Taking a Beating and Ticking - Today’s Sports Watch Push Their Limits
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By Keith W. Strandberg, International Editor – Arabian Watches & Jewellery Magazine
In the past, a fine watch had to be a bit pampered – taken off before you jumped into the pool, placed on the side of the sink when you washed your hands. And you wouldn’t even think about running, playing golf or going to the gym with your nice watch on.
Today’s fine sports watches are designed to take a beating so you don’t have to even think, much less worry, about them. Jumping out of an airplane? No problem.
Diving down to the depths? Bring it.
Lifting weights in the gym? No sweat!
Current sports watches are the timepiece equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife and are able to do just about anything, while still looking good. Created to be an all-around timepiece, these sports watches can take everything you can dish out, and more.
Professional Specifications
The best sports watches have exacting specifications, regardless of their intended use. A sports watch should have at least 100 meter water resistance, for example, but most of the best have at least 200 meters, while some go to even greater depths.
In addition to water resistance, today’s sports watches are protected against shocks, changes in temperature, abrasion, perspiration/exposure to the elements, and some are even protected against magnetism.
Sports watches are put through a battery of rigorous tests that push them to their limits. Often, engineers can only finalize designs once they have tested the timepieces to their breaking points, which means subjecting them to drops, extreme conditions and much more.
Most watch companies have a “torture chamber” where watches are put through every possible test until they are destroyed. For example, crowns and chronograph pushers will be manipulated in every way possible thousands of times. Straps will be subjected to tension, torsion, the elements and much more, all with the goal of finding and eliminating problems before the watch gets anywhere near your wrist.
The major tests performed on sports watches are for: water-resistance, mechanical endurance (vibration-resistance, shock-resistance, linear and angular acceleration), abrasion-resistance, corrosion-resistance (to seawater, perspiration and UV rays), functional element resistance (turning bezel rotation, pushbutton and crown fatigue), performance measurement (nighttime readability, anti-reflection) and chronometric precision measurement.
This testing often leads to new innovative ways of approaching sports watches. For example, Bremont Watch Company developed and refined its revolutionary movement suspension system with Martin-Baker, the world’s leading aircraft ejector seat company. Martin-Baker wanted to offer a timepiece to survivors who successfully ejected from their seats, but they wanted a timepiece that could withstand the same experience.
The Martin-Baker watches have to go through all the tests that the ejector seat has to go through, like vibration, shock, climate and temperature extremes, saltwater and much more, including ejecting with a seat on the test site of Martin-Baker. Bremont had to redesign the way their watch works, and took two years to develop new technology in the case and suspending the movement in a rubber mount.
Water Resistance
Water resistance is a key feature for sports watches, as they have to be able to go from the gym to the pool to the hot tub to the shower to the office, and keep on ticking without having any issues with water, condensation or humidity (remember those plastic sports watches that would fog up?).
A trend recently has been to water test finished watches. Previously, most watch cases were tested empty, so that if there was a leak, water wouldn’t destroy the movement inside. One of the main benefits of testing finished watches is that any humidity trapped in the watch before testing will be detected after testing it in the water (during the drying process).
One hundred meters water resistance is the baseline for a quality watch for active people, but watches are rated for their depth in absolutely calm water situations. The pressure of 10 ATM/100 meters can easily be exceeded when jumping into your pool off a diving board or cleaning the tiles on your driveway using a power hose. If you are going to be active in the water, 20 ATM/200 meters is recommended, just to be on the safe side.
One extreme example is CX Swiss Military, which makes the world record holder for diving watches – also known as the “20,000 Feet.” With its massive case, this timepiece is meant to be used underwater and is capable of going to unheard-of depths – 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), and it’s a COSC-certified automatic chronograph as well.
Luminosity
A sports watch should be legible at a glance, even at night. Most sports watches are bigger than normal watches (in fact, sports watches started the big watch trend that continues today), use oversize numbers and very clear markings, and the manufacturers load the dial and hands (and sometimes the bezel) with luminous material. These are basically two kinds of luminosity in use today – SuperLuminova and Tritium. Tritium is a radioactive gas that always glows, so there is no question that the watch will be visible throughout the entire night. SuperLuminova is a material that absorbs the light and glows when it is charged. SuperLuminova glows brighter than Tritium initially, but loses its brightness over time. A watch like the Reactor Poseidon Titanium LE NeverDark combines the best of both worlds – the brightness of SuperLuminova and the long-lasting qualities of Tritium.
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