Has anyone taken an Apple Watch to depth?

[BrentStanfield]

Hey everyone, new member here. I know this thread has some age but just ran across it and can give you some real world experience.

In January 2021 I forgot and left my apple watch on while diving in Bora Bora. Max depth was 24 meters. When I surfaced, I didn't initially find anything wrong. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that the microphone for the watch no longer worked. Hoped that it would "come back to life" after drying out but that never happened. I really didn't use the mic that often so not a big deal. Everything else worked fine.

Last week, I got to dive the Great White Wall on Fiji's Rainbow reef. I, yes again, forgot to take the Apple watch off. On this dive I had a max depth of 34.2 meters. When we were back on the dive boat, it was dead. I knew there was a 50/50 chance that it'd run out of juice or the pressure had gotten to it. I tried charging it and the time showed up initially with a red charging symbol indicating it'd just run out of charge. But, after about 15 minutes it showed the time along with a thermometer symbol and the watch was very warm. I had a spare watch so I just threw the apple watch in my bag.

Once arriving home two days later, I tried charging it again. It worked! Right back to how it had been. The microphone still doesn't work though.

The moral, don't be like me. The Apple watch serves no purpose underwater other than you can still press the crown "winder" to show the time. That's it. The water pressure on the touch screen shuts the screen off. Also, Bluetooth and cellular lose their signals as soon as you go under the surface. There are some waterproof cases that are rated to 100 m but why? Unless you just want to see the time.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Kimela]

@BrentStanfield so sorry to hear it died on you. I'd love to keep it on to see how many calories it reports being burned. On dive days I don't stand a chance of closing my circles - and it the watch doesn't say it happened, it didn't happen!!!

 

[Marie13]

Apple warns the watch is not for scuba diving. I’m not sure why it is so surprising that your watch is dead after you took it diving.

 

[MrVegas]

This thread has managed to stay on topic for 4 pages -- that's long enough. Here's a GoPro story (but somewhat relevant).

When our family first got our GoPro we took it diving in the Caribbean and on the first boat the captain told us it was fine without a housing down to 30 feet or so. He was right. So, we got lazy about using the housing.

A few years later I decided to bring it down to about 95 feet without the housing. (Paradise Springs in Florida for those that know it -- nice place to dive.) The GoPro appeared to stop responding at about 30 feet, so I left it alone. When we got back to where we were staying, we discovered that it had, in fact, taken about 1400 pictures on its own all the way down to the bottom and back up.

So, pressure does funny things to equipment. (At least the GoPro still works.)

 

[nippurmagnum]

This thread has managed to stay on topic for 4 pages -- that's long enough. Here's a GoPro story (but somewhat relevant).

When our family first got our GoPro we took it diving in the Caribbean and on the first boat the captain told us it was fine without a housing down to 30 feet or so. He was right. So, we got lazy about using the housing.

A few years later I decided to bring it down to about 95 feet without the housing. (Paradise Springs in Florida for those that know it -- nice place to dive.) The GoPro appeared to stop responding at about 30 feet, so I left it alone. When we got back to where we were staying, we discovered that it had, in fact, taken about 1400 pictures on its own all the way down to the bottom and back up.

So, pressure does funny things to equipment. (At least the GoPro still works.)

As the OP on this thread, I agree that the thread has stayed on topic long enough.

 

[davehicks]

Hey everyone, new member here. I know this thread has some age but just ran across it and can give you some real world experience.

In January 2021 I forgot and left my apple watch on while diving in Bora Bora. Max depth was 24 meters. When I surfaced, I didn't initially find anything wrong. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that the microphone for the watch no longer worked. Hoped that it would "come back to life" after drying out but that never happened. I really didn't use the mic that often so not a big deal. Everything else worked fine.

Last week, I got to dive the Great White Wall on Fiji's Rainbow reef. I, yes again, forgot to take the Apple watch off. On this dive I had a max depth of 34.2 meters. When we were back on the dive boat, it was dead. I knew there was a 50/50 chance that it'd run out of juice or the pressure had gotten to it. I tried charging it and the time showed up initially with a red charging symbol indicating it'd just run out of charge. But, after about 15 minutes it showed the time along with a thermometer symbol and the watch was very warm. I had a spare watch so I just threw the apple watch in my bag.

Once arriving home two days later, I tried charging it again. It worked! Right back to how it had been. The microphone still doesn't work though.

The moral, don't be like me. The Apple watch serves no purpose underwater other than you can still press the crown "winder" to show the time. That's it. The water pressure on the touch screen shuts the screen off. Also, Bluetooth and cellular lose their signals as soon as you go under the surface. There are some waterproof cases that are rated to 100 m but why? Unless you just want to see the time.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

I would not trust putting that watch on a Charger at this point.

 

[Gene]

Funny story about the GoPro shooting on its own at Paradise Springs, and yes, that is a great cavern dive.
My son and I hand carried AL80 tanks on a short little dive in a mountain stream near Franklin, NC. A lot of people swim there and jump into the water. The water was of course cold, even in the summer, and the vis was about five feet or less. Anyway, we were staying close to each other and swimming around on the bottom, less then 20 feet deep. We saw a pair of white sunglasses and a white band sticking out of the sand. I grabbed the glasses and my son pulled up a first-generation Apple Watch, which was still working!
Later, while back at the house, we examined it and bought a charger for it as the battery was low. It had apparently been underwater at around 18 feet or so for about two weeks. My kids and I tried our best to locate the owner by looking through their messages, but we couldn't. So, my son kept it. We plan on going back to this site, maybe this summer.

 

[tr3a]

200M is required to be called a dive watch

 

[GF99/99]

Hey everyone, new member here. I know this thread has some age but just ran across it and can give you some real world experience.

In January 2021 I forgot and left my apple watch on while diving in Bora Bora. Max depth was 24 meters. When I surfaced, I didn't initially find anything wrong. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that the microphone for the watch no longer worked. Hoped that it would "come back to life" after drying out but that never happened. I really didn't use the mic that often so not a big deal. Everything else worked fine.

Last week, I got to dive the Great White Wall on Fiji's Rainbow reef. I, yes again, forgot to take the Apple watch off. On this dive I had a max depth of 34.2 meters. When we were back on the dive boat, it was dead. I knew there was a 50/50 chance that it'd run out of juice or the pressure had gotten to it. I tried charging it and the time showed up initially with a red charging symbol indicating it'd just run out of charge. But, after about 15 minutes it showed the time along with a thermometer symbol and the watch was very warm. I had a spare watch so I just threw the apple watch in my bag.

Once arriving home two days later, I tried charging it again. It worked! Right back to how it had been. The microphone still doesn't work though.

The moral, don't be like me. The Apple watch serves no purpose underwater other than you can still press the crown "winder" to show the time. That's it. The water pressure on the touch screen shuts the screen off. Also, Bluetooth and cellular lose their signals as soon as you go under the surface. There are some waterproof cases that are rated to 100 m but why? Unless you just want to see the time.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Almost all my friends are dive instructors and several have had customers that bring there apple watches diving and majority of them are not working when the surface.

Apple watches are not meant for diving ask any dive operator they will tell you about customer epically DSD's and OW/AOW students that accidently bring them diving and are pissed they are broken

 

[Bob DBF]

The operative words are water resistant to 50m, there is no claim that it is waterproof to that, or any depth.