Turns out, the Apple Watch is pretty water-resistant—as long as you take care to clean it.
Craig Hockenberry (of Iconfactory and CHOCKLOCK fame) is a fairly avid swimmer, and has been toting his water-resistant Apple Watch to the beach over the past few months.
I suspect that the watch's water resistance has been undersold by Apple just like battery life: it's better to under-promise and over-deliver. Still, it's a personal decision on whether you want to ignore Apple's recommendation. You're not likely to get much sympathy at any subsequent trips to the Genius Bar.
He wrote a great piece on the Apple Watch's water resistance in the real world, chock full of interesting scientific bits about the Watch's aluminum, glass, and rubber construction; important tips about cleaning the casing, and his frustrations over capacitative touch.
I sent this over to my father almost immediately after I saw it—he's been doing daily swims and lamenting not being able to use his watch. I don't know if Hockenberry's article will convince my dad to change his mind and take the plunge, but it's a good read, nonetheless.
Source: Furbo.org
Reader comments
An Apple Watch goes to the beach
I've been going to the beach with my watch for the last couple of days. And while I wouldn't take it into the salty sea water sand doesn't seem to cause any damage. And if ever some gets stuck between the digital crown it's always easy to just rinse out with water.
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I've been going to the beach with my watch for the last couple of days. And while I wouldn't take it into the salty sea water sand doesn't seem to cause any damage. And if ever some gets stuck between the digital crown it's always easy to just rinse out with water.
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I could see the salt water eroding some of the gaskets/components after a while and then one day it will be flooded. I am curious though, if you're close enough to shore and a great white shark mistakes you for a floundering seal, can you make a call to 911?
No, because it's going to pull you under and you ain't aquaman.
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What about the reports of water getting stuck on the mic and speaker? There are a few reports on that at Apple's support forum saying audio could not be heard and Siri not be used for an extensive period of time util the watch completely drys out, some even say that the speak was damaged for good... Idk, I REALLY wished I could track my swimming with it but at this time there are better devices to do the job instead of the watch, just not worth the trouble.
I wouldn't tray that with a device that expensive! I use Android Wear, though. Don't have an Apple watch, especially when it is ~$200 NZD for a strap!!!
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I took my watch off to go swimming in a lake. You know, just so I didn't need to worry about how water resistant it was. Then I noticed it wasn't where I put it about 10 minutes later.. Right over there on top of the pier. When I looked down into the water I could see it at the lake bottom, half covered with sand. I retrieved it. And? No problems whatsoever. It's fine. And I didn't even need to waste a bag of rice.