Just launched on the market and shown also at the recent Eudi Show in Bologna, Italy, the new Seac Jack computer watch has generated a lot of interest, both for its design and, even more, for its numerous functions.
In brief
Seac Jack is very nicely designed, with the bazel and the buttons in polished stainless steel, but its real strength is in the incredible number of functions, starting from the ones dedicated to safety, with the specific Taravana and emottisi prevention algorithm, but also the functions for ARA, training and outdoor. Moreover, surely key, Seac Jack is rechargeable. Practically a computer watch that positions itself high in the field of products for freediving and spearfishing, but not only.
External design and materials
Case and screen are big, in line with first class competition, with the first made of glass loaded Nylon, while the second, made of tempered mineral glass, is positioned inside a refined polished stainless steel crown, that perfectly matches the four menu buttons, made of the same material. Also made of stainless steel is the frame of the plug, of good dimensions, where the USB cable will be attached, and that is used for recharging the battery and downloading recorded data on PC or Mac.
The strap is made with silicone elastomer, which is very soft compared to competition, a solution that surely permits a good adaptability when worn on the wetsuit, even though we will need to test this well in the sea to evaluate it at best. The design of the strap is extremely simple, black and smooth, while the connection with the case is good, but could be improved in the finishings.
The rear cover is also in polished stainless steel, with a great design, where “SEAC” and maximum depth of 150 meters is graved.
Dimensions and weight
The display of the New Seac Jack is wide, in line with best competition, with maximum diameter of the screen, measured internally to the stainless steel crown with a caliber, equal to 40 mm, while the display has a square like shape, with dimensions 28 x 28 mm.
The display uses dot matrix, permitting great flexibility in positioning and dimensioning of characters, so that Seac has already communicated they are able, in case of necessity and of indications by customers, to modify and constantly improve images and information present on the display. We can consider as reference characters the ones of the central digits on the display, that are 7 mm high. Of the same dimensions are the characters at the top left, while the ones at the top right are 4 mm high as first digit, and 2 mm high as decimal digits. Also of good dimensions is the information at the bottom of the display, with characters 4 mm high, while water temperature is indicated with 2 mm high characters.
The strap, measured in the lower side from the case to the tip of the two parts, measures 10.7 cm on the long part without buckle, and 7 cm on the part with buckle, for total 17.7 cm. The real usable length is evidently equal to such length minus the distance from the last hole of the strap without buckle to its end, which is equal to 2 cm, for total usable length of 15.7 cm. Seac though offers an extention that permits to increase such value of 12.5 cm, for total 28.2 cm.
The weight of the Seac Jack including the strap is 85 grams.
Outdoor and fitness functions
The new computer watch Seac Jack is extremely advanced for what concerns functions related to apnea and not only. In particular, key for such type of computer watches, the information and algorithms linked to safety are of top level.
The many functions require a little bit of time to find the correct feeling with this product. Let us see how they can be selected one by one.
The first screen shows the time of the day, nice and big at the center of the display, or smaller next to a second time with different time zone, while at the bottom left we can find the date and at the bottom right the day of the week, much appreciated by those who may want to use the Jack every day also outside of the water. And we must say that, with its nice design, Jack is certainly the right watch for such use.
Pressing any button the indication of the battery charge appears in percent to the maximum value of 100%. This also indicates that the Jack is now in the unblocked condition. Pressing the button at the top right the display switches to the outdoor functions, with at the top the graphwith the indication of the development of atmospheric pressure and weather forecast, below the degrees indicated by the compass, and a step below the compass itself with the indication of cardinal points. A level below we find the height above sea level, while at the bottom left we will find air temperature, and bottom right atmospheric pressure. Much information that, even though not directly linked to apnea, certainly contribute to make the Jack a complete product for many different needs.
Pressing on the button once more, we reach in succession the functions chrono, moon, fitness and alarm, that can be scrolled with the two buttons on the right and can be then selected with the lower left button.
