If you’re going to engage in some highly volatile pursuits, take one of these virtually indestructible timepieces with you.

FANCY YOURSELF a daredevil? When you’re not short-straddling the SIMEX just for kicks, you’re free-climbing Denali, base-jumping Victoria Falls or encasing yourself in a block of ice for a week. (Oh, sorry, that’s not you; that’s David Blaine.) If so, you need a timepiece equally unafraid of avalanches, G-forces or the type of deep-sea water pressure that can flatten your once-well-rounded torso into something resembling a giant crêpe suzette. You, in other words, need one of these indestructible watches. Strap one to your wrist — and achieve the satisfaction of knowing that at least one of you will survive your lifestyle intact.

Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon TMT Cash: $2,999 Cachet: Designed for Arctic conditions — which, by Ball’s definition, apparently include collapsing glaciers and the realignment of earth’s magnetic field — this watch is equipped with a thermometer that measures temperatures as low as minus-130 Fahrenheit. (Our advice: If it’s that cold, consider heading indoors, because you’ve been dead for quite some time.) Its automatic movement is lubricated with oil specially developed for polar temperatures and is both antimagnetic and shock-resistant to 7,500 Gs (take the watch off before confirming this). Its dial markers and hands are equipped with tiny tritium gas-filled tubes that light up like neon in the four-month-long night. ballwatch.com

Bell & Ross Hydromax 11,100 Meter Cash: $2,400 Cachet: Don’t take the "max" in "Hydromax" lightly. This watch, an automatic, is built to withstand 11,100 meters’ worth of water pressure (which, being some 200 meters deeper than the earth’s deepest known submarine trench, is likely more water resistance than you’ll need). It owes this amazing impermeability to a special type of oil called Hydroil, which fills its case, preventing the outside water pressure from turning the watch into a crumpled piece of foil. There is, unfortunately, no suggestion from Bell & Ross as to how you’re supposed to avoid a similar fate. bellross.com

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