diver pearl origin?

[yodaddynukka]

what is the history of the pearl on diver watches? i guess i can do some research but i want some RWG dollars!!!!

[GhostfaceZX]

Yes, someone please do tell Even my Citizen Eco Drive has a faux pearl.

[Guest overboosted]

Yeah, good question. I assume real pearls do not have luminescence properties. Or do they? If they don't than I assume no watches have real pearls, so why do they call them pearls?

So many questions.

[JWR]

I assume no watches have real pearls, so why do they call them pearls?

I assume it's the resemblance to a real pearl. on a gen submariner the texture is quite astonishing.

[GhostfaceZX]

I guess the question is why is it called a pearl.

[yodaddynukka]

thanks for the insight!

When you dive it is quite common for it to be dark down there... murky water or even just the light dissipation by depth. So the lume at the pearl and the hands gives you a way to time your dive. When you start you put the glowing pearl at the minutes hand and dive. Then later even if it's dark you can see the orientation of the minutes hand to the pearl (the angle) and get a good idea of the timing. Your decompression stops on the way back up are often in low light conditions too, and the lume helps you keep track of minutes.

This is why a minutes hand is lumed along its length, not just a blob at the tip. You can see the angle of the glowing hand relative to the pearl... a glowing blob is very hard to make sense of underwater.