Showering with watch on - really bad?

[trickywoo]

I think I know the answer to this but is showering with a watch on a bad idea?

I had a SKX007 for a few years and went diving with it. Kept great time. I did however, shower with it on for a couple of weeks and it stopped working shortly after. Coincidence?

[Zoon]

Was it waterproof?

[trickywoo]

Zoon said:

Was it waterproof?

Yes. ISO rated 200m scuba divers. I've been to 30m with it a year or so prior to it stopping and it was fine. Crown always in never adjusted wet etc.

It broke a few months ago and I'm sill disappointed.

[Zoon]

trickywoo said:

Yes. ISO rated 200m scuba divers. I've been to 30m with it a year or so prior to it stopping and it was fine. Crown always in never adjusted wet etc.

It broke a few months ago and I'm sill disappointed.

I've never had a problem with waterproof watches, it's probably just bad luck on your part. If there is no fogging to the face I doubt water ingress has caused it.

[NDA]

I have several waterproof watches - but never shower with them on. Soap (as above) can damage seals, it also changes the property of water in a bad way for watches. Also heating up a mechanism is not a great idea.... so I tend to take them off.

[Rostfritt]

NDA said:

Also heating up a mechanism is not a great idea.... so I tend to take them off.

Would it really heat it up, surely it is about 37c the whole time it is on? When I was younger I kept a waterproof watch on for ages and it caused the skin behind it to go all scabby.

[NDA]

Rostfritt said:

Would it really heat it up, surely it is about 37c the whole time it is on? When I was younger I kept a waterproof watch on for ages and it caused the skin behind it to go all scabby.

I have a slim gold watch - I reckon it would given how well gold conducts heat... Maybe you're right, but I always take it off.

[Rowley Birkin]

I always shower with my watch on at the gym - the risk of soap damage is less than that of theft. I have done it for years and never had a seal fail. That's screw-down and ordinary crowns.

The only time I killed a watch by wearing it in an inappropriate wet environment was a Cartier Tank Francaise which I wore in a series of seven or so sauna / steam room / salt bath type things. That did mess it up. Cartier, however, replaced the movement for the price of a service.

[Variomatic]

Showering is more of a risk than immersion in cold water because of heat, expansion (and contraction) of the case, soaps and steam but it's nothing any reasonably made watch shouldn't cope with if everything's in good condition.

It will tend to seek out any weak points that might not show up with, say, swimming but those shouldn't happen with reasonable maintenance anyway.

[PlayersNo6]

OT - Variomatic, did you get my PM?

[Variomatic]

No - my PMs seem to be screwed again at the moment. I'll send you one now to hopefully get it working....

[marcosgt]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Life is too short surely ?

My watch never comes off - 24/7

Oh and yes I shower

I don't sleep in my watches usually, simply because I don't find it comfortable.

I tend not to shower in one either.

I suspect the time it takes me take of my watch has probably used up about 30 minutes of my life so far...

Compare that with the years I've wasted working or on internet forums and I think it's pretty infinitesimal!

M.

[turbobloke]

NeMiSiS said:

Your watch could be rated waterproof to 15ATM but some detergents in soaps/shampoos/conditioners eat away at tiny fragile 'O' rings making the rating useless.

Non screw down crowns are worst affected by detergents as the stem and tiny 'O' rings are pretty much open to attack.

Soaps and detergents lower the surface tension of water which makes it far more penetrating, it's how they clean things, but that isn't necessarily what watches were designed to cope with as opposed to being submerged in water itself.

[ocallen]

My first decent watch was an Omega Seamaster deVille, 9ct, automatic, given to me by my parents in 1966 when at school. I don't think I took it off whilst playing any sports, I wore specs so rugby wasn't an option, and certainly swam and sailed in it and showered with no problems.
When I started working I bought an Omega Constellation that after nearly twenty years of wearing, the dial started to crack up from the heat of baths, not showers.
Since then Rolex, vintage Tudor, Zenith and other Omega as well as my current MWC (!) have all gone into the shower daily, been coated in shampoos and never a problem.

Not sure if there is a correct answer but bad luck or was it a watch with a problem anyway ?