I lived in Sydney, Australia for a year back in 1983 and spent most of that time diving and playing rugby. I'd never owned a good dive watch but noticed a Heuer Deep Dive 1000m Professional in a jewelry store in The Rocks area of Sydney. This was two years before TAG bought a majority stake in Heuer which led to TAG Heuer branded watches. At that time, most diving instructors were using Seikos, and most professional divers were using Rolex Submariners. I immediately liked the watch, liked that it was Swiss made and that it was different.
I wore this watch every day for 17 years or so working as a diver and welder on three continents. I came close to death a number of times wearing that watch. It never failed me despite the abuse and neglect. The last near death experience was on a tug boat in the Pacific Ocean chasing a sinking Chinese freighter and the Heuer was on my wrist.
I finally stopped wearing the watch around 2000 when the third or fourth battery died. It was so beaten up and the strap had perished so I replaced it with a first generation Omega Planet Ocean. The Heuer sat in a drawer for almost a decade until late 2019 when I decided to send it to TAG Heuer to see if they could service it. It was returned with a note saying that there was nothing they could do since parts were unavailable, but they offered me 10% off a new watch! A coworker at the time who was a watch nerd like me sent me an email with a link to
https://www.tag1000diver.com/ who could service and refurbish it. After some back and forth I sent the watch to Justin Bennett who did an excellent job of making it better than it ever was with an upgraded movement and crystal, as well as lots of other repairs. It cost $645 to have the watch repaired, a watch that cost around $350 (Australian) in 1983, but it was worth every penny. The memories I have with that watch are priceless and I'm proud to wear it once again. This year will be the 40th year of my owning this watch. Where has the time gone?
Before
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After
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