For those who closely follow the world of Switzerland’s Victorinox timepieces, it is clear that the popular Swiss company (typically known for its pocket knives) is transitioning to a new personality and style for its watches. I recently visited Victorinox and walked away extremely impressed with the company’s manufacturing competency, attention to detail and value, and its ongoing mission to create competent and useful tools. The flagship new watch family release for 2024 (so far) is an updated diver-style watch collection known simply as the Victorinox Dive Pro. The collection debuted with eight versions that include a variety of options including mechanical or electronic quartz movements, steel or titanium cases, and various small but interesting cosmetic differences. Today, I would like to review two versions of the Victorinox Dive Pro that use the in-house titanium case, including one model with a quartz movement (reference 241992) and the other with an automatic mechanical movement (reference 241997).
At a glance, the Dive Pro looks like an extension of Victorinox’s longstanding and popular I.N.O.X. (INOX) watch family. It includes a hexagonal bezel and a similar case shape. Most importantly, the Dive Pro continues the legacy of functionality and durability that is still very much a part of the INOX product family. Victorinox is among the few watchmaking companies that have a full testing department in-house (most companies either outsource it or do very little resistance testing at all), where the durability and environmental resistance of its watches are meticulously tested. The Dive Pro watches might be as durable as most INOX watches, but Victorinox decided to not use the INOX name as part of this new series of models. (Other INOX family products are still produced, and I believe Victorinox intends to continue that.)
As the name implies, all of the new Dive Pro watches are designed to be serious diver’s instruments. Both the quartz and mechanical versions of the Dive Pro are crafted to be ISO 6425 compliant – that is the standard for professional diver’s wristwatch tools. The cases are all water-resistant to 300 meters (individually pressure-tested in-house), have uni-directional rotating bezels, and have more than decent dial legibility. It is important to note that in addition to being certified diver’s watches, the Dive Pro cases are also ISO-compliant for shock resistance as well as magnetic resistance. While some might have argued that the product collection could have used a more distinctive name, Victorinox cannot be accused of embellishing the selling points of these products in how it chose to title them.
The steel versions of the Dive Pro have contrast polished and brushed cases, and of course, are going to be about 33% heavier than the titanium models. The titanium models have a darker finish and are given a sandblasted finish. The top-end titanium model (featured in this article) has a black PVD coating over the base titanium. The cases are also slightly different between the quartz and automatic models. They have the same dimensions which is a 43mm wide case that is 14mm thick and has a roughly 53mm long lug-to-lug distance. Over the dials are flat AR-coated sapphire crystals. The quartz version weighs a tiny bit less than the automatic on account of the different weights of the movement – but this is only a minor difference with the quartz titanium Dive Pro weighing 3.4 ounces and the automatic titanium Dive Pro weighing 3.7 ounces. These are still impressively lightweight diver’s instruments.
The biggest case difference between the quartz and automatic models is the position of the crown. The automatic Dive Pro has the crown positioned at the 4 o’clock position on the case, while the quartz version has a more traditional 3 o’clock placement. Both positions have their pluses and minuses, and the case has crown guards that protect the screw-down crowns from shocks and damage. I can simply guess that Victorinox wanted a few visual differences between the quartz and automatic versions of the Dive Pro so that consumers felt there were some meaningful differences between them. The two versions of the Dive Pro also have some differences in how the bezel markers are colored, as well as the dial and hand styles.
Inside the Dive Pro quartz models is a Swiss Made Ronda 715 movement that indicates the time and date. The automatic models are equipped with a Swiss Made Sellita SW220 automatic (4Hz, 38 hours of power reserve) which features the time along with a day/date calendar complication. You can also see that the automatic models are given slightly more elaborate dials, whereas the quartz dials are a bit more restrained and utilitarian by design. The attractive Victorinox shield logo is used as the 12 o’clock hour indicator, and the well-lumed hour markers and hands (two lume colors are used) are very easy to read.
I will admit that I was not a huge fan of the dial design of the Dive Pro watches when I saw them in Victorinox’s initial marketing shots. In person, however, these watches have a lot more personality and I think it bears some discussion of where the design came from. I will however remark on my two small quips about the watches, on these otherwise very fine products. The first quip is with the hand design. Victorinox admits they are currently experimenting with new looks. They are currently using a ‘structured’ design for the hands which includes extra sections on the ends. This gives them a “double pointer” style which presents both an arrow and a needle-tip. The goal I believe is to emphasize the tool-nature of the products, as well as to offer something distinctive on the market. One challenge when creating a watch in a particular archetype (e.g. the diver’s watch) is trying to make sure the design is naturally associated with that archetype, without appearing to be generic. That can be hard to do, and achieving this is more an ongoing creative process than a science. The hands are nicely sized, very legible, and do their job well, but I believe that Victorinox can further refine them for extra beauty in the future.
