Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by tempest_ | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

tempest_

Speaking of the watch, how large can the diving watch market segment be?

I am very curious if those diving watch features will drive enough purchases to cover their dev costs.

Maybe it is a bigger market segment than I think.

View on HN

I bought one as soon as I saw it was usable as a dive computer.

$800 for a dive computer that I’d also wear as a daily watch is a steal - I’ve been procrastinating buying a dive computer because the ones that wirelessly integrate with air supply are super expensive $1000+. I don’t see any announcement of wireless air integration for the new watch yet, but I’m hoping Oceanic capitalizes on their partnership with Apple by adding Bluetooth to their transmitter (https://www.oceanicworldwide.com/product/computers/transmitt...)

My partner might get one too after we test mine out. We have 10+ friends who a) already have and enjoy Apple Watch and b) are scuba certified. I don’t think any of them have a Garmin/Suunto type sports watch yet…

I was wondering... does bluetooth work underwater? Perhaps by occasionally bringing the watch very close to the regulator?

It's super short range - like cm of range because water is really good at absorbing 2.4ghz. Other diving accessories for Apple devices use Bluetooth as a bridge to their own radio / features, so maybe a slide-on case or watch band could add an adapter to a Mhz radio.

If you look at the diving devices with similar functionality, they start at 999$ and go shooting through the roof. There's high margins to be made here as opposed to volume shipping IMO

it has to be pretty small, even amongst those who dive. My wife dives for a living and in thick gloves she can barely use her big analog Citizen. Not only that, I can't imagine how fast she'd break the face on it. I would guess the market is more for people who add diving in the long list of hobbies they enjoy.

I think it's larger in the same way that, for example, the amount of 4x4 vehicle owners out there far outnumber the amount of people who have ever driven their vehicles terrain that requires 4x4 capabilities.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com