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Water damage from faulty waterproofing

ichicago

Horology Curious
5/7/20
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I don't want to name the TD yet but I ordered a Omega planet ocean "big Blue" V2.
Received it last week.
It is a beautiful watch.
Yesterday I noticed condensation on the inside of the glass. It was from the heat and sweat on my arms.
After a meticulous inspection, the caseback was not fully seated on one side. This led to the water leakage.
Now there are waterspots on the interior glass and even dial.

I reached out to the TD and they were not very helpful.
TD said so refund or exchange. Even though it was their fault.
I dont want the current watch repaired because it is water damage, it can never really be fully repaired.

What should I do?
 

cpd2186

Runway Model
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5/4/16
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These watches are not waterproof even though they say they are!

Take to a watchsmith, have them take apart, clean and put back together.
 
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Glaude

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Basic 101 upon receiving a watch (works for the gens too) is to check everything on it, on rep check :

- screws (a drop of thread locker is a plus)
- anything that can be tightened or loosened must be checked too
- Spring bar alignements, you don't want to have the watch fall because of un properly seated springbar

TD is not at fault here, it's written everywhere : do not trust any waterproofing claim if it's important to you ; verify what you received
 

OiRogers

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24/8/06
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Caseback on the PO line is screwdown, no? How could it not be seated on one side? Cross threaded?
 

tripdog

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What should I do?


I would suggest - strongly - that you cancel that Paypal dispute and work this out amicably with your TD.

Threaded cases backs don't screw down on one side, but there may be a problem with the case back gasket not being seated correctly. If the watch movement is still running then damage from the moisture will be minimal - if any - it looks much worse than it is.

A Paypal dispute is not the way to handle this.
 

emdeevee

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Moisture from your own sweat? That's a first! Not sure it's their fault, but either way, you said they offered to exchange it. So, that's what I would do.

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Rickjames111

Active Member
5/9/17
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How is it the TD’s fault that you failed to read a single thread about waterproofing. Hell, I bet that question is asked once a week. You couldn’t be bothered to read and now it is the TD’s fault you got water in your watch? Doesn’t work like that.

This is not a fun or free lesson, but one you obviously needed. You now know that if you plan on getting your watch wet, have it checked for water resistance.
 

Boj@n

Horology Curious
I agree with everyone. If you want truly water resistant watch and be hotshot around the pool buy gen. You wanted replica but also to swim with it. You can’t your cake and eat it too.
And by the way there’s no way sweat and heat can cause that unless water infiltrated the case. If you want everyone’s help at least be honest about what happened.


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Dinkis

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It happens. Send to be fixed and move on with your life. It CAN be repaired and it could look and work fine. Everyone here on the thread is correct. You want gen reliability then save up and buy the gen. Lesson learned.


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Kalev007

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I agree with everyone. If you want truly water resistant watch and be hotshot around the pool buy gen. You wanted replica but also to swim with it. You can’t your cake and eat it too.
And by the way there’s no way sweat and heat can cause that unless water infiltrated the case. If you want everyone’s help at least be honest about what happened.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You can actually my 2 ZZFs are perfectly waterproof OTB. I have given them all sorts of abuse around and in the water they have survived everything. It's not just light swimming its me crashing and falling in the water with them, SUP boarding, sea water, diving to couple of meters of depth and so on. Just a quick clean with a toothbrush after those murky waters and they look as good as new.

Its summer and they’re on my wrist druing all the water activities.

IMG-2364.jpg


IMG-2366.jpg
 
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c_hall100

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I must have been lucky every diver type watch (except Panerai, I don’t trust them) I’ve had has been fully waterproof including water sports ie jet ski, windsurfing, diving although not deep the lot

I’ve only ever had one watch fail on me and that’s currently being serviced but it was a dress type watch and I had simply washed it


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pt98765

Active Member
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Waterproofing is hit and miss on reps. Some will get lucky but I’ve never understood the idea of swimming with a watch on like this. Buying a rep means you can’t treat it like a gen.
 

