urbanfishcake Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Just thought I'd write a few comments about my current rep collection. Was off on holiday this week and wanted to take a watch or two with me. Anticipated being in the pool and the sea so took them down to my local watchsmith. It's a small shop and he said he could only pressure test them to 50 meters, which was good enough for me. Watches that passed: Omega CrPo (from toro) IWC spitfire (toro) Pam 088 (timeshops) Breitling super avenger (timeshops) These passed without anything more than a bit of greasing around the crown needed. Watch guy was really impressed with the build quality and even asked about the forum and dealers I used. Showed me a crappy Rolex rep he'd just bought for £50. Needless to say he felt a bit silly after seeing my collection. A few watches didn't pass but the surprise for me was that the pam092 submersible failed. I thought that, of all of them, this might have passed. Anyhoo, was mightily impressed to have so many watched to choose from. Ended up taking the CrPo Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike on a bike Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 fishcake care to give us a rundown on the ones that did pass, good to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetypal Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 I've braved the PO v5 and the BP SD, both scuba diving down to 30m, no pressure test. I worked on promise from the dealers, so they may have done a test before shipping. The only issue I had was the spring bars on the PO rusted! Easy fix. Both pieces got dinged up on rocks nicely and hold great holiday memories. Enjoy the trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Good to know that such a nice percentage passed. I rarely dive with a nice watch, even gens that I know are WR. Scuba is hard on equipment. If you dive regularly, your watch will take a heck of a beating. Rocks, coral, boat ladders, etc. really take their toll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanfishcake Posted January 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 I only wore it when messing around in the sea to cool off. Oh, and a bit of kitesurfing. No scuba diving though. Don't think I'd wear it in that situation either. It's good to know that, as well as looking the part, these watches have great build quality too! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightwatch Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Great post, thanks, care to update us with all that failed the test? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icoopernicus Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 This is great to know, I have had similar experience with my dive reps, they get a quick test at home and if they pass that they're going under - pool, lake, sea, whatever. I've had a couple that get condensation under the crystal but I opened them up, dried the case and greased the gaskets, after this they have served me well under water. I now open the caseback and grease the o-ring of my divers before they take their first plunge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraggle42 Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Hmm, so if someone says a watch has been proven properly waterproof, it's probably had a very hard life being dinged against rocks, stuffed into mud, sand, sharks and finally washed up on shore somewhere with the bitten off remains of the previous owners arm... I think I'll have mine slightly less waterproof and in great condition 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkay Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 As I always say, what mostly causes a replica divers watch to not be water tight is the accidental omission of gaskets. You can't assume that reps are waterproof since the QC is terrible. Maybe out of 500 watches made, they forgot the rubber seals in ONLY your watch. It happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Hmm, so if someone says a watch has been proven properly waterproof, it's probably had a very hard life being dinged against rocks, stuffed into mud, sand, sharks and finally washed up on shore somewhere with the bitten off remains of the previous owners arm... I think I'll have mine slightly less waterproof and in great condition Nah, I just said that if you use them regularly for diving, they get pretty beat up. Couldn't find any blood on them, so they probably weren't eaten by a shark, They just get banged around and rocks and coral are easy to bump when you are swimming in close proximity. Also, when you are getting onto a dive boat when the waves are moving everything around can be challenging to equipment at times. Here are a few of mine, the two Divingstars were purchased from a guy in France, they were both ex French Navy. this was how I received them, both had their Doxa hands replaced by Tudor Snowflake hands, which was probably the hands that the Navy watch repair facility had on hand at the time. they are pretty beat up!! Another Doxa, Sub300T Professional that I bought and dove with for a few years. It's old and not sure about these old seals and gaskets anymore. My primary dive watches now are an Ocean7 Ploprof and a MKII Stingray. Nice thing about most watches, you can bring them back from the dead. Here is one of the Divingstars after jack@IWW worked his magic And my old 300T Professional after Ziggy worked his magic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraggle42 Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 It's a pity that big scratches on the crystals leave dark marks. (2nd photo down shows it very well) I bet it's just reflections of something dark, maybe the edge of the crystal. If the marks were a lot lighter I bet you could keep on using them (for diving) indefinitely. If I did it I'd definitely need to have a separate group of watches used for diving - robust, waterproof, ones I knew could be knocked about all over the place and keep on going. Probably digital watches in that case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted February 1, 2014 Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 I agree, they do leave dark marks, those two divingstars were so bad, you could hardly see the writing on the dial. Biggest problems with these, back in the 1970's Doxa merged, and then was sold a couple of times and every time they changed management/owners, they redesigned the watches, not much, but enough that parts didn't interchange. Also they didn't feel compelled to keep a supply of replacement parts for future repairs. Getting one restored in the past 10+ years has been a nightmare, as parts are not available, even things like crystal gaskets are impossible to find. There were 38 different variations of the Doxa " No Decompression Diving table" bezels back from the 60's through the early 80's. a lot of those bezels look identical, but they aren't, they will only fit a particular watch from a particular time period, sometimes only a year or two!! It took ma over two years to find the parts to restore them, and one was never completely restored. I could never find a NOS bezel for either one of them. You are right about dive watches for diving. they pretty much need to be bulletproof, relatively inexpensive, have spare parts available, like crystals and bezels/inserts, which suffer the most. I never see any guys/gals who are serious divers wearing watches like Rolex, AP, Omega, etc. on dive trips. Our old instructor told a group of us when we were getting certified, when asked a question about watches, answered, " don't wear anything you can't afford to lose". If you are diving and you look down and your watch is gone, it's not like losing it while working in your yard. You have a finite amount of bottom time and you may not be able to go back and search. So that's why most folks don't wear expensive watches when they scuba dive. Now having said that, I f you have a nice rep Omega Ploprof, or a DSSD, etc. and you are confident that it's water resistant to diving depths, then it falls into the same category, if it's lost, it's not like you're losing a 5-20K watch! Maybe a nice watch and one you wouldn't want to lose or get banged up, but if it does, it's not like losing a gen. Sorry guys, now I have good and proper hijacked the OP's waterproof thread. My apologies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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