Water Resistance

A subject so often discussed amongst enthusiasts. I would like you to step back for a minute and pretend you don't know much about watches, and are simply shopping for a watch that appeals to you, and meets your needs. Ask the man/woman in the street what 100m water resistance means, and they will tell you that this the the depth you can dive to with a watch. Ask them what 10 ATM means and their heads will blow up. We know that the figure quoted refers to the static pressure, however, the reality is that the general public don't, and I am prepared to stand up and say "it's all a big con". Even amongst those in the know, we can still disagree. This is how I see it

30m = splash proof
50m = a bit more splash proof
100m = OK for swimming
200m = Ok for shallow diving, probably down to about 20m

I have heard of people regularly diving is dive style watches with a WR rating of 30m and being perfectly OK. I also remember the days when I swam in a 50m WR watch with no problem either. So, it's fair to assume that there is confusion.

My suggestion is that each manufacturer tests their own watches, and such tests should meet industry standards. Instead of these fictitious figures, a simple code should be introduced. The present rating should be introduced with a single figure such as 1,2,3,4, so on and so forth. This in turn would mean no consumer would be mislead, and would be forced to read or research exactly what the rating is. If a watch company does not want to comply, the watch should then read "untested".

What do you think ?

I mainly only collect Diver or diver style watches and yet have never been on a dive in my life in fact I even take my watch off when I wash the pots just so that it does not get wet ....... is that an OCD

I understand where you are coming from I mean a watch with 100m on the front should be ok up to a depth of 100m but I doubt that a single figure throughout the brands would work also pretty difficult to instigate .. for example who would be the authorising party that would decide what unit is to be used and what that unit would represent.

SeikoJohn wrote:I mainly only collect Diver or diver style watches and yet have never been on a dive in my life in fact I even take my watch off when I wash the pots just so that it does not get wet ....... is that an OCD

I understand where you are coming from I mean a watch with 100m on the front should be ok up to a depth of 100m but I doubt that a single figure throughout the brands would work also pretty difficult to instigate .. for example who would be the authorising party that would decide what unit is to be used and what that unit would represent.  

the only dive watches to truly consider are ISO rated, any others are just watches that can get wet so anyone diving with them do so at their won risk, probably 99% of dive watch purchases whether ISO rated or not will never get used for what they were intended so not really an issue IMO......real divers will only use the real thing as lives depend on it