Cressi Leonardo Dive Computer Review — The Entry-Level Wrist Unit for Florida Diving

Florida is one of the friendliest places on earth to learn to dive, and most of what you’ll do here for your first hundred dives lives inside a fairly narrow box: reef dives in 30 to 60 feet of clear Atlantic water, spring basins at a constant 72°F, and intro wreck dives — all of it on air or nitrox, all of it inside no-decompression limits. You don’t need a $900 technical computer to do any of that. You need a reliable box on your wrist that tracks depth, no-deco time, and ascent rate, and doesn’t quit on you.

The Cressi Leonardo is built for exactly that diver. It’s a long-running entry-level wrist computer with a single-button interface, Air, Nitrox, and Gauge modes, a big high-contrast display, and a battery you can replace yourself. At around $220, it’s priced to be a new diver’s first computer — and honest about being nothing more than that.

Most Florida diving is no-decompression diving on air or nitrox. The Leonardo does precisely that, and skips the features you won’t use yet.

What It Is

The Leonardo is Cressi’s entry-level recreational wrist computer, aimed squarely at divers buying their first unit instead of renting one. It’s a no-frills no-decompression-limit (NDL) computer — not a technical tool, and it doesn’t pretend to be.

Specs at a glance:

• Interface: Single button (one button cycles every menu and setting)
• Dive modes: Air, Nitrox, Gauge
• Nitrox support: adjustable up to 50% O2
• Algorithm: Cressi RGBM-based, with audible + visual alarms
• Display: Large, high-contrast segment LCD, easy to read
• Battery: User-replaceable (you swap it yourself)
• Form factor: Wrist unit, somewhat bulky
• Price: typically ~$200–250

The single-button interface is the defining design choice. One button does everything — short presses and long holds cycle through depth, time, NDL, the logbook, and the setup menus. It keeps the unit simple and cheap, and there’s nothing to fumble for with cold or gloved hands. It also means setting anything more complex than “start the dive” takes patience.

The RGBM-based algorithm tracks your tissue loading and adjusts no-deco limits accordingly, with both an audible beeper and a flashing visual alert for ascent-rate violations, NDL warnings, and depth ceilings. For recreational Florida diving, that’s the safety net you actually use.

Field Test in Florida

Keys reef, the daytime case. A typical Keys reef dive — Molasses, Looe Key, the Benwood — sits in 30 to 60 feet of bright, clear water with the sun directly overhead. This is where the Leonardo’s big high-contrast screen earns its keep. The large segment digits stay legible in full Florida glare without cupping your hand over the display, which is more than you can say for some smaller-screened budget computers that wash out. Depth, no-deco time, and the ascent-rate indicator are all large and unambiguous.

Springs and caverns, the low-light case. In a spring basin like Ginnie or Blue Grotto, the water is a constant 72°F and the light drops fast as you move toward the cavern zone. The Leonardo’s high-contrast display holds up in dim conditions, and the audible alarm matters here — when you’re watching the geology, a beep that tells you you’re ascending too fast is doing real work. Worth being blunt: this is a recreational NDL computer, not an overhead-environment tool. For anything past light-zone cavern limits you want a dedicated bottom-timer or a cave-rated computer. The Leonardo is the right call for the open-water and cavern-zone diving most visitors actually do.

Intro wrecks and nitrox. Florida’s accessible wrecks — and the repetitive reef-and-wreck days the Keys are built around — are where the Leonardo’s nitrox mode pays off. Running EAN32 or EAN36 (both inside the unit’s 50% ceiling) extends your no-decompression time across the three or four dives a day a Keys trip throws at you. Programming the mix through a single button is fiddly the first time, but you only do it once per fill, and the longer bottom time is a real, repeatable benefit — not a spec-sheet flourish.

The thing it won’t do for you. The Leonardo has no air integration — it does not read your tank pressure. You still carry and watch an SPG, full stop. That’s normal at this price, but if you’re a new diver expecting one wrist unit to show both your depth and your remaining air, this isn’t it.

What Works

• The screen reads everywhere. Big, high-contrast digits that hold up in bright Keys sun and in a dim spring cavern alike. For a budget computer, the display is the standout.
• Nitrox to 50% is genuinely useful. EAN32/36 support extends no-deco time on exactly the repetitive reef and wreck diving Florida is built around.
• User-replaceable battery. Swap it yourself for the price of a coin-cell instead of mailing the unit off for a sealed-battery service. For a diver who travels, that’s real independence.
• Single button means nothing to fumble. Cold hands, gloves, low light — there’s one control and it’s hard to get wrong once a dive is running.
• It’s reliable and cheap-ish. A proven, long-selling entry-level unit at a price that makes buying-over-renting an easy call.

What Doesn’t

• The single-button menu is clunky. The same simplicity that makes it foolproof underwater makes it slow on the surface. Setting nitrox or changing a setting is a patience exercise of presses and holds — you’ll want the manual the first few times.
• No air integration. It doesn’t read tank pressure; you still need an SPG. Expected at the price, but worth stating plainly.
• No digital compass. For navigating reef lines or a spring run, you carry a separate compass.
• No Bluetooth or dive-log download on the base model. The on-device logbook is basic, and you can’t sync dives to your phone. If logging and trip analysis matter to you, that’s a gap.
• Wrist-only and a bit bulky. It’s not a sleek watch you’ll wear to dinner — it’s a dive instrument that lives in your gear bag.
• You’ll outgrow it. This is a first computer. It does no-deco recreational diving and nothing beyond. A diver who gets into technical, decompression, or serious cave diving will move on.

Value

At ~$220, the Leonardo’s job is to be a new diver’s first computer, and it does that job without overcharging for features you can’t use yet. Compare it up the ladder and the picture is clear. The Suunto D5 ($599) adds Bluetooth log sync, a color screen, and broader nitrox support, but costs nearly three times as much. The Mares Puck Pro sits in roughly the same entry-level bracket and competes directly. Air-integrated and technical computers start well above this and add capability you won’t touch on a Keys reef dive.

For the new Florida diver — someone doing reef dives, spring basins, and intro wrecks on air or nitrox inside no-deco limits — the Leonardo hits the brief. You get a dependable NDL computer with a screen you can actually read and a battery you can service yourself, for the price of a couple of charter trips.

Verdict

Buy it if you’re a new or casual recreational diver who wants a reliable, readable, nitrox-capable first computer for Florida reefs, springs, and intro wrecks, and you’re fine carrying an SPG for your air. The Leonardo is honest, durable, and cheap enough that buying beats renting fast.

Pass on it if you want air integration, Bluetooth log download, a compass, or a computer that’ll follow you into technical and cave diving. Those exist — they just cost more, and the Leonardo doesn’t pretend to be them.

The Leonardo earns its 4.3 rating the same way good entry-level gear always does: it does the few things a new Florida diver actually needs, does them reliably, and doesn’t ask you to pay for the rest. That’s a sensible first purchase — and an honest one.