Sports and watches go hand in hand for many reasons. Extreme sports push watch manufacturers to produce more robust, more rugged and more water resistant watches every single year. It’s easy to think that watches for sailing and dive watches can be the same, but in fact both require completely different functions. Dive watches need to be easy to read under water, so big hands and a bright lume are usually enough. A sailor needs to take much more info into account.
In this series, we are looking into the world of professional sailing. Not watches worn by athletes, but watches especially made for this sport.
Omega Speedmaster X-33 Regatta Chronograph.
I know what you are thinking: what is a Speedmaster doing in a list related to water. Shouldn’t this have been a Seamaster? Well, yes and no.
The Seamaster line is focused on diving, either recreational or professional.
The Speedmaster line is focused on racing, either with cars, planes, rockets or, you might have guessed it, boats.
The Speedmaster X-33 Regatta Chronograph has a light weight 45mm titanium case and black dial with hybrid layout. With this hybrid layout, you can run a digital countdown timer, race timer or logbook while the analog time display remains untouched.
The only time you need a conventional dive watch as a sailor is if your boat has sunken.
Panerai Luminor 1950 Regatta Chrono Flyback
Panerai has made a handful of regatta special editions, but today we are going to focus on one of their most simple yet most effective versions, the 1950 Regatta Chrono Flyback.
This Luminor has the traditional cushion-shaped Panerai case in titanium, and comes with a regatta countdown function.
While the well-known Panerai crown guard usually is more decoration than function, this time it really serves a purpose. Racing on a sailing boat requires a lot of hard manual labor. It’s easy to knock your watch into a hard surface and damage the crown. The crown guard makes sure your Panerai doesn’t turn into a submarine.
Rolex Yacht-Master 2
The Yacht-Master 2 is one of those watches you either love or hate. Some find it tacky and a disgrace to the Rolex line-up, other find it one of the coolest and quirkiest watches Rolex has ever made. Whatever you think of it, the Yacht-Master 2 really is an oddball.
The watch comes with a 44mm steel case and features a regatta countdown timer in the form of an elongated arch, a complication that has never seen before in Rolex’s history.
