Since I have quite a number of watches which I work on myself (more like tinker ), I'd like to know if they have any sort of water resistance, mainly so they dont get moisture ingress during a normal days use. I normally try to replace the seals, pushers etc where moisture would normally get in but obviously I have no way of knowing for sure.

With a wet pressure tester I'd be able to see if the watch was water proof and if not then where the leak was and hopefully be able to fix that.

For about £500 there are a couple of well know manufacturers who have systems available, not cheap, and of course I see the Chinese ones on ebay for significantly less.

I dont really want to buy something off ebay which may have dodgy reliability or build quality but I also dont really want to spend £500 for something I will probably use less than 50 times.

Any recommendations or advice?

Thanks

 

i am in the same boat. (Pun intended)

I was in my favourite tool shop in LA (Americans really know how to stock a tool shop) and my normally zealous salesman friend Hamlet told me not to bother with the Chinese one.

i am pretty sure he over estimates my abilities and so I am still willing to give one a go, but he did make it clear he didn't want to sell me one because it wasn't fit for purpose.

i see the Chinese ones for £189 so I think they might be worth a go.

the other thing that puts me off, is that many dealers I visit have an old one in the corner with what looks like old water inside, clearly not used for decades.......

however like you I live in a climate where it would be good to know if I have a waterproof watch. I use she's a vintage Seiko diver for fun, and would like to know if my rebuilding skills are waterproof.

as an aside, I was told by one watchmaker they do the wet testing with an empty case.....makes sense.

 

My understanding of how these testers work is that there is water inside the pressure chamber but initially your watch is held above the water. You pressure up the chamber and wait 5 minutes, if there is a leak in the seals then the pressured air will go inside the watch. Then you immerse the watch in the water and slowly release the pressure in the chamber. If there is a leak then the pressurised air will leak out of the watch and the bubbles will show you where the leak is coming from.

And in theory no water should go inside the watch........but I think initially best without the watch inside the case

 

I think Archer would be able to give some expert guidance here.

I am also interested and have considered the ones from the Asian market.

 

Yes, this is how these testers work. But you know that thing on dive watches called a helium escape valve? Remember what it was designed for? To keep the crystal from blowing out of a watch that had built up pressure inside...and that is the real problem with this style of tester.

I used to have one, and I did have crystals blow out from the watch case inside the chamber. Fortunately I always did the first full cycle of the test with the watch always above the water to test for this fault. So I would pressurize the chamber with the watch above the water, and then slowly release the pressure with the watch still sitting above the water - this was to test if the crystal would blow out. If it didn't, then I would do the test again and the second time submerge the watch and do the actual test for leaks.

If you are planning to cut corners and buy a cheap unit, keep a few things in mind:

1 - This is a pressure vessel. The unit I had went up to +10 bar, so that is about 145 psi, which is a fairly significant amount of pressure. A failure at the pressure could send bits and pieces of the unit flying all over.

2 - The quality of the pressure release valve is very important. To help prevent these crystal blow outs, the pressure needs to be released slowly, so the differential pressure between the inside and outside of the case is small at all times while the pressure falls. This requires a finely adjustable valve that is of good quality - if you have a sudden pressure drop you are far more likely to have problems.

3 - Depending on how high the pressures are you are using, a better quality unit will be much easier to pressurize using whatever pump handle set-up they have.

The unit I had was this one:

https://www.cousinsuk.com/catalog/e...testing-calypso-wet-pressure-system-to-10-bar

I don't know too many pros who use this sort of unit -no one with any brands parts account would, because you must have a proper dry tester to get most accounts.

I would suggest you find a local watchmaker who has a dry tester and simply pay them to do the testing for you. If they have an up to date machine, there is a program that can be used to help you locate the leak.

Cheers, Al

Note - there are other types of wet testing machines out there for high pressure wet testing, which is a completely different process. With that testing yes the case is done empty first.

 

Thanks Al, as always very helpful information.

I did see the one from Cousins.

Unfortunately where I live at the moment I dont know of a good watch maker who has the necessary equipment. I'm sure there must be one but trying to track them down isnt easy, in this country there isnt much of a yellow pages type thing to look up and there are a lot of people trying to cut very corner possible.