I wasn't tuning in to the livestream but ten friends simultaneously messaged me about this watch since I'm "the scuba diving friend." I currently dive with a Shearwater Perdix which syncs to Shearwater's phone and desktop apps with detailed dive info and graphs, and supports cloud-synced dive logs and equipment notes. It also syncs with a wireless transmitter attached to my tanks to plot my air consumption over the course of the dive. Because of all of this, I can't exclusively use the Apple Watch as my dive computer.
That said, it's not uncommon to dive with multiple computers for redundancy if performing multiple dives in a day, and I'm sure Apple's iOS UI for viewing their dive log will be easier to bring up in a pinch than the Shearwater app, which is a clunky Unity app. I'll probably buy it and dive with both.
But I don't imagine existing avid divers will exclusively be using the Apple Watch as a dive computer until it has air integration and dive log notes (if not already). But for casual divers who dive once a year on vacation and don't already have a computer? This is probably an excellent feature.
Hey, I can bet we probably have at least a few things in common if we hang around in here, reach out anytime. My contact details are in my HN profile. :)
This is also a first step into taking a big bite out of this (niche) market by Apple. As you note, everything now is very veritcal. You pick your computer and then you are locked in to its app, its cloud, and its air integrated units. Now that Apple has cracked this open a bit you are going to see more apps plus air integrated units that support dive computer X _and Apple Watch Ultra_. Breaking the vertical nature of this market and capturing most of the low end is probably going to be the net result when you look back in five or ten years.
I also got a few messages from friends about this watch, but I don't think it will replace the "serious" diving computers for now, the missing dive pod support is already killing it.
Testing it next to a Shearwater (or Ratio, Suunto EON) would be interesting to see the differences in the algorithm. We will probably see a bunch of youtube reviews doing this comparisons.
With what I know so far from the watch, I would really not recommend using it as the only diving computer.
Also the "big buttons with gloves in mind" are kinda funny if I think about diving dry gloves ;)
Have they actually said that it doesn't work with transmitters? I'm trying to find out myself but the "dive computer" functionality comes from an app made by Huish/Oceanic; it might be able to talk to Oceanic transmitters. Dive logs and stuff are in fact available in the companion iOS app.
I didn't follow, does it actually work like a dive computer (calculating deep stops, surface time, time to flight, etc.) or is it just rated for going deep?
That said, it's not uncommon to dive with multiple computers for redundancy if performing multiple dives in a day, and I'm sure Apple's iOS UI for viewing their dive log will be easier to bring up in a pinch than the Shearwater app, which is a clunky Unity app. I'll probably buy it and dive with both.
But I don't imagine existing avid divers will exclusively be using the Apple Watch as a dive computer until it has air integration and dive log notes (if not already). But for casual divers who dive once a year on vacation and don't already have a computer? This is probably an excellent feature.