Briefly, yes. Properly, no.
Rain is fine. Being caught in a downpour is fine. Washing your hands with the watch on is usually fine. Take it off before you shower, before you wash up, and before you swim. A wooden watch is splash-proof. It is not a swimming watch, and it is not a washing-up watch.
That is the whole answer. The rest is what "splash-proof" means in a day, what water actually does, and what to do if it does get soaked.
What splash-proof means
Splash-proof means the watch can take the water a wrist meets without trying: rain, a splash at the tap, a wet sleeve. It does not mean the seals are built for being under water, or for standing in steam, or for hot soapy water.
Four situations, because they are not the same.
Rain. Wear it. Pat it dry when you come in if it is properly wet. Do not put it on a radiator to finish the job.
Hands under a tap. A few seconds is a splash. Holding the watch in the stream while you wash, or leaving the crown sitting in the basin, is not.
Shower, bath, sauna. Take it off. Steam is humidity, and a bathroom swings from very wet to very dry several times a day. That swing is hard on wood even when the watch never goes under the water.
Swimming, the pool, the sea, washing up. Take it off first. Every time. Hot soapy washing-up water is the common one people forget, and it is as bad as a swim: heat, water, and detergent together.
Why wood and water do not get on
Wood is porous. A wooden case is finished and sealed, which is why a splash sits on the surface and wipes off. Prolonged soaking is different. Water that stays on the wood can swell the case or dull the finish, and swelling does not reverse. Pale woods show that change more clearly than dark ones. The mark is usually colour and shape, not a crack, unless the watch is then dried with heat.
The movement is the actual risk. Water that gets past the caseback or the crown is what stops a watch. That is true of a metal watch too, but a wooden watch is only sealed for splashes, so the margin is smaller.
Salt water and chlorinated water are worse than rain because they leave a residue. If a watch does go in the sea or a pool, the rinse-and-dry advice below matters more, not less.
None of this is a reason to treat the watch as fragile on a dry day. It is a reason to take it off for the things you already take a leather strap off for.
Automatic or quartz, the water rule is the same
RIVERSTONE and WOODHAVEN are automatic. They have no battery. They still are not for swimming. No battery does not mean no seals, and it does not mean the wood likes water.
BARREL and the rest of the range are quartz, Barrel on a Seiko VD51, the others on Miyota. Quartz watches have a battery inside the case. Water in that compartment is how a watch that was fine on Friday is not fine on Monday.
The product page names the movement. The water rule does not change with it.
The strap is not the case
SCOUT wears a nylon strap, so the strap itself dries. The case is still wood. Scout is no more of a swimming watch than a wooden-bracelet one.
On a wooden bracelet, water can sit in the links. After a soaking, open the bracelet so air reaches the caseback. Do not wear it wet against the skin for the rest of the day.
If it does get soaked
- Take it off.
- Pat it dry with a soft cloth. Get into the links and around the crown.
- Leave it at room temperature, bracelet open, until it is dry on its own. That can take a day.
- Do not use a radiator, a hairdryer, an airing cupboard or a sunny windowsill. Forcing the water out fast is what causes splitting.
- Do not wear it again until the case feels dry, not just the glass.
If it went under, especially with the crown pulled out, tell us rather than guessing. We will not promise to save a drowned watch. We will tell you honestly what is worth trying.
A wooden watch that got rained on does not need any of this beyond a wipe. Save the drying-out for a real soaking.
What Forest claims, and what it does not
Forest watches are splash-proof, not for swimming. That is the line on product care, and it is the line here.
We do not print an ATM rating on this article. Where a watch has no supplier rating we can stand behind, splash-proof is the honest default. "Waterproof" is the word that gets people into trouble, and we do not use it.
The two-year warranty covers manufacturing defects. The 90-day return, prepaid label, still applies if the watch is not right, including if it is engraved. Neither of those is a reason to swim in it.
The rest of looking after it
Water is one of the things that end a wooden watch early. Heat is another. On a quartz watch, a spent battery left sitting in the case is a third. How long the watch lasts, and what fails first, is a separate question: How long does a wooden watch last, and what fails first.
The everyday routine is short and lives on the product care page: wipe, don't wash; splashes yes, swimming no; keep it out of the heat. The older care article, How to care for your wooden watch, covers the same ground as a list of tips.
If you want the trade-off against metal, that is are wooden watches any good. Metal wins on water. Wood wins on weight, warmth and the fact that no two cases look the same. Neither is the right watch for every day of a life. For a day that includes a swim, take the wooden one off.
