Reply With QuoteBefore I got hooked on watches I had a mid range Seiko Diver and wore it everyday for about 8 years. I regularly played sports, swam, went in the sauna and steam room and never thought twice about it - I reckon you'll be fine :)
I go swimming regularly at my local health club and wear my good quality 1,000ft-rated diver's watch to time my session (I'm too short-sighted to read the time on the wall clock btw). No problem there, I'm sure you'll agree.
There is a dry sauna and a wet sauna - aka steam room or Turkish bath - by the side of the pool, and very nice it is to relax in one or the other after a swim. I avoid the dry sauna however on the grounds that regular exposure to the very high heat in the dry sauna might damage the gaskets in my watch which could lead to tears at some point in the future. On the other hand, I do use the steam room on the basis that (a) the heat is significantly lower than that in the dry sauna (it feels hotter than it actually is in a steam room) and so the actual temperature variation should be within the degree expected when you move between a hot beach or boat and the cool sea, and (b) a watch which is depth rated to 1,000 feet should be impervious to water ingress through exposure to high humidity air at normal pressure. A diver's watch is after all intended to be a tough piece of equipment which can withstand temperature changes and adverse conditions, within reasonable limits.
Am I kidding myself here?
Before I got hooked on watches I had a mid range Seiko Diver and wore it everyday for about 8 years. I regularly played sports, swam, went in the sauna and steam room and never thought twice about it - I reckon you'll be fine :)
The problem with this question (which is a favourite topic on watch forums) is that there's really no science on it, and your respondents are from a self-selecting sample. People who wear their watches in the steam room without damage will say it's fine. People who wore their watches in the steam room and damaged them will probably keep quiet about it. Watchmakers, who naturally see primarily those watches which are sent to them damaged by water ingress, will say it's crazy to take a watch anywhere near a puddle. I don't think you can learn anything useful.
I have plenty of time worn my watches in sauna or steam room no issues ever
This ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️Originally Posted by taz11
The bracelet of my G-Shock had started to smell. I tried washing it in mild soap with a soft toothbrush. Didn't work. I soaked it overnight, Didn't work either. Finally I put it in the dishwasher and ran it at 60°C. The bloody thing still smelled after that, so I ran it again in the dishwasher at 70°C. That finally did the trick and the watch is fine, just squeaky clean.
I'm sure that you can wear your 300m water resistant watch to sauna with no problems if the watch is properly serviced and the seals are in order. The watch is attached to your wrist afterall and hence will not reach really high temperatures. Maybe have it pressure tested yearly by a watchmaker just to be on the safe side?
SS watches can get really hot in the sauna, although G-Shocks will be fine.
I do most things with my sub but would probably wear my G to the swimming pool if I was going to have either Steam or dry heat sessions after.
I take the view that any temperature likely to hurt your watch is likely to be utterly unbearable to your body, so I don't think you could do much harm!!
Buy yourself some optically correct swimming goggles for around £25 and leave the watch in the locker.......problem solved. I`ve used them for years.
Paul
+1. No problems ever. Wear and enjoy.
There are steel G-Shocks too. The one I chucked in the dishwasher was a titanium G with a titanium bracelet. I bet the watch was pretty much at 70°C at the end of the 90 minute cycle. Seems it could handle it fine. Wouldn't do that to a Sub though. That said, I've worn most of my 200+ m WR mechanicals in sauna without problems. I'd rather not leave the watch to a locker or a hotel room. I've read far more stories about things stolen from lockers and hotel rooms than about watches destroyed by sauna. OTOH if I'm going just to and fro to a public pool from home I wouldn't take a good watch either.
I'm trying to say that I won't take a watch to a sauna if it is easily avoided, but I won't go out of my way to avoid it either.
No! Where's the fun in that??? AND the risk of it getting nicked from a locker is distinctly non-zero! Just wear the damned thing!
Not sure about this. If I'd had a good watch ruined by wearing it in the sauna, whether wet or dry, I definitely *would* post a reply. In fact, if anything I think it's *more* likely I'd reply!
My experience of wearing my sub in the wet sauna is that the SS bracelet and case don't feel that hot against my skin. That wouldn't be the case in a dry sauna of course.
Fair enough, but I never yet saw a post from anyone saying "I ruined my watch by getting it wet". Yet watchmakers repair water-damaged watches all the time. Maybe only smart people read watch forums...
The simple fact of the matter is that your stainless steel and viton (or other) gasketted watch is eminently more suitable for variations in temperature than you are.
You would be dead from hypo or hyper-thermia long before the mechanical marvel on your wrist would have even noticed.
D
In this case though, we're talking about a diving watch where there's no risk whatsoever of damage through simply getting it wet - eg by swimming - unless there is already some (probably quite serious) damage to the sealing of the watch, for example through perished gaskets.
