The seals are bidirectional? A dive watch would experience considerable pressure from outside, not from inside, except deep dive watches and those are usually fitted with helium release valves. How do they test those?
They don't need to, it's only a way one valve. Helium has tiny molecules, which penetrate the 'O' ring, going through the actual rubber/silicon,thus pressuring the inside of the watch. As the external pressure becomes less, the internal pressure pushes the Crystal out, usually.
I used to work in a high end watch shop/jewellers in Chichester for about 3 years. Water resistant (no such thing as water proof...they will all leak under certain conditions and pressures) watches with a rating over 50m were tested in a vacuum.....if you tested them under pressure you would never know if water had got in and you risk ruining the watch so that's not a great idea! The watch was placed in a clear test cylinder half filled with a special test fluid (like a special thin oil so if any did creep into the watch no damage would occur) which was sealed and connected to a calibrated pump. The air was sucked out of the container whilst you watched to see if any bubbled were being sucked from the watch casing...if there was its leaking and needs to be resealed. It could be lifted out of the fluid before opening the cylinder to prevent fluid being sucked in when the vacuum was released.
The poster said the air should be removed from inside of the watch, with a Vacuum!
Or maybe, like loads of people I've come across, he's fiddled with the crown, and left it untightened and therefore unsealed!
Very unlikely IMO......unless someone spilt something in it before the put the back on!!! Its takes more moisture than could ever be in the air trapped in the case to cause visible condensation......in my experience at least. I don't remember us having a case in the shop when the glass was fogged or worse still droplets of water showing and we did not find a leak.
I'm not sure it takes them much longer to do in the grand scheme. Most of the time is spent sat in the queue waiting your turn (or pretending there's a queue to create the illusion that it's somehow a special event). The Chronomatic (which doesn't have those valves) service this summer took just under 3 weeks from drop off to estimate, and 8 weeks from estimate to collection. My Avenger will be going in shortly and they're quoting more or less the same turn around time.
Oi, “that old”?! I resemble that remark!
My old TAG from 2004. It’s not luminous anymore, the bezel has seized up and I don’t even bother correcting the date these days.Oi, “that old”?! I resemble that remark!
Thank you for the tip off that’s very helpful. Whilst I don’t mind it losing it’s originality, I wouldn’t want it to lose original features, ie I’d want the parts replaced like for like rather than a relative alternative.
I think mine wouldI love reading these threads about expensive diving watches.
I’m sure that the OG’s here are gutted that their Rolex’s, Breitlings and Omegas possibly won’t stand up to a couple of hours of saturation diving.
