The computer watches have many utilities, inform us during our dives, alert us with safety functions, and also aesthetic aspects. As already communicated, the finalists of the Best Choice in the Computer Watches category are the Salvimar Freedive, the Seac Apnea HR and the Cressi King. The latter, thanks to the Made in Italy (in Cressi Electronics) design and manufacturing, the excellent functions and user friendly data download software, plus very nice aesthetics and a very competitive price, wins the Best Choice by Apneapassion in its category. Let’s see why more specifically.
The many pluses of the Cressi King
We have recently visited Cressi Electronics, the in-house company of Cressi specifically created for the design, the development, the manufacturing, the high level quality control and, in the very few cases where it is needed, the after market assistance. Thanks to this reality, Cressi leads in the field of Computer Watches, both for Scuba Diving and Apnea. The Cressi King, specifically build for Apnea activities, in our opinion is an Best Choice on the market.
The complete functions
As already presented in our X-Rays article, the Cressi King has a great design, with steel components, an excellent wide screen with very visible characters, complete functions, including key safety indicators and alarms. These are for example alarm indicators for Taravana, Blood shift, maximum depth and maximum dive time.
User friendly software to download data
In addition to all the qualities indicated, there is the possibility to download quickly and easily the data of each dive session, complete of all information like depth, dive time, surface time, water temperature and more. What is key, and not common to all diving watches, is that the connection to the PC or Mac, or to the smartphone through an App, is extremely easy and fast. A great product also on the software side.
High quality
The quality is insured by Cressi Electronics, where all possible defects are monitored on each product before it goes to the shops. This means that each single computer watch, and not only one element of a batch of products, is tested and analyzed before going to market. Among all the checks, even the battery is verified before the Cressi King goes to market.
The other two contenders
Finalists of the Best Choice, and for such reason products to look at carefully, are the Salvimar Freedive and the Seac Apnea HR.
The first is evidently a cheaper product than the other two finalists, where the use of glass loaded Nylon instead of steel is very evident, and the functions are the base ones, with no real safety software. Still, the price is half the one of the Cressi King (275 €), and is found on the internet at less than 140 €.
The Seac Apnea HR has an amazing aesthetic, and absolutely complete functions including the safety ones as you can read in our x-rays article. The price is also very competitive, around 200€. Unfortunately, at the time of the test the software to download on pc the recorded data has been found difficult to handle, which is not a general issue, as much of the information can be analyzed on the watch directly, but can be annoying for those more analytic divers who like to check all graphs and data on PC. The possibility to connect the Seac Apnea HR to a smartphone through a dedicated App is not available.
The Best Choice by Apneapassion evaluation
“Apneapassion underlines that the Best Choice is a fully independent prize, assigned after deep testing by the 9 athletes of the Apneapassion International Official team. The result of the Best Choice does not want to be an indisputable opinion, as personal preferences and adaptations to each product can determine different opinions and likes. Still, the use of a large number of independent athletes (who’s sponsor is only Apneapassion) permits to give spearfishing and freediving enthusiasts our best possible evaluation of each winner. We are open to any company who would want to participate with its most competitive products to the Best Choice by Apneapassion yearly prize. For any additional information contact carlo.forni@apneapassion.com.“
