How can I prevent my wristwatch from fogging up on the inside?

Question

In the past couple weeks, my watch appears to have developed an issue. It's an Armitron "pro sport" watch, and IIRC it's about three or four years old.

A couple weeks ago, when the temperature plummeted, I noticed that all of a sudden my watch face was getting fogged up... from the inside.

_{Yes, I know the times don't match. The analog hands are slow and always have been. The digital display works fine.}

It's never done this before, even if I take it into the shower or a really cold lake.

So... how can I fix this and stop it from fogging up without taking it to get repaired? I highly doubt it's under warranty anymore and it was bought in another country, and I really don't want to to pay to fix it, but I also don't especially want to go get a new watch at the moment.

Answer 1

The problem is clearly water ingress. If not addressed, the water will eventually damage the watch beyond repair.

Remove the back and leave the watch in a warm dry place overnight.
Replace the back once it is dry.

The water could have come in through the main back seal, which you can easily hack back with vaseline or similar when you put the back on. However, it could also have come in through one of the buttons on the side of the watch. These would be a little more difficult to reseal in a hacky manner but you can try to poke a bit of vaseline around the button stem with a cocktail stick.

Answer 2

it is probably caused by a leak in the gasket on the battery compartment door. Some watch shops and department stores will replace the battery for you if you bring in a dead watch, and you can ask them to put a new gasket in place when they do.

This will cost you the price of a new battery which is less than a teardown. If this doesn't fix the problem then you should probably just buy a new watch.

Answer 3

Open back of watch watch, place on a warm surface with the open side up or set in the sun open side up.

Wait a day or so for all the moisture to evaporate.

Put back of watch back on.

When you have a chance and before getting the watch wet again replace the gasket on the watch, which should cost next to nothing. Many places replace the gasket for free when changing the battery (which also costs them next to nothing).

Petroleum products put on the gasket may temporarily improve the seal but will eat and the gasket making your problem worse. Additionally petroleum products will likely melt due to heat (from your body or environmental) and move to other parts of the watch and gum them up.