How Durable is a Mechanical Watch? Watch and Learn #89 

What about wearing one to the shooting range? Great video and love the watch!

Remember until the 1970's all watches were mechanical. They went to war, the beach, work, and play. All before modern materials. Thanks, Marc for your time and video.

I own many types of watches/movements, yet the wonder of a mechanical watch and it’s inner workings is like a childhood fantasy I get to experience time and time again 😉

In early 1969 my dad gave me a mechanical wrist watch. An Omega Speedmaster Professional, which in those days cost a little over $100 USD. I was fourteen at the time a crazy teenager with no sense of the value it would come to have. I rode bicycles, two-stroke motorcycles, went skin diving and did all sorts of crazy stuff with it on. I wore it through high school, college, my wedding, different jobs, including house framing , and for the past forty years doing missionary work in South America. Somehow it has managed to survive all that thanks to two main spring replacements during its 54 yr life. Hey, the Speedy passed all the NASA tortures for the space program so I guess it was tough enough for someone like me. It’s still with me, keeping excellent time. Yes, a well built mechanical watch can handle a lot.

The engineer in you trusts the test of reality. 6 months is a solid test! Thank you Bill!

As a mountain biker, golfer, and all-around outdoor recreation enthusiast, this was very reassuring information. I worried a bit while hitting golf balls at the range with a mechanical watch on my wrist last fall. Thank you, Bill. I am a native Utahn myself.

My granddad always wore a mechanical watch. He used power tools, went swimming regularly, played football. Did his watch survive? Yes it did, because whenever he did anything rough he would take off the watch and set it down until he’d finished whatever he was doing. Not heard anyone mention this but I think a lot of guys used to take off their mechanical watches for physical stuff.

I grew up in the 1950s when all there were, was Mechanical Watches including Automatics - all used during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam Wars - and just going through daily life was a lot rougher than life of today, and your typical watch lasted years & even decades. In fact one of the 'viral' catchphrases of the 50's was :*"It takes a beating and keeps on ticking."* It came from a TV Ad for the 'lowly' Timex Watches. [btw, The 1st watch I ever got was when I was about 12yrs old, it was a Longines Wittnaur Automatic (IIRC?) for 8th Grade Graduation Present.

As a hunter, fisherman, and farmer, it is good to know when I am wearing my Islander watch and doing chores or wrangling pigs, hunting deer or squirrel, or fishing for catfish or bass, I am glad to know that my watch can handle it. Thanks for sharing Marc. Hope all is well!

When I used to be a deckhand I wore a Hamilton Khaki Field King every single day of the week, 12 hours a day, for about 2 months straight doing very laborious work. The polished bezel got absolutely destroyed but the rest of the watch was great. There were so many instances where I straight up slammed the watch against the hard ship steel, and many other things, but that didn't do a single thing to the sapphire or movement as it still kept accurate time. Mechanical watches are tougher than you may think, and I wore a dressier type of watch as a beater watch.

I own/run a campground, and my first season I wore my SKX009 as my every day watch. Up to my elbows in mud, working on the pool, digging holes, fixing equipment. I thought it could take anything. One day I was doing some very hard digging and I killed it😢. I loved the watch so much that I treated it to a sapphire crystal and an NH36A movement. Now I wear a G shock when I’m working😂.

What a great video! BIG thank you to BILL! I like to think Bill ended up getting all the different monster colors after this.

Wearing my ISL-02 everyday for 2 years ish. Blue collar job, the watch is still running immaculately.

Once my SKX009 bracelet failed while riding on a road bike and it fell on concrete while doing around 25 mph. It's still going strong 6 years later.

Haven’t watched a ‘watch and learn’ for a while. Love them all.

I like to ride mountain bike trails in winter and the ice on walking trails is insanely rutted from foot traffic. My arms are vibrating for an hours straight - I only wear autos and have never had a problem 👍👍

Love that you’re so honest about the fact that the shock protection isn’t unique to the Islander. Awesome content. Love your style. I’m not a huge Monster fan but your Islander Monster here is really pretty.

i've been waiting for this. i've been looking for this kind of video since 2018.

I recently purchased one of your Islander watches (ISL15) and right out of the box I dropped it onto a concrete floor. With my heart in my throat I picked it up dreading to see how much it was damaged but to my surprise not a scratch on it. After a month on the wrist it’s working flawlessly.

