Here's a definition posted by someone going under the name "Isthmus", on the WatchUSeek Dive Watch Forum, July 30, 2007, at 16:33:

To me the characteristics that define a tool watch are first and foremost the same that define good quality tools (such as craftsman home tools and other similar brands):>

• First and foremost they are designed to perform a specific duty and perform it well.

• The design of the tool is defined by it's duty with minimal design influences being given over to styling features that add little or nothing to functionality.

• Overall design is usually simple, specific and deliberate.

• Overall build quality and construction is solid and well within the tolerances of the intended job. the tool is not over designed or so overbuilt that the added features and/or tolerances are essentially unusable for the overwhelming majority of uses.

• The manufacturer has a history of standing by his product and his choices in design and construction, and chooses to make the tool/product available to users and consumers at a reasonably affordable (notice I did not say cheap) and attainable price.

I should state that wherever possible I try to purchase many products besides tools and watches using as much of the standard described as possible.

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:
: I'm not sure that I have ever seen a standard
: definition, or any definition that is widely
: accepted, but I tend to think of a
: "tool watch" as any watch that is
: built for a special purpose, beyond simply
: indicating the time.

: Yes, the gold watch may be built to look
: pretty, and the diamond-encrusted watch may
: be built to make the statement that "I
: am rich", but those do not qualify as
: "tool watches".

: I believe that an alarm watch is a tool watch
: (as it performs the function of waking the
: wearer or reminding the wearer of the time);
: the divers watch is definitely a tool watch,
: as it is built for the purpose of allowing
: the diver to know the time (or even the
: elapsed time) in a specific environment.

: Sometime soon, maybe some of us can seek a
: better definition. Until then we can use the
: approach taken by the United States Supreme
: Court, in writing about pornografy . . .
: difficult to define in words, but I know a
: tool watch when I see it!!

: Jeff

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