I've known for a few months that the Marathon TSAR is pretty damn close to perfect as dive watches go. It's constructed to endure all sorts of abuse. It's uni-directional bezel and crown are easy to grab on to and designed to integrate with big hands and/or neoprene gloves. Instead of the normal painted on luminous markers and hands, there are Tritium vials that produce an intense amount of light. There's even a date wheel at 4:30 to make the TSAR topside friendly as well. True to it's 'Government' designation, the TSAR features military time references inside of it's marker track.
The final test, of course, for any dive watch is what happens when it's in the drink. I've tested many dive watches that looked great on terra firma but fell apart quickly when they got wet. The Marathon TSAR comes to the dance in the actual diving department. For a dive watch to pass muster, it needs to do four things in my book: remain waterproof in actual diving conditions, have an elapsed time bezel that stays where you put it, be easy to read in all light conditions, and stand up to the brushes and bangs that are inherent to diving. On all counts, the Marathon TSAR is top notch!
I do a lot of diving and usually wear a Seiko Orange Monster for my underwater exploits - with the Marathon in my stable, it's now tough to decide which watch to wear! They're both really perfect.
The TSAR is a quartz watch (Swiss movement), a choice that I think has a lot of merit for a watch that you probably won't wear everyday. No worries about 'power failure' since I'll change the battery every year when I pressure test the TSAR.
The bezel of the TSAR is just over 41mm and the watch is almost 14mm thick. If you intend to have the TSAR double as a 'desk diver', you'll want to be sure that you wear shirts with some room in the cuff area - it's a little bit thicker than most owing to the block-like construction of the stainless steel case and its chunky bezel.
Much more of an instrument company than a marketing machine, Marathon is seriously immersed in the government contract business. The TSAR is currently on the wrists of Canadian SAR operatives and NASA divers. Luckily, unlike a lot of government-specific products, the TSAR is very reasonably priced - under $500 US currently. County Comm is the US-based Distributor - they are a great group of people and have all sorts of interesting stuff besides watches - buy there with confidence.
As an aside, if you wind up getting a TSAR, add a few of the ZULU nylon straps to your order.... the TSAR looks great when it's wearing one.
