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Thread: The Little Watch That Could

  1. #1
    Craftsman dixie's Avatar
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    The Little Watch That Could

    Seeing the thread about the oil filled omega reminded me to finally post this...

    I did this a couple of years ago with a bright green Casio F-91W with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, because why the hell not :D

    I work offshore occasionally and in the past couple of years I have had the opportunity to conduct some "testing".

    On one particular trip I stuck it in a Triaxial cell, filled it with water and then pressurised it to about 1000kPa (100m water depth) and she pulled through perfectly (photos on my old phone unfortunately).


    I took the watch back home and forgot about it until summer last year when I was involved in some deep water work...

    Here she is, notice the bubble, harder than you'd think to attach the back of a watch with the tiny screws when submerged in a bowl of Extra Virgin :p





    So I strapped it to our sea bed template.




    The first test was 531.4m water depth for 4 days.




    Back to the surface and SUCCESS!




    A quick clean up




    After an inspection I noticed some fine cracks to the LCD display, not the plastic "crystal" but the actual screen of the LCD.




    Later that day I noted that the bubble of air inside was bigger than before, which is understandable considering this is sold as a water resistant watch and offers no promise of water proof depth rating.




    With the 531.4m under its belt, I decided it best to test it to the deepest water depth I could, 984.5m!
    Again, I zip tied it to the sea bed template and down she went...






    3 days later she came back up with the frame annnnnnnnnnd...



    IT LIVES!

    I was overjoyed, this £10 watch that I filled with Extra Virgin Olive Oil had surpassed the ratings of a lot of expensive purpose made dive watches! It has now earned a special place in my collection as the little watch that could.
    A special mention should be given to those brave olives that gave their lives for this horological achievement.

  2. #2
    Grand Master seikopath's Avatar
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    Great post! just please don't tell Heurtecilla ...
    Good luck everybody. Have a good one.

  3. #3
    Master
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    Hahaha that's amazing. Thanks for the post!!

  4. #4
    Master -Ally-'s Avatar
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    That's great to see. Thanks

  5. #5
    Master
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    Absolutely fantastic! That is awesome - many thanks for posting.

  6. #6
    Master westy's Avatar
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    Great post, made me smile, thanks.

  7. #7
    Master sweets's Avatar
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    Love it - great job.
    Well done on the thought, the effort, and the success.
    Dave

  8. #8
    Master Thorien's Avatar
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    Brilliant post and pics. Thanks :-)
    Made me smile too, what a fab result.

  9. #9
    Grand Master PickleB's Avatar
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    Thanks for your post OP. Very enjoyable...

  10. #10
    Master DB9yeti's Avatar
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    Excellent result!

    I remember someone doing this offshore with their Sea-Dweller - pretty sure they strapped it to the ROV and took it down to 1220m... brave to do it with your own watch!!

  11. #11
    Master
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    I think this leads to all sorts of questions about exactly how deep watches are WR to....are 'Water Resistant' 30m watches actually any less water resistant that most 200m Divers??? And is all this tosh off being afraid to take anything less than a 300m watch with helium escape valve swimming pure paranoia?? (Let alone into the shower!!)

  12. #12
    Master
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    Fantastic, thanks. Very nice to see.

    So for all the marketing and hype surrounding super-duper diver's tool watches, you can actually have something equally reliable at those extreme depths with a watch available from Amazon for less than a tenner, and some olive oil.


  13. #13
    Very cool.

    I was wearing my cheap-as-chips oil-filled watch on Friday - the Canadian-Swiss St Moritz Hyperbar. It has an equally large bubble!

  14. #14
    Master adesmith's Avatar
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    that's brilliant. Nice going OP. That's is seriously deep for a watch like that!

  15. #15
    Master dice's Avatar
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    That is some serious soul. Thanks for the effort!

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    Wink Casio F91-W(C) rules

    Thanks for sharing.

    I have done three now and avoiding the bubble is simple logic.
    Follow the same way I showed in the photes and explained it in the text.

    I am a bit surpised about the crack in the display. It may have been the bubble causing a warp. Otherwise it should not.

    Still truely impressive for a cheerful splash resistant only watch.

  17. #17
    Journeyman Andy540's Avatar
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    Thanks for the tests. It's cool to see results and pictures!

  18. #18
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    Exclamation THANKS AGAIN

    Quote Originally Posted by monogroover View Post
    Fantastic, thanks. Very nice to see.