I work in a production facility that manufactures injection molded rubber parts and custom built metal reinforcements for them. The environment in which I work is a trial for the durability of any mechanical watch. As an avid collector of watches I own many that have either the Seiko 7S26 or the Seiko NH35a movement. I also own watches with the Miyota 8215 movement. My work involves constant hand and wrist movements and occassional exposure to water as well. I have never had any problems with any of them. Mechanical watches if properly built and designed are far more durable than you can imagine. I am never afraid of wearing any of them to work.

Hey Mark and Bill, as a budding watch maker and motorcyclest, super interesting content. It's amazing what a modern mechanical will withstand. Thanks for taking the time to do the experiment.

I wear a Seiko alpinist while hitting rocks with hammers in the field, never had an issue over a few years of heavy use.

Amazing. The experiment was eye opening and thank you and Bill for proving the exceptional toughness of mechanical watches.

❤ your content! Mechanical watches are almost a miracle. They are works of art.

It's just so cool how you tell it like it is, without spin. You could plug how awesome your product is, instead you tell the truth as a subject matter expert. That is called integrity. Thank you.

*I’m glad that you sent the timepiece back to the gentleman for a keepsake. That’s the epitome of reciprocity.*

I have a bit more than a few islanders and they are tough and spot on... well priced well built. Good stuff for sure.

One caveat, when you get into watches with screw link bracelets, they can sometimes work themselves free while doing high impact activities like golf or tennis. I’ve had my Explorer II AND my SMP 300 FALL OFF my wrist due to this, and now I do these activities in either my Seiko or Hamilton watches. But the movements themselves are so durable and bulletproof, I haven’t had any issues doing these activities. Great video, love the new Titanium watches I may have to grab one soon!

Interesting video Marc! Awesome content as usual! I have an Islander Seiko automatic, the design convinced me. Rest of my wearing collection was quartz watches. The Islander had been accurate within a few seconds a day until the watch slid off a shelf falling a few feet onto a hard surface. It still looks and runs but is now fast or slow a few minutes per day, so less functional, still a handsome piece, when accuracy is not critical. I knew the Seiko automatic movement would be more delicate than a quartz and especially a G-Shock but didn't realize that a short fall would impact the watch as much as it did. SO I wanted to alert others that sudden shocks may cause problems. Its awesome this individual watch had no such problems, but I am more careful with mine now.

You continue to keep followers and draw new people to the fold with your out right honesty.

Super cool! Bill knocked it out of the park with his documentation and torture testing.

Doing the experiment. Love it. More testing please.

Great experiment! You are the only guy I can imagine deliberately putting their brand through such paces and with such humility

Always learn something from your videos Marc, thank you. While most mechanical watches are tougher than most think, I always switch to a G-Shock before doing work or engaging in activities which are prone to intense vibration and potential hard knocks. Just feel uncomfortable subjecting a mechanical gadget to these conditions specially my expensive mechanical watches 🙂

Solid. Love your content. Your collaboration with TGV is the best. Drama free.

This is encouraging anecdotal evidence. My SCUBA instructor wrecked his Rolex Sub chopping wood. What about shooting a handgun chambered in a cartridge that produces tremendous recoil? A .454 Casull or S&W 500 Mag will do. Even .40S&W would be interesting. The .22LR needs to be included as well. The watch needs to be on the dominant hand. I believe a follow up is in order. Keep us posted, Marc. Thanks.

Thank you Mark, Thank you Bill for the information I am also new to mechanical watches. Mark I found your site from The Urban Gentry videos that you have done. I am now also watching your videos and will be your customer soon. Thank you.

Dropped my Oris Aquis 400 cal 2 weeks ago on tiles in bathroom, from 1.5 m mby a bit more hight, and it works perfectly. Such a rugged watch, love it.

When my Swiss Army watch stopped running, I took it to my local watch repair shop. The first question the shop owner ask me was "what kind of bike I rode".

My father and me where plasterers and our watches went trough a lot but worked. They needed a cleaning from time to time because of the dust. That was 40 etc years ago.