The chrono function is complete with total time, last split and single split times, even though the minimum unit goes only to seconds, which are not much compared to traditional chrono watches that reach the hundredth of a second.
Moon function follows, showing centrally the current lunar phase, with on the left the EPT (EPATTA), which is the lunar phase on the 1° of January of the current year, while to the right we find the age, indicating the days passed after the last full moon.
Following function is fitness, which shows at the top of the display, in big characters, the steps made, and below the meters walked, current speed in km/h and the burned calories, while at the bottom we find the height of the user, the weight and the sensibility of the pedometer, which can all be selected pressing the bottom left button, and increasable or reducible with the buttons on the right.
Finally, we find the traditional time alarm.
Immersion functions
Pressing the bottom right button we shift to the first screen indicating the diving functions, the first of which is the scuba, with top right the indication “OC“, which certainly completes a computer watch for freediving and spearfishing with a function that could be used by passionates also of scuba diving. Pressing the button on the bottom left we enter the scuba diving menu, that we will not analyze in this article.
If from the OC function we press once more the button on the lower right we reach the gauge function showing depth, and also water temperature will be shown on display.
Finally, pressing the button for the third time we reach the key functionality for freedivers and spearos, the free function. Let us analyze it with attention.
Pressing the button on the lower left, the display shows the menu Dive Set 1, Dive Set 2, Free Set and Free Alarm. This display can be reached by all three functions: scuba, gauge and free.
Selecting Free set a new screen will be shown with the menu:T level, T prof, T mode and Dedema.
T level, adjustable from 0, function disactivated, to 9, maximum protection, modifies the personal protectionism in calculating the minimum suggested recovery time to avoid risk of Taravana. A greater value of T level will determine a higher recovery time.
T prof indicates the type of dive that one wants to do: V shape, with little time at maximum depth, tipical of freediving, and U shaped, with greater rest time on the sea bottom, more frequent with spearfishing, while the AUTO setting automatically determines the type of dive. Recovery time will be determined also considering the T prof setting.
T mode calculates the recovery time suggested on the base of the last dive (single), or on the last and the previous dives (multi), with an increase of recovery time in case the previous recovery times have not been respected.
Finally, Oedema (Edema polmonare) shows the depth that one wants to reach and on the base of which the Jack will calculate the dives needed to aproach such maximum depth and reduce the risk of lungs edema. Clearly the depth that will be our objective will always have to be within our easy reach and with no risks.
After the Free Set function we find the Free Alarm, which is the setting of the acustic alarms. In the fixed setting it will be possible to set 3 alarms both in the descent phase (mode desc) and in the ascend phase (mode asc), and for both (mode both). Not only, it will also be possible to set acustic alarms every X meters of depth reached, with the function step, while the maximum dive time will be signaled setting the time function. The Jack is complete with alarms indicating when it is time to drink to rehydrate.
Memory and downloadable data
The Jack permits to memorize and download on PC or Mac 18 hours of apnea and 600 dives recorded, with sampling every second. On the scuba diving side with ARA the recordable hours are 160, with sampling every 10 seconds.
Data is all downloadable on computer (PC or Mac), and we will analyze the program and the analysis functions in a dedicated article.
Battery
A special comment must be done for the battery, since it is rechargeable simply connecting the Jack with the standard given USB cable. Moreover, the stand by function is very interesting, as it shuts the display off completely, but turns it on again as soon as the Jack is moved. Thanks to the rechargeable solution the Jack can also utilize a strong LED lighting that makes the display extremely easy to read.
To download and print the technical data chart of the Seac Jack click here.
Price
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Conclusions
The New Seac Jack is a products of high level, with advanced functions that position it above simpler solutions. Warranty is 2 years (as for Law), but extendable for another 6 months in case the customer registers the product on www.seacsub.com website. So, theoretically, the Seac Jack seems to be a very interesting product, that we will soon test in the sea to evaluate the real potential of its numerous functions.