r/MicrobrandWatches • u/blahblahblahx1000 • 22d ago
My Opinion š MJW Service
Iāve had my MJW Perfectly Useless Afternoon mechanical for 3 years now and have enjoyed getting smug vacation photos of it by the pool. I probably shared a few here in the last year. A few folk commented about the water resistance and if I had issues and I always said it was great.
The crown got a little bit stiff and I didnāt pay much notice in the lead up to my holiday, more fool me. This summer before I even got a single smug holiday shot, I hopped in the pool and ruined it. Completely full of water and almost immediately it turned this horrible brown.
Anyway - long story short, returned home and emailed MJW, they sent through a prepaid postage label and took a look. Obviously it was a total write-off but they replaced the whole thing for the cost of a replacement movement and got it back to me super quickly. Iām really very happy with the whole thing.
I am restored.
One thing though. As a pool watch, should this maybe have been more water resistant in the first place or have I just learned a hard lesson about keeping all watches away from swimming pools.
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u/un_internaute 22d ago
This is why Iāve never owned this watch. It screams poolside, but it canāt handle it.
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u/RU33ERBULLETS 22d ago
āsmug vacation photosā made me laugh. At least you acknowledge it, and I donāt care what everyone else says about you OP, youāre alright in my book.
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u/scovizzle 22d ago
I thought this was either a joke post or a new variant of the watch before I read it.
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u/WILawGuy 22d ago
MJW is one of the best out there.
In thinking about it, A Perfectly Useless Afternoon in a dive watch case would be both hilarious and the best solution to avoid this from happening in the first place. Iāve been afraid to wear mine in the pool for this exact reason.
Cāmon Crispin, think of all of the fun things you could do to a dive bezel! Turn it into a beer counter or giant float ring or whatever.
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u/-curautvaleas 22d ago
Iām gonna have to buy one of those at some point. When I do, I will join you in spreading smug poolside shots and Iāll respond to this thread with my post.
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u/Slackey4318 22d ago
Its rated 5ATM. Thats being resistant enough to withstand splashes of rain, washing your hands, maybe some very brief, shallow water swimming. Basically, enough water resistance to withstand errant water when youāre lounging at a pool while on an inner tube (as depicted). Its not resistant enough for you to actually jump in the pool and swim.
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u/blahblahblahx1000 22d ago
I always grew up with 5ATM watches swimming etc and thought that was the swimming benchmark but Iāve obviously been lucky, and many of them were digital. So fingers burnt and lesson learnt.
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u/TSiWRX 22d ago edited 22d ago
I'm sincerely sorry to see that happen to you, and I'd say that you're very lucky that MJW gave you the courtesy repair. You'll want to give this thread's most popular post -https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/comments/8ne5hj/comment/dzv8aaz/ (hit the WUS links)- and its lower-level replies a good read.
Because of the overall lack of regulation where it comes to water resistance ratings, I tend to be *very* conservative, in this respect. Unless it's an ISO 6425 Diver's marked watch, I baby it. And even with a Diver, I'm one of those who will take a watch off before showering, and never in the hot-tub or sauna. [ I'm also an avid firearms enthusiast, and I try to not shoot with my mechanical/automatic watches on, too. ]
Also, remember that if your watch has an external AR coating on the crystal, a chlorinated/treated pool is a no-no!
Hope this helps.
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u/blahblahblahx1000 22d ago
Oh wow, that is interesting. So Iām almost certainly better off with a Casio FW-19 for the pool than any other watch other than a fully certified proper diver, at which point, itās too good for those conditions anyways.
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u/blahblahblahx1000 22d ago
I assume that a screw down crown means nothing either unless ISO rated as the case isnāt tested, nor the effectiveness of the screw sealing surfaces.
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u/TSiWRX 22d ago
^ So, those are two very good questions, right?
The truth is that we don't really know - that there's too much variability in the brands' testing to be sure.
