1. Talking about deepest dive, it depends on what type of dives. Dives can be segmented into several different type
- Scuba Dive
- Freedive
- Technical Dive
- Commercial Dive.
Each type varies on the support equipment needed, depth capability, time period to stay at certain/particular depth. The deepest of technical diving is around 332m while free diving goes to about 220m. It is known that people do dive for a specific purpose up to slightly more than 600m with special suits etc.
2. There are cases where Commercial divers will also have to stay at certain depth for days/weeks to complete their task at extreme depth. I know some commercial divers who do actually wear dive watches during their duties. They will have to stay inside a hyperbaric chamber that normalise the atmospheric level, so wearing such watch at that depth inside a chamber is not an issue. The issue starts with accuracy of time when they go out the chamber and this is probably why COMEX issue the Rolex during those days. To make it redundant and conservatives, they utilise special kind of dive computer and other support equipment to help them in this. When COMEX is active, dive computer are super expensive and non-practical at that time.
3. I can basically understand why even non-divers love Dive Watch. It is not about what it do, it is about how it was done, apart from the historical facts, designs and mass-culture popularity. Appreciating the technicality is what it is behind us loving the watch we have especially automatic. It would be cool to understand the function of the rotating bezel for dive purposes and how those can be manipulated. The picture above was taken during one of my dives when my dive computer had its strap broken. I went conservative and did all the manual calculation. It feels cool being conversative despite the hassle of calculating.
Hope this gives a clear input. If there are saturation diver out there that find my info incorrect, kindly post up the rectification.
