Apple officially states that the Apple Watch is water resistant with a rating of IPX7, which means the watch can be submerged at depths up to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, has said in the past that he showers with his Apple Watch on, but the FoneFox team wanted to see if the device could survive for even longer, and at greater depths.
FoneFox began their test by seeing how the Apple Watch handled a typical shower spray.
The Apple Watch remained responsive and functional after short and long bursts of water, and continued to function normally after being exposed to an entire shower with soap and shampoo.
Next, they submerged the Apple Watch in a bucket of water and let it sit there for five minutes. Again, nothing happened, and everything continued to work perfectly.
Testing the Apple Watch within a pool was next, the FoneFox team took the watch for a 5-minute swim to see how it functions when submerged entirely underwater.
It turns out the capacitive touch screen doesn't work underwater, but everything else still functions, including the Digital Crown, which was able to be used to zoom in and out of apps.
Next, they left the Apple Watch on the bottom of a pool that's 1.2 meters deep for five minutes, again finding that everything continued to function just fine.
With a total of 15 minutes submerged and no observed loss of functionality, the Fone Fox team concluded that the Apple Watch appears to justify its IPX7 water-resistant rating. While Apple might not recommend you take the device swimming, you'll likely find it can survive normal use underwater at conservative depths.
You can watch the entire series of tests in the video below.