Malfunctioning Wrist Compass

[DENLASCUBA]

I have had two wrist compasses (X05.017.101) that would rarely move and seemed that they were frozen inside the sealed compass housing unless you tapped it hard enough to get it to move slightly; but then would stick once again being unusable. Luckily I was able to have my supplier warranty both of them as they were only a few days from their 2 year warranty. Recently I have just had one of the replacement compasses have the same issue. Neither of the original compasses were used much, and as for the replacements the divers who use them for their surveys asked to use the Suunto compasses after this issue happened so they have very few dives on them and one has the same issue. This seems to be a frequent issue as I have now had 3 compasses in just under 3 years with minimal use develop the same issue, and if this is an issue shouldn't SCUBAPRO offer lifetime warranty for such an issue.

 

[miketsp]

I have had two wrist compasses (X05.017.101) that would rarely move and seemed that they were frozen inside the sealed compass housing unless you tapped it hard enough to get it to move slightly; but then would stick once again being unusable. Luckily I was able to have my supplier warranty both of them as they were only a few days from their 2 year warranty. Recently I have just had one of the replacement compasses have the same issue. Neither of the original compasses were used much, and as for the replacements the divers who use them for their surveys asked to use the Suunto compasses after this issue happened so they have very few dives on them and one has the same issue. This seems to be a frequent issue as I have now had 3 compasses in just under 3 years with minimal use develop the same issue, and if this is an issue shouldn't SCUBAPRO offer lifetime warranty for such an issue.

It's just possible that the compass is fine, or would have been considered so, a few years ago.
We are in a phase of weakening of the Earth's magnetic field (as a prelude to pole reversal?) so compass magnets may need to be made stronger to overcome friction.
Also if you look at the global magnetic field intensity distribution, Bangkok is already in a pretty weak zone.

See both decay curve and global distribution here:
WHOI Magnetics Group : Temporal Magnetic Variations

The distribution display is interactive and you can step through the century in increments.

If I was a compass manufacturer I wouldn't be giving any lifetime warranties.