It's episode 13 of this Watch life.
Hi, I'm Lydia Winters. And I'm Voo Bui.
And today we have a real treat in store for you.
It's a good old fashioned voo bui rant.
It's a no. It's not a rant.
What is it about water
resistant? About water.
Do you have very strong opinions about it?
And thoughts? Sounds like a rant to me.
Water resistance is one of those things that gets people fired
up. So it's a rant.
But does it get you fired up? I don't think it does.
Yesterday I accidentally said 100mm water resistance.
On yesterday's. Millimeters, so I'm not an
expert at all. No, you're not.
I think most people understood what you were getting at there.
But I I really do think that water resistance is one of those
topics that comes up a lot. There's a ton of opinion around
it, and that is the part that really gets me, because this is
just about facts, like it's science, like water is going to
get in or it won't, and your opinion on what might happen
doesn't really have any bearing on the reality.
But I do understand why a lot of people get confused about this.
There's a lot of interesting information out there.
So this isn't around. This is education.
Be educated, yo. Well, actually this is the
beginning of my education and discovery.
I will continue into the future. And I think I will absorb it for
sure. Water resistance joke Absorb.
Hermetically sealed. So it didn't absorb.
Oh, OK. But I have a little.
I wanted to do a little history lesson for water resistance so I
could contribute in any way to this episode.
And so we're going back in time to the 19th century and in
around 1917, people start working on water resistance,
watch it, water resistant watches.
They're calling them waterproof. You could do a whole episode on
that. Not waterproof.
Waterproof. Water resistant.
But look, it was the 1900s. They can't say what they want.
Wild West. But a thing I actually didn't
realize is that at scale, Rolex was the first to make water
resistant watch cases in 1926. And they actually had a female
ambassador, which is cool. Mercedes Glites, who wore the
oyster as she was trying to break the record across the
English Channel in 1927. Yes, swimming across the English
Channel, which takes like more than 10 hours.
Oh yeah. It feels, feels like a thing I
don't want to do, but very impressive.
Very impressive. And they did a big ad campaign
for this and they said Miss Mercedes Glites carried I should
have like an old timey carried an oyster throughout her race
and channel swim more than the hours of submersion.
Wait more than 10 I can't read and have an have a old timey
accent. More than 10 hours of submersion
under the most trying conditions failed to harm its perfect time
keeping. No moisture had penetrated and
not the slightest corrosion or condensation was revealed in the
subsequent examination of the watch.
But that's not the most fun fact.
The most fun fact is, in all the photos she wore it on her wrist,
but when she swam the English Channel, she wore it Lydia
Winters, oris patina style on a ribbon around her neck.
Was that because it was too uncomfortable?
No idea. Trying to search it, there was
not a but I mean that could really call into question the
water resistance because of the power of the arm stroke, so.
Dynamic pressure. And now I handed off the dynamic
pressure to you there. There are a lot of myths out.
There one last thing. There was a fast follow after
this from both Cartier and Omega with with waterproof watches.
We're going with the 1920s. Waterproof back in that day.
It's it's interesting. So it's been almost 100 years,
yes, since we've had waterproof wrist watches.
And it's still widely debated. It's a hot topic among watch
nerds. I I should be clear about what's
such a hot topic. There are things like these
myths around dynamic and static pressure.
Most of that is is bull and you can go out there and you can
read these very long detailed smart sounding articles about
how dynamic pressure will totally change your view.
What's dynamic pressure that would be like if your arms were
stroke, like if you're doing? Swimming, right I.
Am not a swimmer and I'm currently just my arms are
flapping. Around.
I don't know. I'm not an.
English. An English.
Channel swimmer, I guess. But yeah, dynamic.
When people are talking about dynamic pressure in terms of
watches, usually what they're saying is like as you move
through the water, it creates more pressure because of that
movement. And there are a bunch of
scientific rebuttals of that just saying, yes, that's true,
but the speed that you'd have to be able to move in order to
create meaningful additional pressure that could affect the
watch, none of us can move that. So they're saying like, you
can't swim that fast, bro. Basically, that is what they're
saying. Really, it's not a concern for
you. It is not a concern.
So so that can just be pushed aside.
And then that's just part of like the overall there's lots
and lots of myths and just weird beliefs about water resistance
when it comes to watches. So I was like, OK, let's start
with where should we start? We should start with what the
manufacturers say, because they're the ones who have to
deal with returns and warranty issues and all of that.
So at least they should have a sense of what a watch can do.
Yes. And they've they have actually
scientifically done a lot of research on it.
They. Designed them, they test them
and they put them out into the world and then they get the
returns, yeah. And then it sits on my wrist and
I never swim with it, but I debated all day long.
This is, that is not what we're talking about here.
OK, so I I looked at a bunch of manufacturers, there are some
that don't even tell you what what their water resistance
claims even mean, but for the ones that do, so there there's
the on the one in the one corner you have.
Told you, it's like a rant. Now it's a fight.
Grand Seiko Oris These are part of the manufacturers who
basically say that 30 meters of water resistance or three bar,
is only enough to withstand splashes and rain.
You can wash your hands. You can be out in rain.
You're fine. But do not submerge your wrist
well. You can submerge your wrist.
Do not submerge your wrist watch.
OK. OK, five bar for Seiko and Grand
Seiko. So that's 50 meters of water
resistance. Then you can do surface
swimming. But for Oris F5 bar, on their
diagram, it's a person in a bathtub.