GingerBubba

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I’ve never understood the idea of swimming with a watch on like this. Buying a rep means you can’t treat it like a gen.

What total nonsense.

I get all of my dive watches pressure tested by my watchsmith. Not one has failed the pressure test. I swim with all of the ones I've tested and all are without issue.

Water resistance isn't some amazing new technology; it's pretty simple stuff. I reckon almost all of the decent dive reps released today are resistant to 6 or 7 bar plus and those that aren't probably just need the seals greasing/replacing.
 

pt98765

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What total nonsense.

I get all of my dive watches pressure tested by my watchsmith. Not one has failed the pressure test. I swim with all of the ones I've tested and all are without issue.

Water resistance isn't some amazing new technology; it's pretty simple stuff. I reckon almost all of the decent dive reps released today are resistant to 6 or 7 bar plus and those that aren't probably just need the seals greasing/replacing.

Nope - not sure OP or the other contributors to this thread would consider it 'total nonsense' that a rep's water resistance can't always be trusted. If you buy a gen you presumably don't need to take it to a third party to see if it will pass a pressure test. Proves the point really :)

Edit: spelling
 
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wAterHead

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20/3/20
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I’ve never understood the idea of swimming with a watch on like this.
I haven't had my first ZZF Sub long, but I treat it like a dress watch. For water and sweat, I use a purpose built dive watch. This thread popped up on an Omega search for my next watch purchase. I'm not planning on surfing with it.
 

OiRogers

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Nope - not sure OP or the other contributors to this thread would consider it 'total nonsense' that a rep's water resistance can't always be trusted. If you buy a gen you presumably don't need to take it to a third party to see if it will pass a pressure test. Proves the point really :)

Edit: spelling

Last summer I took a couple rep divers, a couple gen divers and an Invicta prodiver on vacation which included many hours of snorkeling.

The Invicta flooded on the first dip.:rip:
I had planned on making it the designated water sports beater... ended up using a TTK sourced 5 digit sub rep from ages ago for the rest of the trip in the water. Rep beat gen in that case.:p

This summer I took an AP rep and a pair of gen Marinemaster Seikos (mm300 and a Tuna) on a beach vacation. The rep AP diver did the majority of water work and it worked flawlessly... just rinsed and dried in fresh water after salt exposure. I plan on having it serviced later this year and will be curious to see how the seals held up to salt water.
 
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GingerBubba

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Nope - not sure OP or the other contributors to this thread would consider it 'total nonsense' that a rep's water resistance can't always be trusted. If you buy a gen you presumably don't need to take it to a third party to see if it will pass a pressure test. Proves the point really :)

Edit: spelling

Fair point.

Is a very minimal test that's needed to ensure you can use it in the water like Gen though.
 

GingerBubba

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Having re-read my last few posts, I realise they come across as quite aggressive. Sorry, I didn't intend for them to come across like or to be so harsh, but I just get frustrated with some of the mantras that are thrown around on the Rep forums without much thought and, often, simply repeated without any personal knowledge.

The whole 'never put a rep near water' or 'never send a watch back to China for repair' sayings are such BS blanket statements, but we've seen them written all over the forums. True, I wouldn't swim with a Rep without pressure testing first, but having done that, all of my tested Reps perform perfectly in water. In relation to sending broken watches back to China, yes it's probably best to do so only as a last resort; it's quicker and possibly better to have them repaired locally, but if you're looking at an expensive fix on a new watch, is it worth sending back to China? It may well be and I've done it three times; it only cost me £10ish in postage each time and, a few months later, I had properly fixed watches (that are still going strong) back in hand.

These watches are not as bad as many people fear. Instead of worrying about sweat getting in your dive watch, why not get it pressure tested (and therefore realise it can go a lot deeper under water than you'll probably ever go)!

That said, if you want to treat your Sub like a dress watch, have at it! They are beautiful watches and would look great with a Tux!

Peace.