How accurate should mechanical watch be?
Discussion
scarecrow1966 said:
similar question here regarding a two year Seiko Monster with the movement that you can manually wind as well (i know the movement has a specific number but no idea what it is). it has always lost about 30 seconds and i am tempted to buy myself one of little spanners to open it up and see if i can get that down a little.
any views, is it worth a fiddle based on 30secs a day or is this about as good as i should expect. if i could get it to within 10 secs a day then i would be happy, am i being realistic.
That's not good for a Seiko. Iirc their spec always used to be -20 / +30 seconds per day but if they're outside -0 / +15 then they can almost always be improved considerably by regulation.any views, is it worth a fiddle based on 30secs a day or is this about as good as i should expect. if i could get it to within 10 secs a day then i would be happy, am i being realistic.
If you do decide to have a play:
- take plenty of time to read up on what you're doing
- make sure you're moving the right adjuster. There are several sites and videos out there showing the stud holder / beat adjuster being moved to regulate - this is WRONG!!!!!!
- make adjustments carefully. If possible use magnification (even a pair of those cheap £ shop reading glasses will be better than nothing) You're playing around the most delicate part in there and one slip is honestly all it takes to wreck a hairspring or break balance pivots.
- be methodical and make small adjustments at a time. 30 s/day can be a barely visible movement of the regulator on some watches. There's no hard & fast rule because even different examples of the same movement can react differently but slow and steady is the way to go unless you have a timing machine and a lot of experience.
Variomatic said:
That's not good for a Seiko. Iirc their spec always used to be -20 / +30 seconds per day but if they're outside -0 / +15 then they can almost always be improved considerably by regulation.
If you do decide to have a play:
thanks for your advice. as one who likes to fiddle with stuff i think i will give it a go. it is an excuse to buy a few tools if nothing else.If you do decide to have a play:
- take plenty of time to read up on what you're doing
- make sure you're moving the right adjuster. There are several sites and videos out there showing the stud holder / beat adjuster being moved to regulate - this is WRONG!!!!!!
- make adjustments carefully. If possible use magnification (even a pair of those cheap £ shop reading glasses will be better than nothing) You're playing around the most delicate part in there and one slip is honestly all it takes to wreck a hairspring or break balance pivots.
- be methodical and make small adjustments at a time. 30 s/day can be a barely visible movement of the regulator on some watches. There's no hard & fast rule because even different examples of the same movement can react differently but slow and steady is the way to go unless you have a timing machine and a lot of experience.
Go for it. It's not rocket science (then again, neither's rocket science to a rocket scientist 
). Just tale it carefully and note what you've done so you can put it back if needed.
As for tools, be careful. A bloke can never have too many tools untilbhe runs out of space to keep them. With small tools like watch stuff that come to a LOT of tools!
). Just tale it carefully and note what you've done so you can put it back if needed.As for tools, be careful. A bloke can never have too many tools untilbhe runs out of space to keep them. With small tools like watch stuff that come to a LOT of tools!
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