IWC GST Deep One Service & Repair Guide

Watch Commission's IWC GST Deep One, a significant timepiece from his scuba diving days, faces the challenge of restoration after water ingress. His journey to revive this iconic titanium dive watch, known for its unique mechanical depth gauge, offers valuable insights into the complexities and costs associated with servicing vintage IWC sports watches. This article explores the community's perspective on preserving such a historically important reference.

Wish me luck! I am going to try to save this watch, one of my old favourites.

 This is the IWC - GST - Deep One IW3527, and was one of IWC’s best ideas. I bought this in 2000 when I was really into scuba diving, planning all my free time around my obsession at that time. 

The Deep One was a flagship piece in the GST collection. It was one of the great titanium watches for the company, with an internal rotating dive bezel, and a technology that recorded the maximum depth of a dive purely based on atmospheric pressure. The design language led the line, a clear and technical language that makes visual sense.

Unfortuntaly it never worked 😕 The concept was ambitious, but difficult to maintain.

On a dive last year water got into the case. Not sure how, I have been a diver for quite some time and I know the crowns were appropriately screwed down. Having said that, it’s a 25 year old watch that had never been serviced. I’m sure the seals were dried out, and I’m equally sure that I'm a dumbass, in that order of likelihood. Everything internally is seized, probably frozen in crystalline salt, and the dial is completely discolored. It’s supposed to be yellow where it isn't black or white.

The watch was introduced a year before I bought it. I was so in love with this thing, it proudly joined my Rolex Sea Dweller that I had bought in 1997. The GST line produced some of the best-looking watches, but at some point in 2005 IWC decided to rebrand the line the Aquatimer and got rid of most of the complications. I also have a Galapagos Aquatimer, as well as a GST Chronograph that was designed together with Prada. I love that watch, I wore it when my middle son was born in 2004. 

I dropped this off at my hometown IWC boutique, let’s see if they can resurrect it. I told my friend who manages the boutique that all I want is the watch to tell time, I actually like the discoloured bezel, and I don’t need it to record my dive depth. I just love wearing it.

Let's see what IWC says once they receive the watch in Schaffhausen.