There seem to be two groups in the watch community- the people who regularly swim with 30m or even splash resistant watches and the people who never swim with anything with less than 100m water resistance. Who’s right?
I can’t swim nor tell the time so win-win…
I’ve been swimming in sea and pools with a non-screw down crown Seiko Sea Urchin and it’s been fine for 6 years. My Hamilton Khaki (50m WR) has given up on life after some rain
I do most of my scuba dives with a “water resist” Casio F91. Anything with a gasket less than 20 years old will do fine.
Depends on what we mean by “swimming.”
What some people describe as swimming is not much more than splashing around in waist-deep pool water (e.g. at a hotel) for a few minutes. What I describe as swimming is lap swimming in a 25-yard (or an Olympic-regulation 25m) pool for an extended period of time (when I was swimming regularly 1750 yards/meters, or roughly a mile, took me about 40-45 minutes), or ocean swimming beyond the beach for an extended period of time.
For starters, I do not recommend wearing a watch while actually in the water. I always leave my watch upright in front of my lane. That said, for just splashing around in shallow water for a few minutes, 30m WR is probably okay but still risks getting water in the watch, and 50m WR should probably be the minimum for that sort of activity. For anything more, 100m WR is probably the minimum safe bet.
I’ve been swimming every week in the local pool with my Timex Easy Reader, “30m WR” with no issues. Of course, it was under $50 so if it does leak I don’t care. I’ll just buy another one. Have I taken my Lunar Pilot? No, I’m too chicken. 😂
Just check what the user manual says because it will be different depending on each brand and what standards they follow. Generally speaking it’s something like this:
- 3 atm or 30 m: Suitable for everyday use. Splash/rain resistant.Not suitable for showering, bathing, swimming, snorkeling, water related work, fishing, and diving.
- 5 atm or 50 m: Suitable for everyday use, showering, bathing, shallow-water swimming, snorkeling, water related work, fishing. Splash/rain resistant. Not suitable for diving.
- 10 atm or 100 m: Suitable for recreational surfing, swimming, snorkeling, sailing and water sports.Not suitable for diving.
- 20 atm or 200 m: Suitable for professional marine activity, serious surface water sports and skin diving.Suitable for skin diving.
- Diver’s 100 m: Minimum ISO standard (ISO 6425) for scuba diving at depths not suitable for saturation diving. Diver’s 100 m and 150 m watches are generally old(er) watches.
- Diver’s 200 m or 300 m: Suitable for scuba diving at depths not suitable for saturation diving.Typical ratings for contemporary diver’s watches.
- Diver’s 300+ m for mixed-gas divingSuitable for saturation diving (helium enriched environment).Watches designed for mixed-gas diving will have the DIVER’S WATCH xxx M FOR MIXED-GAS DIVING additional marking to point this out.
So 100m WR can be very different if it follows ISO 6425 or not
Watch brands also want to be safe and usually put a lower rating on a watch, even if it can do more.
I did swim with a snk809 and did multiple small dives (3-4m) with a digital Casio, both labeled to resist 30m. No issues whatsoever. If the watch is under 5 years of age i think most of us can’t dive to a depth that would damage them.
I know a guy that regularly swims with a Speedmaster (older model), so I think most of us are exaggerating with depth rating. We should just be careful to have the crown screwed / pushed, consider gasket age after 5+ years, and enjoy our watches without fear.
If you’re worried just buy a cheap beater watch to wear in the water.
Any Casio 50m watch will be perfectly fine for swimming and will cost $50 or less.
I swim w/ a Casio F-91W all the time. It’s rated for 30 meters. I have found that they either keep out water or they don’t. But it’s a $20 watch so who cares.
If it is 30M or more, then it should be fine for swimming. I probably wouldn’t want to take a watch into a shower or a hot tub but that is purely personal preference.
I think “splash resistant” is generally 3M? I am probably not taking it deeper than a meter or two, and swimming motion probably adds another meter, but why take chances? Unless you only have one watch, then you should have at least one watch with a much higher water resistance that is more suitable for swimming.
I would be most worried about making sure the crown is properly screwed down or pushed in (as the case may be). That is the weakest point of the watch where water is most likely to get in.
i personally prefer to swim with a watch that’s rated at 100 meters or more, just for that extra peace of mind. routine servicing is key too!
This isn’t directed at OP (who asked a perfectly normal and legitimate question), but I feel like I’ve personally encountered this debate at least a hundred times (probably much more) on various forums over the years, and at a certain point, like…is it really that big a deal to just take off your watch while swimming? How often do you absolutely, absolutely need to know the time while submerged in water? (Assuming you’re not a diver, which few watch people are. And the surfers I know either wear G Shocks, or else don’t give a shit what time it is, which is why they became surfers.) If you’re someone who finds themselves searching the internet for horror stories about 100m watches getting ruined in kiddie pools and getting worried…just take it off when you go in the pool, man. You’ll feel better. No one’s gonna judge you, and you probably won’t need it there. Feel like the water resistance question has become a much bigger deal than it needs to be.
Doubt I’d go swimming even with an ultra deep, there are big clocks on the wall at either end of the pool where I go swimming anyway.
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