15 Comments
Jul 9, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

Excellent and entertaining summary, although I'm still not quite sure what to wear whilst yachting.

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Jul 9, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

Obviously your Yachtmaster, the worst that can happen is you dig a tip at foiling speed on your AC 75 , fall in the water get picked up by the chase boat and continue on your way

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Thanks for the mention, Jack. A little known addendum to my Sylvia Earle story is that she accidentally left the crown unscrewed on her Datejust while we were diving. I wanted to include this detail in my later article but the Rolex PR person consulted with Geneva and asked me firmly but kindly to omit that fact. I believe the statue of limitations has expired so I feel safe to divulge it now, as I feel it actually speaks to the quality of Rolex watches that a 50m rated dress watch could still do fine with the crown unscrewed, and also to Dr. Earle’s general faith in her watch that she didn’t care about such trivial details.

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Jul 10, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

Shoutout to the recently released TGN episode with the Dr. Earle interview.

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author

You know Jason I remember you mentioning that she'd left the crown unscrewed and I was going to mention it but wasn't sure if the statute of limitations had, as you put it, expired 😀

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Jul 9, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

I must’ve linked to the Hodinkee article you wrote and the WUS thread you sited half a dozen times. The result is that I learned no amount of evidence or examples can overcome a firmly held belief. Some will simply not get a watch wet for fear of it being completely ruined upon immersion.

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Jul 9, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

I routinely rinse my Speedmaster Pro in the sink. #ThugLife

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I think if you have to ask what "yachting" means, you will never ever truly know what it means to be a "yachtsperson". ;)

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Jul 10, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

My brother had a Tag fail after a service. It was a quartz movement, and he went to a mall store to replace the battery. They either did not replace the seals/gaskets or they were compromised when they put the new battery in. I don't think he took it SCUBA diving, I believe it was free diving. Would have cost him more to get it serviced than the watch was worth to him.

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Jul 10, 2023Liked by Jack Forster

Awesome writeup! Really enjoyed it. Omega can say what they want but my "50m" Omega took on water at 6m. So I no longer put stock in anything they say or claim. Bummer.

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Excellent summary at the end. Should be bookmarked for future reference.

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Great article.

With respect to the examples of Patek 6119 and VC 82172, strap aside, for possible water exposure form daily activities such as rain, washing dishes, etc, I have assumed this is okay. True?

Thoughts on vintage, perhaps using Rolex as an example?

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Where can i find those ISO statues for free, since the ISO website charges a liver for each one? Since ISO statues have public legal status, seem odd to pay just to read it...

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author

The Wikipedia articles are pretty reasonable summaries for both the dive watch standard and for the "water resistant" watch standard. The International Organization For Standards is pretty huge, with over 800 committees and sub-committees and they are funded by member nations, other organizations that run specific projects, and fees for providing the texts for standards. As I understand it the cost of buying publications has been and continues to be open to debate; a standard shouldn't be something you have to pay for and the argument (a good one) against charging is that the costs stifle discussion and innovation. I agree with that argument; I've been able to charge the cost of a single reader license to the companies I work for, for the last ten years at least (HODINKEE covered it and now WatchBox) but I personally think they should be open source. The ISO is based in Switzerland which might be part of the explanation; in Switzerland, the question is never "why charge for something" it's "why not?" 😀

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Oct 27Liked by Jack Forster

Nice end pic! Now I have to get myself a 1000M ISO divewatch before rewatching Das Boot.

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