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Last Updated: March 11, 2023

The Teric is Shearwater's watch-sized dive computer!

Buying any Shearwater dive computer is an investment in a great piece of equipment that will last you many years. The Teric is no exception. This is a watch sized dive computer that meets the needs of Technical and Free Divers.  

The Teric will serve you well in shallow reefs, deep wrecks, and cave diving, and is small enough to be used as an every day watch. 

This has all the functionality you'd expect from Shearwater Research, plus a bit more. 

Shearwater Teric Front and Back

If you already know the Teric is for you, click the button below to see the latest price and availability on House of Scuba. 

Click on the link below to see the answer to your most pressing question, or keep scrolling to read the entire Shearwater Teric review. 

Teric Dive Computer - At a glance

Shearwater Teric - what you get
  • Recreational, Technical and Free Diving Modes
  • Sapphire crystal window, and 316 stainless bezel and buttons
  • 1.39" full color, high resolution easy-to-read display with deep blacks
  • Optional Air Integration with up to 2 transmitters
  • 3 axis, tilt compensated Digital Compass
  • Bluetooth Smart technology, and wireless charging via docking station
  • Bluetooth Smart technology, and wireless charging via docking station
  • Four button Menu interface
  • Customizable Display
  • Multiple Languages
Shearwater Teric

What’s the difference between the Shearwater Teric and the Perdix AI?

Watch sized dive computers are usually more expensive than traditional dive computer with similar capabilities.

That being said, the Shearwater Teric includes additional features not found on the Perdix AI. It doesn't replace the Perdix AI - it just has different features.  

Features and functions on the Shearwater Teric that are not on the Perdix AI include:

  • Free diving mode - this has Ascent and Descent indicators suited for free diving, and logging can be configured down to 1 second intervals.
  • Timepiece Mode - The Teric is small enough to be worn as an every day watch, and comes with a selection of watch faces.
  • Configurable 4 button menu (versus the 2 button menu on the Perdix AI) - you can set one button to give you one-press access to specific functions.
  • Options for Haptic (vibration) and audible alarms.
  • 316 Marine Grade stainless steel case and menu buttons.
  • AMOLED Display - this gives exceptional readability underwater with very vivid colors.
  • A sapphire crystal display - Sapphire crystal is scratch resistant.
  • Customizable Home Screen options.
  • Rechargeable battery (the Teric is charged by placing the unit on its docking station).
  • Options for 5 different color bands, or changeable with any other 22 mm watch band type.

Dive Computer Capabilities

Shearwater Research Teric Dive Computer Capabilities

What's the price difference between the Teric and the Perdix?

You can buy the Shearwater Research Perdix AI for under $1300 including the Air Transmitter. If you go with the Perdix AI without the transmitter, these are currently selling for around $950 USD.

The Shearwater Teric on it's own is priced anywhere between $1095 and $1200. With the air transmitter included, this comes in between $1500-$1600.  

The Teric has 5 Diving Modes, including Free Diving

Teric Dive Computer Free Dive Mode
  • Improved ascent and descent rate indicators
  • Configurable sampling rates
  • Configurable haptic and audible alarms for depth and time (can be disabled)
Teric Dive Computer Dive Modes

Optimized for Free Diving

The Freedive Mode shares most features with other dive modes, but it also has several unique features.

This mode has Freedive focused Information screens, including Last Dive Time and Max Depth displayed on home screen. By default, the Freedive mode uses the Big Layout. Like in OC Rec and Gauge Mode, in Freedive Mode, the right home screen slot can be customized in the Big Layout.

As decompression tissues are not tracked during Freedive Mode, changing to or from Freedive Mode resets the deco tissues.

The Free Dive Mode features are:

  • High Speed depth sampling - 4 samples / second
  • Fully customizable auditory and vibration alerts
  • Ascent / descent shown in feet per second (fps) or meters per second (mps) instead of fpm / mpm.
  • Quick Log Tagging

Click to play

Teric Dive Computer - The Bells & Whistles

Shearwater's focus is on innovative and simple displays to keep the most important information easy to read. 

