I have never understood those comments either. I mean a 50M WR should be able to withstand more than a splash. I mean my shower or pool is quite a bit less than 50M:-s:-s

 

The bath with soap thing is BS. How do you think they seal piping and pump fittings in plants that make liquid soap? O-rings of course. There is no magic there. I worked in industrial plants that pumped soapy water and seals were no problem. I have worn diving watches in the shower many times and soaped them up to clean them. My wife cleans her jewelery & Rolexes in an efferdent solution.

It is as stupid as the assumption that waving your arm around underwater somehow creates such greater dynamic pressure as to make the watch seals leak. It's all a load of crap.

 

The bath with soap thing is BS. How do you think they seal piping and pump fittings in plants that make liquid soap? O-rings of course. There is no magic there. I worked in industrial plants that pumped soapy water and seals were no problem. I have worn diving watches in the shower many times and soaped them up to clean them. My wife cleans her jewelery & Rolexes in an efferdent solution.

It is as stupid as the assumption that waving your arm around underwater somehow creates such greater dynamic pressure as to make the watch seals leak. It's all a load of crap.

Good to hear, Vince, as I never take mine off....and my new Fortis Marine Master while rated for 200m has a push in crown....another myth is that a screw down crown is required for any decent water resistance:rodekaart

 

I'm far from an expert, but I believe that they are saying that - for examole - a 100m rated watch will withstand still water pressure of 100m. However (a big however) arm movement, etc increases the water pressure well beyond the depth you are at. In other words, if you are at 100m with a 100m rated watch, any currents, arm movements, etc will take the effective pressure well beyond 100m and your watch stands a good chance of leaking.o|

 

That might be what they are saying, but as Vince said, the mount of dynamic pressure you can exert as a result of motion is minute, and will not affect the seals in any way. I suppose if you put the watch in front of a fully open fireman's firehose you might run such a risk, but not under diving conditions.

 

I dont wear any of my high end divers while showering however, I do own a 5 year old G-Shock that has been covered in fuel, oil, hair shampoo, degreasing agents, salt water and various other corrosive fluids.It has also been exposed to countless thermal shocks and recently passed a 20 bar pressure test with flying colours.

There is no doubt that this type of exposure is not good for the seals, but they are not as fragile as some make them out too be!

 

Why would anyone want to wear their watch in the shower? Are you timing your washing efficiency? Do you want to protect your wrist from ever becoming clean?

It can't be that hard to take off your watch before you shower. Just because it can go in the shower doesn't mean it makes sense to do so.

 

Why would anyone want to wear their watch in the shower? Are you timing your washing efficiency? Do you want to protect your wrist from ever becoming clean?

It can't be that hard to take off your watch before you shower. Just because it can go in the shower doesn't mean it makes sense to do so.

I agree, but only if you're at home. If you're at the gym or work and are showering, there's one very good reason for wearing your watch. It's called theft. While a young Marine in Vietnam many years ago now, I lost my Zodiac Sea Wolf to a thief while I was away from my rack taking a shower and I'm STILL pissed. ;-)

 

The only thing you risk by showering with your watch on is the soap scum building up on the back of your watch, and irritating the skin (if your sensitive to that sort of thing.)

The shape and location of the sealing areas of a crown would tend to protect the seal from high dynamic pressure, such as being pulled along with a underwater scooter.

I believe that that list was created by the marketing department of a company trying to increase sales of high WR rated watches.

 

This effect would be so small it would be not measureable.

 

Sounds like a load of Bollocks to me.

 

I agree with Vince. This idea of greatly increased pressure due to thrashing your arm about under water is hogwash.

Assuming you're in an open vessel (like ocean) and not in a sealed tank, the total pressure on a moving object has two components. The dynamic pressure can be calculated and is proportional to the square of the velocity. The hydrostatic pressure can also be calculated and is proportional to the depth.

Without repeating all the calculations here (they involve denominators and the greek alphabet and are PITA to type out), at a depth of 330ft and moving your arm at 3 ft/sec, the dynamic pressure is in the order of magnitude of 0.14 feet of head or 0.04% of the depth. Even assuming you could move your arm at 20 ft/sec (14 mph!) the dynamic pressure is only about 6.2 feet of additional depth (<2%).

 

I agree with Vince. This idea of greatly increased pressure due to thrashing your arm about under water is hogwash.

Assuming you're in an open vessel (like ocean) and not in a sealed tank, the total pressure on a moving object has two components. The dynamic pressure can be calculated and is proportional to the square of the velocity. The hydrostatic pressure can also be calculated and is proportional to the depth.

Without repeating all the calculations here (they involve denominators and the greek alphabet and are PITA to type out), at a depth of 330ft and moving your arm at 3 ft/sec, the dynamic pressure is in the order of magnitude of 0.14 feet of head or 0.04% of the depth. Even assuming you could move your arm at 20 ft/sec (14 mph!) the dynamic pressure is only about 6.2 feet of additional depth (<2%).

thanks for the math prove :-!

can you calculate for me, how fast do i have to move my arm in order for the Sinn U1 (tested to 1250m, according to Sinn, if I remember it correctly) to failed when i am at the bottom of the pool (~2m)? :-d

"Me failed English? That's unpossible!"

