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Any Surfers Bought Watch, Tempted to Take It Into the Surf?

fischersd said:
Pretty sure they'll reseal the case in the same manor after they swap the battery out. If this compromised the water resistance, they'd have to say so when the work was done.
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Then why would they specifically say that Watch cannot be rechecked or resealed for water resistance, when clearly it can be? I guess we won't really know until someone gets their battery replaced. But that statement clearly states water resistance is not permanent, which suggests that the seals and gaskets will become less effective over time, regardless of what other conditions the watch is subjected to. Now this is no different than any other mechanical watch. Dive watches need to be serviced every 2-5 years, and such items replaced. They are also designed to be opened and serviced in this manner. What I'm reading here is Watch is not -- Apple is not going to provide a gasket inspection and replacement service, so even if they are able to remove the crystal and replace the battery and return the crystal seal to factory condition, the rest of the watch won't be, or it will remain in the same condition it was before.
 
Mac 128 said:
Then why would they specifically say that Watch cannot be rechecked or resealed for water resistance, when clearly it can be? I guess we won't really know until someone gets their battery replaced. But that statement clearly states water resistance is not permanent, which suggests that the seals and gaskets will become less effective over time, regardless of what other conditions the watch is subjected to. Now this is no different than any other mechanical watch. Dive watches need to be serviced every 2-5 years, and such items replaced. They are also designed to be opened and serviced in this manner. What I'm reading here is Watch is not -- Apple is not going to provide a gasket inspection and replacement service, so even if they are able to remove the crystal and replace the battery and return the crystal seal to factory condition, the rest of the watch won't be, or it will remain in the same condition it was before.
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Heh. I think it's an "out" (or you can call it a CYA - Cover Your Axs) ;)

I think Apple doesn't want people showering or swimming with it. They didn't give it an IPX8 rating, after all. I'll stop there - Jaylenochinimac and I have been arguing about what Apple will or won't do with warranty claims for water ingress for awhile - we don't need another thread on that. :) We'll see when people start exceeding the capabilities of the watch in the water.
 
Mac 128 said:
Any surfers bought the Watch yet? Or waiting for 2nd gen with hopefully better water-resistance, and possibly GPS. Actually I just thought of a new use for the camera ... A GoPro on your wrist!

Anybody with one taking it off and swapping with a different watch in the car so you can keep track of time for that pre-work surf in the morning, and then swapping back for the office?

Anybody tempted to take it into the surf given the positive reviews of its water resistance? Certainly swimming a few laps pales by comparison to taking one on the head, or wiping out in a closeout. But maybe for a nice small day on a longboard?
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So I went surfing for 2.5 hours in lake Michigan (freshwater) yesterday while wearing apple watch. Mostly small waves - all under 3 ft. Pretty cool to have that workout logged in my activity app! And in case you were wondering, the apple watch shows no signs of water damage at all. I tucked it under the sleeve of my wet suit to avoid the risk of a wave tearing it from my wrist. Still easy to flip back the sleeve to check my workout progress at any point though. I'll do this again in light surf.
 
I've had the same question. I sent a tweet to dcrainmaker to see if he'd repeat his pressure tests but w salt water. We'll see if he responds...

I too would be worried with the standard Sport band clasp. I don't think it'd stay on in anything close to head high. I'd probably wait until a heavy duty Velcro band is released.
 
Mac 128 said:
Any surfers bought the Watch yet?

Anybody tempted to take it into the surf given the positive reviews of its water resistance?
But maybe for a nice small day on a longboard?
Click to expand...

Surfer of 12 years here bought my apple watch almost strictly for surfing knowing it was a gamble. I've been wondering for years how many calories I burn while surfing. I will preface with this; here is my first post and the only reason I signed up for a Mac rumors account (longtime reader) was to contribute and put this question to rest.

I have the 42mm stainless steel with black sport band watch.

After two months and 30 + sessions I am here to tell you that the watch is (so far) perfectly safe to surf with. I am in California on the beach with Malibu and Topanga point being my closest breaks. I've surfed from Santa Barbara to OC with my apple watch on. I've been in knee high to 2ft overhead surf, with a quiver of boards from 5'11 Al Merrick (short competition board) to 9'0 Robert August longboard. I've even gotten barreled with my watch on. I've had wipeouts, gone over the falls, slammed into rocks, luckily my watch was unscathed my back not so much.

I'm still planning to break it somehow out there but the more I surf with it the more I realize it's not likely to break unless it hits my board at the perfect angle. The main reason is we instinctively fall palms down or covering our head while surfing. Not likely places for impact unless it's winter pipeline conditions.

Here's some things to be mindful of:
The crown will get sand in it. So far, so good though, I just blow it out with my mouth and rinse with freshwater while turning the crown. This has worked every time and the crown returns to smooth turning. Same with the band button but not as much sand gets in it bc it's location is under the watch. Again blow, freshwater rinse and it's good. Maybe over time the salt will get to these parts but 60 days hasn't shown any signs that it is.

