Do you put your waterproof watch to the test?

No thanks! I don't want to tempt fate and if I'm in the shower I don't really need to know what time it is.

Live your life…

I once showered in an F-91W, which is is only water resistant, just to prove it would survive.

Otherwise, absolutely not. Such a thing proves how utterly unnecessary such an attribute truly is. I've deliberately worn a 100m watch in anticipation of digging my arm in a cooler to get a beer, but wised up and just used the other hand. Did I mention how unnecessary water resistance is?

Anyway, I find the best way to avoid getting venereal disease and bastard children is to avoid disease-ridden skanks. One is free to sing the praises of prophylactics, but there is a difference between better odds and zero risk. That was a metaphor for needless watch-dunking in case it wasn't clear.

I am with you. I buy a watch to wear it.

I wouldn’t wear a metal watch and bracelet washing a car…I’d be afraid of scratching the car paint more than damaging the watch. Otherwise, game on.

Not on purpose, but all my watches are pretty tough or at the very least inexpensive. But if I have to get them wet, so be it. If I know I'm going to the beach or something I'll wear a g shock. J

I’ve showered with my Rolex Datejust. What’s the point of an oyster case otherwise?

100%. If they’re made to get wet then don’t baby them and put them to use.

That's how I wash all my desk divers. Closest thing most ever get to the water.

Me too! Just bought a dive watch not to Long ago and I’ll be damned if my dive watch with 200m of water resistance doesn’t get wet from time to time lol.

I submerge them but that's it.

I wash my dive watches and my Apple watch Ultra (also a dive watch) in the sink all the time. If a dive watch cant take being washed in the sink its not much of a "dive watch"

Over the years I have got all 10 bar and above water resistance watches to swim in the pool or fishing cruises or both.

The only one failed was a Rolex 39mm Explorer. It went back to Rolex AD in Singapore on Orchard road and it was fixed within one week free of charge.

I posted this on another very similar thread just a couple of days ago. As I said then, I do this all the time, Grand Seiko, 30m water resistance, with soap. Makes the watch sparkle. The 😮 reactions made me 🙄. And yes, I've taken watches with bit more water resistance into a pool, a hot tub, and to the beach. A watch with 100m of water resistance had better be able to take like 2m of water when I go swimming. People are way too precious about water resistance.

For my dive watches, all the time! I have no qualms using them in or around water. For my non-divers, I usually don't wear them around water - it's not that I couldn't, just that I don't find it necessary when I have watches specifically made for it.

To touch specifically on showering, there's arguments against wearing them in the shower (or other steamy environments - hot tubs, steam room etc.). From what I've read the chief concerns seem to be:

1) the steam and hot water can deteriorate the gaskets faster, especially as the watch goes from room temp, to shower temp, then back to room temp in a short span of time.

2) soaps/detergents not specifically designed for watches can exacerbate deterioration.

I can buy the 2nd point. When you think about the various lubricants that go into a watch movement, including the gasket lubricant, you probably wouldn't want soap getting in there and stripping it away. Admittedly, I have definitely used soap in the past to clean watches with no obvious ill effects, but now I typically only use plain old water and a toothbrush and dry with a microfiber cloth, only using a small amount of soap when needed.

Point 1, I'm more skeptical of. By this logic, you shouldn't go swimming or diving with your watch on a hot day or in tropical climates - which is precisely the conditions these watches are built for. The temperature change of going from the cool water to the hot, possibly humid air would be considered "harmful" by this argument.

The better argument is probably can you versus should you shower with your watch? Can you? Yes, for sure. Should you? Debatable. There are certainly other ways to clean a watch if that's your objective. I personally think once in a while to give it a clean is a non issue - especially if you're like me and take it off wrist to clean and then set it off to the side after cleaning instead of wearing it the entire time while showering. But I don't see the need or logic in doing it every single day. It's the same thing as saying, you can drive your car like a race car every day if you wanted, but why?

Ultimately, it boils down to what type or level of wear and tear you're comfortable with exposing your watches to on a daily basis. I prefer that wear and tear generally comes from swimming/diving or incidental water contact, not a conscious choice to shower with it every day. For my non-divers I don't mind running them under the sink to clean, but don't feel the urge to go any further than that. But that's me.

Watch parts will eventually deteriorate no matter what, even if you leave the watch in its box for 30 years. I think most importantly, just be mindful of getting them serviced regularly, and if you're particularly hard on your watches, get them serviced or at least inspected even more frequently than normal for best results.