Screen Display - The display is sapphire glass which is scratch resistant and comes in as a 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness. There's very few things that will scratch it. Diamond is a 10 on the Mohs scale so would be an example of something that can scratch sapphire. Quartz, for comparison is a 7.

Full color, high resolution, AMOLED Display - The display is 1.39" (35.3 mm) across with deep blacks, and vivid color. There's a BIG LAYOUT display setting to enable larger fonts. This can eliminate the need for "gauge readers".

Shearwater Research Teric Dive Computer customizable screen

4 Button Menu - Shearwater dive computers have always been intuitive when it comes to navigating the menu. The Teric has a 4-button menu so it's become even easier. You can program one of the 4 buttons so that it gives one-press access to either the diving or watch tools such as the stopwatches, compass, log tagging, etc. 

Home Screen Options - Instead of a mini compass on the home screen, there's a North Arrow that moves around the outer edge of the watch. The home screen can be customized to show tissue graphs on the outer edges of the watch face. 

Scuba Cave Diving

The Teric automatically turns itself on and enters Dive mode as soon as it's submerged. It doesn't have wet contacts so this is based on the increase in pressure, and not on the presence of water. Although you should always turn on the computer before each dive to check the battery level and its setup, this feature is a backup in case you forget to turn it on. When auto-on is activated, the Teric defaults to the last configured dive mode.

It's easy to customize this dive computer to display what's important to you. The dive number can also be changed - It doesn't have to start at Dive #1. It can be adjusted to match the actual number of dives you've done.

Optional Wireless Air Integration (AI)

Teric Dive Watch Silver
Shearwater Research Teric Dive Computer Air Transmitters

The Teric has the capability to connect wirelessly to a PPS air transmitter. This is an optional accessory. The transmitters are not included in the price of the Teric. If you don't want wireless air integration, not a problem, or your budget doesn't stretch this far at the moment, then the transmitters are something that you can invest in later on.

Every Shearwater air transmitter has a unique serial number. The transmitter is screwed into the first stage of your regulator, and the serial number is entered into the Teric the first time you use it.

It can connect to either one or two transmitters which gives you the option of monitoring two tanks and allowing for side mount diving.

Bluetooth Smart - Connect your Teric to all your devices

Sometimes, the little things that make all the difference.

Shearwater Research Teric Dive Computer Download Dive Logs

Download and display dive logs quickly with Bluetooth Smart technology.

The Teric dive computer comes with Bluetooth. This lets you to download your dive logs from the dive computer effortlessly to your phone, desktop or tablet. This is Mac Windows, iOS and Android compatible. You can then view, edit and synchronize your dive logs. 

Bluetooth also makes regular firmware updates and upgrades very easy. The computer does all the work.

Bluetooth Smart - Connect your Teric to all your devices

Sometimes, the little things that make all the difference.

Research Shearwater - Download Dive Logs

Download and display dive logs quickly with Bluetooth Smart technology.

The Teric dive computer comes with Bluetooth. This lets you to download your dive logs from the dive computer effortlessly to your phone, desktop or tablet. This is Mac Windows, iOS and Android compatible. You can then view, edit and synchronize your dive logs. 

Bluetooth also makes regular firmware updates and upgrades very easy. The computer does all the work.

What about the Teric's Watch Functions?

On the surface, the Watch Mode is the default mode for the Teric. In Watch Mode, it will always remain on, but in order to preserve battery, the Teric will turn off after 20 minutes if it detects no motion. If the dive computer is left in Dive Mode at the surface, it will timeout after 15 minutes and switch back to Watch Mode. 

Watch Faces

The Teric is able to display 3 different style watch faces. These are Analog, Digital and Orbits. Each watch face can be displayed with varying amounts of information. There are 15 different watch face colors to choose from giving over 100 possible watch face appearances.

