VICTORINOX Swiss Army DIVE MASTER 500 25th Anniversary EDITION 2ndLOOK

By TLex Here's another (closer) look at the latest Dive Master 500; launched by Victorinox in a 500 piece Limited Edition to mark its 25th anniversary as a Swiss watchmaker. It has been engineered to be as tough, durable, reliable, and functional as their famous Swiss Army knives and with an equally high level construction.

So it might-en be a surprise that Victorinox are hailing the watch as the 'Swiss Army knife' of dive watches, an apt a metaphor as I've ever heard and what's more it seems to have also been designed so that it ain't too shabby looking either, boasting what looks like a killer lume application!



Its 43mm case, which has been constructed from Grade2 Titanium features a grey sandblasted finish with a striking new feature - a 'Swiss Army Knife' red Helium escape valve, positioned at 9 o’clock on the left lateral side of the case; complimented by the chronograph's second hand in the exact same glossy, blood red tone. No pic. of that detail yet, I'm afraid :(



Further divers features of the watch include: a scratch resistant Sapphire crystal with 'triple' anti-reflective coating, a screwdown crown and chrono-pushers, a unidirectional rotational divers bezel in Grade2 Titanium with a 20 minute dive-time scale and a water resistant of 500 meters, 50atm or 1,650 feet. The watch comes on Grade2 Titanium bracelet with divers clasp.



Its dial is in a monochromatic Titanium grey with a large luminescent 20 minute scale (right side), counter contours at 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock, hour and minute hands, a 'Swiss Arm knife' red chronograph second hand, and a date window positioned between 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock.



The Dive Master 500 is powered (for the fist time) by a reliable Swiss made ETA 2894-2 mechanical chronograph movement with automatic winding. It can be viewed through a Sapphire crystal exhibition caseback. Its functions include: central hours and minutes, small seconds at 3 o'clock, a chronograph with central seconds hand, a 30-minute counter at 9 o'clock and a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock.

Finally an unprecedented amount of luminescent material has been used on the hands and markers, the 20-min scale on the right side of the dial, and the bezel's elapsed dive-time scale. At first glance, the lume used all seems to be the same, however it changes color in the dark, revealing blue for the dive-time scale and prominent minute hand, while the other indications remain green. It's been done before by IWC, Omega etc. but it's still pretty cool!