    So for all the marketing and hype surrounding super-duper diver's tool watches, you can actually have something equally reliable at those extreme depths with a watch available from Amazon for less than a tenner, and some olive oil.
    Told you so [img]http://forum.tz-uk.com/images/icons/icon6.png/img]

    Even shared the enjoyable lunch experience with you guys.

    Do look up the old thread.
    On the technical side the flexibility of caseback and screen is key.

    For the rest it is great relativating fun and the best by far of all party watch talking subjects

    I will treasure/incorporate this tread as a great addition to mine


    p.s. My original is up for a new battery and an oil change soon. Looking forward to that lunch.

  19. #19
    Craftsman
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    What a fantastic post!

  20. #20
    Now renamed the 'Casio Deepsea Challenger'.

  21. #21
    Journeyman
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    WOW!...Just WOW!

  22. #22
    Craftsman
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    Great post

    This is also a great "mods and wreckers" post too? Should be a sticky somewhere....

  23. #23
    Journeyman coldors's Avatar
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    Brilliant post! I feel I should be more surprised though... these watches are tough as hell, i wore one as a kid and tried many times to break it an never did

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by MORRI View Post
    This is also a great "mods and wreckers" post too? Should be a sticky somewhere....
    The original post was not all that appreciated over here.

    This one makes a GREAT follow up.






  25. #25
    Grand Master Daddelvirks's Avatar
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    Great fun!

    And I like it even more that you actually came up with the idea and carried it out :)

    Daddel.
    Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!

  26. #26
    Grand Master JasonM's Avatar
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    It would have been even better with a control 'subject' ..... Great fun, thanks for posting...
    Cheers..
    Jase

  27. #27
    Master DB9yeti's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jedi Knight View Post
    WOW!...Just WOW!
    Please don't ever post anything like that again.

    Unless you are actually a Jedi Knight, in which case you can do as you please.

  28. #28
    Master DB9yeti's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrGrumpy View Post
    I think this leads to all sorts of questions about exactly how deep watches are WR to....are 'Water Resistant' 30m watches actually any less water resistant that most 200m Divers???
    You do realise it was filled with oil, right? Making the case effectively incompressible?

  29. #29
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by DB9yeti View Post
    You do realise it was filled with oil, right? Making the case effectively incompressible?
    Hmmm I did think about that - but I presumed that the huge water pressure at depth would be a case of the overwhelming force moving the irresistable object. I'm welcome to being corrected on that. However, the corollary (to my feeble mind) of that is that an oil-filled watch, being full of incompressible liquid, would thus be effectively water resistant to infinite depths! Thus if you are making a Diver's watch, why muck around with screw in crowns and fantastically effective seals, and not just fill it with oil?

  30. #30
    Master
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    Brilliant. I very much enjoyed that write up.

  31. #31
    Grand Master PickleB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrGrumpy View Post
    Hmmm I did think about that - but I presumed that the huge water pressure at depth would be a case of the overwhelming force moving the irresistable object. I'm welcome to being corrected on that. However, the corollary (to my feeble mind) of that is that an oil-filled watch, being full of incompressible liquid, would thus be effectively water resistant to infinite depths! Thus if you are making a Diver's watch, why muck around with screw in crowns and fantastically effective seals, and not just fill it with oil?
    How about temperature effects? Liquids do expand and contract...

  32. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by PickleB View Post
    How about temperature effects? Liquids do expand and contract...
    Again; read the original thread. The tech bit is the caseback and window.

  33. #33
    Craftsman
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    Thanks, OP. Great post!!!

  34. #34
    Grand Master PickleB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Huertecilla View Post
    Again; read the original thread. The tech bit is the caseback and window.
    I know. Ta...

  35. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by PickleB View Post
    I know. Ta...
    So yes, the mucking about with immensely strong cases, trick crowns and gas passing valves is an anachronism for mechanical tech as a wiggly spring can´t simply operate in a liquid.
    Post modern watch tech can simply be put in a dustproof lightweight case with flexible back, filled with oil and presto; WR5000 for peanuts. That does not sell well though and less still for lots of money.

    Anyway, the oil filled F91-W ´DeepSea´meets all US Marine specs for dive watches (see the digital watch test about somewhere on this forum) and costs a tenner plus oil.

    I have mine on an orange Nato, my son has it on a ´Bond´ strap

  36. #36
    Journeyman Nin101's Avatar
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    Brilliant post, thank you for sharing it. Boredom at work can be such a powerful motivator ...

