Discussion
I'm amazed ...
The Omega PO is a Chronometer watch, which roughly means the watch has to be accurate within +6/-4 seconds everyday. Over the course of 30 days the PO could be +180/-120 seconds out and still be within the Chronometer tolerance levels. I have heard of other Chronometer watches that can gain/lose silly amounts of time, although that can be due to faults with the watch or the need for a service.
However ... I set my PO 30 days ago to the time that is displayed on this website: http://www.jewellerycatalogue.co.uk/time/index.php
It hasn't changed at all! +0/-0sec over a month!
I'm bloody impressed to say the least! I'm wondering if there is a battery inside and the rotor has been left unconnected 
How accurate are your watches? Is the above fairly common? What makes a watch less accurate?
The Omega PO is a Chronometer watch, which roughly means the watch has to be accurate within +6/-4 seconds everyday. Over the course of 30 days the PO could be +180/-120 seconds out and still be within the Chronometer tolerance levels. I have heard of other Chronometer watches that can gain/lose silly amounts of time, although that can be due to faults with the watch or the need for a service.
However ... I set my PO 30 days ago to the time that is displayed on this website: http://www.jewellerycatalogue.co.uk/time/index.php
It hasn't changed at all! +0/-0sec over a month!
I'm bloody impressed to say the least! I'm wondering if there is a battery inside and the rotor has been left unconnected How accurate are your watches? Is the above fairly common? What makes a watch less accurate?
Ikemi said:
What makes a watch less accurate?
Letting the mainspring run down too much or wound too tight, so the torque produced falls outside the narrow range the watch is optimised for; shocks and accelerations (constant acceleration in one direction will alter the resonance of the system); gravity i.e. position of the watch - watches are corrected for position, but a wristwatch is expected to be in certain positions more than others due to the geometry of the human arm - leaving a watch in a weird position for long periods of time may cause it to run suboptimally; magnetic fields (watches tend to try to use non-magnetic materials, and there are watches with magnetic shielding such as many Sinns and the Rolex Milgauss, but big magnets can easily surpass 1000 Gauss (the origin of the name 'milgauss') so I wouldn't want to be wearing even a Rolex if I was working on the Large Hadron Collider, which has rather serious superconducting electromagnets); temperature (I wore my Daytona skiing one year and it totally screwed the timekeeping up, which returned to normal when I got home, fortunately).E24man said:
I have a 10 year old Raymond Weil Tango (Quartz)
Quartz doesn't count Ikemi said:
What makes a watch less accurate?
All sorts of things can make a watch less accurate as mentioned, I like to think of it as what makes a watch more accurate. I found this some time ago over on the watchseek forums, It a bit of a pain to link to watchseek so I'll quote. veliciphile on watchseek said:
Many thanks to Eva at Glycine.
Despite a solid caseback, Glycine go the trouble to provide their ETA movement in Elaboré spec. You won't see the decoration, but the movement is regulated to a tighter tolerance than the Standard ETA movement.
ETA movements often come in four flavours. It is important to know what you're getting as most manufacturers don't widely make it known to you which they're using. Some are more equal than others so to speak. The four flavours are Standard, Elaboré, Top and Chronomètre.
Standard and Elaboré have precisely the same components. Elaboré is regulated in three positions to tighter tolerance (see below) than the standard version which is regulated in two positions. The three positions are: dial up, 6H and 9H. Note that this is thus mostly acceptable for a watch worn on the left wrist! Regulation at 9H is not performed for the standard grade.
Top and Chronomètre have precisely the same components and are regulated in five positions (6h, 3H, 9H, FH dial down and CH dial up). Components different to Standard and Elaboré are at least as follows: Balance, balance spring, regulator, shock mounting.
Typical popular ETA movement standards:
Standard (regulated in two positions)
Mean daily rate +/- 12 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 30 s
Isochronism (rate after 24H running compared to full wind): +/- 20 s/d
Elaboré (regulated in three positions)
Mean daily rate +/- 7 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 20 s
Isochronism: +/- 15 s/d
Top (regulated in five positions)
Mean daily rate +/- 4 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 15 s
Isochronism: +/- 10 s/d
Chronomètre Version to COSC specification.
I'm not really an accuracy freak up to a minute either way is OK with me but I've only ever adjusted mine when there have been 30 days in the month so it's certainly been within a minute a month which I'm very happy with I wear my watch 24/7 so storage orientation isn't an issue. Despite a solid caseback, Glycine go the trouble to provide their ETA movement in Elaboré spec. You won't see the decoration, but the movement is regulated to a tighter tolerance than the Standard ETA movement.
ETA movements often come in four flavours. It is important to know what you're getting as most manufacturers don't widely make it known to you which they're using. Some are more equal than others so to speak. The four flavours are Standard, Elaboré, Top and Chronomètre.
Standard and Elaboré have precisely the same components. Elaboré is regulated in three positions to tighter tolerance (see below) than the standard version which is regulated in two positions. The three positions are: dial up, 6H and 9H. Note that this is thus mostly acceptable for a watch worn on the left wrist! Regulation at 9H is not performed for the standard grade.
Top and Chronomètre have precisely the same components and are regulated in five positions (6h, 3H, 9H, FH dial down and CH dial up). Components different to Standard and Elaboré are at least as follows: Balance, balance spring, regulator, shock mounting.
Typical popular ETA movement standards:
Standard (regulated in two positions)
Mean daily rate +/- 12 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 30 s
Isochronism (rate after 24H running compared to full wind): +/- 20 s/d
Elaboré (regulated in three positions)
Mean daily rate +/- 7 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 20 s
Isochronism: +/- 15 s/d
Top (regulated in five positions)
Mean daily rate +/- 4 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 15 s
Isochronism: +/- 10 s/d
Chronomètre Version to COSC specification.
I have a Glycine Airman 2000 which I believe has an ETA 2893-2 in elaboré state and very pleased with it I am too.
Gassing Station | Watches | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff