Fresh from the Showcase here at SwissWatchExpo, we all recognize that the Rolex Submariner is the
reference for a dive watch. But what if you don't want to spend the money that the Submariner has
climbed to? We know it's a great investment. It has just performed phenomenally as far as pricing
goes. But for a lot of people, they either don't want the watch that a lot of other people own,
they want something a little bit different, or they just don't want
to spend the money on it. And they think there's gotta be a better value out there.
We're gonna look at 7 Alternatives to the Submariner that are all less than $5,000
Fresh from the Showcase here at SwissWatchExpo, but we're looking at 7
Alternatives to the Rolex Submariner that are all less than $5,000. So we're going to look at these
in terms of there's a lot of design elements about the Submariner that dictate that it is a
great dive watch. I mean, it's just a fact, but there are things that you might not realize
about the design of it that are dictated by the fact that it is a dive watch. For example,
the bezel has to be a uni-directional rotating bezel so that you could line up the start with
your minute hand, when you start your dive and then the bezel could not get
knocked to make you stay in the water longer and surpass the amount of air you've got in your tank.
It could only get knocked to make you come up sooner. So that's a requirement of a dive watch.
It also has to have the first 15 minutes on the bezel clearly marked every single minute. And then
every five minutes after that, it has to be clearly
differentiated between the hour hand and the minute hand. That's why we see the Mercedes hands
it's called on the hour hand on the Submariner so that you can easily see the difference between
hours and minutes. The reason there's a loom dot on the second hand is so that you can see that the
watch is still running and it has to have a very secure clasp. That's why you have the double a
lock on it. And that's also why there's such a protected section where the bracelet attaches to
the watch. It has to be very secure. So the watch doesn't fall off your wrist. Typically, you're
going to see a screw down crown because it's going to have a very deep water resistance depth.
That's why the case back has thick on a Submariner because of the depth to which it's water
resistant. So those are all elements that have to be kind of copied over to another dive watch.
So you might think of these other watches as being imitations of the Submariner. They're really not.
There were other dive watches that predated the Submariner
back in the 1950s, but the Submariner was the one that really took the world
over and became the definitive dive watch. So now when you see these other watches,
you might think they're trying to look like a Submariner. They're really not. They're just
meeting the standards that we just went over for it to be a dive watch. Now, these watches range
from about $2,500 to about $4,600 or so. And so I had a few parameters. I wanted to keep number one.
I didn't want any other colors other than black, because that's really the
only color that Submariner comes in black or the Kermit green or the Hulk green.
And those are really proprietary Rolex colors. So I kept it with black.
I kept it to watches that are under $5,000 that are actual dive watches. And I didn't go with
any really big sizes or really small sizes. The Submariner for decades has been 40 millimeter
recently became 41. Most of these are 41 or 42, there's one 44 in here. But for the most part,
I kept it about the same size as a Submariner for your ability to kind of pick and choose which ones
you'd want. So I'm going to cover them in order of price from lowest to highest. This is the way
we've gotten them arranged here. And I'll just go over the features of each one real quickly.
If you want more information, you can click on our website and you can give us a call.
The full descriptions of each of these watches are on our website, and you can search up top where it
has the search bar under the name of the watch. Or you can just give us a call. We can help you
sort through them. So to start things off, this is the Bell & Ross, and this is a 41 millimeter.
It is a exhibition case back. So there's a, a feature there that's not available on the
Submariner on a few of these watches, have the exhibition case back so that you can see
the movement. It's not as a water resistant as a Submariner. This one's only 100 meters,
but a hundred meters really is enough to swim in it's enough to shower or bathe or watersports.
So it's plenty enough. You can see this one is very clear
easily legible and only has the three, six and nine, which I really liked the minimalist
dial bright white hands against the black background. If you don't like a real heavy watch,
this one's a little bit lighter to the feel. It might actually rest really well on the wrist.
So it's probably not quite as heavy duty as the Submariner, and you can kind of feel that,
but that's also reflected in the price. So that's a good choice for that crowd. The next one
we have here, this is the Breitling SuperOcean 44. As its name implies, it is a 44 millimeter
watch. You can see it's a little bigger than a Submariner but it has some interesting features.
It does have this ion plated bezel while on the Rolex, on the current Submariners.
It is ceramic. Ceramic is superior to the old metal inserts because it doesn't
scratch. It, doesn't fade in color. And so most of these watches are going to have ceramic. This
one is a little different with the ion plating and it looks more like a matte black where on
the Submariner, you can see that ceramic it's a real shiny black, again, real legible, real easy
to read. The only numbers here are six and nine. And of course it has the date, no Cyclops bubble
over the date on these watches again, a thick case back and a thick bracelet, all in satin
finish. So it'll really mask the scratches, but loads of loom on the hands and the hour
markers. You'll definitely see that one in the dark. Next up, we have the Breitling SuperOcean
Heritage 42. Now this one doesn't really have all of those things to make it a proper dive watch.