The other small quip I have with the watches is the rotating bezel action. There is nothing per se wrong with the action, but I felt that for a higher-end Swiss Made tool watch, the bezel could have been just a little bit tighter and more solid-sounding when operating it. This is a function of the particular springs and hardware around the case and under the bezel. Again, nothing wrong with the bezel action (they aren’t wobbly), but when comparing against higher-end Swiss dive-style watches, I think a slightly more robust spring might have been a better choice. Again, this is a relatively minor issue that is not a deal breaker for me.
Actually, the bezels have a really nice design to them – especially when looking at them from the side. They are easy to grip and turn, and the 60-minute lume pip is very large and easy to see. My only other complaint is why there is a yellow (or orange depending on the model) indicator pointing to the crown on the bezels as this seems to be a rather superfluous design element. The steel versions of the Dive Pro have slightly less-colored crowns, while there is a bit more color on the titanium versions (with the most color being on the automatic titanium versions). The nicest view of the bezel is from the side, where you can see the sort of wave design that results from its various levels of height.
The design mandate involving the Victorinox Dive Pro watches was apparently to make a diver’s watch that was also very much a “tool watch.” With the notion of “tool” being somewhat open to interpretation. Various elements related to the design and text on the case (and dial) emphasize tool-style labeling (such as markings on the case and bezel to remark on the material or water resistance), and there is clearly an inspiration from other famous “tool-style diver’s watches.” With Victorinox being a celebrated tool maker above all else, this concept makes sense, even if the design mandate could be somewhat nebulous for the artists involved. Note the graphic placed on the titanium caseback, which is a reminder of why we all loved Victorinox in the first place. There you’ll find a fun motif of a classic Swiss Army pocket knife. Speaking of tools, there are two Victorinox tools that I photographed with these titanium Dive Pro watches. First is the company’s first non-culinary fixed knife, the Victorinox Venture Pro. The other is the black-coated folding utility pliers called the Victorinox Swiss Tool MXBS.
Attached to these diver’s watches are very comfortable high-quality Swiss Made natural rubber diver’s style straps. They are 21mm wide (somewhat of an odd size), and can easily be removed using the quick-release spring bars. There are currently no bracelet options for the Dive Pro, but Victorinox sells a few other compatible straps including their handsome and quick comfortable Paracord strap. One version of the Victorinox Dive Pro (the quartz reference 241993.1) actually comes default on a paracord strap – currently the only Dive Pro model to do so. I found the rubber straps to be both handsome and very comfortable to wear. In general, these are pretty comfortable to wear watches despite being slightly on the larger size (which I like).
The Dive Pro Automatic has a black and yellow (or black and orange) “caution tape” style seconds hand which not everyone will like. Such a look was popularized in luxury timepieces over a decade ago when Omega released their first ultra-magnetic-resistant Aquaterra 15,000 Gauss watches. It does with the “tool watch” theme, but the high-contrast seconds hand will not be to everyone’s taste. The quartz version of the Dive Pro has a more traditional seconds hand that while still multiple colors, is a bit more subdued. The Dive Pro Automatic reviewed here, also has a very nice blue-colored ring around the center of the dial. There is no particular reason for this extra color, but it actually looks really nice and is a welcome part of the composition in my opinion as it softens the otherwise industrial character of the face’s personality.
There is an impressive amount of variety in even just the eight current models of the Victorinox Dive Pro watch family. I suspect that Victorinox will further flesh out the collection with more versions in the coming years. This is a pretty good product family that with additional tweaks, will allow it to appeal to even more customers. Quality and performance is there, and Victorinox continues to be a solid value in the market for Swiss Made tool watches that come from a company serious about product performance. The Dive Pro Quartz collection starts at just $800 USD for the steel version. As equipped here with the titanium case, the reference 241992 Victorinox Dive Pro Quartz has a retail price of $1,100 USD. Price for the reference 241997 mechanical Victorinox Dive Pro Automatic with the black-colored titanium case is $1,500 USD. Learn more at the Victorinox website.
