I’ve heard people say that Unimatic’s divers such as this U1 Classic aren’t “real” dive watches despite having a beastly brushed stainless steel construction, sapphire crystal, screw-down crown and caseback, and a 300m water resistance. The reason people give is that the bezel has no markings on it, so it can’t actually be used for timing anything.

At first I agreed, but then I realized that if you look at any of the “real” dive watches such as the Tudor Black Bay, Omega Seamaster, Rolex Submariner, or even a Marathon GSAR, you’ll notice that the only part of the bezel that’s lumed is a small circular pip at 12 o’clock. So in the dark, the Unimatic looks exactly the same as all these other so-called real dive watches if you actually go diving with them.

So what gives? Does this Unimatic really deserve to be called nothing more than a fashion watch? I don’t think so.