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Comment by citruspi | Hacker News Reader

> My water resistant series 3 apple watch screen died after swimming in a pool the next day to give a personal example.

That's... surprising. To be clear, I'm not saying I don't believe you. But I'm definitely surprised - I've got a Series 2 which I get wet every day and even use while swimming and I haven't had any issues. My mother has a Series 2 or 3 which she also regularly uses while swimming.

Per Apple's documentation[0]

> Apple Watch Series 2, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple Watch Series 4 may be used for shallow water activities like swimming in a pool or ocean.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205000

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My wife's favorite watch is the Timex Women's Ironman Triathlon 50. The watch is labeled as being water resistant to 50 meters. Most complaints about this watch are that the band is crap and breaks after about a year of unextraordinary use. The other, is that after minimal contact with water, the inside of the watch face steams up. These aren't expensive watches, but they aren't cheap either.

Not sure how a watch intended for Triathlon use has a reputation for the band breaking at the slightest stress and the inside of the watch fogging after an ordinary dip in 3 feet of water. How does a watch like this pass QA and not get investigated (or sued) for false advertising?

I would assume that it's not a QA issue, but rather it's designed to perform well enough that 95% of customers don't complain. If 95% of customers don't get it wet or don't get particularly angry when they do, then designing it to be more waterproof would under-optimize the company's resources.

A lot of the things we take for granted about the benefits of living in a capitalist society are side effects of capitalists traditionally not being very good at their jobs and giving customers stuff/benefits unintentionally. That seems to be going away thanks to IT and increased testing of assumptions.

My theory is since the screen is held to the watch with glue [0], heat exposure will cause the glue to unset slightly and break the waterproof seal. So over time your watch may lose it's seal from exposure to being in a hot day.

The malfunction happened to me after owning the watch for 14 months, and I swam with it in the ocean on month 4 with no problems. It was also fine on the first day, the issue started happening the day after. My theory is a very small amount of water got in, but it was enough to damage the oled screen inside.

The solution would be not using glue, but using screws or a bayonet on the back, but then it won't look like a seamless object. Maybe in the new non-jony era of apple they will make their watches properly waterproof? I doubt it although.

[0] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Apple+Watch+Series+3+Display+Re...

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