Depending on who you ask, an Apple Watch can be a great dive watch for spearfishing. Not only are they good for diving they are a great smartwatch for their overall use cases. But they definitely don’t specialize in any one thing. Convenience and ease of use is what Apple goes for with nearly all their products. The Apple watch is no different.
While apple watches are not made specifically for freediving, or scuba diving, they are a great addition to your next dive for a few reasons. In this post I’ll cover why I always bring one on my dives.
Do Apple Watches Track Your Depth While Diving?
This question depends on what model watch you have. If you have the new Apple Watch Ultra you can measure your depth. But if you have any model made before 2022, it won’t be able to tell you how deep you are diving.
The Apple Watch Ultra can go to depths up to 40 meters deep, or 130 feet. Any deeper and you risk damaging your watch. According to Apple you can set the depth app to automatically turn on when you go 1m deep. This is great since, once the watch is submerged you need to hold it out of the water to use the screen.
How Accurate Is The Apple Depth App?
While the depth app is a great addition to the Apple watch, it is not as accurate as other dive watches. Apple says the depth should be plus or minus 1 meter from what is shown on your watch display. Overall, this is quite accurate.
Does the Apple Watch Track Your Dive Time?
While out of the box your Apple Watch doesn't track your dive time, you can get the Oceanic+ app which will give you not only your time but all standard dive watch features. While many features aren't applicable to spearfishermen or women when they're freediving, they are great fro scuba divers. These features include decompression & Depth Monitoring.
Does Your Apple Watch Track Your Location While Diving?
Yes, your Apple watch tracks your location while freediving. Pair this capability with the Oceanic+ app and this becomes an incredible feature because it allows you to pinpoint exactly where you were. This will help you map out where you saw what, making every spearfishing session that much better.
Tracking your location is also incredibly helpful in terms of safety. Whether you’re diving alone, or with a buddy, if you have your watch on someone will be able to locate you. I always make sure to fully charge my watch before a dive just in case of a disaster and I can’t get myself back to shore. This means a rescue team would be able to find me easily. Plus my wife has my location, so she gets peace of mind being able to see where I am while I’m diving.
Can You Use An Apple Watch to Call Someone While You’re Diving?
All Apple watches come with the option to be wifi only or to have cellular data. You of course won’t be able to make any calls if you have the wifi only option. For this reason, and this reason only I paid the extra money to get a cellular data enabled watch. Something important to note is Apple watches become unresponsive when they are submerged in water and go into some type of “water mode”. This mode prevents the water penetrating the inside hardware. The good news is if you have an issue while you’re spearfishing, like the tide or current pulling you out to sea, you can lift your arm out of the water, turn the dial to take it out of “water mode” at this time you can ask siri to call someone, or you could call someone using the prompts on the screen. While I have never had to call someone for help, I did test it once and I was successfully able to call my wife while I was spearfishing, quite a cool experience if you ask me.
Does Using an Apple Watch While Freediving Damage it?
No, Apple watches are designed to be used under water. While they aren’t able to go crazy deep, they have no problem under 40m deep. I have used my watch for spearfishing countless times and it has no added wear. I of course would be careful if you are like me and regularly have to climb on rocks to get in and out of the water. I do always wear my watch in the shower after I take them in saltwater. I give them a nice rinse to make sure no salt corrodes any parts.
What Other Features Does Apple Watch Have for Spearfishing?
The generic apple depth app doesn't give you much dive information. But what's most important is it allows 3rd party apps to build on top of it. At the moment the Oceanic+ app is the best app to turn your Apple Watch into a dive watch. Some features include, depth tracking, location tracking, dive time, a GPS, decompression and depth monitoring, it also integrates local conditions like tides, water temperatures, and even community‑fed info like visibility and currents. All these features make the Apple Ultra Watch a solid option for a dive watch. I also believe as time goes on other dive apps will come out and have even more features.
Should You Get An Apple Watch for Spearfishing?
To sum this post up I want to give my personal opinion on whether you should buy an Apple watch for spearfishing. Personally I don’t think you should buy an apple watch for the sole purpose of having a dive watch. The Apple Watch Ultra that allows depth tracking costs $800. You can get a dive watch for about $100 that does all the same dive tracking.
With that said, I do think Apple watches are great, so if you will also use the watch during your everyday life, I think the Apple watch is worth it. The safety features while spearfishing gives me peace of mind every time I go out. Knowing I can call for help, and my location is tracked makes me feel comfortable going far from shore.