 

I'm getting confused :think:. Let's see if I have this right...

My watch and I will be OK so long as I don't flap my arms at greater than 14mph while covered with soap and being shot with a fire hose...Does that about sum it up?

Good, I should be OK then.

Mike

 

I'm getting confused :think:. Let's see if I have this right...

My watch and I will be OK so long as I don't flap my arms at greater than 14mph while covered with soap and being shot with a fire hose...Does that about sum it up?

Good, I should be OK then.

Mike

I did not laugh this hard in a while... way a go mike... makes sense what you said even thou it's funny...

About the shower... isn't the showering with a watch nice and quick way to get the salt off you watch? When you go diving in salted water you take a shower anyways afterwards and showering with a watch is nice and fast way to remove harmfull salt that can damage the seals. (don't have to rince watch separately)

If I'm wrong someone will correct me.

 

damn, I feel a pop quiz coming on...

and I didn't do so well in college.
Oh bother
DW

 

For me, "the truth about water resistance" is immaterial. If it's raining outside, I'll take my 2000M-rated watch off my wrist and put it in an inside pocket till I'm safely in the cab of my truck. :-d:-d:-d

 

Being one who travels extensively in SE Asia, I prefer not to take my watch off in the shower. If you are with two girls, one may steal your watch while you are in the shower with the other. Mongering 101.;-)

 

Hello,

I have read all post, and none of them is mention the forces on the case itself (stainless and crystal). The water resistant part has more to do with the distorsion on the case, which eventually will stop the movement from working.

Imagine, a diving tank, screw on the first stage (the one which will take 200-300 bar of pressure, only with one rubber seal. Most of the time this is ok, but when the rubber seal is somewhat damaged, the seal will leak and you hear an enormous sound of leaking air.

It's also with watches, nowadays, expensive watches use vitton seals (made from adiprene, same material used one the wheels of roller skates). they will last alsmost forever.

Lets go back to the distorsion of the case. A German Watch magazine placed a article about diving watches last year. If a watch is capable of 300m, according to the German ISO-norm, the watch should cope with 350m, before the movement may stop, I say may stop, normally the movement will continue, but with a different amplitude of the movement, thus giving a slightly wrong time after the test.

The biggest part of failing is the crystal, the forces on this big surface will fail the easiest, when entering the maximum depth rate, though it should cope with an overpressure of 125%, before failing.

Hope giving this post a turn, seals will normally not fail, because they are pressure fitted between material (caseback, crown, etc), and thus have some spare..

Bart

 

I think it depends on the soap.

New anti bactereal soap is HELL on seals so I would not consider wearing my watch whilst using such if the rating was anything less than 200m.

 

Here's the bottom line: It is all a bunch of crap propagated by the watch manufacturers to get out of having to provide any warranty service if the watch gets water in it. It is a continuation of the crap they invent which started when they changed the term waterproof to water resistant!

I have been swimming, pool diving, hot tubbing, et al with minimally water "resistant" watches for decades and the only problem I have ever had was with my Rolex GMTII....and that was only because I inadvertently forgot to screw the crown back down after resetting and winding it.

 

Okay, but after reading that, that still doesn't explain why a watch rated to 50 m would be hooped if you took it deep diving.

I've read and understand the rated depths and what they mean you can actually do with your watch. However, I don't scientifically understand why a 100 m watch can't actually be used for scuba diving.

As for showers and hot tubs, I thought the excess heat had something to do with affecting water resistance. Though, wouldn't excess heat cause the O-rings to expand, effectively creating a better seal?

F#$% me, I'm confused.

 

Okay, but after reading that, that still doesn't explain why a watch rated to 50 m would be hooped if you took it deep diving.

I've read and understand the rated depths and what they mean you can actually do with your watch. However, I don't scientifically understand why a 100 m watch can't actually be used for scuba diving.

As for showers and hot tubs, I thought the excess heat had something to do with affecting water resistance. Though, wouldn't excess heat cause the O-rings to expand, effectively creating a better seal?

F#$% me, I'm confused.

You CAN take 100 m watch for diving it's just that no one recomends this. When it comes down to diving everyone thinks SAFETY first. Watch is a backup and as a backup it CAN NOT and SHOULD NOT FAIL. 200m or higer is recomended to "be safe" that watch will not fail at 30 m if something should happen to your dive computer. That's all that is to it really.

This is THE ONLY reason why folks preffer ETA to 7s26 for diving. YOU CAN WIND IT! And if you wind it before the dive it will not stop. Simple. (Even thou I've personally never heard of any automatic that has actually stopped under water, remember you rearly dive for more than 30-60 min). Still folks like to play safe, and sometimes they perhaps overdo things.

