MEET THE WATCH: Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch

This review will hopefully shed some light on how the “relatively new” I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch fits into the I.N.O.X. family tree. These dive-specific watches were released a few years after the first I.N.O.X. watches were launched. The I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch is the first I.N.O.X. watch with a rotating bezel and external lume pip, requisite features found on dive watches.

If I don’t get anything else accomplished in this review, I want to at least answer the question: “Does the I.NO.X. Professional Dive Watch represent the spiritual successor to the hallowed DiveMaster 500 watches by Victorinox Swiss Army?” Before I get to the answer, there will be many things to consider, and I will most likely speculate on what Victorinox’s designers had in mind. If you did not read my previous Watch DNA article about the I.N.O.X. family of watches, that will cover a lot of the information on these popular timepieces in great detail.

Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch. Photo: Victorinox

Generally, I don’t talk about the size of a watch first, but the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch is the largest of all the I.N.O.X. variations so it is worth mentioning. Its bulk is not always obvious in photos if they are taken out of context or “off the wrist.” This watch’s size is not unusual for a dive watch, which can be larger than the typical pilot or field watch.

Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. watches come in 3 sizes (as of 2017). The I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch is the largest.

I speculate that the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch’s size is partially an aesthetic decision and partially a business decision. First, adding an upsized model to the I.N.O.X. watch line up gives more variety to consumers with the range going from 37 mm to 45 mm. This should expand the desirability of the I.N.O.X. watches to more customers, including ones who want greater wrist presence. Adding a dive watch is also a great idea because it is still one of the most popular styles of watches produced today.

The size of a watch and how it feels on your wrist is as personal as it gets. There is no denying that this is a large watch with an above average lug-to-lug distance of 54 mm and a height of about 15.5 mm. If you have small wrists, then you might want to try on the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch in advance to see how it feels. In the water or over a wetsuit, I see no problem at all with the size. It will certainly be smaller than a dive computer, which most recreational divers use these days. If you are desk diving in a business setting, the big I.N.O.X. probably is not going to fit under your sleeve, but that is not really the intent of this watch anyway.

Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Dive Watch far from the ocean

Underwater marriage proposal

In the past, Victorinox offered mid-sized DiveMaster 500 watches that were sized at 38 mm. Those models had excellent water resistance, a dive bezel and could be considered unisex. I have often dreamed of buying the mid-size myself even if some people call them “girl’s watches”.

Seeing how Victorinox currently offers a smaller fixed-bezel I.N.O.X. at 37 mm targeted to women, I am going to predict a mid-size unisex I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch in the future. It does not make sense to leave women or smaller divers out of the product lineup. Some of my favorite dive buddies have been ladies. In fact, I proposed to my wife in a giant air bubble accessed in an underwater cave, but that is a story for another time.

The I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch has 2 listed watchband options but really has more if you include the popular nylon NATO watch bands by Victorinox and other manufacturers. I am not including dressy leather watch bands because they are not waterproof, but you can certainly use leather watchbands to “dress it up”.  I have done this before on other dive watches with good results. The two watch bands that come as factory options are either stainless steel bracelets or natural rubber wristbands with the signed buckle. Obviously, the bracelet will be the heavier of the two options and a bit more formal. I should mention that this dive watch does not have a dive extension on the bracelet or a long rubber watch band option to wear over a wetsuit or dry suit. Swiss Army’s rubber watchband can expand some for comfort, but that is not necessarily the same thing.

Choose from a rubber watch band or H-link stainless steel bracelet. Photo: Victorinox

If there’s one genre of watches is expected to have a colorful side, it would be dive watches. Sure, you can opt for an austere black dial model, but nobody would give you a second glance for wearing a dayglow dive watch. Scuba gear is often made in bright colors for style, but also identification both underwater and on the surface. If you have ever tried to find your flippers on a crowded dive boat, then you know the value of color coding. With the Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch, you have the option of going with a little color or a lot. You can do this by pairing your I.N.O.X. with the stainless steel bracelet. Or, you get the full effect by using a color matched rubber watch band as demonstrated below.

