In my humble experience (three years with a UK1200 - sadly no longer available unless you scour the old dive shops that only have one rusty tank and a crusty first class diver in the back) clunky is good. Mine has seen me through about 120 dives in assorted boats, vans, and pubs. Generally it seems to be unbreakable. The secret is the sheer chunkiness of it all – only two pieces and one hole for the twist switch.

The only problem is when you have to open it every time to charge or change the battery – then inevitably it gets left open for two months on the windowsill between dive trips. This ruins the o-ring and the next time you dive it floods spectacularly just as you enter the wreck (remember look; don't touch, kids!).

My little tip is ditch the rechargeable option and go for good old hearty alkaline batteries. I can get about ten 45-60 min daytime dives out of my torch before needing to change them (ok, it does take 8 D-cells at a time). Further benefits are: no hunting around for the charger, no need to unplug the stereo so you can see on the dive the next day of the dive trip, no "it's the wrong plug, Gromit" disasters, and most important it's a bung load cheaper to buy in the first place. Don't give me any of that "it's more expensive in the long-run" malarkey, now - it's not cheaper if you have to replace the reflector once every year because it floods! The only concession is you'll be helping trash the environment with all those dead batteries – but let's face it the total number of divers throwing away Duracell's each season must be a minority group compared to number of people who turn on a light switch at home, which is run on burned fossil fuels.

That's enough feel good advertising for the moment. Remember - you pay your moneys and you take your choice, but lets not give UK torches a drubbing in the process. And finally; yet another benefit is that you'll also be advertising the good old UK (even if they are made in the USA!).

May your bubbles be always well lit,