We do a lot of pressure testing of industrial systems and use a digital pressure gauge. The beauty of it is that we don't have to worry about the full range scale being too high or low for the system pressure we are testing. The digital gauges use piezoelectric crystals, so they are accurate along the full range (0 - 5000psi in our case). If it matters to you, the cost is pretty low ($300 or $400 US).

From what I see though, if I were you, I would not bother with the digital.

Thanks for posting. The geek in me loves this stuff.

 

Thanks, and glad you enjoyed it.

I used to be an engineer (still am I guess, just have a different day job), and have bought hundreds of pressure gauges in my 23 years doing that, so yes I understand how all this works and what's available on the market. And I agree, anything more accurate is just not warranted for this application. As noted, the unit I use is specifically approved by Omega, so if they aren't concerned about this, neither am I. There's plenty of safety factor built into the watches and the test procedures to cover gauge errors.

Compared to the systems I used to design and work on, this is very crude work.

Cheers, Al

 

I'm guessing here, but I think this might apply to you (not my photo BTW):

 

Does anyone know why Omega called it the Seamaster 300 when it was only rated to 200 meters?

 

Wow! Thank you do much


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Interesting process. Thanks for sharing this.

 

fantastic post! thanks very much for sharing - I enjoyed it very much.

 

See, here I was thinking a "manometer" measured how much of a man Al was!

 

I need that shirt - then I can wear it when one of my "artsy" friends come over wearing his favourite shirt...

 

Probably a lot more cost effective to do it with a Seiko...

 

Wow this is very impressive. I always wondered how this testing was done. Thanks @Archer you're such an asset to this forum.

 

Yes...that is an odd question. Any time you want to provide a case for testing, I will perform the test and thoroughly document the results for the forum.

 

Representative of what - testing a SM300? Not sure I can think of a good analog off the top of my head...

I am certainly willing to do the test and take a video of it....

 

I guess from my perspective I wouldn't mind seeing just how far a Seiko SKX007 could be pushed - but I don't have a donor one ;-)

 

Al - IIRC, when you pressure tested the SM300 you built for me, I believe I recall (and I may be wrong) that you saw some deflection in the crystal or caseback that cause the second hand to stop, but that there was no water infiltration. I seem to recall you saying that you had seen that one other time but that it did not affect the pressure test or the operation of the watch under normal parameters. Does that sound correct?

 

Thanks for this Archer.
Was the test made on a watchco made in Oz/NZ or one you put together yourself ?
I ask because I'll be picking up my Oz/NZ made version next month and this was the first test I wanted done as soon as I picked it up. I now wonder if it needs it. I wont be diving but it will certainly get wet swimming and hopefully kayaking.

 

All these use the same cases, so who assembles it should not matter. I would ask the vendor if they have pressure tested it, how they did it, and to what pressure(s) they tested it to...

I would at least want a test in a dry testing machine to verify it was assembled correctly.

 

Sorry just saw this - I can't remember. I know I have had watches stop due to deflection when testing, but I can't recall if it was one of these or not.

Cheers, Al