Bell & Ross, Almost to 50 Meters

[sk-six]

I got a pressure tester here in Shanghai to use to evaluate my collection.

testing my favorite B&R which I've used diving before about two years solid use, good to 30, good to 40, pressurized to 50, wait couple minutes, lower into the water, all good... then pop and a flood of bubbles and sadness...

Face scratched, all hands flattened.

[redwatch]

Ouch....definite sadness Sorry for your loss there. I guess it wasn't really meant to go into the water under the smallest amount of pressure huh?

[sk-six]

50 meters is 165 feet, so not bad, more than I've ever dived to. I'd taken the watch down to about 30 meters in the real world. This was the tabletop pressure tester pushing it further, well, too far.

[SMIDSY]

wait which way did the crystal explode?? Also My B&R was successfully tested to 6atm.... and the gen is only rated for 10 atm....

[sk-six]

The crystal was crushed inwards. 1 ATM inside the watch (watertight), +5 ATM outside the watch.

[AXO]

Wow Ouch!

[OmegaPOFL]

damn!

at least it was fine until 40M

anything salvageable? the case perhaps?

[Member X]

Bugger

I guess it's an inherent weakness of such a large but completely flat and fairly thin crystal!

Hopefully you can sort a new dial and crystal out and get the movement serviced

[pman]

Let me get this right you guys took your B&R swimming? The reason I ask is because I have an 03 and the way the crown stem looks and the fact that it doesn't have any visible gaskets has stopped me from swimming with it. Did you modify them in any way? Are the standard rep issue? Great post. Thanks.

[sk-six]

There are many B&R factories and versions it seems, in the markets here in China, the last two years every watch stand had lots of versions, lately harder to find.

One watch I had filled immediately with water when diving. Opening it up showed the rough machining under the faceplate, there was a rubber seal, but there was no chance for it to seal against the surface.

The black one held up under water full scuba diving. The seal on the stem is not apparent, perhaps it is a flat seal inside the crwon matching the black color.

No mods were done on the watches, although now that chapter is opening with the in-house pressure tester.