Apeks, my favorite regulators, have come out with a new line of regulators which have an integrated LCD in the first stage which informs the operator if it's "healthy" enough to dive.

So just by glancing at the top of your first stage regulator, you can see if the reg is up to snuff or needs to be serviced. It's a very cool idea in principle and a perfect gift for your techno-gadget-diver-geek.

Here is how it works. The first stage has a very small integrated microprocessor that reads the intermediate pressure of the first stage and calculators if it's within the manufacturers tolerance range and displays a simple status message, like "OK" or "SVC".

Another interesting feature is that it has a timer/calendar to calculate how long it's been since you last serviced it, so this is like the regulator equivalent of the "check oil light".

The status unit is powered by a battery that will need to be replaced every two years.

The unit is on the new line of regulators in the XTX product line and cannot be retrofitted to existing Apeks regulators. You can see which here, on the rather horrible Apeks website. Strangely, they are still using John Bennett, who died diving, to promote their regulators.