Realistically speaking, a 2,000m depth rating is completely unnecessary. On average, recreational divers rarely go beyond 30m while commercial divers might hit 50m. Naturally, there are explorers who would venture down to 100m or more, but they’re by no means the majority. So why would anyone wear a dive watch capable of such extreme depths? The answer is reassurance. When you’re underwater, it is quite easy to be distracted by miles of visibility, mesmerising pelagic life or colourful coral gardens, so divers sometimes forget what an extreme sport scuba diving is. The last thing a diver should do is to take safety for granted. In fact, where safety is concerned, more is always better. So even if you’re only going down to 20m, 2,000m water resistance is as good as a guarantee of infallible performance.

The Aquatimer Automatic 2000 is an icon in the collection. In the early 1980s, IWC had an excellent reputation for making watches for commando frogmen and mine clearance divers. It was also the first watch company with the ability to mill titanium. Fate led IWC to partner up Porsche, and Ferdinand A. Porsche who designed the legendary Porsche 911, and was the man who came up with the Ocean 2000 sports dive watch – IWC’s first series produced titanium watch. Since then, this timepiece has existed in several guises, from the 1998 Aquatimer GST Automatic 2000 to the Aquatimer Automatic 2000 in 2004 and 2009.

This year’s model (S$13,900) is reinforced with improvements like the internal/external bezel with SafeDive system, patented IWC bracelet quick-change system, and Super-LumiNova in different colourations for maximum legibility. At 46mm, it is 2mm wider than the earlier models, but the core DNA remains palpable. It is driven by the IWC-manufactured Calibre 80110, which is self-winding and stays powered for a maximum of 44 hours.