Sauna with your Rolex???

[marineguy8888]

There's study done by IWC (cannot find the thread), playing golf is the worst enemy for automatic watches. But it doesn't mean it will definetely damage your watch, but the risk is higher. I think sauna should be ok, but usually in the sauna they have a big clock to tell you the time

I believe you refering to this ?

Proud owners of watches with automatic movements should be smart and not wear their watch during golf.

The movement can be damaged due to the vibrations, watchmakers warn about this after having received many expensive watches in need of repair after being exposed to heavy vibrations.

Automatic watches, ones that do not require a battery *duh* are back in fashion and are mostly worn by men. Most of the top brands, IWC, Tag Heuer, Rolex and Omega have automatic watches in their collections.

"I get a lot of automatic watches in for repair after being exposed to vibrations and sudden chocks" says watchmaker Peter Klemann from Haarlem. "especially golf is notorious". "The most common complaint is that watches exposed to the conditions mentioned start running fast"
"The blow propels the oil out of the tiny bearings and onto the mainspring which then starts to stick. I've also seen the balance being knocked out of position"

Tag Heuer strongly advises against wearing mechanical watches during golf. "We advise our customers to put the watch in their pocket during the game" says Tag spokesman Marc Deckenbroek. "Together with pro golfer Tiger Woods we have developed a lightweight quartz watch. That won't break"

Swiss movement maker ETA, which delivers the movement for almost all the big brands denies that golfing can permanently damage their movements. EAT director Kaspar Glatthard: "We test our movements up to 5000G and we drop them onto concrete from 1 meter, and still they work"
Reluctantly he admits to that the movement might start running "a little less accurate". "If that's the case it just a matter of seconds and it can be corrected easily"

[Oceanklassik]

Like tat brush teeth oso cannot la? I mean, wearing an auto watch on the hand used to brush teeth..

[marineguy8888]

Like tat brush teeth oso cannot la? I mean, wearing an auto watch on the hand used to brush teeth..

Taken from another forum .

I've actually read about it in this forum somewhere. Do a search and you can read about it. Or you can even scroll up and they mention it a bit. I'm no a pro but just think about it for a sec. Strong jerky movements can't be good. Here I found this really quickly. It's not a big thesis on the long term affects of severe stress to a watches movement but check out what Tag had to say about it: http://www.watchreport.com/2005/01/tag_heuer_annou.html
Basically, they went quartz because automatic watches can get damaged. Don't take it too seriously, but use it as a guideline. As I said earlier, why risk it when you can get a cheap watch that does the job? As for damage, golf can get pretty nasty at times. You never know. Maybe your golf ball will bounce off a tree and hit your watch or maybe on a chunky backswing you might hit the trunk of a tree..
Last thing. Here is another quote from the Horology newsgroup posted by a Jack Denver

"Any modern shock protected, water resistant mechanical "sport" watch should
be able to withstand the range of activities you mention. Some people
caution against watch wearing during activities where the wrists are subject
to unusual acceleration or shock -e.g. swinging a golf club/baseball
bat/tennis racket. Nowadays, the balance is fairly well protected and the
biggest danger is to the automatic winding system - the relatively massive
rotor (much heavier than any other moving part of a watch) creates a lot of
stress on its axle during sudden acceleration. Of course if you wear an
expensive watch while sliding around in the dirt, you are bound to scratch
it up, which will reduce its value but not impair the function. Some people
don't care about such things, others "baby" them. Really, given the
economics and the alternatives available, you'd be nuts to roll in the dirt
with a Rolex Daytona, just as you don't see too many people driving their
Lincoln Navigators thru the woods. If you get a nice watch, my suggestion
would be to leave it home and wear a "beater" when you know in advance you
are going to be playing contact sports, etc. but not to worry too much if
you happen to find yourself in an impromptu game of Frisbee with your good
watch on. "

On another forum

I know some people who play golf who had issues with their watches. One guy had a very strong swing, his watch a breitling super ocean which he was wearing during six months finally stopped to work one day. He always wore this watch when playing golf. He went to the watchmaker and asked what was wrong, the watchmaker told him that rotor unscrewed itself and that the ball bearing system was completely damaged. Another guy, I know played golf daily during 3 years with a jaeger lecoultre master control, the watch stopped to work one day. After going to the watchmaker, he was said that the movement's ball bearing suffered excessive damage and needed to be replaced. On the other hand, I know some people who wear their watches a during golf playing or when playing tennis and who never had an issue with their watch. A golf teacher I know pretty well has been wearing daily since 1980 a ref 1680 sub and never got a single trouble and another guy I know, a former french special elite soldier always wore and wears a tutima bund with a 5100 movement on his wrist wether it goes to shooting, mountain biking and any other kind of excessive activities.ETA claims a lot but they never tested their movements when someone shoots a big gun like a 50BMG or when someone has a very strong swing when playing golf or plays tennis with an intense and nervy hand. Tests in laboratories are not the real life condition. This is why the jeweled pivot winding system beats the ball bearing winding system used by ETA and Piguet because it is much more resistant to violent shocks and the rotor is not fixed a screw and there aren't any apparent ball bearings hence less risks of the rotor getting unscrewed and the winding system damaged. Why do you think Omega exclusively used the jeweled pivot winding system in the past for most of their movements????? Because it was significantly better than the ball bearing system.

[Taurus75]

I heard that you can't go sauna wearing your rolex; water will "enter" the watch even if it is a SD. Is it true???

IMO, the most vulnerable area of any watch is its crown. For the SD, it is protected by a triplock system that are fortified with rubber gaskets and o-rings that ensure it is sealed off from water penetration. IMO, the danger of the high tempreture environment in a sauna may compromise the functions that these rubber gaskets and o-rings served in the SD. High tempreture may cause damage to these rubber materials resulting in high volume of moisture found in a sauna environment to be introduced into the movement. Juz my 2 cents.