First used in watches in 1978, by the International Watch Co. (also commonly known as IWC) located in Schaffhausen Switzerland and was partially owned by Ferdinand Porshe in that era, the company utilized Titanium to produce the world's first watch bracelet. On the heels of this success, the company designed an entire Titanium case and bracelet for another watchmaker in 1980 although that company was subsequently forced to withdraw from the project leaving IWC - a maker of internal movements at that time - to take complete control of the manufacturing process for titanium cases.
Making a watch out of titanium was not a trivial process and IWC managed to refine the process of creating polished titanium watch cases down to a fine art. They released the world's first chronograph watch in Titanium that originally sold for around $1300 - a bargain considering how revolutionary the engineering process was at the time.
The trend caught on and titanium watches are now everywhere. Nearly every watch manufacturer on earth has a titanium watch within their product lines. The Citizen watch company is the largest, using titanium in their sports and diving watches. Titanium is 30% stronger and 50% lighter than steel, is corrosive resistant, and hypoallergenic. While it is more expensive than steel, can scratch easily and stain, watch makers like Citizen overcomes these problems with a glass multi-layer coating that prevents scratching.
There are several factors that have led to the increase in the number of diving watches that use Titanium in their cases. Titanium is the ideal case material for dive watches due to it's strength, lightness and resilience in seawater environments. Titanium watches feel lighter on the wrist and there is an abundance of Titanium metal available.
The list of dive watch makers who utilize Titanium metal is endless, Seiko, Citizen, Omega, Rolex and Invicta and the list goes on... Prices tend to start around $250 for these watches and can retail for much higher in the top quality watches. More titanium dive watches are being produced every year. From space age material, to a practical underwater, deep sea resistant watch case for divers, the titanium trend is likely to continue for many years to come.
**Visit Amazon.com to learn more about Titanium Dive Watches.
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