The Apple Watch doesn't drown - immediately

folarin okunola

April 27, 2015 8:33 AM

Since the Apple Watch started selling in stores, its capabilities and shortcomings have been coming to the limelight

The Apple Watch under water.

Imagine one hot day, you get a swimsuit and jump into a pool to cool, and … suddenly you realize your AppleWatch is still on your wrist.

$600 wrist computer gone, right? No, not exactly.

According to FoneFox, in an early user test, the Apple Watch seems to be pretty much water resistant. A Sport edition was thrown into the shallow end of a pool – and after 15 minutes, it was still ticking away. The device even seemed to work – kind of – under water, although capacitive touch screens tend to lose their minds when submerged and do whatever they want.

So does this mean you can go swimming anytime with your Apple Watch? Again no, not exactly.

Apple didn’t really emphasize water resistance in their very much – the only mentions of it on Apple’s website are in footnotes found deep at the bottom of the spec list.

And the reason for that is not far-fetched: even though the watch is “water resistant”, its hardly water proof. The watch’s resistance is is rated IPX7, which means that it should survive occasional forays into water as deep as 1M (3.2 feet) for 30 minutes. Any deeper than that, or for longer periods of time, and you’re tempting fate. Given that time spent at most pools will almost definitely take you deeper than 3ft, it is best to keep your Apple Watch somewhere safe and dry.

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