Awesome stuff Marc. I usually wear my tissot quartz to the gym but a few weeks ago just kept a seiko diver on. Metal bracelet so I took it off at some point and of course it ended up dropping off a spinning bike onto the gym floor. Spent days obsessing over how slow (-30 sec/day) it was running and worrying about what I'd done... then I realised that I was always running late whenever I relied on that watch anyway. Don't think the drop actually did anything.

I understand that the people are concerned but...guys...our grand grandpas wore mechanical watches to war and they were fine so yes, you can wear your watch while riding a bike.

Thanks Bill!! and Marc... this was awesome!

I'm a plumber, I have worn the Islander ISL 35 for the past 2 years, 24/7. In my line of work I have run jack hammers, reciprocating saws, grinders and drills of all sizes. I break concrete with a sledge hammer, I crawl under houses, work in muddy ditches and dusty construction sites. This watch has been soaked in mud, covered in dust and has been banged around. This watch runs like a champ and it looks fantastic. It averages 5 to 8 seconds slow per day, like it has the whole time I've owned it. I get comments on how good this watch looks all the time. If you are looking for a rugged, good looking watch I would highly recommend the Islander.

Marc i love you doing videos like these. Real life tests are worth the most !! I would love to see your divewatches tested in real life situations.

It was a fantastic video! I love the idea of the extensive real world testing! I have been wearing an Islander as a work watch for a couple of years and had no problem with it. I am a mechanical engineer working with cnc lathes, mills, lasers, press brakes… (installation, application, operation, service etc) the only time I take mine off is when I have to work on machines with linear drive systems to avoid magnetisation.

Great video, one of my automatic watches comes to work with me every day, it gets subjected to me hammering, using air tools bangs And knocks and it’s still ticks away as accurate as the day I bought it, although I did have to demagnetise it after working on a EV

I wiped out on my dirt bike on some hard ass ground with my vintage exp2 takin the hit and had no problems, besides bending the clasp. Mechanical watches are real tough. People just are overprotective and don't understand what they've been built to withstand. They'll survive if you do too.

Been doing pretty much the same thing to a Pagani design dive watch with a nh 35 for the last 2 years still runs great.

The mechanical watch I've been the roughest with is my Phoibos Leviathan (NH35). In the course of a couple years, it fell on the floor once and I've done a bunch of cycling with it. I had to regulate it after it fell and it doesn't look as pretty on the timegrapher anymore, but it's still operating well within acceptable limits. It's quite a robust movement, and relatively inexpensive movements like this can easily be replaced rather than properly servicing them (though they are quite serviceable!). You (or your watchmaker) would simply transfer over any parts that were customized by the watch manufacturer (date wheel, engraved rotor, etc.). Personally I like to have one mechanical watch that is designated for rougher treatment, and NH3x are a great choice for that IMO.

Man, what a great vid! I have a 38 mm ISL 73 (?) and I target shoot hand guns (mostly .22 & .38 special) and have been wondering which watch in my collection would be up to the percussive forces generated by shooting. Now I know. Thanks Marc!

Love that clock.

Love these watch and learn series

Was gardening last summer, busting up clods with a shovel and the spring bar on my Islander ISL112 Flieger gave way. The watch hit the ground. No problem. Got a new spring bar and it is working like it worked when I got it. Great products. I would have like to hear a bit more about the shock protection built into a mechanical watch. Just interested. Mark - Springfield, MO

I was always wondering as well, on how shock resistant a mechanical watch is. Thanks Bill & Marc for testing this out, very interesting! Now i'm feeling more confident to wear any of my divers when doing more wild outdoor activities.

Great video. There’s a scratch or something on the wall behind you, just above the clock, that is setting off my ocd like crazy! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

This was very interesting. Thanks to you, Marc, and, Bill, for doing all the testing. Makes me feel a bit more comfortable using my own watches.

Great saga, really enjoyed hearing about the torture test. Watches are amazingly tough, especially the mechanicals with that tiny hair spring. Nothing like a real life test! . Thanks!

And yet I've broken 2 mechanical watch movements while mountain biking - both Seiko divers - and one through impact at work which had an STP1-11 movement. Switched to quartz for all my daily wear and outdoor adventures and never looked back. Bonus, they're more accurate, lighter, thinner and cheaper as well! The Swiss really did a magic smoke and mirrors job on the watch enthusiast world.

