I’ve by no means been seasick earlier than. However proper now, I’m gripping the edges of a pink and white buoy that’s heaving from side to side, on the mercy of a recent two-meter swell rising out of the Pacific, and I desperately have to puke. Throughout me, raindrops scatter the floor of Potrero Bay because it rises and falls, however I don’t really feel them beneath the thick three.5mm hood of my wetsuit. “Are you OK?” my teacher Gauthier Ghilain asks, his involved eyes piercing my fogged, low-volume masks. My abdomen is in knots, stopping me from drawing deep breaths. The fixed tossing of the buoy adjustments the positioning of the dive line, making it extraordinarily disorienting to trace underwater. I ought to be specializing in the horizon, however I look on the Citizen Aqualand on my wrist as a substitute, its depth-gauge historical past studying a present max dive depth of solely round 40 toes — effectively in need of the day’s targets. I’m harassed, and my general consolation stage is extraordinarily low, leading to a coronary heart fee that’s far greater than it ought to be — notably for the self-discipline of freediving, which calls for complete leisure so as to totally activate the physique’s secret “aquatic mode” that allows one to carry one’s breath for minutes at a time and dive with out the restrictions that come pre-programmed into our land-dwelling brains.
“I really feel like shit,” is essentially the most articulate response I can muster. “So do I,” he nods, half-grinning with all of the reassurance of an elite athlete having fun with a house courtroom benefit. Even when he’s mendacity, the tactic works. We’re each struggling, so I press on, combating to regain composure. It’s what years of aggressive biking have taught me: not easy methods to duck-dive with grace, or easy methods to equalize the stress in my ears whereas upside-down utilizing the extra environment friendly Frenzel technique, however easy methods to dig deeper and undergo just a bit longer than the man subsequent to me. I watch for the following curler to move, launch my grip on the buoy, and awkwardly kick ahead, physique nearly forming the proper “L” form, and I plunge again down the swaying yellow line.
The brand new Citizen Promaster Aqualand (ref. BN2038) isn’t a purpose-built freediving watch, per se, however as a substitute extra of a rudimentary analog dive laptop that tracks time, present depth, and a reminiscence of most depth as much as 70 meters, which ought to be greater than ample for many adventurous scuba or freedivers. Must you enterprise to go deeper, you’re in all probability diving with a wrist laptop, as effectively, however don’t fear — the Promaster is water-resistant to 200 meters. Monitoring depth at a look is straightforward: Present depth is learn by the red-arrow hand, which rests within the “zero” place pointing to three o’clock. Now, pink isn’t a completely sensible colour for an important aspect in a dive watch’s handset, as pink is without doubt one of the first within the spectrum to fade after descending as few as 20 toes. Fortunately, the depth hand is stuffed with blue lume that contrasts the inexperienced luminous plots across the dial, so it stays extremely legible at any depth. Tucked beneath this arrow is a white max-depth reminiscence indicator, which remembers your most up-to-date most depth, essential for calculating security stops or floor intervals between repeated dives. This depth will be recalled or reset forward of your subsequent dive utilizing the pushers on the alternative aspect of the case.
The Aqualand additionally homes a cost indicator (or an influence reserve, to crib some mechanical-watch parlance) and a really conservative ascension alarm that beeps for those who’re returning to the floor too rapidly — in fact not important when freediving, as one could floor as expediently as one’s “urge to breathe” dictates, with out damage — however it may show important when scuba diving the place a comparable situation may show lethal. And identical to previous Aqualand fashions, all of those capabilities are, roughly, hidden behind a basic three-hand timekeeping visage till the watch head is immersed in water, the place a small, gold-colored sensor tucked flush into the caseband at three o’clock prompts a secondary aquatic mode and the actual enjoyable begins.
Just like the Aqualand, the human physique additionally accommodates its personal hidden water-activated mode referred to as the “mammalian diving reflex,” which collectively refers to a series response of physiological responses that happen throughout the physique when the face comes into contact with water. Individually, every of those responses is comparatively benign, however collectively they signify one thing rather more attention-grabbing: an evolutionary survival response that overrides the essential techniques governing the physique’s homeostasis, enabling it to dive deeper or longer on a single breath. In very broad strokes, consider the dive reflex as the precise reverse of the acute stress response (additionally referred to as “battle or flight”), which discharges the sympathetic nervous system to primarily weaponize the physique, steeling it towards perceived assault with adrenaline and elevated blood movement to the extremities. Conversely, the dive reflex slows the whole lot down — notably coronary heart and mind exercise, whereas shifting blood movement from the extremities to core important organs (coronary heart, lungs, mind), and contracting the spleen to launch blood into the circulatory system, thereby rising accessible oxygen, earlier than all of these oxygen shops are re-routed to the guts and mind — all of that is initiated the moment I draw my final breath, launch my snorkel and duck my face beneath the floor of the churning sea.
The BN2038 isn’t the primary Aqualand with Citizen’s Eco Drive caliber J250 execution (a solar-charged, quartz-powered motion with the aforementioned dive issues), however it’s extraordinarily essential to notice that this version has been mercilessly shrunk from the equally outfitted 53mm monster that’s the Promaster Aqualand BN2029 to a much more manageable 46mm. Granted, it does lose the sapphire crystal and among the extra premium ending of the BN2029, however I’d contemplate it a good tradeoff to have a watch that’s markedly extra snug to put on.
Plus, keep in mind that many of the visible footprint of the Aqualand belongs to the water-pressure sensor at 9 o’clock, and the pushers at eight and 10, which recall or reset the utmost depth indicator, respectively. Additionally rather more manageable within the re-creation are the 22mm lugs, a 16.5mm case top, and a superbly wearable 52mm lug-to-lug size, the mix of which makes it a snug day by day put on along with being an abundantly succesful dive software. However whereas these conservative dimensions recommend a broader function and attraction than previous Aqualand fashions, they don’t betray the unique purpose-built, instrument roots of the Aqualand itself.
