What is water resistance in a watch? Do we really need it? Find out all you need to know in this guide to water-resistant watches!
If you’re really into watches, you’ll know that certain styles suit specific activities and environments. A field watch might make you want to climb Everest. A racing chronograph can make you feel like you’re on the last lap around Monaco. An aviation watch might have you Googling how to schedule flight lessons at your local airport.
What about a diver? Wouldn’t that make you want to go full Jacques Cousteau? Most people who own a dive watch never even dream of testing it to such depths. At the end of the day, they look cool and they’re incredibly robust. All these features are essential in a daily beater. But if you really are wearing your watch in environments where it will encounter water, you should read this article.
Before we dive into what water resistance is (pun intended), it’s essential to understand the relationship between water and your watch.
Table of Contents
What Is Water Resistance in a Watch?
In simple terms, water and watches do not get along. Whether you’re wearing a digital, quartz, solar, mechanical, or automatic watch, water can damage it. This goes for whether you expose your watch to salt water or fresh water. Water that sneaks inside a case can create humid conditions—that screams disaster for the mechanism inside. It can also cause a circuit board to short out, wreaking havoc inside a digital watch or smartwatch.
Sometimes, you can see visible water damage inside a watch. This usually presents itself as fogging or clouding under the glass. If that happens to your watch, it will need immediate service before the moisture erodes all the small, intricate parts within a timepiece. For entry-level watches, services aren’t cost-effective. However, the cost of replacement parts and repairs can be tremendous for high-end luxury watches. For these reasons, it’s better to keep your favorite watches away from water and err on the side of caution.
In a nutshell, watches have a water-resistant score to determine how much pressure they can withstand. Brands typically indicate this on the dial or back of the case. One common misconception is that you can take a watch to the depth it suggests on its dial. For example, someone may think they can wear their 30-meter water-resistant watch down to 30 meters underwater. However, this score reflects the static pressure from within a laboratory, not a natural environment. Prolonged use underwater is much different.
Water Resistant vs Waterproof Watch
So, the all-important water resistant vs waterproof watch debate. What’s the difference between the two? A waterproof watch would suggest complete impermeability. Can any watch guarantee perpetual waterproofness? The short answer is no, although brands like Rolex like to use the term “waterproofness.” While you may see the terms “water resistant” and “waterproof” in a watch description, they mean totally different things. In fact, it’s surprising that some brands use these terms so interchangeably.
What makes a watch water resistant rather than waterproof is its seals. These small components can weaken over time, allowing water to seep inside. It makes sense to regularly service your watch to ensure the seals function as they should. All watches are susceptible to water damage to some extent, some less than others.
Unless your watch is a professional diving instrument, you should avoid wearing it for long periods underwater. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) outlines strict criteria for serious dive watches that a model can measure itself against. You will find the ISO 6425 criteria helpful when exploring the market for a dive watch.
Watch testing laboratories expose timepieces to an immense amount of external pressure, which is significant. While this may identify leaks and malfunctions in a case, it may not mean so much in a natural situation. Temperature fluctuations, active submersion, currents, and interchangeable pressure also come into play. With this in mind, referring to a watch water resistance chart is important.
Watch Water Resistance Chart
This watch water resistance chart indicates which water depths suit your watch. Brands usually display water-resistant capability in atmospheres (ATM) or using bars, feet, or meters.
If you own a 30-meter water-resistant watch, it may surprise you that it can only withstand water splashes. A 50M watch can withstand a light swim (though we don’t recommend it), whereas you can enjoy a spot of snorkeling with a 100M watch. Then, there are 200M watches, ideal for scuba diving. Watches with 300-meter water-resistant ratings are typically what we class as professional dive watches. Lastly, 500M or more watches are suitable for extreme deep-sea diving.
FAQs
Take a look at these FAQs on watch water resistance to learn a little more about it.
What Is a Good Water Resistance for a Watch?
Any watch with a water resistance of 100 meters or more is good. You won’t have to worry about removing it while completing most daily tasks. That said, no matter how water-resistant a watch is, you should avoid showering in it.
Is a Watch Waterproof if It Is Water Resistant?
A watch’s water resistance rating does not make it waterproof. No watch is ever completely waterproof. If a watch is water resistant, it can withstand a certain level of water exposure.
Can I Swim With a 30M Water Resistant Watch?
You should never attempt to swim with a 30M water-resistant watch. Watches with a 30-meter water-resistant rating can only withstand water splashes and rain.
Water Resistance Watches – A Short Summary
If you’re one of the few people capable of diving 200 meters below sea level, you won’t be wearing a Rolex diver. Today, dive computers track depth and time underwater in real time. However, water-resistant watches are still instrumental pieces of kit.
Even so, very few wristwatches will ever see the types of pressures their ratings suggest. Even a model with just 50 meters of water resistance as a bare minimum isn’t likely to experience those conditions. Still, water resistance is a practical thing to have in a watch. But, if you think of a watch’s water resistance rating as a sort of benchmark, you’ll never risk damage to your watch.
Practically speaking, a watch with 100 or 200 meters of water resistance can withstand almost anything you can throw at it. A watch with 50 meters of water resistance can handle the most common water exposure. Lastly, watches with less resistance need constant attention to prevent them from getting wet. Other than those points, water resistance is just a statistic.
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An important point is also the dynamic pressure: If you are doing an energetic crawl, the pressure on your wrist can easily exceed the resistance of the watch.