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From: fryback@nlm-vax.ARPA (Dennis Fryback)
Newsgroups: net.rec.scuba
Subject: Casio depth ratings -- read carefully!
Message-ID: <262@nlm-vax.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 3-Aug-85 11:53:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: nlm-vax.262
Posted: Sat Aug  3 11:53:24 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Aug-85 07:23:15 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: NLM/LHNCBC, Bethesda, Md.
Lines: 36

When I bought a casio watch I only glanced through the instruction booklet
rather casually.  Of course when I saw the "50M", "100M" and "200M" labels
I thought the "M" referred to "Meters".  No doubt whoever invented the 
labelling had me in mind....  Since I primarily snorkel and sport dive only
when on vacation where a professional divemaster leads the group and 
rides *very* careful herd on bottom time for everyone in the group, I
did not really need a watch I was going to bet my life on.

Good thing.

Reading the documentation carefully (as I did just before heading off to
St. Croix) one notes that the "M" has no relation whatever to "meters".  It
is much more accurate to think of it as just a catchy label (like numbers
used for names of car models -- "Z-300", etc.).  I don't have the booklet
any more, but as I recall the 50M is water resistant only in the sense that
you can splash it and not worry; or you can shower with it.  Snorkeling in
less than 15 feet is the recommended limit for the 100M.  Shallow sport
diving (e.g., 50 feet) is all the further Casio recommends pushing the
200M.  (This is all from memory, so recheck the figures.)

So read carefully and don't presume the "M" has anything to do with "meters".
Better to think of it as "model": 50M = "model 50"; 100M = "model 100";
etc.  

Readers are left to draw their own conclusions about whether Casio 
intended to suck casual shoppers in with the misleading label or whether it
was just an unfortunant coincidence....

BTW, I'd appreciate hearing about similarly misleading labels on equipment
designed for diving.  I enjoy my limited experience enough to start thinking
about accumulating some of my own stuff.

Dennis Fryback
National Library of Medicine
Bethesda, MD
(fryback@nlm-vax.ARPA)