What's reasonable price to water proof your watch? Is $70 reasonable? I know that to relume a watch properly it takes a lot of time, patience and skills and therefore kind of justify the cost. I see that a lot of fellow members WR their own watches. So my question is how long does it take to properly WR a watch? The reason I ask this is to justify me spending $70 per watch to WR. I know the material to WR is cheap as hell, so how much skill and time does it take to do it properly? Thanks
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What's a reasonable price to water proof your watch?
- Thread starter phoucku
- Start date
It depends on which material you refer to. Gaskets, silicone grease is cheap a few bucks. A vacuum/ pressure tester from Witschi or Greiner is about 3500-5800$ depending on model.
But to just go to a local watchmaker and have it tested should not be more than 20-25$. But if it leak and the watchmaker need to disassemble the watch and grease the gaskets or change them this can take a few hours and then 70$ is quite fair.
But to just go to a local watchmaker and have it tested should not be more than 20-25$. But if it leak and the watchmaker need to disassemble the watch and grease the gaskets or change them this can take a few hours and then 70$ is quite fair.
It probably depends if the watch Is a chrono or not, might be missing o rings or needing them replaced, does it have a He valve ect ect, loads of different variables.
Yes I've sealed most of the Pam reps that I owned and if you have the tools and materials to water proof then its an easy job, but even then it would still need checked in a proper instrument.
So to fully check and replace seals apply grease ect $70 isn't really unreasonable
Yes I've sealed most of the Pam reps that I owned and if you have the tools and materials to water proof then its an easy job, but even then it would still need checked in a proper instrument.
So to fully check and replace seals apply grease ect $70 isn't really unreasonable
Most guys I've talked to charge about $40 for the test. That includes lubing the crown and case back gaskets and throwing it in the tester.
I just built my own 5atm tester for under $40 and I've tested 2 of my watches so I'm already ahead of the game!
Some guys are building testers out of Naglene bottles but those kinda scare me.
I just built my own 5atm tester for under $40 and I've tested 2 of my watches so I'm already ahead of the game!
Some guys are building testers out of Naglene bottles but those kinda scare me.
Can you really waterproof a watch? I don't think so. All you can do is check and grease the seals, make sure everything is tight and test it. If the watch is old, you can change the seals but the cost of that is pennies. If it fails,there's not much more you can do.
Vac gets $40 for greasing and testing. That seems about max I would pay.
I've also built a home made tester so I personally wouldn't pay anything.
Vac gets $40 for greasing and testing. That seems about max I would pay.
I've also built a home made tester so I personally wouldn't pay anything.
ShiroTenshi
Mythical Poster
- 7/12/11
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I followed this http://www.christopherwardforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=10816
but things were much cheaper here in Taiwan... except the brass air fill valve, I had to have that sent from the States
easy to make and no wait time.. unlike the 1-4 months it can take to get it sent away and tested!
You can't find a Schraeder valve in Taiwan ? I doubt that. They are used on all types of HVAC equipment.
Oh, I'm sure they're here. I just couldn't find one with my lousy Chinese and even worse mime skills. It was way esier to sit on my butt and click my mouse.
Here's mine:
I can either use the household water pressure which is approx 5 atm or I can use a bike pump to take it up much higher. What I like is that using wet testing is much more real world than some of the safer and easier dry testing methods. The downside is you have to take the movement out.
Total cost was around 8 dollars but I had most of the parts laying around the garage. I guess to buy it all might be around $20.
I can either use the household water pressure which is approx 5 atm or I can use a bike pump to take it up much higher. What I like is that using wet testing is much more real world than some of the safer and easier dry testing methods. The downside is you have to take the movement out.
Total cost was around 8 dollars but I had most of the parts laying around the garage. I guess to buy it all might be around $20.
Yes you can, I had watches you could use for a strainer. Reworked the rehaut, fitted them with a custom seal UV glued into place, epoxied the HE valve, replaced the crown tube, sealed the thread and machined groves for double o-ring system, fitted the pusher with custom cut o-rings and c-clamps.
If you were tho pay somebody else to do it it's definitely not worth it, probably only one custom seal cut to specifications would cost you over $100, but if you can do it yourself, it's a different story.
First check whether your rep is fundamentally water resistant out of the box. Usually, I just grease the gaskets and then my watches are good to go. I've had one failure so far and it was a $30 price angels sub.
So far so good:
SSD v2
Planet Ocean 42mm v5
Noob Sub 17j
Noob sub C
TC Sub
Price angels gmt
Price angels explorer
Maybe I've just been lucky?
BTW, I find that on most reps out of the box you don't find any grease on the gaskets and the case backs are not on tight enough.
So far so good:
SSD v2
Planet Ocean 42mm v5
Noob Sub 17j
Noob sub C
TC Sub
Price angels gmt
Price angels explorer
Maybe I've just been lucky?
BTW, I find that on most reps out of the box you don't find any grease on the gaskets and the case backs are not on tight enough.
I spent 30 for my Pam v3 and 55 for the ap diver. Tested as well. Local watchsmith, who by the way did not want to touch rep watches
I was being a little more realistic. Given enough time and money almost anything could be made waterproof. I could also epoxy everything shut and it would be water proof but not very satisfying.
:hehehe: