Just returned from two weeks in Greece. Spent most of the time sailing and swimming with other Club-Medders and while waiting for a Hobie Cat to come in I noticed the chap next to me, harnessed and life-jacketed awaiting his boat, was wearing a Speedy Moonwatch. Everyone else had the usual G-shocks, Tags, holiday Swatches and a couple of Rolexes but I was surprised to see him heading out with a Speedmaster. I asked him if it was ok in water and he replied that it was. Now I know the are resistant to 50m but I have always understood that to be washing hands and bath time, not messing about in boats, swimming etc. Has he just been lucky or are they alright in casual wetness?
Let me just clarify, I'm talking about new ones here. I wouldn't advocate swimming with a vintage piece or with one that's been opened without subsequent pressure testing.
My feeling is that the only thing for certain about any water resistant watch, new or old is that it will eventually leak. Unless the owner takes the effort to maintain the water resistance. I don't like expensive surprises!
Problem solved - just bought a solar powered, radio controlled G-shock; perfect for messing about in boats or on mountain bikes that may not be ideal activities for a new Speedy.
When I was younger we always considered a watch that was only marked as "water-resistant" to be only okay for hand washing or in rain and snow, but we treated any 30M WR as okay for shallow or surface swimming. There's a gentleman on another forum that's been taking cheap 30M WR watches down to 30M when he dives and showing that they can survive those depths. At some point watch companies started pushing the need for 50M WR to be able to swim with the watch, and Omega specifies that their 50M watches are safe to swim. All of their dive watches are rated to 50M with the crown unscrewed as well, so the lack of screw down crown on a speedy doesn't affect that rating. Obviously routine maintenance is needed to swim with any watch because eventually they will fail and let water in, even with a 100M or 300M or 4000M rating. But it could take 1 year or 10 years to fail. In 2008 I took a 30M Casio analog/digital watch to Hawaii when it was three years old and swan and went "snuba" diving to 20 feet with it, and it lived. It had never been opened and inspected. I took the same watch to Mexico in 2011 when it was 6 years old and it survived swimming with the dolphins (and getting a 20mph ride) and snorkeling to 10 feet in Cozumel, along with a 6 foot scuba dive in a swimming pool. I saved my expensive watches for dry land where they wouldn't sink to the bottom of the ocean if the bracelet broke. It has never been opened or serviced, having a 10 year battery. I have not reset the watch for daylight savings or used it since 2011 and it's 10 years old now, and I can see that it's only 4 minutes fast right now. So, it's gained about 60 seconds a year, and stayed water tight during the first 6 years without a service. I'm tempted to take it out and test it once more, but I don't want to push my luck. I'm certain that a well maintained 50M WR Speedmaster can go swimming and snorkeling just fine.
Get a Seamaster planet ocean. I scuba dive regularly (100+ ft) and have never had an issue. I have had the watch for 5 years now and wouldn't swim/dive with anything else.
Only a g shock or an inexpensive watch designed for diving is what I would take in water or use in any sport or job that carried a risk of damage.
I don't swim with anything that I would feel bad about killing. So quartz does have a reason to exist!
He asked , "Now I know they are resistant to 50m but I have always understood that to be washing hands and bath time, not messing about in boats, swimming etc. Has he just been lucky or are they alright in casual wetness?" Only two people directly answered his question.
the issue with 1861 speedies is that they are manual wind, so the crown seal is going to see a lot of wear. You would really want to be getting the water resistance and seals checked more regularly than anyone is likely to be doing, if you were planning on submerging it.