I’ve been trying to do some research on this and so far have come up with nothing so I’m wondering if anyone on here knows. If we look at the watches that were issued to or worn in the military during let’s say World War One and World War Two. What was the WR rating on those watches? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume it was most likely 3ATM or something similar. They probably didn’t use the current rating system and I’m assuming labeling watches with sayings like “Water Proof”. Which I think we all agree doesn’t mean anything. But I’m curious about this because those watches would have been worn in all manner of adverse conditions and clearly survived. Yet today we consider 3ATM to barely be able to survive a splash. Just curious……
Most people don’t actually ever go further than 5 meters deep with their watch, but a modern watch rated only 5m has been made with absurdly low specs, and AFAIK unless we’re talking about a certified divers watch, then specs are more of a ‘manufacturer’s suggestion’ than an actually proven depth rating. So a modern watch rated 5m, when they easily could have slapped 50m on it… even if 5m is the deepest you’d actually go its basically the manufacturer suggesting to keep it away from water. Pointless and confusing but that’s the way it is
For anyone wondering my daily is a Must de Cartier XL which is 3ATM, but I don’t shower or swim with it. If I’m doing anything exceptionally dangerous to the watch I switch to a G shock.