So you don't take your dive watch to beach? Then what's the point of a dive watch?

I've worn my Grand Seiko Shunbun (not a diver) into pools and hot tubs. I wore the Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire into the water at the beach. I don't go the beach very often, so I thought I should introduce it to its natural habitat, though the 2m depth I swam came nowhere near it's alleged 600m capability. I didn't wear the Grand Seiko mostly because I worried about sand etc., not water.

The heat of the hot tub did give me pause, but the once or twice so far hasn't done any harm. There's so much and unsubstantiated convention wisdom and lore around water resistance that it's hard to know what's actually true.

I test them whenever I test my own Water Resistance. Which is why I really don’t like any watch to have less than fifty metres WR, and one hundred for preference. Don’t tend to live or bathe in temperatures higher than the Mediterranean sunshine, and generally speaking there’s less salt and gunk in my bathtub than the Mediterranean Sea. That’s really all there is to it.

I am pretty sure if a watch is designed for the kind of job that needs a helium escape valve, there’s a decent likelihood it will survive my grimiest quick shower too, but I don’t have one to test yet. When I do, I bloody well will though — bad enough people are scared to wear their watch outside their house, without adding fear of their own plumbing into the mix as well.

Saying that, top tip parents — G-Shocks don’t tend to be sharp anywhere, and the quickset timer on some of them is great for (a) bottles and (b) making sure you don’t nap too long when they finally nap. Odds are you’ll learn to be good at cleaning yuck stuff out of crevices and gaps on all sorts of materials anyway, so don’t worry about the embossing in the resin too much.

Literally had my Longines Zulu Time in the pool the other day. If the watch is 100m or more, i'm not taking it off for anything I do that involves water.

No one is using a "dive watch" for its intended purpose. For most it is an aesthetic preference, not a functional one. I wouldn't be afraid to get it wet in a pool or shower, though.

Not as a main life saving device no.

Plenty of real divers use them for any number of reasons, for real purposes.

And while not a trad "dive" watch due to the bidirectional bezel, the Pelagos FXD was specifically designed to be used in conjunction with a dive computer, affixed to the wrist or a swim board with other instruments. The countdown is for navigation underwater with an enclosed system.

You swim at x cardinal direction, for x minutes. When you hit zero, pause, pick next direction and time, and go. All the while never surfacing and more than likely at night.

I am no combat diver, but if I was using it, I'd have it on a swim board of some kind. See below. Also can't find the reddit post at the moment, but I remember seeing a while back an action pic with the FXD attached to a swim board in use. But my Google isn't strong enough to find it.

As a general rule of thumb, a person can survive without water for about 3 days. However, I have no desire to put that theory to the test. Same with my watches...

Absolutely! Water resistance is important. Better to ask why isn't it important? Modern watches are worshipped for accuracy, anti-magnetic qualities, anti reflective coating, high altitude pressure resistance, anticorrosive metals, lightweight semiprecious metals, saphire crystals, ceramic bezels, and NASA certified. Watch manufacturers overbuild the fuck out of watches but water resistance is just a foolish notion. Kind of a lame thought... better tolerances can keep the movement from damage. Carring about every aspect of a watch except water resistance is like buying a Super Car with shitty breaks. Chances are I'll get my hand wet with a watch on wrist than need a watch for a Space EVA next week. Wear them in every water activity and Enjoy.

I actually put my homages to the test. Though all of my watches will be on me at some point through showers, hottubs, dings and dents, being thrown into my bag without a case....

I frequently do the cleaning up after dinner and I'm notoriously clumsy with the sprayer, and my apron disappeared some time ago. As a result by the time I'm done both my watch and my shirt are soaked. Does this count?

Nono, I had a bad experience with a supposedly waterproof Breitling

All of my watches go hiking, swimming in the ocean, hunting, and to the gym with me. from my Rolex to my seiko

I should add I think or should say know I am the only youtuber out there to take footage under the ocean snorking with seaturtles while wearing a dive watch.

https://youtu.be/5KN02b83UbE

Ps. It was not my watch it was a loaner. 😂 but I do swim with mine too

Very cool! Thanks for the info. I’m going to check your channel out.

Treat them as intended I say, I don't go out my way to throw them in a lake, but if its 50m + it goes in the pool