It's all about timing. Pardon the pun. Nothing before the release of a standard can be expected to comply to a later level of compliance. That's why standards have an inception date. As Rene points out in this case, 1996.
Everything after that date either complies or doesn't. Standards just codify a common desire for all things to be at a certain socially or technically accepted level. It gives assurance on certain matters. So do dive watch before 1996 comply? Maybe, maybe not. Are they still dive watches? Yes. By dent of there right to exist.