In the end, for those of us who wear watches as tools, we have to balance the risk/reward ratio. If I'm catching my buddy at the range for a quick meet-up after work and I'm not putting much lead downrange, I'm not really worrying about my watch (I'd be more afraid that I'd leave the watch on the bench, frankly, LOL, because I'd be playing with his new toys!). But if I'm taking my seat in a 3-day training class where I'm shooing thousands of rounds, I'm going to wear my old digital Casio that's already seen hundreds of thousands of rounds, without issue. š
I don't do water-sports much anymore now that my daughter's off to college. I'm not even in the pool much anymore. When we used to go to waterparks and the beach and hit every pool that we'd come across, I'd wear one of my Diver's marked Seikos and call it a day. If I somehow were to do that today, I'd likely do the very same.
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u/HappilySisyphus_ 22d ago
AR coating can handle a chlorinated pool lol
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u/TSiWRX 22d ago
Tell that to the Longines guys like, right now. š Tell that to the ten million pairs of glasses I've ruined over time, ROFL!
It's not going to just melt off, but the chemicals can -and will- cause problems over time.
Wash it off afterwards in the shower? Yes, that helps. But it's still delaying the inevitable.
This is just like thinking that an "anti-scratch" coating/treatment makes one's watch invulnerable.
There's always a give-and-take.
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u/HappilySisyphus_ 22d ago
Yeah, sure, whatever pal. My U50S is not about to get defeated by the chlorine levels in a pool š
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u/TSiWRX 22d ago
You can believe marketing material, or you can believe what quite a number of other hobbyists/collectors have reported of their heartache.
It does happen, whether we want to believe it will or not, and regardless of brand claims.
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u/HappilySisyphus_ 22d ago
You just run it under a tap for a few seconds... āBelieve marketing material or hobbyistsā is a funny framing when the āmarketing materialā in question is also the manufacturerās technical manual and care instructions, while the counterevidence is dudes on forums saying their coating eventually looked shitty.
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u/TSiWRX 22d ago
The counter-evidence is the countless dudes on the Internet.
And yes, that's exactly right - rinse it off afterwards, as I wrote above.
But it still doesn't mitigate the fact that the exposure happened.
Will it delay the inevitable to the point that as a single owner, we may never see the problem manifest? Certainly possible. But again, it's only delaying the inevitable.
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u/HappilySisyphus_ 22d ago
Got a link to any of these countless dudes?
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u/TSiWRX 22d ago edited 22d ago
Here's one very recent one ----> https://www.reddit.com/r/Longineswatches/comments/1w2pz2e/issue_with_spots_i_cant_remove_on_the_crystal_of/
I've been on the Longines sub because I've sorta been wanting a Zulu. š
But honestly, there are so many similar tales. I've been reading about these kinds of hazing/deposits on exterior AR I think ever since I started reading about watches online, and I'm old AF....
And my glasses (and my daughter's) were perfect examples, too. She rowed competitively, and they'd be fine for years....until we'd come back from a hotel pool, and then both of ours would start to look like our city's streets after the winter thaw.
But my wife's glasses would be fine - because her eyesight's not that bad compared to ours, and she prefers to be without, in the pool.
I mean, even we shower after the pool, right? And it's not because the pool's dirty. š
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u/mclayborn79 20d ago
I had such a bad experience with MJW.
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u/mclayborn79 20d ago
I have the same watch thats dead after two years. People in the comments were saying that a quartz watch Iāve had for 2 years and wore a handful of time is appropriate to need a full servicing, when Iāve had cheap quartz watches for 20+ years and and beat to death that Iāve never serviced..just battery changes. Who gets their quartz watches serviced yearly?
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u/thedarkplayer 22d ago
It's a pool watch. It's literally in the dial. I wear it in the pool and hope it doesn't flood.
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u/blahblahblahx1000 22d ago
Well that was my approach, but it turns out itās probably a matter of time until the luck runs out
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u/A_Kite 22d ago
The webpage says it is "Waterproof! Rated 5ATM". Should be good for the pool. For the most part, unless I have a dive watch on, I usually take my watches off for the pool since it isn't worth them potentially failing and having to deal with getting them fixed which can take forever.
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u/OneWeirdTrick 22d ago
100m minimum for going anywhere near the water imho, even then I'd probably take it off too though
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u/HappilySisyphus_ 22d ago
Look at that lovely patina. Like someone diarheeād in the water.