Water damage in your luxury watch

Water resistance in luxury watches

The water resistance of a watch is a crucial feature of a watch, which might be the reason why you decide to buy or not buy a specific watch. There are a lot of water resistance ratings you see on watches that will tell you the depth it could go in meters, ore the pressure it should be able to withstand. 

Basic water resistance of watches start at around 3ATM/30M. These watches are suitable for everyday wear including light splashes of water, rain for instance. A rule of thumb is that these watches can withstand water as long as they are not submerged in water. 

In general, watches get water resistant with a rating of 10ATM/100M. Diving watches often get this rating. These watches can withstand recreational swimming and snorkelling. 

When you are in for some rougher terrain, you should definitely opt for a professional Diver with a water resistance rating of 20ATM/200M. These watches are build to actually even withstand scuba diving and have enhanced seals and additional features like a helium escape valve, to maintain water resistance at greater depths. 

Other things that come in to account when taking a look at the water resistance might be the pushers and/or crown. When underwater, it is highly discouraged to use your chronograph pushers unless they are specifically designed for such use. You also need to ensure that your crown is screwed down or pushed in properly, this is something that gets forgotten often!

How can you spot water damage?

As the one thing you look at the most when looking at your watch is the crystal and dial, this is where you would probably see any signs of water damage. When a watch has water damage you often see the inside of the crystal fog up after a while. This is because of the water that evaporates and cools down against the cold glass. Something that is also an indication of water damage is a discoloration on you dial, hands or other parts of the watch. Something you can see, but more so feel, is if your crown and/or pushers feel stiff or sticky. This might indicate that water damage is affecting the functionality of your watch movement. You can sometimes also tell water damage by its smell. The moisture that gets trapped inside your watch can create a musty or moldy smell.

How does water damage occur?

The most common problem is that watches that are not water resistant get used when swimming. If you use a watch with an 3ATM/30M rating, the odds are it will not survive your leisure swimming activities on you holiday. 

What if your watch is supposed to be water resistant enough, but you still have a foggy crystal? The first question is if you have screwed down your crown and pushers like they are supposed to? if this was not the case in this instance, unfortunately human error is the cause of your problem, and not the watch. 

If this was done all correct however, you might have some problems with for instance your seals and gaskets. If you bump your bulky crown against the corner of your countertop this might cause the seals in between the watch and the crown to break, and this can be the entry point of any liquid that potentially could ruin your entire movement. Extreme temperatures and pressure changes might also cause your seals to dry out or rip and let any water in. 

Lastly it is important to note that almost any older or even vintage model is probably not water resistant! Even the slightest of water could ruin the entire movement of your newly acquired vintage Rolex Day-Date 1803, and that would definitely be a bummer!

How to fix your damaged watch

While putting your watch in rice might pull out the slightest of moisture from your watch, even the smallest amount of water damage has to be taken care of by a certified watch repair shop. When a mechanical watch has any water damage, all the parts that are still intact need to be cleaned thoroughly. If any part has any corrosion on it, it is best to just replace that part entirely. Not only the parts of the movement need to be cleaned and replaced, but also all the seals and gaskets of the case should be replaced. After this entire revision it is important that the shop repressurized your watch to make sure it is as resistant to water as it should be.

Would you like to have your watch repaired? We can arrange it for you. Read more about it on the watch service page.