 

most manufactureres test there watches to failure, then give a median water resistance rating. anonimo put on the trilogeo 1000m, tested to 2100m. I have 1000m divers that fog up from going from air conditioned to outside high humidity, but just the outside of the crystal. but you can put water resistance to rest by just buying a sinn ux:-!:-d

 

Seiko divers watch..I have a Canadian Seiko divers watch with orange face automatic "movement malaysia" 200 meters and a Seiko "Black Monster " automatic 200 meters. The Canadian version has a second screw at 3:00 for adjusting an inset bezel with compass markings as well as an exteriore bezel. The Black Monster is from the Orient and has an exterior bezel only. The Canadian model is thicker but with the same diameter as the Black Monster. Which is the better or more desireable watch ????

 

I've always liked acrylic crystals. The clarity is great with them and yes, they scratch easily, but the scratches are just as easily polished out. b-)

 

Very true. Hell some of their early divers where rated to 100m. The increases have occurred as minimum ISO standards have changed.

ISO 6425 minimum rating has not changed.

It is still 100m/10 atm minimum, as of the last published revision.

 

Thanks for the correction. I just checked and you are very much correct.

 

OK, so no soap on my dive watch, no swimming with my dive watch, how about golfing, is that OK? :-d:-d:-d

 

NO! The shock of striking the golf ball will mess up its mechanical movement! :-d:-d:-d

 

Along the lines of golfing, if golfing is supposedly bad for an auto, then what about conducting? Anyone here aware of how you move the wrist when conducting music? Is it a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride for your watch?

Regarding watches, WR, very hot water, and lots of chlorine, John of Bathys fame had this to say in another thread:

* = regarding hot tubs...hot tubs are really bad for your watch. Even a 1000M watch can have problems in a hot tub. The problems include the fact that the heat expands the metal case, extra-high level of chlorine in a hot tub can degrade the O-rings, the heat can also cause them to deform, and then the worst problem is that when one goes from the very hot water straight into cold water there can be water that gets trapped in the gaskets that gets "sucked in" when the metal case contracts in the cold water. Taking a shower or swimming in a pool doesn't have these hot/cold cycles or such high levels of caustic chemicals.
If you want to wear your watch in the hot tub (and I wear my Bathys watches in there all the time - even though I probably shouldn't) please give the watch a couple minutes between the hot water and the plunge into cold water....just take your arm out of the water for 3 minutes and let the watch acclimate to ambient. Going from the cold pool into the hot tub doesn't seem to be as much of a problem.

It'd be cool to see others like him chime in their two-cents, not a "My watch can beat up your watch" but just what is their take on the myths and realities of WR ratings.

 

I think your mechanical watch would be fine with your conducting (love the Mr. Toad reference as he, Ratty, Mole, Badger, et al are favorites of mine :-d).

It's the G-forces involved in, for instance, the shooting sports (recoil) and striking a ball while golfing or playing baseball (shock) that can shake things loose. Some are lucky and do anything and everything with their mechanical watches and never have a problem, but I've read of enough cases where damage has occurred that I wear quartz watches for those kinds of activities. b-)

 

I still wonder though because I played ball when I was a kid, I couldn't catch but at least I couldn't throw either...but I could hit the stuffings out of that ball and threaten the cars in the parking lot. It wasn't me though, it was dad. He was one of those "coulda gone all the way if it hadn't been for girls" kind of pitchers in his day, and his fast ball had a wicked curve to it, so he taught me how to hit off him (we always kept it fun), and we discovered, if I could hit off him, I could hit off some pimply faced kid much easier. :-D

So I'm remembering what that felt like (wii sports isn't helping), but then with conducting, especially if you're not using a baton and I don't, and I'm not a good conductor so I favor my left hand, you use a snap of the wrist to give the gate or pattern (tempo).

You have to snap it because a beat is divided (for these purposes) into two parts - an upbeat (wrist pulls the hand up), and downbeat (wrist snaps the hand back down). It's crucial that you give the orchestra/chior the upbeat and the downbeat. Stuff (music) happens in both of these, and it is essential to subdivide the beat like that. You can't be sloppy about it.

If you think of doing this through an entire song, giving cues and cutoffs and extra direction, giving a constant upbeat and downbeat to be followed, and using your hands and wrists and arms to communicate dynamic markings, modulations, and meter changes... Is that a bit much for an auto? Should I not be doing that?

You can also use a watch as a stop gap metronome. I suck as a conductor, you'll never catch me doing it at a concert, but in a rehearsal...sure, all the time. That's where it's important anyway.

Mr Toad's Wild Ride - no one ever gets that. Is it at Disney World now? I seem to remember when I was a kid it wasn't at Disney World but was at Disney Land.

 

FWIW, the Omega Samaster Pro manual recommends soapy water to clean the watch.

OT: vjb.knife - where are you working? I'm a Field Engineer at the Nat'l Enrichment Facility in NM.
Henry

 

FWIW, the Omega Samaster Pro manual recommends soapy water to clean the watch.

OT: vjb.knife - where are you working? I'm a Field Engineer at the Nat'l Enrichment Facility in NM.
Henry

OT: Well Henry, unless a new Nuke gets built in the USA I will most likely not work at all any more, with the exception of the occassional contract job. I retired about 2 years ago, after all I am 52 years old, I can't work forever! Stay away from the zoomies, Henry.

 

My post regarding anti-bacterial soap being dangerous was joke....