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. 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.