Last time I played, a week or so ago, I was attacked by a zombie. I killed it but I noticed that it had reduced my pristine black motorcycle helmet's wear rating to "damaged".
Today, when I logged in I double checked my gear to remind myself what I had and sure enough my helmet was still "damaged" - time to find a new one. I was just north of Cherno.
I got to Stary and was attacked again by a zombie who managed to hit me. After killing it I immediately checked my gear, thinking that it could've been damaged even more (badly damaged or ruined)... but to my surprise it was "pristine" again!?
Apologies for the essay but there was nothing that stuck out that I could imagine would cause this to happen. At no point did I remove it... although I just remembered that at one point I swapped my pants for another pair, both were pristine. Maybe that?
I was on a 3PP:OFF server. The server reset while I was playing.