If attached to the wrist properly, the watch will never slip off of you while surfing. I was really scared at first but once I realized how the water doesn't even move the watch on my wrist, I don't even think about it anymore.

Some cool aspects:
I use the rowing feature in the native workout app at the moment. I can approximate my distance by calculating the rowing distance travelled but that also includes rides which are often and long on the point breaks here. I get a calorie count and time of my session which is nice, but that's about it.

I hope OS2 will allow for me to buy a surfing app that will tell me my calories burned while paddling, calories while waiting for waves, time waiting vs riding, ride lengths, all of this is easily possible with the hardware inside.

Hope this helps guys and gals!
 
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Audiowizkid said:
Surfer of 12 years here bought my apple watch almost strictly for surfing knowing it was a gamble. I've been wondering for years how many calories I burn while surfing. I will preface with this; here is my first post and the only reason I signed up for a Mac rumors account (longtime reader) was to contribute and put this question to rest.

...
Hope this helps guys and gals!
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Fantastic! Thanks! I also appreciate that you've been surfing in 60 degree water for the past two months with some hot sunshine for some significant rapid temperature changes as well. I think that I will bite the bullet now. The reality is this watch may not last more than a year subjected to these conditions, but then again it may not last a year technologically anyway depending on what Apple comes out with next year. If I got a year out of it surfing, I'd be happy for all the conveniences it would bring to me as long as it did. I'd also need to buy a compatible electronic lock for my house.

But, I do think we both should be prepared for it to fail at any time, without knowing any more about it's construction than we do. Two months is pretty good, especially at your level of surfing.
 
I have to agree that it's not the depth of the water I'm worried about, it's the salt in the water (along with who knows what else).
 
Mac 128 said:
Then why would they specifically say that Watch cannot be rechecked or resealed for water resistance, when clearly it can be?
Click to expand...
Corporate legalese. The display/front crystal is held in place with an adhesive O-ring that is a watertight seal in of itself. When the display is popped off (for example to change out the battery), you need to replace the adhesive as well. If re-applied correctly, the Watch will re-gain its previous level of water resistance. :)
 
Contacted Surfline and they are developing an app. No details no timeframe. Not sure if it'll be conditions only (hopefully similar to their collab with Nixon Ultratide watch) or pull in surf session data (like the Ripcurl watch).
 
dypeterc said:
Contacted Surfline and they are developing an app. No details no timeframe. Not sure if it'll be conditions only (hopefully similar to their collab with Nixon Ultratide watch) or pull in surf session data (like the Ripcurl watch).
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App is great news. However without GPS, I'm not sure how the health data will apply in the same way the Ripcurl watch data does.
 
dypeterc said:
Watch has an accelerometer so it'll be able to pull some data.
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Without some way of calibrating the accelerometer (like from GPS), it quickly becomes very inaccurate. Even the best inertial guidance/tracking systems have issues with drift, and a cheap consumer device like MEMS accelerometers are almost hopeless from that regard. It wasn't really designed to cope in a situation like this... :)
 
Thanks guys for testing! The Watch might be better protected than we assume (I haven't read of any water damages so far at all and keeping it under the wetsuit sounds pretty reasonable to me to avoid great water pressure.)
Please keep us updated how long the Watch performs that good in Water.
 
Thanks for the info here guys. We're going to Maui in a week and plan to do quite a bit of SUP and snorkeling. I have a waterproof case for my iPhone, so I'm good there, but I'm contemplating wearing my Watch at the beach and in the ocean, mainly to use it as a remote viewer and trigger for my iPhone camera. It sounds like the Watch would do fine, but I'm still a little nervous. Maybe I'll try it in my pool this week and see how it holds up. :)
 
Julien said:
The touch screen is unpredictable or unresponsive in water. Even in the shower you have to wipe it off to work correctly.
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Thanks yeah, I only plan use the remote trigger while on dry land, but wouldn't want to leave my Watch on the beach with my towel and stuff while snorkeling/SUP.
 
Julien said:
The touch screen is unpredictable or unresponsive in water. Even in the shower you have to wipe it off to work correctly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I always turn off wrist activation before I go in the shower for that very reason.
 
Mac 128 said:
Any surfers bought the Watch yet? Or waiting for 2nd gen with hopefully better water-resistance, and possibly GPS. Actually I just thought of a new use for the camera ... A GoPro on your wrist!

Anybody with one taking it off and swapping with a different watch in the car so you can keep track of time for that pre-work surf in the morning, and then swapping back for the office?

Anybody tempted to take it into the surf given the positive reviews of its water resistance? Certainly swimming a few laps pales by comparison to taking one on the head, or wiping out in a closeout. But maybe for a nice small day on a longboard?
Click to expand...
 
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