: I know that the ISO standard is based on the
: simulation of the shock received by a watch
: on falling accidentally from a height of 1
: meter on to a horizontal hardwood surface.
If my calculus and physics are correct, the watch would be falling at a rate of 4.41 meters per second (about 14.55 feet per second) just before impact with the hardwood surface. Since I am not a golfer, I don't know exactly how quickly someone can swing a club. However, for argument's sake, let's say someone is wearing a loose watch that flies off as the club is swung. The watch would have to fly 14.55 feet in a straight line in one second and impact a hardwood surface to meet the ISO test criteria. Would this ever really happen during a round of golf? I cannot imagine such a scenario because the arm movement during a swing would cause the watch to fly off in a (most likely) upward trajectory which would lower its velocity substantially.
Also, for argument's sake, let's say the watch stays on the wrist throughout the golfer's powerful swing. If the watch is tightly secured to the golfer's wrist and he swings the club fast enough to theoretically launch the watch 14.55 feet per second, what exactly is the watch impacting? If it is tightly secured to the wrist, it isn't impacting anything, it is remaining stationary. It is the ARM that is moving, NOT the watch. If it is a loose fitting watch, it is impacting the golfer's wrist as it wiggles around during the swing. Obviously, the wrist is far more resilient than a hardwood surface (skin, tissue, blood and bone are far softer and would absorb more shock than a piece of hard wood). Essentially, the wood would transfer more of the energy at impact back to the watch since it is too hard to absorb this energy, thus causing more "shock" damage to the watch than an impact with one's wrist.
So, just thinking about this in terms of simple physics, I can't see how a golf swing could do more damage to a watch than the ISO test. Then again, the first rule of science is that if an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
