Testing the Oris Aquis Depth Gauge – Underwater Testing Video

Back in February of this year we already showed you, what is probably the most simple yet smart mechanical depth gauge in a dive watch. Ever. Period. The Oris Aquis Depth Gauge features a brilliantly simple glass tube with one opening that allows water to enter. How far the water penetrates in the tube, depends on the pressure and thus on the depth. Simple as that, but does it really work?

That’s a question that our new partners from Chronos / Watch Time also asked themselves. They had the chance to test the Oris Aquis Depth Gauge in its natural habitat and recorded a video (see above) of that test. Naturally we already explained every technical detail of this brilliant dive watch – check here for the full explanation -, but these test results complete the picture that we have of it. Since the video is in German, we will translate the findings for you.

Journalist Jens Köppe made a dive, with just one deep breath, to a depth of 30 meters / 100 feet. He looked at how the depth gauge functions, the rotating bezel and the strap. All key elements of a dive watch!

The main question is of course if the depth gauge does what we expect it to do… According to Chronos, the depth gauge indication has a slight deviation compared to the digital dive depth meter, but it performed within the acceptable boundaries. The scale has a good legibility up to 30 meters, however when submerging deeper the scale is to coarse for good reading of the depth.

While the rotating dive bezel was a bit difficult to rotate on dry land, it was easier to rotate when submerged. Even with dive gloves the bezel is easy to operate. The last important conclusion is that the rubber strap is easy to adjust to wrist size, and also to different sizes, like when wearing a diving suit. The full review was published in the German magazine Chronos Magazin that was in stores on July 19th.

The video and photos are courtesy Ebner Verlag, the publisher of Watchtime.net (German), the magazines Chronos and Uhren Magazin (both in German) and USA Nr.1 watch magazine called WatchTime.