Testing Diving Watches the CLERC Way

CLERC Hydroscaph watches are designed as powerful luxury exploration machines built for extreme life conditions – the kind you find at 500-800 meters under the oceans. At those depths, survival depends on uncompromising quality, precision, toughness, and reliability. This is why CLERC Hydroscaphs undergo some of the most intense and comprehensive testing in the industry.

A diving watch is subjected to much harsher conditions than a regular time piece. And a luxury diving watch must also meet the aesthetic expectations of the most discerning owner. This is where the CLERC Hydroscaphs combine raw power with pure luxury.  Hydroscaphs are run through a set of particularly stringent tests well above and beyond conventional norms.

Testing starts at our Swiss land-based laboratory facilities where each Hydroscaph model type is tested for traction, shock, visibility (night-vision), magnetism, water-tightness, and resistance to seawater and corrosion. But these are just the basic starting qualifications for a Hydroscaph watch. Our three Hydroscaph versions – the Central Chronograph, the H1, and the new GMTs – all undergo extensive design and architecture testing a numerous levels.

The H1 is a COSC-certified chronometer. This means the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres has issued a unique serial number for its movement after each has passed a rigorous set of precision tests. Only 1% of all Swiss watches achieve this certification. COSC tests run for fifteen consecutive days and nights at multiple temperatures and operating conditions. A COSC-certified movement is guaranteed to have a specific precision and accuracy to within very strict parameters. COSC-certified watches are the thoroughbreds of the Swiss luxury watch industry. For an extensive dive into what it takes to score a COSC certification, click here.

Last but not least, CLERC is the only Swiss luxury watch company able to test its dive watches outside traditional labs under extreme depth conditions. That’s because within the framework of its long-term partnership with Sub Aviator Systems and Nuytco Research, CLERC has access to the most prestigious underwater manufacturing and Research & Development laboratory in the subaquatic world. Sub Aviators/Nuytco are to underwater research and innovation what NASA is to space travel. As a matter of fact, even NASA astronauts train at Nuytco facilities in Vancouver, Canada!

For the first time, a watch manufacturer enjoys the benefit of the know-how and experience – enriched by half a century of innovations – of the pioneer in underwater exploration.  In this way, the specialist in submersible technologies makes its pool of scientific expertise available, notably benefiting the development of new watchmaking materials and ever more specialised technical solutions, able to withstand the extreme conditions encountered at great depths.

In addition, it allows CLERC to conduct its tests in conditions that are identical to those applied to Nuytco Research’s high-tech equipment. In other words, CLERC can test the resistance and performance of its powerful diving watches under realistic conditions. Corrosion, readability, air or water pressure, extreme temperatures, shocks, underwater storms, etc. The testing possibilities are unlimited both inside the research facility and using the SuperAviator personal submersible during real-life dive operations.

One such test was conducted last summer during the CLERC Underwater Flight Discovery Tour in Vancouver – where a Central Chronograph CHY-585 was integrated into the submarine’s heads-up display on the outside. Not only was the watch used to chronograph every dive that day, but it also withstood the rigors of eight consecutive dives strapped to the outside of the submarine!

Between CLERC’s own Swiss lab testing, the COSC certification of the H1 models, and the ability to test diving watches in the most prestigious underwater laboratory and in their natural deep-sea underwater environment, the CLERC Hydroscaph is indeed probably the most tested luxury diving watch in the industry. Which is exactly why we say “raw power meets pure luxury”!