Watch Repair: Understanding Water Resistance | Littleton, CO

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Do You Understand Water Resistance?

Littleton, CO residents should know that there is no such thing as a waterproof watch. This is because even the most water-resistant watch will fail when exposed to sufficient water for a sufficient period of time. However, there are some watches that can stand up to more water than others without needing watch repair, thus making them water-resistant watches.

Since water resistance is a selling point, it makes sense that there would be a system for indicating the exact degree of water resistance for a particular water. Unfortunately, said system can be rather misleading because its numbers are measured in a motionless state. As such, just because a watch has a water resistance of 100 m, it doesn’t mean that interested individuals can dive to a depth of 100 m while wearing it unless they are prepared to make a trip to a watch repair specialist afterwards. After all, when the watch is moved through the water, that creates more pressure than what would exist when it is in a motionless state. On top of this, it should be mentioned that the water resistance that a watch starts out with isn’t the water resistance that it will continue to have throughout its existence. This is because the gaskets that keep out the water will become both dry and brittle, thus causing a watch to become less and less water-resistant.

What Do the Different Degrees of Water Resistance Mean in Practical Terms?

In any case, it can be useful for anyone to get a general idea of what they can and can’t do with certain degrees of water resistance without being forced to visit a watch repair specialist afterwards:

No Mention of Water Resistance

If a watch isn’t said to be water-resistant, interested individuals should assume that they shouldn’t get it wet at all. After all, while being exposed to water isn’t a huge problem for human beings, the same can’t be said for a wide range of materials that can suffer a surprising amount of damage within a very short period of exposure. Suffice to say that watch repair can be both expensive and time-consuming, meaning that it is something that people should avoid as much as possible.

Water Resistant

Moving on, should Littleton, CO residents see a watch that is said to be water-resistant but without any numbers attached to said claim, they should take the stance that being safe is better than being sorry. Basically, they should assume that the watch can take being splashed as well as otherwise coming into minor contact with water. However, they should never actually take it into the water with them when they engage in any kind of underwater activity. Otherwise, they could wind up having to head in for watch repair much sooner than what they would like.

Water Resistant 30m

This is the point when a watch will be fine even when it is splashed with water. As such, interested individuals can take the watch with them into rain as well as into a shower should they wish to do so. However, this degree of water resistance isn’t enough to save it from the need for watch repair should interested individuals bring it with them for either swimming or any other underwater activity. Something that is particularly true if they have owned it for a while because that means that its water resistance will have faded to some extent.

Water Resistant 50m

Moving on, this is the point when a watch will be fine even when people wear it while swimming. However, it isn’t so resistant that it will be fine even when people engage in more strenuous activities such as diving and snorkelling. As such, it shouldn’t be worn by interested individuals about to engage in such activities unless they are prepared to pay for watch repair in the aftermath.

Water Resistant 100m

A watch with this kind of water resistance should be fine for most of the water sports out there. However, there are still some that are beyond it. For example, diving is still not recommended for this degree of water resistance. Likewise, high board diving isn’t a good idea either for people wearing this kind of watch.

Water Resistant 200m

By this point, a watch should be fine for everything from swimming to high-impact water sports because it possesses a considerable measure of water resistance. However, interested individuals should be warned that it still isn’t enough for deep-water diving, which produces much more pressure than what they might expect unless they are familiar with it.

Water Resistant 300m

These watches can be worn while engaged in everything from high-impact water sports to saturation diving. For those who are unfamiliar, saturation diving is when the diver lives in a pressurized environment for the purpose of minimizing their chances of getting decompression sickness. As such, it should come as no surprise to learn that it isn’t something that most people will ever experience. In fact, saturation divers are very rare even when it comes to commercial divers, as shown by how just 336 out of 3,300 commercial divers in the United States in 2015 were saturation divers. Unsurprisingly, this means that most people don’t actually need this degree of water resistance, though some might still choose to wear such watches for the sake of fashion.

Contact Us

Those who are curious about the kind of damage that water can do to watches without sufficient water damage should make sure to consult a watch repair specialist from Matheu’s Fine Watches & Jewelry sooner rather than later. After all, said individuals are likely to have seen the widest range of watch repair problems, meaning that they are likely to have insight to offer to interested individuals. Naturally, people who have other questions that are connected to watch repair shouldn’t hesitate to contact us either because the sooner that they ask them, the sooner that they can be properly informed about all of the relevant information that they need to make the right choices for their watches.

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