Shearwater Research Teric Dive Computer Watch Face Options

Watch Tools

Access to the Watch Tools is only available when in Watch Mode. This gives access to all of the basic watch features including the Alarms, Timer, Stopwatch, Flashlight and watch face selection functions. There are two available options for time format, 12-hours and 24-hours.

Alarms

Two independent alarms can be set, and a snooze duration is adjustable. Each alarm can be scheduled to go off once a day, Everyday, only on Weekdays, or only on Weekends. The Alarms in Watch Mode do not share notification settings with the Dive Mode alerts. 

Timer

The Teric’s timer runs in the background, and can be edited to count down up to 10 hours. The timer will run in the background and a DONE notification will sound even if the watch is “turned off”.

Teric Watch Timer
Teric Watch Timer

Stop Watch

The stopwatch will run across all modes on the Teric. For example, a stopwatch started in Watch Mode will continue in any diving mode until it's stopped. By default, the stopwatch is displayed on the home screen in Freedive and Gauge Mode, but it can be included to show in any dive mode. The stopwatch has a 10 millisecond resolution and will run for up to 24 hours in the background, even when the Teric is “turned off”. 

Flashlight

The flashlight function turns the Teric screen on full brightness to provide an emergency light source. This function is only useful in the darkest of rooms or caves.

Teric Dive Computer Strap Options

Shearwater Teric Dive Computer Strap Colors

Shearwater includes a durable, stretchy silicone black strap with the Teric. This is designed to grip a wet suit or dry suit without sliding around. An extender strap is also included, if you need extra length.

 

The strap is fastened to the Teric via stainless steel watch lugs. These can be easily removed and replaced with two standard 1.5 mm hex screwdrivers which are also included in the box, along with additional lug screws.


The straps are an optional extra at an additional cost. The strap size is 22 mm so this makes it easy to switch to most other 3rd party band options. 

Shearwater Teric Strap Color Range

Check Strap options on Amazon

Water Salinity Adjustments

The Teric doesn't measure water depth directly. It measures the water pressure then converts this to depth based on the assumed density of water.

Salinity settings on the Teric can be set to Fresh, EN13319, or Salt. The EN13319 value is between Fresh and Salt and is the European CE standard for dive computers. Teric's default value setting is EN13319. 

The density values used for each setting is:

  • Freshwater = 1000 kg/³
  • EN13319 = 1020 kg/m³
  • Salt Water = 1030 kg/m³
Teric Dive Watch Front View

Which Decompression Model does Shearwater Research use?

Shearwater Research design and manufacture their trimix dive computers with the most demanding technical divers in mind. The standard decompression model is Bühlmann ZHL-16C with Gradient Factors (GF).

The Teric is a watch sized dive computer
Shearwater Teric Dive Computer

What Maintenance is required for the Teric?

Wash your dive computer with fresh water at the end of each dive in salt water to remove salt and other contaminants. Never allow salt deposits to build up. Detergents or other cleaning agents will damage the Teric, so only use fresh water when rising.

Never wash with high-pressure water as it may damage the depth sensor. Allow the dive computer to dry naturally before storing. Keep it out of direct sunlight in a cool, clean, dry and dust-free environment.

Avoid over exposure to direct ultraviolet radiation (the sun). It also doesn't like radiant heat.

The Verdict?

Teric Dive Watch Silver
Shearwater Teric Box

Ready to buy a Shearwater Teric with a wireless air transmitter?


Click the button below to see the current price and any discounts that may apply for the Shearwater Research Teric Dive Computer at Amazon or The House of Scuba.

3.3/5 - (35 votes)

About the Author

Sharon McKenzie

Sharon McKenzie is an Advanced Certified Scuba Diver who loves to explore the ocean depths. She is an advocate for marine and eco conservation, promoting sustainable products. In her free time, Sharon also enjoys paddleboarding and snorkeling. She has two upcoming diving expeditions to Bali and the Great Barrier Reef, which are destinations she has always wanted to explore.

Author Web Link

Sharon McKenzie - Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Snorkeling

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  • Yet to buy this but it looks like such an amazing dive computer. Definitely, one to put on my Christmas wish list.

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