  37. #37
    Master Zephyr's Avatar
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    Thanks for posting, an enjoyable read.

  38. #38
    Grand Master AlphaOmega's Avatar
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    Thanks for posting. It was interesting and amusing reading about your experiment.

  39. #39
    Master
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    having seen similar subjects discussed previously, i would say this is by far the most interesting demonstration of this technique. very good stuff.

  40. #40
    Master DB9yeti's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrGrumpy View Post
    Hmmm I did think about that - but I presumed that the huge water pressure at depth would be a case of the overwhelming force moving the irresistable object. I'm welcome to being corrected on that. However, the corollary (to my feeble mind) of that is that an oil-filled watch, being full of incompressible liquid, would thus be effectively water resistant to infinite depths! Thus if you are making a Diver's watch, why muck around with screw in crowns and fantastically effective seals, and not just fill it with oil?
    You can only do this with Quartz of course - oil doesn't conduct electricity which is handy and of course a spring wouldn't be able to keep its beat rate in a thick fluid.

    Nothing is incompressible, only 'virtually' so the Sinns and B&Rs that use this tech use a slightly flexible caseback to deal with the pressure. The oil is liquid fluorine based. The B&R Hydromax is case rated to 11,100m and the Sinn UX to 12,000. Both of them are 'only' movement rated to 5000m though :)

  41. #41
    Picked up this hydromod from someone in the long forgotten past. Don't know why the only diving I do is the belly flop in the hotel pool. Just liked the case & strap The auto illumination does not work though.

    Last edited by Orgone Accumulator; 20th April 2015 at 19:18. Reason: Total spelling miss.

  42. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by Huertecilla View Post
    Thanks for sharing.

    I have done three now and avoiding the bubble is simple logic.
    Follow the same way I showed in the photes and explained it in the text..

    Could I have a link to the thread please?

  43. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Tetley View Post
    Could I have a link to the thread please?
    http://www.thewatchsite.com/34-watch...io-f-91-a.html

  44. #44
    Thank you!

  45. #45
    Craftsman dixie's Avatar
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    Thank you for all the kind comments :)
    I had great fun doing it, all the guys on board were excited to see it on its return from the 984.5m test.

    I am thinking about furthering the experiment and trying it out on a few different watches and with an oil that is less likely to expire.

    1) Casio G-shock GWM5610 - It is a pretty amazing watch already being radio controlled and solar powered. It would be cool to see the electroluminescent lighting up the oil, if it still works. The fact that it is solar powered also means no battery changes, although I do wonder though if the effectiveness of the solar cells will be hampered by the oil...




    2) I have been looking to get one of the new Scurfa Diver One watches as my next purchase. It has a domed sapphire so I think it would look the muts with a nice clear oil in it.


  46. #46
    Craftsman dixie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Orgone Accumulator View Post
    Picked up this hydromod from someone in the long forgotten past. Don't know why the only diving I do is the belly flop in the hotel pool. Just liked the case & strap The auto illumination does not work though.

    That is cool! Do you have any pictures of the illuminator light working?

  47. #47
    Craftsman dixie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonM View Post
    It would have been even better with a control 'subject' ..... Great fun, thanks for posting...
    I didn't think of that, the next time I get the chance I will do it. It'd be cool to see the difference the oil makes or even better if there isn't any difference!

  48. #48
    Grand Master
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    That's brilliant OP.
    I hope it stays with you and doesn't get discarded once the experimentation has passed!

  49. #49
    Extra virgin olive oil?!? Pah, try it with plain old Asda value brand and see what happens...

    Great fun, thanks for posting!

  50. #50
    Grand Master PickleB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CardShark View Post
    Extra virgin olive oil?!? Pah, try it with plain old Asda value brand and see what happens...

    Great fun, thanks for posting!
    Have any of you family men out there tried filling a watch with Johnson's Baby Oil? It's a "low viscosity solution of light mineral oil", but the physical state is still given as "oil" (link). Does that mean there's a solvent involved? Otherwise, it's clear and not very viscous.

    I know that I've read an article about the selection of the more usual synthetic oil that's recommended for this task, but cannot recall where it was. I'd be interested in a discussion of the relative merits of vegetable, mineral and synthetic oils for filling watches.

    Now waiting for the frivolous replies to my suggestion...

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