Does the world really need another dive watch? Probably not.
There are thousands to choose from, ranging from inexpensive everyday watches to extraordinary professional instruments capable of surviving depths that very few human beings will ever experience. So why did we decide to make another one?
The answer is simple: because dive watches have been an important part of our professional lives for more than 20 years, and we felt we had something of our own to say.
More than 20 Years of Dive Watches
Our interest in dive watches isn’t something that began with the Siebe Gorman Type-D. Over more than two decades, we’ve had the opportunity to work with some remarkable watches, brands and people, and those experiences have inevitably shaped our ideas about what a dive watch should be.
One particularly memorable experience was travelling to Italy to attend Michele Geraci’s world-record scuba diving attempt. Being around serious divers and serious diving equipment gives you a very different perspective from simply looking at watches in a display cabinet. These are tools with a purpose, designed to perform in an environment where equipment needs to work.
That philosophy has stayed with us.
Learning from Sinn
Another enormously important chapter was our time working with Sinn Spezialuhren, both in Frankfurt and in the UK.
Sinn’s approach to watches has always fascinated us: engineering, legibility, robustness and function take priority. A watch can be viewed first and foremost as an instrument. Working with Sinn taught us an enormous amount about the thinking that goes into a genuine tool watch.
Danielle and I were also involved in creating a special edition of the Sinn U1, which went on to become one of the fastest-selling U1 editions at the time. That project demonstrated something else that has remained important to us ever since - a serious tool watch doesn’t have to be boring. Engineering and personality can coexist.
Bringing Zodiac back to the UK
We subsequently had the opportunity to launch Zodiac into the UK market. Zodiac represented another side of the dive-watch story. Here was a company with genuine diving history, but also an incredible ability to use colour and personality. Its watches could be capable diving instruments while simultaneously being fun and immediately recognisable.
Those different experiences gradually shaped our own philosophy. Sinn demonstrated the beauty of engineering and purpose. Zodiac demonstrated the power of colour and character. And our own experiences taught us what we personally wanted from a dive watch.
When we began developing the Type-D, we wanted to encompass all of that knowledge - and then add a little British know-how, style and glamour of our own.
Does a Dive Watch really need to go to 1,000 Metres?
This was one of the interesting questions we faced during development. How deep should the Type-D actually go? It would have been tempting to chase a headline number. 500 metres. 1,000 metres. Even more. But specification for specification’s sake has never particularly interested us.
Extreme water resistance creates its own engineering challenges. The cases become increasingly specialised, relatively few factories are capable of producing them, and additional capability can bring compromises in thickness, weight, manufacturing choice and cost.
So we asked ourselves a different question:
Are we designing a watch for a specification sheet, or are we designing a watch for the wrist? In our experience, 200 metres of water resistance is already more than enough for the overwhelming majority of owners. But with the Type-D, we wanted to go further.
Why 300 Metres?
We settled on 300 metres water resistance because we wanted to push the Type-D firmly into serious professional dive and tool-watch territory while retaining the proportions and everyday wearability we wanted.
That decision was accompanied by the features we believed belonged on the watch: an integrated helium escape valve, screw-down crown, sapphire crystal, unidirectional dive bezel, powerful lume, excellent legibility and robust automatic movement.
And we achieved all of this in a watch measuring 41mm in diameter and just 11.9mm thick.
We wanted genuine capability. However, we didn’t want the Type-D to look like a piece of modern tactical equipment.
A Tool Watch with a little glamour
Somewhere along the way, the idea seems to have developed that a serious tool watch needs to be black, stealthy and overtly “mil-spec”. History tells a rather different story.
Look at some of the early military Rolex and Tudor dive watches. They were exceptionally capable watches, but they were also beautifully designed objects. Their purpose didn’t prevent them from having style.
That suited our philosophy perfectly. The Type-D needed to be a genuine tool watch. However we also wanted it to have some glamour - and then we added colour. If you’ve followed our watches for a while, you’ll know that Danielle and I aren’t frightened of colour.
We’ve been fortunate to work with an exceptional dial maker, and our previous watches have become known for unusual colours, textures and dial finishes. So, when it came to creating the special Type-D launch editions, we decided not to play safe.
We wanted beautiful, rich dial finishes. We wanted colour. We wanted depth. We wanted the watch to change character as the light moved across the dial. Most importantly, we wanted that wonderful reaction when somebody first sees one: “Wow.”
A professional dive watch doesn’t have to be another black watch. It can be technically credible, purposeful and robust while still having personality. For us, that’s part of what makes a watch something you actually want to put on your wrist.
Everything we have learnt, in one watch
When we look at the finished Type-D, we can see elements of a journey that stretches back more than two decades. Professional diving. Watching Michele Geraci’s record attempt in Italy. Our years working with Sinn and the engineering philosophy we encountered in Frankfurt.
Creating the special Sinn U1 with Danielle. Launching Zodiac in the UK and experiencing a very different expression of dive-watch heritage. Our own work with Helicon. Our love of colour and exceptional dials. And finally, the extraordinary history of Siebe Gorman itself.
The Type-D isn’t intended to recreate any one of those watches. It is our interpretation of what a modern professional dive watch can be. A serious tool watch with 300m capability, strong engineering and excellent legibility — combined with colour, character, British know-how and just a little glamour.
After more than two years of development, the finished watch has surpassed our expectations. We hope that when you put one on your wrist, it surpasses yours too.
Siebe Gorman Type-D
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Why Another Dive Watch? The Experience Behind the Siebe Gorman Type-D
