#vintage divers

Eh, sometimes that happens even if the gasket seals are good due to extreme temp fluctuation. But yeah, vintage watches and the quality of their gaskets is always suspect and something a watch repairman needs to check on the regular.

You have an amazing and legendary watch, so definitely understand being concerned and bothered by it fogging being shower adjacent.

“That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for em.” 🤣👌🏽

A similar thing happened to me when washing my bike. No submersion, nothing, but still condensation on the crystal. This is the strategy I recommend. Don't worry about a full service, take the movement and dial out of the watch and place it in a sealed container with lots of those silica gel packets. Do the same with the case and crown for best effect. After about fifteen minutes, take them out, oil the gaskets and reassemble. To test how well it has worked, put your watch in a freezer for two to five minutes. If it comes out without fog on the underside of the crystal, you're all good.

Or even moving in and out of a building.

That mus have been one hot shower. Or are you a member of the polar bear club? Just change the o-rings and the glass plastic ring.

Safe to assume no vintage watches are waterproof

I had this happen the same way..I just popped off the back and layed it a foot away from the register it dried up pretty quick and haven't had issues with the watch it still keeps great time

I've got a handful of reasonably old watches (20-30 years old) which I love wearing, but they don't see much use during the coldest weather, as they're prone to fogging with sudden, sharp changes of temperature. Shame, but makes me enjoy them more when it's a little warmer.

I bought two used SKX's from the Philippians, both had been serviced by the seller, both did this. Opened them up, let them sit for a few hours, closed them up- hasn't happened since. My theory is they had 'tropical air' that needed to be replaced with dry, dead, stagnant, mid-atlantic, depressing winter air. Worked.

Not even one atmosphere!

Hope you got the case back off and let that moisture out. 🙂

Hurry up and open the case back and get the dial out of there. you don’t want any damage to the indices. Old seiko lume is very susceptible to water

Rule one of vintage no matter what it was capable of back in the day. You never under any circumstances get them in contact with water. Not unless you have replaced and verified the seals. Hope it is ok.