This $250 Seiko proves that you don't need to spend a ton on a great dive watch

I don't dive, but I like dive watches. 

I like them because they're aren't fussy — good ones are well made, can be gotten plenty wet, can be worn with lots of different styles of clothes (everything but the most dressy ensembles), and yes, can be taken swimming without worry.

The best dive watches cost lots, and the most famous, the Rolex Submariner, is an iconic timepiece that will set you back $8,000. It will probably always be worth at least $8,000, and likely more, but still — expensive.

Pricey divers date can trace their legacies to the dive-watch boom of the middle-20th century, when scuba was popularized and practitioners needed a reliable timepiece to take underwater to keep track of their dive times so that they wouldn't use up their air and would have adequate time to ascend properly to the surface. 

This was when the Rolex Sub and other icons, such as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, were born. 

But another equally tough but far less costly dive watch also dates to this period.

It was made by Seiko.

And it still is. And Seiko sells it for about $250.

The model is the SKX007, in stainless steel case, with a stainless-steel bracelet and an automatic movement. It's has a Sub-like black face and bezel, but another version, the SKX175, is often described as having a "Pepsi" bezel — red and blue — and it resembles the Rolex GMT Master II in this respect.

This is one I have. 

It's a fantastic watch, substantial at 41 mm, and with a comfortable jubilee bracelet and a screw-down crown that sits at the 4 o'clock position. The unidirectional rotating bezel clicks around 120 times and once positioned for elapsed time, it doesn't move.

Matthew DeBord/BI

I bought it to beat senseless and then, with drama, remove from my wrist and hand to my son with he turns 18. Or maybe 20.

The point is that the more I wear the thing, the more I like it. I've never much cared for the Rolex Sub's aesthetics, although it's impossible to deny the Sub's influence (see above). The cyclops magnifier for the date has always bugged me, and I can't warm up to the "Mercedes" hour hand.

The great thing about the Seiko SKX diver is that although it might not be as technically advanced as the Rolex or many other luxury dive watches, it's looks good, it's depth-rated for 200 meters, which is fine for snorkeling, it has good wrist presence (I have small wrists and I can wear it easily), and with routine servicing it could be ticking away just as long or longer as anything costing thousands more and built in Switzerland.

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