Best Dive Computers: Instructor Top Pick, and Review
- Bryan Fok
- Jul 30, 2022
- 4 min read
SHEARWATER PERDIX 2 - Scuba Dive Computer Top Pick
Shearwater Perdix / Perdix2 is the best scuba dive watch I have owned, it impressed me in many ways. The most notable is it big HD display, and with all the needed dive information on it in a very well organized way.
Battery life is a concern for many dive watch, but not this one! It use AA battery, my experience is with one recharge AA battery last 20+ dives.
Its state of art sensor button, and easy operation system are unbeatably easy to use in the water, which is very important to any type of dives.
It has the best electric compass design in the market, clear display, very responsive, and accurate. Truly, this is a scuba dive watch carefully craft by user for the user.
Made in: Canada
Pros:
Large HD color display
Best scuba dive watch design
Easy to use
AA battery usage
Titanium case
Cons:
No freediving mode. (It is a diving watch specially designed for recreational scuba divers and technical scuba divers)
SUUNTO D5 - Free Dive Watch Computer Top Pick
Suunto D5's free dive depth notification (sounds/vibrate) feature is the key reason why I pick this watch as my daily free dive choice. When I do deep free diving, depth notification help remind me to do monthfill equalization. I also use the notifications, and my body reaction in the current depth to tell my performance in this dive.
With the LED display, it can display the surface interval, bottom time, and depth information clean and clearly at both surface, and underwater. Its rechargeable battery life can last my entire day of free diving ( 7~8 hours) when the highest display brightness setting.
However, it is not my choice for scuba diving, its smaller display made me sometimes confuse with the information show on it, especially when it try to make warning.
Made in: Finland
Pros:
Freediving Depth Notification
LED display
rechargeable dive watch
Cons:
Smaller display
SUUNTO ZOOP NOVO - Beginner Dive Computer Top Pick
Suunto Zoop made a good balance between price, features, and usability. It has all the features necessary for a recreative scuba diver, and free diver. Easy to operate, simple but reliable body design, easy to maintain. I am happy to have it travel with me as my backup dive watch.
If you join our diving course, you will use this watch in your open water diving training (included in our course fee, no extra cost)
This is the easy to do battery replacement for the Zoop watch by yourself. Dive shop could charge up to $500, and take weeks before you can collect it back.
產地：芬蘭
Pros:
Large mono color display
Scuba dive/ freediving modes
Well made body
Easy battery change
Cons:
Early version might have electric failure issue during battery change, the latest NOVO version has no such issues.
SHEARWATER TERIC Instructor Review
Shearwater Teric is similar to Sunnto D5 with better display, and design. Comparing to its sister dive watch Shearwater Perdix, Teric is built for recreational divers, it has both scuba and freediving modes. Compare to the D5, Teric has more features on scuba diving.
Made in: Canada
SUUNTO D4 NOVO Instructor Review
Suunto D4 NOVO has the same features to its sister watch ZOOP NOVO. They both has mono color display, but ZOOP has a bigger one which make the latter a better choice for scuba diving.
D4i has a slimmer design, easier to click buttons than ZOOP. It is a more popular choice in freediving community. However, I prefer its sister watch SUUNTO D5 for freediving because it is hard to read the information on a mono color display in a deeper dive, so you need to click the light on each time to read the information.
Unlike D5, it is not a rechargeable watch so you will have to take it to service, or DIY battery replacement like ZOOP.
Made in: Finland
Pros:
Similar to ZOOP but with better buttons
Cons:
Smaller mono color display
GARMIN DESCENT MK2 Instructor Review
GARMIN DESCENT MK2 is a all-in-one dive watch, in terms of hardware, it is the best out of all other dive watches, and very fashionable to wear in daily bases. It has heart rate, blood oxygen meters, best GPS design which are fun to play with.
On the other hand, the usability is the worst compare to other models in this blog. MK2 has a lot of non diving related features, e.g. bicycling, run, golf, hike, tide, etc. useful or not is a matter of opinion, but it create additional complexity to the watch which has troubled me a bit. I also had frustrating experiences using this watch in other pool activities (with swimming pool mode), like fin swimming, and freediving DYN. Lastly, MK2 offer a Depth Alert mode, it block the watch display in the preset depth, and get diver warning not to dive deeper which in my opinion is useless feature in any scenario, including, hunting, deep free diving, and scuba diving.
SUUNTO, and SHEARWATER watches have gave me the feeling that they have put user usability into their core of design, Garmin has failed to do so.
Pros:
Nice looking watch
Large LED display
Oxygen meter
Heart rate meter
GPS with map
Cons:
Bad usability
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