The timeline of underwater diving technology is a chronological list of notable events in the history of the development of underwater diving equipment. With the partial exception of breath-hold diving, the development of underwater diving capacity, scope, and popularity, has been closely linked to available technology, and the physiological constraints of the underwater environment. Primary constraints are:

Pre-industrial

Industrial era

Start of modern diving

Rebreathers

Diving helmets improved and in common use

The first diving regulators

Gas and air cylinders appear

Underwater photography

Decompression sickness recognised as a problem

According to different sources, the term "The Bends" for decompression sickness was coined by workers of either the Brooklyn or the Eads bridge, and was given because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs in a manner similar to a then-fashionable posture known as the Grecian Bend.

Twentieth century

The demand regulator reappears

World War II

Postwar

Public interest in scuba diving takes off

Twenty-first century