This James Bond Accessory Is a Michigan Summer Essential

Lake Charlevoix — Yachts dot expanses of clear, blue water. The cool breeze cuts the warm sun. There’s an international crime syndicate hunting you and tracking your every move on the otherwise tranquil lake.

At least it feels that way when you have a real old-fashioned dive watch on your wrist. There’s no easier way to feel like James Bond than to wear a timepiece you can take on the lake day after day.

I used to wear an Apple Watch, and I liked it. It kept me dialed into my notifications and told me when I wasn’t exercising enough.

But somewhere along the way, I realized the tech would age like the first “Mission Impossible” movie. How would the glass and metal square on my wrist look in family vacation photos 10 years from now?

I also realized that the notifications and all its features were distracting me. It’s true that the Apple Watch can do almost everything, but I wanted something that would just tell me the time.

Weren’t there things that used to do just that?

I was also hesitant to jump in the lake with such sparkly, high-priced tech: What would happen if water got into it during one of my legendary vacation cannonballs? Or what if sand got in it? Or a stray rock scratched its pristine screen?

I decided to take the plunge and bought myself a Seiko dive watch. They’re a great price for fully automatic watches with jewel-laden internals. They are renowned for quality, and the rugged build should last a lifetime if treated with respect.

It also has a one-way rotating bezel so divers know how long they’ve been underwater. I don’t need this feature, but I love it. I use it to mark how long the kids are in timeout or how long the banana bread needs in the oven.

I’ll probably never use it to time out exactly when the C-4 will detonate—but I could.

In all of the James Bond movies with Daniel Craig, he’s got a dive watch on his wrist. And it’s the only thing Jason Bourne has to his name when he’s picked up by a fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea.

Granted, most of us can’t shell out $7,000 for a new Omega Seamaster. But there are options for normies to get most of the features they need for a fraction of that price.

The Seiko 5 Sports collection has sturdy timepieces that start at around $300. Other brands have comparable internal movements. But the more complicated things get, the more expensive the watches become.

As long as the watch tells time with accuracy and matches your style, it’s doing its job—no explosive timer or EMP generator required.

And that's the real-life beauty of the dive watch. It does one thing really well, and depending on the kind you get, are often water resistant to over 300 feet.

So you don’t have to worry about the spray on the pontoon or jumping off a dock into the lake or going down a waterslide or looking for agates along Superior’s stunning coasts.

Besides its functionality, it’s effortlessly cool. It looks as good by a white linen shirt on the beach as it does peaking out from the sleeve of a navy blazer at the Mackinac Policy Conference.