Choosing Your Wrist Watch
Choosing a wrist watch that you can enjoy and that is useful and durable doesn't have to be a difficult process. If you don't know which watch is for you, there are a few easy steps to follow to make your selection.
The first thing you need to think about are what activities you will be doing when wearing your wrist watch. If those are mostly athletic or sports-related you will want a shockproof wrist watch. If the wrist watch is going to be worn during both work and play you want to make sure you have some water resistance in your wrist watch, but how much is enough? If you want to wear your wrist watch for diving or swimming the crown should screw down and the strap should be plastic. You may want something dress, or something sporty.
If the wrist watch you are considering says it is water resistant but it doesn't tell you to what depth, then it is only mildly water resistant. What this means is that if you are washing the dishes and accidentally splash some water on your watch, it should be okay. If, instead, you dip your hands in the water with your watch on, your watch is probably in trouble.
There are more advanced degrees of water resistance in a wrist watch, up to an actual waterproof wrist watch. A wrist watch can be made resistant to water in several ways. All water resistant watches have an O ringed gasket made of rubber that seals the back of its case. If the watch uses screws to attach the watch back to the case its water resistance will be greater.
Seiko Corporation, one of the best known American watch manufacturers has set some guidelines for choosing the water resistance level of your wrist watch.
A wrist watch that is water resistant to a depth of 100 feet can withstand rain or occasional water splashes but is not to be submerged. If the water resistance is 165 feet you can wear this wrist watch in the shower or when in shallow pool water. 330 feet of water resistance indicates that the wrist watch will survive snorkeling and swimming. You can skin dive with a wrist watch whose water resistance is 660 feet, and diving is perfectly okay for a wrist watch that is water resistant to 500 feet.
Other issues in your selection of wrist watch, besides the look and size, are shock resistance and scratch resistance. You'll also want to know the materials from which the wrist watch is made and whether it is an automatic or quartz movement timepiece.