We love aquariums and we love technology so it’s always a real treat for us when these two interests intersect. Although not many reefers have the opportunity to include SCUBA diving as part of their ‘reefing experience’, it’s been an integral part of bring you the readers news, information and observations about corals in the natural environment we strive to recreate.
For years we’ve been on the sidelines of the Apple Watch and other smartwatches like it and always joked that the killer app for this product would be to use it as a dive computer, which is exactly what just happened with the announcement of the Apple Watch Ultra. At $799 this ruggedized dive-capable smartwatch is amongst the most expensive but the value proposition is a completely different matter when compared to current dive watches and computers.
An entry level dive computer can start out priced around $300 but like any specialized device the cost can easily be double the cost of the Apple Watch Ultra with certain premium models cruising past the two thousand dollar mark. Dive computers with built-in OLED displays are usually around a thousand dollars but with all the other features and benefits of the Apple Watch Ultra it seems like the consumer electronic company is set to repeat the death blow they dealt to pocket cameras, action cameras, mp3 players and so on.
We already have a dedicated dive computer watch which records our diving profile and is supposed to work with GPS to pinpoint our dive sites and link up to our phone for better viewing and logging but these features are hit or miss. With built in GPS the Apple Watch Ultra will make it so much easier to log our dives, whisk it away to our phone for better viewing and describing the corals we saw on a particular dive and exactly where the dive took place!
The advantages fo the Apple Watch Ultra won’t be apparent to non-divers and reefers but for coral seekers like ourselves and our man out in the field, Vincent Chalias – can you even imagine getting a full rundown of the dives he does including temperature and GPS alongside his observations of Galaxea as big as houses? This kind of information could be invaluable for better understanding where certain corals are found and the precise location for revisiting certain reef to check up on how they are changing over time.
It goes without saying that the always on OLED display will be much more readable to most alphanumeric displays, the dedicated depth gauge app looks really slick and the fact that the watch is rated for 100 meters means it should be very comfortable handling the usual 100 foot/30 meter limit of most recreational diving. We look forward to discovering how a fully developed dive computer/smart watch like the Apple Watch Ultra will help us better understand the rare and unusual corals we come across and the reefs where they are found.
