I had a close call last night with my C63 elite. I’ve had it for about 6 months now and have worn it frequently. I took it swimming over the summer, and wear it regularly for my kids bath time at home. The 150m WR should be good for everything I need.

The crown has never really been an issue for me. It has popped out accidentally a grand total of 2 times in 6 months. Including last night. You can probably see where this is going…

I was bathing the kids, arm fully submerged, when I looked down in horror to find the watch underwater with the crown popped out. I took it off and set it aside. I couldn’t see any visible water intrusion. I left it on the counter for 24 hours with the crown out just in case.

Upon inspection it seems fine. In fact, upon very close inspection, I can see a gap at the case even with the crown pushed in, which leads me to believe the 150m WR is accurate whether the crown is in or out. Can anybody confirm or deny this?

In any case, no harm no foul!

Thanks to @rkovars for the thread title idea

The manual says that:

“Your crown is of the retractable type and should sit against the case (position 1) in order to maintain water resistance.”

It’s possible that’s just to keep you from accidentally putting it in date or time setting positions while underwater

Thanks for bringing the facts @MistaFroggyG. Perhaps it’s just that 2 seconds at 4” depth isn’t enough to allow any moisture in.

Either way, I should have noticed it, and usually would have. But I have two sick 3 year olds right now and sleep has been hard to come by!

Might be an idea to place it in a sealed container,alongside some silica gel, for a few days
Leave the crown out so that any water vapour trapped in the watch can escape.

Still no guarantees it will completely remove all water ingress

Just the popped out position is still being held watertight with seals. The screw-down is just a secondairy position for added depth. You should be fine but taking up Tony on his advice is never a bad call.

Here is a post from our very own forum in 2018. Pay particular attention to @TempusFugits entry. The diagrams are spot on. In both diagrams the solid black circles represent the gaskets in the system. The gasket is engaged whether the crown ins in or out to the first position. The second diagram is a look at how the Rolex 'TripLock system works.

EDIT: Note on the TripLock - On most dive watches they have the extra gasket in the top of the crown that is compressed when the crown is screwed down. They don't have the double gasket in the tube though. You can see that when the crown is in the winding position that the two gaskets in the tube are still engaged.

Rich FTW! Thanks. I thought that must be the case. I took some pics to explain what I was seeing (see below); you can see there's no gasket at the case, and the crown tube is exposed the same whether pushed in or out. You can also see the crown tube from the case back, which also doesn't show any gasket engaging. It makes sense that it's internal, and would be "engaged" whether the crown was in or out.

I wonder why the CW manual says it should be pushed in to maintain water resistance?

And @DirkWatch this particular model has a retractable crown, not a screw down.

Is that second picture in the winding position? What does it look like if fully pulled to hack?

These crowns are a little more involved because of the spring mechanism and lock for stowing. There is a lot going on inside that wider tube at the crown. I can't find a good schematic of this type of crown probably for proprietary reasons as these are pretty new (within 10 years or so I think) and are probably still under patent.

EDIT TO ADD: I wonder if the locking mechanism actually puts pressure on the inner gasket to ensure water tightness when the crown is depressed. When the crown is released it might not have the 'full' protection but there is 'some' protection. If that makes sense.

I guess there is more chance of the crown being rotated, and lateral forces disturbing the stem and gaskets if it is pulled out.

If none of the above occur, I can't think why it would be any less watertight.

@StrappedUp yes, just a quick shallow dip with no lateral action, so minimal forces acting upon gaskets.

@rkovars Correct, second pic is winding position. It’s hard to see, but here are pics with the crown fully out/movement hacked. The inner tube seen from the caseback pulls up a bit towards the outside. Nothing really different seen from the outside.

Without schematics to show how the gasket system works, I can only assume from this experience that with the crown popped out it still has some WR. I am not willing to test it with a dip with the movement hacked…

Tonywalker wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 1:25 pm Might be an idea to place it in a sealed container,alongside some silica gel, for a few days
Leave the crown out so that any water vapour trapped in the watch can escape.

Still no guarantees it will completely remove all water ingress

Good idea, rice also works.

@ajax87 Hi Alex,

I'm glad all ended well after that shock of finding the crown out while it was under water.

All good since ? As it 5 days since the incident ?

@MiniMpi thanks Ferg!

All good still,yes! I’ve heard that it can take some time for moisture to show up if intrusion did occur, so I’ve been keeping a close eye on it. I’ve worn it a couple days and put it down for the last 3 or so, and it still looks good! It does look like I’ve escaped, but I wonder how long I’ll be glancing at the crystal looking for moisture?

Finger's crossed you should be fine