Why is it so hard to make a watch waterproof? At least 10 bar

Very good question! No idea why any watch over $300.00 does not have 100 meters water resistance (minimum), a screw down crown, and AR coating. The microbrands are over built and the name brand and/or luxury brands that can't hit 100m water resistance or a screw down crown are underbuilt. It's laziness and knowing that less quality can be sold aka knowing consumers are dumb sheep

BTW Welcome to Watch Crunch and Enjoy!

When you have brand heritage & cachet, consumers already want to buy your watch and will without some of the bells & whistles. Yes, not everyone, but enough. Why improve a product when demand already outstrips supply?

When you don't have that heritage & cachet, you need to differentiate your product from those that do. Therefore, you add some bells & whistles to make your offering more desirable.

Technically speaking with good seals 3-5 ATM is more than enough for the large portion of the population.

Not against more resistance, just saying 🤏🏻🤐🫣.

Mostly because most people don't need more than 30m WR. The internet convinces people they need 300000m WR to wash their hands, but it's not true.

If your 30m WR watch gets ruined by being immersed in water, the watch was faulty. A faulty 1000m watch can fail in two inches of water as well.

I had a CasiOak with a 200m WR fail...in 5 feet of water. Looked like a g'dang Greek tragedy when I saw green-ish water and sand inside the case. WR is a theoretical rating and I can't imagine a test is performed on every mass produced water. If you're risk averse, take off the watch before jumping in.😭

I have no need for any WR on anything other than my Vostok.

And I absolutely hate screw-down crowns, totally ridiculous on a non-dive watch.

WR is overhyped imo. 3-5ATM is enough to wash hands / accidentally splash some water on it considering 1) crown is not extended and 2) watch is serviced regularly and this rubber ring is not worn out.

There are diver watches specifically for heavier underwater usage.

I guess it comes down to cost. Having every watches coming out of a factory adhere to a waterproofing standard costs money, and probably more than making the watch waterproof in the first place.

When's the last time you washed your hands with a modern watch on your wrist and got water inside? Never probably. Having the bragging rights on the dial/box comes at a price and not everyone is willing to pay for it!

I have the smartwatch Amazfit Neo with 5 ATM but I have had it during showering zillion times. No problems what so ever. My 200m divers will never even see 3 metres of water so what's the point.

That really sucks. Sounds like you got a lemon.

I've had just about every Casio I own in the pool & no issues. Timex too, although the snap on caseback makes me a bit nervous.

Yep, I complained and they refunded me. Bought another one.