Convert a water-resistant sport watch into a dive watch

Problem:  I spend long hours underwater at shallow depths and I need to keep track of the time.

Parameters: I don't need the fancy features of a $500+ saturation dive watch, however the cheap "water resistant to 50M" watches are not up to the task.  I don't even need the features of the cheap watches either, I just need something that will display the time and not get destroyed by a few hundred hours at 20 feet.

Solution: Encapsulate a cheap sport watch in clear polyester resin.

Step 1 Get supplies

Step 1. Get supplies. Cheap water-resistant sport watch with large display, suitable mold, clear resin, hardener.

Comments

[rdillon]

Ummm - Nosey question from an interested diver... What do you do while you're spending many hours underwater? :-)

[safonatt]

I dredge for gold off the bottom of the Bering Sea (diver operated, suction dredge), I'm actually about to get in the water in an hour. See Discovery channel for a series about it Spring 2012.

[rdillon]

I am enlightened :-) Thank you!

[Mustard Dave]

I don't see the point - this watch is £32 (approx $50 US).

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2830728/Trail/searchtext%3EDIVER.htm

[VadimS]

It look great, you would probably only use it for diving so daylight savings time would probably not be a problem (unless you like cold water or are going to the Caribbean or something). The watch I have now is on it's third battery but I've had it for 15+ years.

Another method (as previously stated) is to fill it with oil, just re- assemble it in a cup of oil to make shire there are no bubbles. Mineral oil is your best bet.

The most likely spot for them to leak is the buttons.

[lemonie]

If these are water-resistant, filling them with oil is an idea for an alternative. But you'd have to totally-fill them.
I like the enclosure you've done here, it looks very good.

L

[safonatt]

Thanks. Yes, I've looked at oil-filling, and plan to do that if I ever need to make an enclosure that requires penetrations, such as increasing water-resistance of electric or hydraulic motors.

[Jobar007]

You could have water inclusion problems if you are using polyester resin instead of epoxy resin. If there are any bubbles at all in the resin (when using polyester) they will eventually fill with water and be subject to those problems... It is still cheaper than a scuba/free dive watch. Awesome idea!

[safonatt]

Ah, thanks for the tip.  Next time, I'll look into epoxy resin.

[SWV1787]

I think it looks cool but I think it might get expensive when you need to purchases a new watch, resin, and webbing every time your battery dies

[safonatt]

Thanks for the kind words.  I did think of the battery issue, but the batteries on these watches last for years, especially without using the light.  A solar powered watch would be cool, but likely not worth it.

[SWV1787]

How about if you stretched a couple layers of rubber recycled from bicycle inner tubes over the buttons and then set drinking straws into your casting to allow access to the buttons to reset time as needed (Daylight-savings time for instance). You could also attach a small solar panel recycled from a calculator and a diode to prevent electrical flow-back. but you might have to find a rechargable battery if the watch's one isn't already.

[mikeasaurus]

I like the look, it's like a time-puck or something.

Can you elaborate on what fails on the water-resistant watches to make them not suitable? Where do they leak, the back cover, the buttons or the faceplate?

[safonatt]

I wouldn't know what fails, I've never tried to take a cheap non-diving watch underwater.  I was doing research on which watch to buy, and didn't find anything but expensive ones that met my requirements.  Maybe they were only $250 and up, not all were $500.

The instructions on this "30 Meter" watch that I used here say "Do not press any buttons underwater" and "Watch is not a diver watch and should not be used for diving" and "Rinse watch with fresh water after exposure to salt water".

Reading the wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark and other pages, it was stated that watches are only "water resistant" to varying degrees. 

I dive in unique conditions, cold, salty, harsh environments, getting knocked around, and I need a watch that will do the job and not be a big loss _WHEN_ it gets destroyed.

[tukas]

Yes, but still cheaper than $500.  Maybe a solar watch thing like the solar calculators.