Ever wanted to do your breathing exercises prior to a freedive, but didn’t want to fiddle with a watch to set up the stopwatch mode or mentally count the seconds?
Well, German watch company DAVOSA recently unveiled the Apnea Diver Automatic, a new freediving timepiece that has a multicolored ring around the dial. The blue, white and red colors spread out over a certain number of seconds replicate an internationally recognized breathing exercise in freediving: Breathing in during the five-second blue phase, holding for the 15-second white area and then exhaling over the 10-second red area. This color coding allows the freediver to concentrate fully on his or her breathing without needing to count or use a stopwatch.
Freediver Nikolay “Nik” Linder, who helped develop the Apnea Diver Automatic, holds five world records for distance diving under ice, two German records for distance diving in a lake, the record for the longest underwater kiss, as well as the longest breath-hold while suspended from the ceiling with his head in an aquarium.
Before helping develop the watch, one thing was particularly important to Linder:
“The watch should not only be a watch and fashion accessory with additional functions — it should transport the whole freediving way of life. This extreme sport is not simply about physical endurance, but also about strengthening your mind, selfreflection, meditation and achieving a greater degree of inner peace.”
To do the breathing exercises, the watch can be propped up on the floor, a table or bench by unscrewing the crown at 3 o’clock. At that point, the middle section of the slightly curved, 42mm/1.65-inch stainless steel case can be extracted. With a hinged ring that is attached to the middle section, the diver can now prop up the remaining watch case while performing breathing exercises.
Additionally, Linder included a further feature to the Apnea Diver Automatic: In contrast to scuba diving where the minute hand is crucial, in freediving it’s all about the seconds, which is why the second hand bears a red tip, enabling exact reading of the seconds at all times.
The Apnea Diver Automatic is built with a Swiss SW 200 automatic movement contained in a case with a water resistance down to 20 atmospheres/678 feet/207 meters. The hands and Arabic figures are naturally coated with Super-LumiNova, so the watch remains readable even with poor underwater visibility.
DAVOSA’s Apnea Diver Automatic will come in three different versions: A satined and scratch-resistant stainless steel case and black dial that retails for €998/US$1,061; a bicolor version with a stainless steel case in combination with a black bezel and PVD black plated crowns for €1,048/$1,115; and a completely PVD black-plated case for €1,098/$1,168.
Each set also includes a second interchangeable strap, which is also made from wearable, lightweight and water-resistant rubber.
For more information, check out the company’s website at davosa.com.