There is an accessory available for the Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch that is stylistically cool, and that is a rubber bumper for the watch. Even though the I.N.O.X. is built to be tough, that does not mean that it is scratchproof. Like any 316L stainless steel, you can definitely scratch the surface if you are not careful. The inexpensive bumper can be added as armor for the watch protecting it from bumps and scrapes. If it gets damaged, it is easily replaced. There is a side effect of the bumper which is to magnify the dial like a giant cyclops.

A clear bumper case magnifies the dial and protects the finish of the I.N.O.X. Dive Watch. Photo: Victorinox

I believe that every “new” watch design can have a tie to a company’s past models, and I.N.O.X. is no exception. Swiss Army watches have a certain quality about them. If I squint, I can almost imagine the case design for I.N.O.X. as a larger, beefed-up version of the Victorinox Swiss Army Divemaster 500. I am a big fan of those DiveMaster 500s that were mainstays for many years. At first, I thought that I could see faint echoes of them in the I.N.O.X. Pro Dive Watch design, but I really think that this I.N.O.X. has its own design DNA. See if you can spot the differences between a quartz Victorinox Swiss Army Divemaster 500 compared to an I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch below. Please note that the darker DiveMaster 500 has been sized up to align the elements so the size is not accurate.

The I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch has a lot of design features worth mentioning. For a detailed look, please check the previous article WATCH DNA: Building a Stronger Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Through Extreme Testing. For a quick overview, check out the diagram below.

For the majority of I.N.O.X. watches, the stationary bezel serves the purpose to protect the front of the watch. The hexagonal sloping bezel is also used to bring visual interest to the front of the watch and it successfully creates an interesting interplay of light and shadow. The watch looks incredibly dimensional because of this. Think of the bezel’s surfaces behaving like facets of a diamond that reflect light in different directions. I have frankly never seen another watch with this combination of shapes and surfaces so Victorinox gets an “A” for originality.

The bezel was designed for maximum visual impact with polished facets

However, if I am being 100 percent honest, the bezel might be a point of contention for watch collectors, potentially more so among actual scuba divers. The reason has more to do with the phrase “Professional Dive” that are part of the watch’s name. A dive watch is a safety tool, and readability of the dial and bezel are paramount to using the watch as intended. Anything the reduces legibility could be considered a potential down-side, even if you are not underwater. Because the bezel is the one feature that is unique to the dive version of the I.N.O.X., it will get the most scrutiny. This is the part of a dive watch that the wearer probably will use the most (not including regular timekeeping here).

Ergonomics

The I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch was derived from other forms of the stationary bezel I.N.O.X. so the watch designers kept the shape the same but allowed it to turn with 120 clicks. Like most dive watches the bezel only turns counterclockwise. The ironic thing is that the shape of the bezel, which give the watch a distinctive look also makes it hard to turn the bezel. I am not saying that it is impossible, but the bezel is shallow, the edges are mirror polished making them slick. Add water or gloves and this bezel could really be hard to use.

Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Dive Watch has a bezel that can be a challenge to read

Visibility

Because the sloping facets containing the engraved numbers of the bezel are mirror finished, they can be hard to read in many lighting conditions. The surfaces reflect the surroundings and I found myself more than once not being able to read the bezel. It was not a mission-critical failure because I was only walking the dogs in the woods, but it was a surprise that this important part of the bezel would be so hard to read. The area I was in had dusky light coming through the tree canopy but the woods surrounding were dark. It was the reflections of the darkened woods which obscured the bezel numbers.

The opposite situation can happen when the mirrored facets reflect strong white light. What made the situation worse is that the bezel has a single lume-pip and no other lumed marks (like the DiveMaster 500). If those were present, I would have been able to use the timing bezel in low light or the dark as well. The best way to show the effect is to experience it yourself, but I made a video to demonstrate. Keep an eye on the polished bezel facets where the numbers are supposed to be easily read. This is in full daylight so imagine the situation in less light.

