Timex Helix - Dive watch

I own this watch from time ago but never did a review (mini-review) of it. I think I have to. It is a digital watch with scuba diving functions. Not a diver shaped watch but a diver at the end.

The watch is quite big. It is much bigger than the Casio DW-280, and that Casio is not a tinny F91w.

The screen is quite big, it has 4 information lines. The main line has large and easy to read digits, the secondary line has smaller but big enough digits and the upper and lower lines have smaller digits.

It has the basic functions such as time, alarm, stopwatch and timer. To select the functions the crown has to be turned when in standard position. Quite original for a digital watch. Pressing down the crown the typical Indiglo illumination from Timex is activated. The crown also has two pull out positions for adjustments and to recalling saved data.

In the lower part of the watch there is a lock button that blocks the button and crown functions. It is a useful function to avoid accidental actuation during diving.

Apart of the basic functions, this watch has two dive modes. The Dive Track and the Dive Chrono. The Dive Track seems more useful, it gives you the current depth, the temperature, the diving time and the hour. After the dive you can recall the diving time, the max depth and the temperature (I think it is the min. temp.)

The Dive Chrono mode is quite strange, dives are considered 'segments' and the watch adds the diving times depending on the watch configuration. I think it is a kind of freedive mode but not so successful. The watch logs the last 20 segments (dive time and max depth), it also logs the surface time. I've never used this mode.

The watch could be set up in Metric or Imperial modes.

The band quality is quite high taking into account the price of the watch and the many functions it offers.

I've not deeply used the watch, it only has two dives. One is shown on the picture, max. depth of 10m and around 1h of dive time. The second dive was a little bit deeper (around 15m) but shorter. The watch worked perfectly and gave same measurements as my dive computer (Uwatec Prime).

It is quite curious that the watch is rated water resistant 50m! So suitable for swimming, white water rafting, no snorkeling water related work, and fishing... but it is able to measure the depth!

The hilarious user manual could be downloaded here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/28993166/Timex-Helix

 I hope I will use it deeper this summer; I will try to understand the Dive Chrono mode and see if it is useful for freedive.

In my opinion it is a very nice watch for diving or snorkeling. It is a toy not a dive computer, so I will never suggest to use it as a primary depth meter. It also seems to be a good present for child but be careful with it, to try to go deeper is a VERY dangerous game. Remember freedive is not a game it could be a HIGH RISK sport if you don't follow the rules.