It very strange indeed!!! Never seen or heard about corrosion on a 316L steel... As someone said before, it could be related to swimming in salt water or diving in it without washing off the salt afterwards with fresh water but it should have happened a lot of times to corrode the omega stainless steel...
Have you regularly worn the watch is salt water? Did you thoroughly rinse it off afterwards? Because regular exposure to salt water will corrode even stainless steel and allow rust to form.
Chlorine is swimming pools will have a similar effect. A lot of people with steel dive watches don’t realize this.[/QUOTE
G’day Donn, I’ve never worn the watch in salt water nor has it been in a pool (salt or fresh). I live in a tropical area, so I assume that perspiration from my wrist has played/plays its part. I wash/ clean the watch regularly and manage to remove the rust stains at those points. Despite numerous cleans over the last 2 years, the rust always returns. I’ve just become used to it.
Since no one seems to want to read the PDF I linked to above describing the chemistry, I’ll attempt to paraphrase.
1. What makes stainless steel rust-resistant is the chromium in the mixture. When exposed to air, it forms a chromium oxide layer that is resistant to rust. If a process reduces the amount of CrO in any area, or covers it, then rust can form.
2. If the chromium is not uniformly distributed in the steel matrix, there can be small areas where there is little chromium, and less capability to form CrO. In this case, it is a deficiency in the alloying process. This may or may not be the case in these examples.
3. Another common cause of rusting is When a piece of high-carbon steel or iron is rubbed against stainless and leaves a scratch and some of the high carbon material behind. That will then rust. Consider leaning over an iron railing on a balcony and the bracelet makes enough contact to leave a scratch. You’ve probably transferred non-stainless material as well, which will rust. In this case, the stainless material underneath will form CrO and not rust, only the surface material will rust.
G’day Donn, I’ve never worn the watch in salt water nor has it been in a pool (salt or fresh). I live in a tropical area, so I assume that perspiration from my wrist has played/plays its part. I wash/ clean the watch regularly and manage to remove the rust stains at those points. Despite numerous cleans over the last 2 years, the rust always returns. I’ve just become used to it.
just looking at where those rust spots are, is there a chance that the spring bar has rusted and it’s spreading up between the links?
I must say that is the first time I have seen anything remotely like this on a stainless steel bracelet...
As an aside what warranty did the watch come with? If it is registered on the Omega site you could email them / your AD.
Always interesting and helpful to be the manufacturers point of view.
You should always rinse your stainless steel watches after workouts/diving or swimming in chlorine filled pools. Are you sure it’s not just a bit of wrist cheese?
It very strange indeed!!! Never seen or heard about corrosion on a 316L steel... As someone said before, it could be related to swimming in salt water or diving in it without washing off the salt afterwards with fresh water but it should have happened a lot of times to corrode the omega stainless steel...
No idea. I did a double check of the watch just now, looking through the links and all the nooks and cranny, all clear. The only rust spot is the one pictured on the side of the link. The rest of the watch is fine.
Not that it's of much use to you but I think you've been unlucky, my 2016 has had a feed of sea water abuse over the years, worn sailing, windsurfing, swimming etc, not an ounce of corrosion. It is a bit battered though.
If the rust is due to free iron at the surface, you could try removing that with diluted citric acid (e.g
lemon juice), after cleaning and degreasing. See for example https://www.besttechnologyinc.com/p...itric-acid-passivation-solution/#ProcessSteps .
