Your Apple Watch might survive a dunk in the pool after all
Apple Watch has already landed in Australia, and a group of testers from FoneFox has started putting it through its paces. One of the first things they decided to examine was how water-resistant Apple Watch really is, something that I was quite concerned about. After all, we’ve all heard that Tim Cook showers with his Apple Watch, but how might the smartwatch fare with more than just a bit of a splash?
Apple claims their smartwatch has IPX7 water resistance. What this means is that the device should be able to withstand incidental exposure to water of up to 1 meter deep for as long as 30 minutes. By this definition, Apple Watch should be safe for indoor or outdoor use when it’s raining or snowing, or when there are brief splashes of water. Immersion of more than 1 meter or any immersion for more than 30 minutes would be detrimental to your Apple Watch’s health.
The folks over at FoneFox seem to have found that this rating is a bit on the conservative side. The video below shows them first splashing the smartwatch, then showering with it, dunking it in a bucket of water, and eventually swimming with the device in a pool about 1.2 meters deep. After all of this water testing, their Apple Watch remained fully functional and showed no signs of water ingress.
This is good news for those of us with more active lifestyles. For example, I’m a fisherman, and would hate to damage my smartwatch while on a fishing trip. This testing makes it pretty clear that Apple Watch can withstand some light exposure to water and even brief submersion. You just wouldn’t want to keep it on during a long swim or anything deeper than 1 meter.