching in the Seiko Prospex SRP581. It can be manually wound, and it has hacking capabilities, which means that when you’re adjusting the time the second hand stops.

But it’s not just for show, because it also has all the features that all true dive watches need to have. Its automatic movement is quite accurate, the bezel is unidirectional, and it’s water resistant up to 200 meters. It also has a screw-down crown.

The diameter of the case is 42 mm and it measures 13 mm thick, while the band is rubber and is 23 mm wide.

Casio MDV106-1A

The Casio MDV106-1A is your choice if you prefer quartz movement. It’s a very affordable watch, but it doesn’t look cheap at all. It has the features you need, such as water resistance of up to 200 meters, a rotating bezel, luminous hands and markers, and a screw-down crown. Just make sure you have the wrist to match, as the case of this Quartz watch measures 45 mm in diameter.