Before I get into the next section, I must confess that I am a lume snob. I am brutally critical of lume that does not glow like a mini nuclear reactor unless we are talking about faded tritium dials, on vintage watches that came before modern Super Luminova or LumiBrite. Dive watches are especially susceptible to this close scrutiny of the glowing hands and indices because a diver must be able to use the watch as a safety tool. Divers need it and dive watch collectors want it. There is some good and bad news with the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch concerning the lume. For starters, the press photo below looks epic, but it does not represent my experience with this watch.

Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch with 2-tone lume. Photo: Victorinox

The cool thing is that Victorinox decided to use two colors to add some excitement to the dial. The bubble-like bezel pip and the minute hand use a blue colored lume and the hour hand and the applied indices use the more common green colored lume. This was used to great effect many years ago on the DiveMaster 500 Limited Edition Titanium Chronograph.

Sadly, and this hurts for me to say this… the lume on the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch is not strong. Ouch! Yes, this is the lume snob coming out in me, but I have to be honest about this point and show a little tough love for Victorinox. I know that they can do better because they already have done so in their DiveMaster 500 series of watches. What could be the reason for this below average performance? You can literally see the difference in lume strength in half-light and darkness compared the Victorinox Swiss Army DiveMaster 500s below.

Many factors affect how lume glows, from the luminescent formula to the thickness of application. It appears to me that the Superluminova is not applied thickly or in large quantities to the I.N.O.X. The color is noticeably white when not charged (instead of a light green) so maybe the formula is different. Maybe Victorinox’s designers preferred whiter paint that looks cleaner in daylight but does not have the same performance as the greenish lume. I guess we may never know that answer.

If you think that I am just being ultra picky, then read on. I actually performed some unscientific tests to back up my initial reaction to the dull lume. In a dark room, I set up 2 Victorinox Swiss Army watches including a quartz DiveMaster 500, an automatic DiveMaster 500 and the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch. My plan was to charge the watch dials with a UV light and make a time lapse of the fading lume to compare them over time. However, I did not need the time lapse after all because the lume on the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch faded significantly in under 1 minute. See for yourself in this 2-minute video…

Everybody has an opinion when it comes to what makes a perfect dive watch, and here are mine for improving upon the current design of the Victorinox Swiss Army I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch. Victorinox is so close to delivering a spiritual successor to their DiveMaster 500 watches… they just need to push the design from form to function to make the I.N.O.X. more of a tool watch. After all, it is the function of a dive watch that makes it the go-to adventure watch for millions of people.

There is no denying that the I.N.O.X. family of watches is a hit for Victorinox, and that it is great to see them extend the range of options with a dedicated dive watch. For many people, they will be satisfied with the level of design, finishing, and value that it offers. For others, like scuba divers, nerdy dive watch collectors or lume freaks, the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch shows a promise not yet fulfilled. When the word “professional” is included in the product name, critics like us will get extra picky and expect to get the same performance that past Victorinox dive watches offered, that is greater water resistance and stronger lume. The dive watch segment is crowded and the competition is fierce from the likes of Seiko and Citizen, even if they are not a Swiss brand.

It has taken me a long time to formulate my final opinion on the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch. I do not necessarily think it is the spiritual successor of the hallowed Victorinox Swiss Army DiveMaster 500… even if it was meant to be. It is a different watch so the philosophy behind the design may be different, proven with style triumphing over function. However, there is still time for Victorinox to improve the watch as a dive tool with better lume and a more readable bezel. This path is not irreversible. For me, the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch in its current iteration will remain a hardy adventure watch that has a handy timing bezel, a tough survivor spirit, and more water resistance than most land-based explorers will need. You don’t need to agree with me, and I urge you to visit an authorized Victorinox Swiss Army dealer to judge the I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch for yourself.

Suggested retail prices range from $595 with a rubber strap to $695 with the metal bracelet. See the current I.N.O.X. Professional Dive Watch line up on the Victorinox Swiss Army web site.