watches unpressurized

wrote

I bought a cheap divers watch from a "large discount chain" to wear on
a trip to Equador. It did fine until we got to Quito. The altitude
there is 10,000 ft.

I've been there, too. Did you fly in? If so, what did you think of the
approach/airport? g
--
Jim in NC

Good point.

And thanks everyone for your responses.


Andrey


Mine went to FL 300 and did fine, but it's likely that one
has popped in the chamber, so they take them off. I doubt
it was dangerous, but it may have been distracting during
the training.

Morgans wrote:
wrote

I bought a cheap divers watch from a "large discount chain" to wear on
a trip to Equador. It did fine until we got to Quito. The altitude
there is 10,000 ft.

I've been there, too. Did you fly in? If so, what did you think of the
approach/airport? g
--
Jim in NC

We flew in on a commercial jet and I didn't even get a window seat. I
didn't really get any impression of the approach. I did notice that my
skin kind of "prickled" when I got out in the sunlight at that
altitude. Extra UV, I guess.

John

I just got a hold of Citizen's technical support asking them if there are
any altitude limitation on their Skyhawk watches (they are 100WR); their
response was:
---
There are no altitude limitations. You would
not need to pull out the crown during ascent.
---


Andrey


The Visitor wrote:
Come to think of it, I have had a watch (not a cheap one) to FL230, and
there were no problems. But it wasn't a rapid decompression. In fact
I'll bet there are lots of guys up over 20,000, zooming around breathing
oxygen.

I suppose if one wanted, you could unscrew the stem on you dive watch
and it could breath, but I wouldn't bother.

John





Brian wrote:

Andrey Serbinenko wrote:

A question to the group. When I was going through my high-altitude
physiological training, they instructed us to remove wrist watches
before going for the baro-flight to FL250 (unpressurized). Has
anyone experienced any anomalies with wrist watches at low pressure?
I just can't think of why they'd require that. Even diver's watches
will hold the pressure up to a point and then the seals will leak
-- before any damage to the body of the watch or the crystal occurs.
Does the battery have any air inside that will blow it up?


Andrey


I have had the crystal on my digital watch pop out while flying my
glider up to about 18,000 feet. True the watch was a few years old and
I just replaced it with the same kind.

Brian C.
CFIIG/ASEL

I had the crystal pop off my watch on a commercial flight


HankC


Brian wrote:
Andrey Serbinenko wrote:
A question to the group. When I was going through my high-altitude
physiological training, they instructed us to remove wrist watches
before going for the baro-flight to FL250 (unpressurized). Has
anyone experienced any anomalies with wrist watches at low pressure?
I just can't think of why they'd require that. Even diver's watches
will hold the pressure up to a point and then the seals will leak
-- before any damage to the body of the watch or the crystal occurs.
Does the battery have any air inside that will blow it up?


Andrey

I have had the crystal on my digital watch pop out while flying my
glider up to about 18,000 feet. True the watch was a few years old and
I just replaced it with the same kind.

Brian C.
CFIIG/ASEL

Wow, and that would probably been to 8000 of feet in the cabin.

HankC wrote:
I had the crystal pop off my watch on a commercial flight


HankC