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Brand New Seamaster 300 2018 leaking water??

Chazman1946
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I bought a brand new Omega Seamaster 300 (2018) from Jared's last week. I purchased the blue dial model with blue rubber strap.

I have worn the watch every day without resetting the time and the watch was averaging +2 seconds a day. The crown has been locked down tight, and since I own approximately 20 other dive watches, all of which get time in my pool, I know it wasn't me.

I wound the crown the day I bought it, exactly a week ago come 9/10/2020. Haven't unscrewed the crown to wind since my daily time in the pool is more than enough to keep it wound. Woke up after today's afternoon nap to find the watch had stopped, and there was condensation under the crystal??

I fully wound it again, and it won't' go but a few seconds before stopping again WTF!

Now I'm stuck with a broken watch that will probably take weeks to fix, and an OEM Omega $1K bracelet on the way that won't have a watch to put it on.

I own 43 watches, everything from Rolex, Eterna, Longines, Breitling, lots of Seikos, and even Vostoks. I have only had one other watch leak on me, and that was a Citizen Eco-Drive that I forgot to screw the crown down on when going in the pool since then I never forget to screw the crown down, and even if I didn't aren't the gaskets supposed to prevent leakage, especially in only 5 feet of water??
Edited:
 
Bugbait
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Assume the Helium valve was also locked down sufficiently? If so, seems like a warranty job unfortunately. No one likes being without their watch, especially a new one but at least you have many others to enjoy in the mean time 馃檨
 
Chazman1946
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Bugbait Bugbait
Assume the Helium valve was also locked down sufficiently? If so, seems like a warranty job unfortunately. No one likes being without their watch, especially a new one but at least you have many others to enjoy in the mean time 馃檨


Yeah, the helium valve was screwed down as well, and they advertise the valve to be safely opened at 50 meters underwater as well! Man is this a bummer!
 
Meme-Dweller
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If there was water intrusion bad enough to stop the watch, you should be able to see it through the caseback. Sounds more like something else wrong with the movement. If you can easily replicate it not working, and since you only bought it a week ago, see if you Jared's is willing to swap the watch with a new one for you instead of sending it for repair.
 
superi4n
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Yikes .. sounds like a QC issue. I would be super frustrated if this happened, especially since it's a new watch
 
wolfe44
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I agree, see if Jared's will give you a replacement new one. It's brand new
 
Chazman1946
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Meme-Dweller Meme-Dweller
If there was water intrusion bad enough to stop the watch, you should be able to see it through the caseback. Sounds more like something else wrong with the movement. If you can easily replicate it not working, and since you only bought it a week ago, see if you Jared's is willing to swap the watch with a new one for you instead of sending it for repair.

There was no sign of condensation through the display case back, and this morning when I checked the watch out there was no sign of condensation under the crystal as well, watch still won't run, is fully wound and when you shake it to get it running, it only ticks off a couple of seconds before it stops.
 
Davidt
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You bought this watch brand new last week correct?

We can speculate TIL the cows come home as to why this happened, but just take it back to the place you bought it for warranty repair (or you may get lucky and get an exchange).
 
Dan S
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The most impressive part of this thread to me is that the OP knows exactly how many watches he has. 馃憤
 
Chazman1946
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Scarecrow Boat Scarecrow Boat
It's true that divers have seals in the crowns to aid in resistance if left unscrewed, however, 5 feet of water isn't the only factor at play. If you are swimming, you are adding pressure via your underwater motions and at that point, there is no guarantee those seals will resist the same as if the watch was just submerged.


If I'm not mistaken, the movement underwater adding excessive pressure theory has been debunked. I actually took a photo of the watch just before I went into the pool to put on the WRUW thread at Watchfreeks, The crown isn't unscrewed
 
20200809_142725_resized_1.jpg
Bugbait
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Scarecrow Boat Scarecrow Boat
It's true that divers have seals in the crowns to aid in resistance if left unscrewed, however, 5 feet of water isn't the only factor at play. If you are swimming, you are adding pressure via your underwater motions and at that point, there is no guarantee those seals will resist the same as if the watch was just submerged.

It's virtually impossible for a human to move fast enough, unaided through water for the difference in dynamic pressure to be significantly higher than static. So 5 feet is not turning into 15, let alone 50 feet of equivalent pressure.

A cut and paste from another watch forum (not sure if I'm allowed to use the URL it here?): Author - "lysanderxiii"

MYTH - Movement of the watch while in the water will increases the pressure on the watch, possibly beyond the depth rating for that watch....
The increase in pressure can be calculated.

The increase will be equal to the one half the density times the velocity squared, or

螖P = (1000 x V[SUP]2[/SUP])/2

with
螖P = increase in pressure in pascals
1000 = density of fresh water, in kg/m[SUP]3[/SUP], use 1030 kg/m[SUP]3[/SUP] if seawater,
v = velocity in m/s

(To convert pascals to atm multiply by .00001)

Doing the math, you can see that in order to raise the pressure by 1 atm the watch must be traveling at 14.25 m/s. That's about 51 km/h or 32 mph.

In 7 pages no one disproved it with science. Someone near the end supported the conclusions with a practical test.
 
Scarecrow Boat
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Chazman1946 Chazman1946
If I'm not mistaken, the movement underwater adding excessive pressure theory has been debunked.
Editing this whole post because I found a detailed explanation from Archer. In my mind I was imagining water being forced against the unprotected seals through the act of swimming. Not blowing out the watch due to increased pressure.
Edited:
 
dinexus
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Bugbait Bugbait
Assume the Helium valve was also locked down sufficiently? If so, seems like a warranty job unfortunately. No one likes being without their watch, especially a new one but at least you have many others to enjoy in the mean time 馃檨
Even when open, the HR valve on the newest 8800-series Seamasters is still rated to 50 meters submerged - this was a talking point back in 2018 when the Seamaster was launched, but they've since removed that verbiage from the website because it apparently caused confusion about how the HR valve was even supposed to work.

Just sounds like OP got a bad seal on his watch - quick trip to the watchmaker and he'd be right as rain!

(PS: enough with the 'dynamic pressure' nonsense - why can't that myth die already?)
 
Chazman1946
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dinexus dinexus
Even when open, the HR valve on the newest 8800-series Seamasters is still rated to 50 meters submerged - this was a talking point back in 2018 when the Seamaster was launched, but they've since removed that verbiage from the website because it apparently caused confusion about how the HR valve was even supposed to work.

Just sounds like OP got a bad seal on his watch - quick trip to the watchmaker and he'd be right as rain!

(PS: enough with the 'dynamic pressure' nonsense - why can't that myth die already?)

The watch was only 6 days old when this happened, I'm taking it back to Jareds for an exchange, or refund!
 
Chazman1946
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Ok, took it back to Jared''s, they had the same exact model in stock and swapped in out for no charge, of course, they got me on the way out, they showed me a Black Bay Heritage with the new movement, and since they gave me a 30% discount, I walked out the door with both!
 
20200811_142659_resized.jpg
maine-iac1
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I think that brings the number of watches to 45, but who's counting? 馃槈 Both of those are nice-looking watches. Wear them in good health!
 
EricCsN
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Chazman1946 Chazman1946
Ok, took it back to Jared''s, they had the same exact model in stock and swapped in out for no charge, of course, they got me on the way out, they showed me a Black Bay Heritage with the new movement, and since they gave me a 30% discount, I walked out the door with both!
that's the omega AD or OB I always know: always delighting their customers and work at keeping them happy, listening to them, no hassle and pleasant sales experience. Because they will always come back for more.
Edited:
 
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