Another great watch and learn! I love this series. And I appreciate the transparency in your videos. Rather than using this strictly as a platform to promote your own watch brand you seem genuinely more interested to share your passion of watches in general. In this case going on to explain that the shock absorption isn't just with your Islander watches, but built into the third party movement itself. Very cool! I also work in engineering, as a designer (engineering school drop-out here lol). Ive been looking for my next watch to commemorate another year in my career and really giving some serious consideration to getting an Islander watch - a couple models in particular Ive had my eye on! The fact you were an engineer who gave all that up to follow your passion and have since gone on to be fairly successful doing so is such an inspiration! I would be proud to have a watch like that on my wrist that represents such an accomplishment and a good reminder to follow your dreams. Keep up the hard work!

Great video, this is reassuring 👍. I agree, mechanical movements can be tough, but shocks will show up any flaws in the movement. I cycled for about 3 hours off road in a mechanical watch (not Seiko, but it had shock protection) and afterwards the rate was way off and looked like a snake on the timegrapher! I swapped the balance assembly and it's OK now, but I wear quartz cycling now just in case.

Thanks for this video, it’s very informative. I ride dual sports several times a week and I haven’t had any problems with my NH38 watch

I wore my ISL-82 Mitchel (NH35 movement) every day during my last year working in automotive repair with tools that vibrate a **lot**. Took daily shop use on my non-dominant wrist like a champ. That said, I was always careful how I was using my hands to avoid injury or avoid the watch scratching up against a vehicle. I did tinker with the regulation early on, brought down the initial beat error and got it down to +5/-0 seconds per week based on my wearing habits. Stayed there through to me leaving Automotive.

Thanks for the info once again Mark. Always leave your vids feeling like it was time well spent. I've always wondered if I was damaging my own watches while riding my motorcycle and did damage an eta 2824-2 in a victorinox when I knocked it off my nightstand.

What would be really helpful is if a brand came up with a rating system that could one day be standardized. Your background Marc would be perfect. Like from NA - No Active use suggested, LA, Light activity only is suggested, all the way up to a RFA rating meaning Ready for Apocalypse level watch. Marc, this would really help all of us. Divers have ratings and most divers don't even make it to a swimming pool. Sports, exercise and more now that is a rating that would actually impact watch owners. Just a thought. I think whoever put a rating system together and had some standard tests even if started with one model only, it could offer a competitive advantage for the company as well as peace of mind for active watch lovers. Just a thought. Not sure you will even see this. If so and you like the idea, I would love to see you put it to use. You can do a video and ask customers if they would like to see an activity rating on watches and if they found it helpful. Take care.

Wow I really loved this video loved the review more people should send reviews like this it was so much fun to look at any way over all good video.

Here I was about to buy a Richard mille because it can withstand Phil Mickelson's golf swing. That was a close one.

Islander Watches are my new go to watch. I have high end Swiss watches, but end up everyday with my Islander. Seriously, reasonable prices. Great watches available US made movement or others up to Swiss.

wore my Speedy a few times through varying length trips, never an issue, other than once it had lost 4 whole minutes on a 10 min commute to work. but no long lasting damage at all.

What a fantastic video, so thank you for putting this up for everyone to see. It just highlights the amazing engineering behind current 'mechanical' automatic watch movements and Islander watches specifically. I just love your channels content and in particular your honesty, yes quartz watches have far less moving parts to sustain any damage then I'd bet/get a quartz/G-Shock movement, BUT then that's their specific design criteria, well all said and done?!

No way man! I used my seiko 5 to drive nails on my construction site and that POS failed after two nails! Trying my Gshock next 😎

Nice, same watch I'm wearing right now. Lume Monster FTW! Still wearing a G-Shock at work though.

I wear an automatic to work every day, and it gets absolutely beat to crap. It's close to 3 years old now, and while it's battered and scratched, it has only lost 25 seconds over 2 weeks! Seiko neo sports with a 4r inside.

i've been wearing my ISL-05 for years now (bought it soon after it was released) and it has survived literally everything i've thrown at it, including several hard knocks at work, i think the little knocks and scratches on the case give it character! despite it all the crystal and ceramic bezel still look as good as day one too, cheers mark!

