Apple Watch S3 Water Resistance?

[vikingrrrrr]

Guys I just created an account to make this post. I got a Series 3 Apple Watch 42mm GPS + Cellular for Christmas. I'm an avid swimmer (30 year old male who swam on a college team). Naturally being able to swim in it was a large part of me getting the watch. I wasn't able to swim over the holiday so I used the watch water free for about a week and it functioned flawlessly. I loved the watch! Fast forward to my first lap swim. I enabled the water lock using the Lap Swim feature for the entire swim. It actually counted my distance and strokes very well. I was over the moon with it. Immediately after my swim I noticed my microphone was not working. I figured it just had some water in it and would give it a day or two.... Fast forward two days later I went through full diagnostic testing with Apple. Five days later I had a brand new replacement Apple watch. Naturally, the first thing I do is take the brand new watch for a swim.... Exact same problem after one swim! Two more hours on the phone with Apple and they want to replace it again. What the heck is going on here? We are talking a thousand yard swim! This was in an indoor pool at depth less than 5 feet... Am I stupid for thinking maybe the Apple Watch can't tolerate my strokes. I swim hard and fast with a lot of sprinting. Any advice? I don't know if I should not swim in the third one or ask for a refund? I love the watch but it's sort of useless without a microphone... I'm really frustrated by the whole situation.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I'm curious to know how hard you are actually swimming. I wonder if its damaging or "popping" the microphone. I have had zero problems with my S0 or S3 with swimming and the microphone. At most its muffled for a couple hours but then dries out.

 

[area52]

Sounds like whatever chemicals they are using in the pool are not reacting well to the watch mic.

 

[44267547]

Guys I just created an account to make this post. I got a Series 3 Apple Watch 42mm GPS + Cellular for Christmas. I'm an avid swimmer (30 year old male who swam on a college team). Naturally being able to swim in it was a large part of me getting the watch. I wasn't able to swim over the holiday so I used the watch water free for about a week and it functioned flawlessly. I loved the watch! Fast forward to my first lap swim. I enabled the water lock using the Lap Swim feature for the entire swim. It actually counted my distance and strokes very well. I was over the moon with it. Immediately after my swim I noticed my microphone was not working. I figured it just had some water in it and would give it a day or two.... Fast forward two days later I went through full diagnostic testing with Apple. Five days later I had a brand new replacement Apple watch. Naturally, the first thing I do is take the brand new watch for a swim.... Exact same problem after one swim! Two more hours on the phone with Apple and they want to replace it again. What the heck is going on here? We are talking a thousand yard swim! This was in an indoor pool at depth less than 5 feet... Am I stupid for thinking maybe the Apple Watch can't tolerate my strokes. I swim hard and fast with a lot of sprinting. Any advice? I don't know if I should not swim in the third one or ask for a refund? I love the watch but it's sort of useless without a microphone... I'm really frustrated by the whole situation.

The only thing I can think of is likely due to the velocity of what you are swimming at and somehow the water is penetrating/affecting the microphone area. This is the first I have ever heard of this issue, but being that you're more of a performance swimmer, I'm wondering somehow if the water is being forced in the microphone area because of the rate that what you're swimming.

Here is some additional information on the Series 3 Apple Watch being used in water activities:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205000