Oris Aquis Montres

While £1,000 won’t get you the best watch—not by a long shot—it can still get you a good watch, and even a great one. Choose carefully, do the research, and you’ll find something worth hanging on to—or you can cheat and let us suggest something instead.

Not everyone has the means or desire to shell out the increasing amounts of money for a Rolex Submariner, but that doesn't mean that an exceptional dive watch need be off the cards. The entry-level Oris Divers Sixty-Five is a vintage-inspired treat starting at £1,270—but twice the price will secure Tudor's Black Bay. Is it worth it?

Watches have always played a big part not only in adventure and exploration, but also in one of the more unfortunate possible outcomes of those pursuits—emergency rescue. Breitling, for example, released a whole line of watches dedicated to aiding stranded pilots with its Emergency series, and even Apple watches feature an SOS beacon feature.

Since the introduction of quartz movements, programmable computers and micro-sensor technology, the mechanical dive watch has become to diving what the horseshoe is to motoring. The day of the tool watch, with its ticking, clicking, pulsing innards, is done, dead, gone. Or is it?