The SuperOcean Heritage really looks a lot like what the Breitling SuperOcean looked like in the
1950s, it's got a simpler bezel and a simple dial. It really doesn't have a lot of those
sort of dive watch features, but it does have a metal insert basil. If you, if you upgrade to
the SuperOcean Heritage II, you'll get a ceramic bezel on that one, but just keeping it inexpensive
and looking at the budget friendly watches. I went with the SuperOcean Heritage I. Next up,
this is the Omega Seamaster, and there's a few different generations of this watch. This one has
the the dial that does not have any waves on it. It does have a ceramic bezel, and I love that this
one has on the dial. It has the word Seamaster in red and the tip of the secondhand in red.
Again, you can see all the marks of a dive watch, all the marks between 0 and 15, the
uni-directional rotating bezel, which is ceramic. Super big loom dots, as well as a loom dot on the
second hand, so that you can see it's running clear differentiation between hours and minutes,
a double locking clasp. And this one has the closed case back for it to be water resistant
to 300 meters. Then that one is definitely one of the value propositions. It's definitely one of my
picks out of all these, I love that one. Next up, we have the Omega Planet Ocean. This one
is water resistant to twice as deep as the regular Seamaster, it's a thicker watch, and this is the
first-generation where the bezel was not ceramic. Again, just keeping it budget friendly. You can
see a really nice layout of the dial, a real clear that the second hand is turning again,
all the marks between 0 and 15, the double locking mechanism on the clasp, a pretty simple layout.
It is a thicker watch. It sits a little higher on the wrist, but at 42 with the co-axial movement
that's an improvement that you really don't see on the Rolex. It's a movement that only Omega
uses right now. It's a an advancement that cuts down on the friction and the movement makes it run
more reliably. And so that's definitely a great pick as well. Now, this one is the really unusual
one of the bunch. This is the Tudor Pelagos and it is titanium and it's a left-handed version.
But again, I mean, super bright on the loom of the dial. You can see this one has the snowflake
second hand, I'm sorry, snowflake hour hand, which really differentiates it from the minute hand.
It has a helium escape valve. So this is the first one in this round of watches
that we've seen that has that. It's there to make it water resistant to super depths.
If you were going to go down in a diving bell for a week for saturation diving, you would need that
most mere mortals don't. Again, it has the double release here, but one of the great things about
this watch is it has a built-in extension that goes over a wetsuit and it's kind of
spring loaded. So it's a lot easier to use than a lot of those. The bezel on this one is ceramic
and uni-directional real easy to use on this one. It's a very easy to turn. If I can imagine if you
handle on gloves or something, it would be real easy to use this one. So that's a big
plus for that one. Last of the bunch. And this one is my favorite. I'm amazed at the amount of
quality and features that you get on this watch for the price.
It's about $4,700 or so, but and that's here in September of 2021. It might go up or down by
the time you see this video, but there's so much going on on this watch. It does have the helium
escape valve here at 10. It has the ceramic bezel again, with all the markers, real easy to use,
probably still with a gloved hands. It'd be fine. I love the red Seamaster in the tip of the second
hand. This one has a ceramic dial. This laser cut with the wave patterns that you've seen for about
30 years from the Seamaster. So that's really a signature of the, of the Seamaster. This one has a
really well-made bracelet and clasp. It has a micro adjuster. That's a lot easy
to use than a lot of the others, you just push this button right here that says push,
and you can just slide in or out as much bracelet as you need.
So if you feel a little stuck to your watch in the summer, or if it feels a little loose in the
winter, you can just adjust it real easily on the fly. It does have the exhibition case back,
the movement is fully decorated with the Côtes de Genève de arabesque .
It's got a double barrel Master Chronometer movement, which has a higher level of
certification even than what the COSC does for chronometers. So you can look that up
on the Omega website, what that is, but they run it through a bunch of tasks that simulate
it's use in real life. And it just shows itself to be super reliable and accurate through any kind of
situation. I'm really amazed in that, right in here in September of 2021,
that this watch is running less than a third of the price of a comparable Submariner for
the amount of flare pazazz style, quality features that you get on it by comparison the Submariner.
Yes, it is the reference for a dive watch. It is iconic. I mean, almost anybody if they call
in and they're looking to buy a watch for someone, and they have no idea what to buy
what i'll point them toward is a Submariner if they don't already have one, but on the other
hand, if you're a value shopper and you just can't think of paying way over retail for the Submariner
this would be my absolute recommendation, but any of these are going to serve
really well for a dive watch that's not a Submariner and keep the budget friendly under
$5,000. Give us a call. We'll be happy to discuss all of these choices with you. SwissWatchExpo.com.