The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Is the water resistance rating based on the crown and / or pushers being screwed in?

R/

That is a good question. I would say yes it is based on them being screwed down, otherwise why would they be screw down?

BS, correct me if I am wrong.

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Current collection: Breitling Superocean Heritage I 46, Rolex Submariner, Swatch X ****** Sistem51

I think it is only part of the truth, because:

The crown has to be screwed down, but the screwing down of the pushers is rather against an unwanted pushing and thus pushing water into the watch than for direct watertight sealing. A chronograph w/o screwdown pushers can be wr too (see older Chronomats, Chrono Cockpit, IWC AT or Omega Seamaster chrono). Some manufactures say that their product is watertight even when pushing their chrono pushers underwater (IWC, Omega, see above), but independent (otherwise excellent) watchmakeres usually doubt this. I myself use my screwdown-pusher-chronographs (Breitling CSO, Sinn 130 St Sa) usually with unscrewed pushers, but always screw them down when going to swim or playing w/ my daughters in the sand (watches hate sand too, not only water, so screwing pushers down prevents this too. Of course I take care that my watch not to reach the sand at all, but this screw-down thing gives an additional safety.) I usually avoid going to the beach with chronos w/o screw-down pushers but it had already happened that I'd spent 3 weeks on the seashore w/ my IWC Fliegerchrono (60 m, no screw-down pushers) with no problem but avoided touching the pushers while swimming in the sea, etc. etc. every safety measure carried out...

Hope this helps.

Regards: Robertus

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Robertus61 is correct - some Breitling pushpieces are screw-down to prevent accidental operation underwater, not because they need to be screwed down in order to stay water resistant. An example would be the Chronomat Evo - it is 300m WR and has screwdown pushpieces. The Skyland is 300m WR and doesn't have screwdown pieces. The screwdown pushpieces on the Chronomat are just an example of greater attention to detail on the more expensive piece, not as a result of a worse design that requires pushpieces to be screwed down to maintain water resistance.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I am also interested in this question. I have a superocean day date chrono (A13340). If I am not going swimming, can I walk around on a daily basis with the chrono pushers unscrewed? I like to use them spontaneously.

Of course you can.
You can go swimming also with unscrewed pushers, but be careful not to operate them under water, or accidentally engage them.

I find it worth to mention that the advertised water resistance is only a static water resistance and not a "real depth" water resistance. See also the interesting Wikioedia article on this topic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark

The screw down pushers have no impact on water resistance at all, they are simply an additional safeguard to prevent accidental use of the pushers underwater which would act like a pump to get water under pressure into the case.