Hands-On: The Singer DiveTrack – The Wildest, Most Overbuilt Dive Watch You’ve Ever Seen
The Singer Reimagined DiveTrack is one of the most interesting, impressive, and overbuilt watches I’ve ever seen. Yes, the watch is far too expensive ($98,000) to be a practical dive watch. It’s also not as accurate or as useful as a dive computer. I struggle to imagine a person who would find it (at 49mm by 19.67mm thick) wearable on a daily basis. And yet, all of those caveats are trumped by one important thing: it’s an incredibly creative spin on the dive watch when I feel like the platform needs it the most.
Dive watches have felt stagnant for quite a while. I love a good dive watch – I arguably own too many of them – but when form follows function, dive watches feel like a composer who has one good idea but can’t seem to choose which way to go, so they end up with “Variations on a Theme.” That’s partially because the needs and standards of a dive watch are essentially “solved,” and by the time the design was set, dive computers took over as the actual timing tools for diving. So why mess with success?
I never would have imagined that the coolest dive watch would come from Singer Reimagined. If you mention the name “Singer” to anyone who has spent 5 minutes around a Porsche, the obvious bet is that a watch from their horological namesake would be a lap timer. Well, you’re not wrong. Singer Vehicle Design has only been around since 2009 and is now one of the hottest things in Porsche modification. But Singer Redesigned came out of a chance meeting between Marco Borraccino, an Italian watch designer, and Rob Dickinson, the founder of Singer Vehicle Design, in 2015. Borraccino had an idea for a watch design and took it to master watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, who revealed that a perfect movement was being developed, one that would end up being the backbone of their watches: the AgenGraphe. Hop in the car for a quick detour.
The ‘Normal’ Singer Reimagined Chronographs
Before Watches & Wonders this year, Singer was all about driving chronographs. While I was at Geneva Watch Days, I also checked those out. One of the most interesting things is how the brand plays with the chronograph and time-telling displays on all its watches, all of which are powered by the AgenGraphe. They also all feature integrated hooded lug case designs.
The Singer 1969 Chronograph and Singer 1969 Timer.
The brand’s 1969 Collection features stainless-steel and bronze cases that remind me a lot of Omega’s Mark II and later Speedmasters, both in 40mm cases. The timer example (above, right) functions as a normal chronograph, with an hour and minute hand, a zero-reset/flyback function, and no counter. The Chronograph Ref. SR201 (above left) is much more complex. Rotating discs at six o’clock on the dial show the time of day. In the center are three chronograph hands. The longest hand is the normal chronograph operation, the next counts running minutes, and the shortest is the only 60-hour counter on the market.
The releases last year came in steel and bronze cases, and you can see above that the AgenGraphe movement on the Timer variant is a bit simplified. But when it comes to the more unusual (and dizzying) displays, the Track1 – Endurance Edition takes the cake. The watch is actually cased in titanium and golden ZrN coating and measures 43mm by 15mm thick. The watch has a jumping hour and minute track at the periphery of the dial, with a chronograph featuring a central 24-hour counter in the center. It was made in 24 pieces only, and frankly, there’s no reason I should love it as much as I do, especially at $82,500.
Singer Reminaged feels like its whole raison d’etre is to build over-engineered, wild variations on its own theme (don’t you love a callback?) that are wildly expensive. Compared to Ming’s recent AgenGraphe 20.01 S3 cased in gold, priced at CHF 43,500, the Singer isn’t in the same ballpark. But the folks picking up Singer Vehicle Design cars are shelling out over a million dollars for a massively reimagined Porsche 964, so I’m guessing their customer base doesn’t mind too much.
The Singer Reimagined DiveTrack
In 2021, Singer Vehicle Design unveiled their All-terrain Competition Study (ACS), that pays homage (and “does the thing”) for both off-road or tarmac rallying. That’s the closest I can think of when it comes to a tie-in with the Singer DiveTrack. Both the ACS and the DiveTrack are technically meant for off-road use, but the DiveTrack is a far off-road watch.
