Ways of waterproofing a watch

Question

I have a non-waterproof watch that I sometimes wear with me. While I could choose not to wear this one, I wear it on some occasions and would rather wear it at these times. I am looking for a way of waterproofing it for the following reasons:

• I need to wear it to camping sometimes, to the beach, beside the beach, etc. Mostly to camping though, as the watch also gets dirty and I would love a way of keeping it clean.

• I have friends that have ruined watches by getting them wet and would love to avoid this.

Below are things I have used to mediate the issue:

• Plastic bags. These if you use clear ones work marvelously, but are kind of baggy and bulky. I pull them tight, but nothing seems to work.

• Watch Covers. There are actually specialized covers for this, but if I can avoid buying anything that would be awesome. I am not the only person that needs one and each of us buying one would be a lot of money.

• Buying waterproof watches. I actually have some, but sometimes I don't want to wear them.

Anything that could help me would be awesome. The watch at the most just needs to be able to survive about a bit of splashing or around 3 feet of water at the most.

Answer 1

Cling wrap is waterproof and transparent enough. Cut a bit of cling wrap, wrap it around the watch face and use office sticky tape to hold it tight on the two bracelet sides.

Cling wrap can be unpleasant to the touch. To alleviate this, you may take a bit of discarded cloth and affix it to the cling wrap on the back side of the watch. I'm not sure how to make it stay, as adhesive tend to fare poorly on cloth.

Cling wrap is somewhat fragile: it risks getting cut if it snags somewhere. You may prefer to cut a bit of PVC plastic bag (Ziploc, as opposed to plastic shopping bags). They are usually transparent and rigid enough, and more resistant to cuts than cling wrap.

Answer 2

Another variant of using a plastic bag is to do as follows:

• Take a plastic bag which you are just able to insert your hand into, and cut of the bottom of it, so it becomes a sleeve
• Put the sleeve (in blue color) on your hand, and then wear your watch on the outside
• Wrap the sleeve back over your watch, as suggested in (my perfectly drawn :-) ) image

• The trick to getting it waterproof is to fold the upper part of the now doubled sleeved plastic bag. I've provided two alternatives:
  • a) Using hair elastic or similar, attach one above the watch, and wrap plastic over the hair elastic (shown from the side in green color). Attach another hair elastic close to the watch, and wrap the plastic back again, and attach a third hair elastic inbetween the two others. This should be enough to make it pretty waterproof. Tuck the end underneath the other layers for a neat finish
  • b) Using a wider elastic of some sort (or possibly tape), attach at the top, and start rolling the plastic bag down towards the watch a few turns

Other alternatives for folding up the plastic bag can involve just rolling it and tucking it under the watch (which I now see in the picture I've drawn on the inside of the arm. Strange! )

A disadvantage of this method is that it can be a little difficult to wrap/fold the plastic if you are alone, and maybe you don't have hair elastics. On the plus side it is a cheap, working solution, and can look good if executed well.

Answer 3

TL;DR: Concrete solutions in bold below.

It's not a waterproof watch. You'll have to accept this. If you insist on wearing it around water, then you need to decide if the risk is worth the benefit. "Life hacks" can't make the impossible possible, regardless of how badly you want it to be possible.

Wrapping it in something waterproof, as you are already doing, reduces - but does not eliminate - the risk. That's about all you can do.

Most answers to this question will be suggestions for answerers' various favorite water-resistant material, generally some form of plastic in a bag, sheet, or box-like shape; anything that fits this description will do. Choose your favorite and wrap away; hopefully you can find various appropriate materials around you without having to have them all explicitly listed here.

(Also, the best solution to the problem of your friends ruining your watches with water is to rethink letting your friends have access to your non waterproof watches.)

Answer 4

The best solution is transparent/clear shrink wrap tubing/tape. Just be careful with the heat sourc, as not to damage your watch.

Answer 5

Use a ziplock bag and get it as tight as possible around the watch and then use a "press and seal" bag sealer. it will have the air "sucked out" from around the watch and the plastic bag will have been sealed all around the device.