I like to see myself as the outdoors type, I like scuba diving, yachting, kayaking and cycling, so I feel I fall within the scope of the outdoors lifestyle. Even into my 50s I still run, although not all that fast, I still get out there. Likewise, I am still doing weight training, although that is not as frequent as I would hope.

So, as an outdoors type, I still prefer a sports style watch for my daily wear. Yes, I have a dress watch, but that is hardly worn, except under a dress shirt and jacket. So, for most activities, the sports style watch suits my personal preferences best as it suits both my personal style and is robust enough for most sporting activities.

The main category of sports watch are:

1. Dive.
2. Pilot.
3. Yacht timer.
4. Racing chronograph.

Ok, since I am a diver, a dive watch is mandatory, even though I dive with a computer these days, I still backup my dive plan with a dive watch. Firstly, you need to get to the dive centre on time, a dive computer, with the exception of Suunto dive watch designs won’t do that. I need to time decompression stops, bottom time and surface intervals, I do that with my dive watch. For me, I like to know my bottom time, or each level if a multi-level dive. Whilst any mechanical mechanism can fail, an electronic device is more likely to let you down on a dive, so a dive watch, analogue depth timer and written dive plan suit my purposes.

A pilot watch is interesting, there was a genuine requirement for an aviator timepiece during the second world war. The pilot’s watches manufactured for the Luftwaffe by IWC is pretty much the design standard with large angled crown, 12 o’clock triangle marker. The IWC Big Crown was pretty much the standard for pilot’s watch, first manufactured in the mid 1930s, the pilot’s watch had a high degree of robustness, was capable of serious temperature fluctuations and had a large crown for easy setting with gloves on.

The yacht timer is a different take on a proven complication, a chronograph is used to countdown from a 10 minute warning gun. Most fleets these days operate on a five minute warning, some multi fleet match racing regattas operate on a three minute countdown. Yacht racing can be a crash and bash sport with a watch getting bashed around, I have had $120 digital race timers caught in ropes and sails that have been ripped from my wrist before three bounces on the deck and into the water so there is no way you would see a Rolex Yachtmaster or Yachtmaster II on my wrist when I was actually racing.

The classic chronograph is related to motor racing from the Omega Speedmaster, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, Heuer Carrera, Carrera Monaco and Zenith El Primero. The Heuer Autavia was a dash mounted chronograph that later became a wrist mounted timepiece. The 1960s and early 1970s was a golden era for motor racing and this was reflected in the fashion for the time period. The 1960s was the time of the chronograph, this was a popular complication at the time that was based on functionality, these were genuine tool watches well before the luxury status was even considered.