Great video. I have never worn any of my mid-priced automatic Dive watches (Islander, Mido, Orient & Seiko) for outdoor activities, but seeing these test results I will probably start taking them to the golf course in place of my lower priced Quartz Seiko's & Wenger's.

Honestly, thank you for this! Fantastic idea and results!

hi, o am a huge fan of you asspecialy when it comes to seiko. My SARP 57K1 saved my life, when i lost my balance with glass in hand, the clasp protected my vein and saved me. i gave it to my father because i bought myself fitness tracker to lose some weight (: my dream watch is Sla 023 and i already have a half saved up!

Great video and very helpful information! Curious which movement is in this watch? I tried looking online and couldn't find the model. Thanks again!

It's so cool that you did this!!! I've always wondered the same thing and tend you wear my G-shock casioak while golfing/outdoorsing instead of a sports watch. Nice to know I can beat on it a little more!

Hey Mark, what about high intensity activities like shooting? I imagine the shockwaves and vibration to be more intense and localized than biking

My first wristwatch was a 1971 mechanical chronograph, which I used for timing my run workouts for several years until it starting running fast and the watchmaker quoted $250 to fix an $80 watch. Into a drawer it went. Quartz watches after that until 2019 when I bought an Orient Ray II. I have gotten so used to wearing Timex Ironman or Casio chronographs for athletic activities, that any watch over 50-60 grams seems obtrusive. Since my automatics are generally more expensive than my quartz watches, I switch to one of my digital quartz watches or my Citizen Promaster Tough for vigorous or dirty activities. I don’t coddle my five Islanders, but I want to keep them looking nice.

Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest wearing a Rolex. That's pretty good evidence for the toughness of a mechanical watch.

I like Certina with the reintroduction of their 1950's original DS concept. There you have additional shock protection between the case and movement, much like the module is protected in a G-shock.

Good loyd Mock, that is a heritage rich accent my friend 😂 All love man.

I wear my mechanical watches all the time. Lawn care, power tools, auto repair, operating my drill rig drilling wells, kayaking, fishing, hiking, golf and everything else. Still going strong.

Thanks for relaying a real world test 👍! I’m not sure all “dive style” watch movements would hold as well as the Seiko movement did, for some reason Orient states in their owners manual not to wear them when riding a motorcycle 🤔!? Now for a bit of my own experience 😉; I spent 30 years working in and around electrical transmission and distribution substations, early on I found the only mechanical watches that would hold up and maintain accuracy do to the “static charge” of being in the stations long term were ISO rated dive watches. (PS: I couldn’t afford a Milgauss🤪!)

Love your watches Mark that's my favorite watch and the first Islander that's on my wishlist

I have this exact Islander in addition to the Abalone version. I play drums just bout every day and I wear these watches when I play. So far they both hold up very well. No issues whatsoever. The white version I've had the longest. Its survived a lot of drumming for the course of over a year. -Shane Sugar Land, TX

Great video Mark, sometimes you get so many conflicting opinions on you tube with how you should treat auto watches, so it was good to see this.👍

The main reason I wear quartz (Casio Duro) is magnetic resistance. I study electrical engineering and work in all sorts of magnetic fields, and an omega is with a silicon balance spring is out of my price range.

Great to hear the Islander can take a licking and keep on …. Oh wait, that’s another watch. Anyways, great video. Thanks Marc! 👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸

GREAT VIDEO!! I can attest to the quality of my personal Islanders.

Good video. Very informative. Today's wrist check seemed to be absent.

Great video! Thanks, Marc!

For a couple years I only wore mechanical watches. I was in a skateboard accident and the watch was fine, but my wrist underneath was sprained for two weeks amongst other things, just generally got beat up

Great video on a great topic. I do have to say though, it sounds like Bill put in a hell of a lot of effort to provide a lot of video only to have about 10 seconds of his footage actually shown here. How about a longer compilation of his video? It'd be a good ad for Islander.

John Harrison, Mr. Longitude, would be proud. p.s. your GMT is one of the great watch offerings in terms of quality and price.

This islander model is very pretty. The black and white reminds me of the christopher ward.

This is an awesome episode! 👍

Love my ISL-HMBT-01 It's a beautiful piece, not a "misstep" anywhere in the watch! Oh, it also doesn't hurt that I was one of the 5 winners 😃 thanks for the opportunity to get a great watch for the cost of entering the giveaway!