how resistant is an Apple Watch to seawater?

Question

how resistant is an Apple Watch to seawater?

I have been using Apple Watches for the past 6 or 7 yeas, series models or SE models, never an ultra model yet; I wear it when I go surfing or swimming open water. I love the watch can track my workouts and give me lots of data points although I didn't have one watch that lasted more than a year or so. I take great care of them, I rinse them just as I get out of the sea and most of the time I have protection cases on them. It's not enough. Something always ends up failing around the 12th to 16th month; microphone, touch screen, barometer, speaker. They are just not strong enough to survive regular usage in salty water. Fortunately I always got good service and warranty coverage... Does this happens to anyone else?

Posted on Sep 3, 2025 07:18 AM

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Answer 1

Ingo2711

Level 9

77,823 points

Sep 4, 2025 12:37 AM in response to marenlasvenas

If things like speaker, microphone and barometer are failing, I think, this is also caused by the "high-velocity" water, as Apple mentions this in the related article.

In my opinion, if you are surfing and swimming in the ocean, the Ultra is the watch to use.

I'm only swimming in the ocean during my holidays with my Ultra 2, but it is also covered by Apple Care+, just in case.

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Answer 2

Sep 4, 2025 01:08 AM in response to Ingo2711

Thanks for sharing Ingo! yeh... that may be right.. but also consider that the Apple Watch was advertised as surf watch way before the ultra came out, and also.. is not like I surf Nazaré... surfing small waves is not really a high-velocity sport like jet skis.. In any case, I guess the Ultra should resist it better...

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