The question is whether wearing a dive watch in a steam room significantly hastens deterioration of the gaskets (or anything else) to the extent that the case becomes no longer waterproof.
I wonder whether watchmakers generally know the back story behind water damaged watches they receive for repair anyway - perhaps anecdotal evidence on a watch forum is as good an idea as you can get, imperfect though it is.
I don't think it would make a difference whether it was a wet or dry sauna, as long as the metal was up against your skin it'll feel the same temperature as your skin does. Take it off for a while though and it'll feel very hot when you put it back on.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Been there - done that! Being metal it is a good heat conductor - so off wrist it reaches the ambient temp (80-90C etc in a sauna) quickly - only to cool to body temp when placed on wrist - can burn a little on sensitive areas!
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 6th April 2017 at 22:33.
Just don't jump into an ice bath after the steam room or sauna with your SS watch. I did that and got water damage.
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An older watch should be tested for water resistance. But if it passes there is no issue taking it in a sauna
But does regularly wearing a watch in a sauna or steam room mean that the gaskets might deteriorate rapidly due to rapid expansion and contraction or perhaps just due to the action of high heat on rubber?
If so, is there a difference between using a dry sauna and a steam room? (I suspect this may be the case.)
In this country, I believe typical air temperatures for a dry sauna are around 80 deg C and in a steam room around 40-45 deg C.
Humans can withstand higher heat in the low humidity of a dry sauna because sweating maintains the core body temperature within its safe range, whilst in a steam room the air is already saturated which prevents sweating and means it feels much hotter than it would in dry air.
Watches don't sweat so I'd have thought the actual temperature is the only thing that matters. 40-45 deg C sounds as though it should be perfectly OK for both the gaskets and the mechanism whereas exposing gaskets in particular regularly to 80 deg C or more is something that would worry me.
The gaskets are designed for temperature change, if you had ever seen a sat system blown down quickly in an emergency , you wouldn't be bothered about wether the seals could take the change.
Excellent, thanks!
(Incidentally, I had to Google to get any idea of what a "sat system blown down in an emergency" might mean, but I now feel quite reassured!)
Why risk it? Personally I feel more comfortable, showering, bathing, and in the sauna without a watch. Take it off and give your wrists a scrub! :p
And leave it where?
What is the cut-off point for risk though? Next thing I'd be taking off a vintage watch just in case my can of coke was too fizzy. Wear it and enjoy it :)
We have had a ton of fun with the humble F91-W.
One of the experiments was boiling it.
Despite being rated only splash proof and 10 Euros only, it suffered no ill effects.
We later filled it with extra virgin olive oil to make it WR5000 and it still is keeping on the dot.
Your way over-thinking it.
The seals will be fine for at least the base service interval. And much much longer in my experience. I have had many hundreds of dives and my watch goes into the tub of warm water with the rest of the gear at the end. Then usually goes with me into the shower afterwards. Salt water, warm water. hot water with soap, repeated for years and never a problem.
The biggest chance of damage is you not screwing the crown down.
If its any help, I was wearing my 1982 Rolex 16800 Sub in a Turkish Bath a few weeks ago (on 4 different days) without any problems .
Personally I think it' more about the quality/design of the watch rather than where you wear it.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
True, I´d wear an F91-W.
Actually, I did not wear any watch to the Hammam last week. To me it seems silly to wear a watch for one because quality time is all the reason one needs to NOT wear time on the wrist and secondly because it is silly to want to how off your wrist jewelry there.
No idea what Hamman is, but I wear a watch because I want to know the time (whether its in bed, the shower, at work, in the garden or office, etc, and no other reason).
If people wear a a watch in order to "show" off, then surely they would all be wearing bling, rather than more stealthy models - which 99.999% of the world population would never ever recognize.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hamman is a Turkish bath. I'm going tomorrow and will probably wear my a seiko diver or g shock. Speedmaster would probably be fine but better not to risk it.
Sounds like you're going solely for the Hammam but as has been pointed out many of us take a steam bath or sauna after a gym or swimming session and if we wanted to wear a watch for timing for that session - or even if we didn't, but arrived straight from work say - there's a problem in doing anything other than wearing it in the steam room / sauna.
Leaving a £6k sub in a locker would be a complete no-no for me, that's for sure.
Agree that the chances of anyone noticing your watch in the steam room is incredibly low, not least because normally no-one else will be able to see it clearly through the steam! Anyway fewer than 1% of people are going to notice in clear daylight - and most of those are fellow enthusiasts - so if that's anyone's reason for wearing a quality watch IMV they're misguided.
Wore my Speedmaster Pro to the Hammam by accident yesterday and thought the risk of moisture better than the risk of theft from the lockers while on holiday.
Happy to report Speedmaster is fine but I will admit my mind wasn't entirely relaxed while in there and the whole time I wished I wore the g shock I brought for specifically for the hammam!!
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