SEIKO Prospex MARINEMASTER Water-resistance EXTREME-TEST to 4299M

Who ever said that the Japanese didn't concern themselves with trivial matters such as extreme water-resistance? Err, that might have been me!



In May 1983, Seiko ocean-tested two Professional Diver’s 600ms. They were attached to a JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) research deep-sea submersible called the Shinkai 2000.



The watches were originally only intended for use up to 600 meters; however they both withstood water pressure from a depth of 1062 meters. Neither legibility, precision nor the exterior of the watches were affected.



Anything over a thousand meters of water-resistance is not to be sniffed at but 1000+ meters is hardly groundbreaking is it?! Fast forward 31 years to September 2014 –

and Seiko conducted a similar test with the new Marinemaster Professional 1000m Diver's (pictured above and below), a watch with a two-layer case construction dating back to 1975 which is now a trademark of all Seiko’s professional diver’s watches.



Two Marinemaster Professional 1000m models; a Quartz SBBN013 and an Automatic SBDX011 were selected at random for an epic deep-ocean test on the edge of the continental shelf off the northeast coast of Japan with depths of 600~8000M.



The watches were attached to the exterior hull of The KAIKO 7000II, a deep-sea ROV equipped with a high-resolution camera to monitor them. All test watches performed perfectly at depths exceeding 3000m.

At 3284m the second hand of the Quartz model SBBN013 stopped moving and at 4299m the second hand of the Automatic model SBDX011 finally stopped moving. The Marinemaster SBDX011 & SBBN013 have a water-resistance of 1000m - now that's what I call a conservative depth-rating!



Liked this? Check out the Seiko Prospex Marinemaster 1000M 50th ANNIVERSARY Editions. Watch the CX Swiss Military 20,000FEET subjected to a similar ocean test . . .