zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

The 5000 G force referred to is an instantaneous SHOCK or impact load, and has NOTHING to do with the speed that you turn a steering wheel on any type of equipment. The maximum G force that a human being can withstand (with special training, no less) is 9 G's in fighter aircraft like the F-14 or F-16. At that point the weight of the blood in your body is 9 times as much as usual, and it can't flow up to your head anymore.

Also at 9 G's, a two hundred pound man has 1800 pounds of force weighing down his body, and can barely move.

I doubt that driving a piece of equipment with a steering wheel 8 hours a day would even generate 2 G's of force, and if it got to that I would think your arm would fatigue long before you could exert enough load on your watch to do anything. One of the Omega ambassadors also happens to be Michael Schmacher, and I'm sure what his watch goes through in the 24 hours at Le Mans is WAAAYYY worse than 8 hours on an earth mover.

The 5000 G rating is derived from a drop of a certain height (perhaps one foot or one meter) onto different surfaces, such as wood, cement, or something really hard like ceramic tile. The harder the surface, the higher the instantaneous G load, which is only acting on the watch for a few thousandths of a second.