Oh, you can bathe with it, but don't but in a.
Bathtub so you can bathe with it.
Very specific bar. They say you can swim and
submerge. So already that that's two
different, completely different answers.
But then if you go to Omega and this is the one that I've always
like, I really, I'm going to talk to someone at Omega and
find out why is their approach so different.
I'm just going to read what they say.
All current Omega watches are water resistant to the depth
defined by the model specifications, provided that
the components ensuring the water resistance are intact.
This means that an Omega watch that is water resistance has 30
meters, can be worn for swimming at depths of up to 30 meters
underwater for extended periods without restriction.
First of all, that's a way better way to say it.
It's so clear because my bathtub is not 30 meters, so I would
have just assumed that I could be splash flashing around there
with my watch. But maybe you couldn't.
But it's so not only is that a very clear way of stating it, I
I don't think that Seiko, Grand Seiko and Oris, their charts
were very clear. But I I think it's it's such a
different approach to say ours are marked 30 meters when you
can go 30 meters underwater and swim with it.
And these other manufacturers are saying 30 meters means you
can get water on it and it's OK. And is the other and is that
difference like across more brands than Grand Seiko, Seiko
or yeah? Yeah, yeah.
Most brands are using that Grand Seiko Oris kind of well, bar is
just a a, a marking of pressure. So 30 meters is approximately 3
bar. That's just different ways of
saying the same thing. Science with Rolex.
They don't go into the level of detail that Omega does, but
they're saying something very similar.
They say all Rolex wristwatches are waterproof.
They're still using. Waterproof on their.
Website 1920s baby to. Depths of at least 100 meters
for oyster perpetual models and 50 meters for the perpetual 19 O
8 models. So they're saying waterproof to
those depths. Which means.
You should be able to use those watches to those depths, so.
That's similar to how Omega is saying it.
Yes, OK. Like if it says 50 meters, you
can go down 50 meters. That is what they're saying.
And I I think that like there is something different here and.
But is that difference just what they're saying or is there
actually a difference in the manufacturing and they're taking
different approaches and that's the part that I want to find out
for a future episode diving deeper.
Wait, that wasn't even meant. To be a pun, you turned into a
pun, pun, pun pun. I do think.
I guess the big question is really so for me, I have done so
much in my watches. I mean I think I said in in a
recent episode like I've gone jet skiing with 100m water
resistant wash It didn't even have a screw down crown that I
had owned at that point for three or four years and had
never had it tested. I have been lucky to never have
water ingress in a watch and I am a person who swims with their
Speedmaster professional. Yeah, I was going to say that's
the one that like the the swimming with the speedmaster,
that's like its. Own genre of it's it's it is
it's it's only genre there. Like the amount of discussion
around swimming with your Speedmaster is huge, but.
And you did. I have done it.
I my Speedmaster was the only watch that I regularly had the
seals checked though. You didn't trust it.
No, it's that it felt like there's more points of failure.
You got all these, all these different places.
It's like, OK, I'll just do what they say.
Well, they say check it every year.
I checked it every three. Yeah, close.
Enough. Perfect.
Yeah, yeah, but my other watch is I I I don't even they get
checked when they go in for service.
So anyway, the reality is none of this probably matters because
most people don't even swim with their dive watches.
No, I don't. No.
Well, no, that's not true. You you've taken many watches in
the water. You do it in Florida.
Oh. Yeah, but I but like surface
level. Like the bathtub.
Bathtub adjacent. Barely, You know, just like on
the surface. Paddling.
Well, all that dynamic pressure. Yes, of these little puppy paws
going put in the water. I I find it a little bit.
I find it fun and a little romantic and kind of adorable
that people care so much about water resistance ratings.
And I I think it's pretty common for people to say I won't even
use a watch that has less than 100 meters water resistant
anywhere near water. And I I just find these rules so
interesting because it it's part of how we collect watches.
Like these are the things that we care about and these are the
things that we put so much importance on.
But I don't know if they're actually that important in our
day-to-day lives. Because like for me, when I
think of a gotta go anywhere, do anything, watch, I'm like, yeah,
it should have 100 meters water resistant because at any moment
I could find myself swimming in a pool.
I could fall in a river or a lake.
I could. I cannot think of the last time
you have done any of those things.
But I'm saying any moment I could you.
Could if I pushed you into a lake or a river or a pool, but.
I think that's what's so interesting about it.
Watches. I think for many people, watches
can represent who you think you are, but know you really, really
aren't. Yeah, if you are some chumps in
there with a 50m water resistant, everyone's going to
know. You don't.
Adventure, you don't do anything, You're just holding it
up outside the bathtub, one arm in the air.
Can't even deal with the rain. Can't even deal with the rain.
But I OK, I am going to take it upon myself to find out even
more about this subject. Oh, we are.
I'm so glad you decided that no one asked for.
It. No, no.
Everyone's asking for it. Everyone wants.
We need to get to the bottom of this.
Why is the? Bottom but.
Why do all of these manufacturers have different
recommendations? And what do independent watch
service technicians and watch makers think?
Well, these are the questions. Thinking Rant Part 2 coming your
way? After more.
In depth research jets in The Jets below below 150 meters are.
You done punning? No.
Will you ever be done punning? No thank you for swimming along
for this episode about water resistance.