The core functionality of the DiveTrack will make the most sense if you’ve got any experience diving. Even then, I didn’t really understand it until I had the watch in hand. So, let me walk you through it.
One of the things that are core to diving safely is tracking your time, not only so that you don’t run out of air but also so you don’t risk any medical issues related to the dive. There is no time-of-day function on the dial of the DiveTrack. Instead, the dial is focused on the 24-hour AgenGraphe automatic movement and the chronograph function. Of the things you’d need to track in the water, you’ll want to know the maximum “bottom time” you can have for the depth you’re going to and the decompression stops you’ll need to make so that your body can dispel the nitrogen built up in your blood and tissue. The watch is meant to be used in conjunction with a dive computer as well.
On the right-hand side of the case, there’s a flip-up lock for the chronograph. Right before you enter the water, you can start the chronograph and then flip the lock back down. The chronograph is then running, tracking the total dive time with the chronograph hand and 60-minute counter. That’s all powered by an automatic version of the AgenGraphe shown below. If you like movements that look incredibly complex, this is about as complex as you’ll find for a “simple” (non-split) chronograph.
The case is made of grade 5 titanium, with a helium release valve on the nine o’clock side of the case and 300m of water resistance. There’s a 316L steel bezel and a lot of Super-LumiNova. And if you want to actually tell the time, the side of the case has a rotating barrel, much like the M.A.D.1. But that’s not the core functionality of the watch. Yes, the watch is massive at 49mm by 19.67 mm, but underwater, I don’t think that would bother you much. And it’s underwater where the watch really kicks into high gear.
So now, you’re in the water and have reached the bottom. Your chronograph’s 60-minute counter, with the big, bold orange hand filled with lume, has counted to your total dive time, but you need to know how long you can stay at the bottom. You’d then rotate the unidirectional dive bezel so the pip matches up with the counter, and then carefully watch as it totals your bottom time. When it’s time to ascend, you reach your decompression stop levels and then turn the dive bezel once more to track that interval. All the while, your chronograph counter is tracking your total dive time.
While all this is pretty novel, what I like most about this watch is that the team took the dive watch and thought about it how it could be useful out of the water. A dive technically doesn’t end when you get out of the water, and despite the size, Borraccino told me he hoped this watch would be the kind of thing you’d wear to dinner after your dive. While you might take your dive computer off and put it in your bag, you still need to consider how long you should take as a surface interval between dives. If you look at the center of the dial, you’ll see the 24-hour counter that is counting three sections: “Chill,” “Dive,” and “Fly.” This surface interval depends on a number of factors, but generally, if you leave your chronograph running, you’ll watch the time total up and remind you that you should “chill” between dives before going back down. Then, after six hours, the counter goes into the dive section again.
When you dive, you should reset the chronograph and start it again. But imagine you’ve done all this once, twice, three times on a dive trip. The last thing you need to track is time before you fly. You shouldn’t fly within 18 hours of your last dive (or risk decompression sickness as you reach altitude). If you keep the chronograph running, go to dinner, relax with your friends, or do whatever you want to do, you can still look down and see how long you have left until you can fly.
So, while the Singer DiveTrack might not be the most useful watch from a time-keeping standpoint, far from the most wearable watch, and priced at a level that makes zero sense for any professional diver, I don’t mind at all. This level of creativity is just what I needed to break out of the doldrums I’ve been feeling about dive watches.
Singer Reimagined DiveTrack; 49mm diameter by 19.67 mmmm thick grade 5 titanium case, with 300m water resistance. Matte black dial base with 12 applied luminescent indexes, side hour disk; Central chronograph with jumping hours, jumping minutes, and sweeping seconds. Peripheral time indications of quarters, halves, and full hours at 6 o’clock. AgenGraphe 24H Automatic Chronograph with 479 parts and 56 jewels, with 72 hours of power reserve. Black caoutchouc strap with folding buckle and diving technical textile strap with Velcro to be worn comfortably over a diving suit. Price: $98,000.
Hodinkee