Omega Accuracy?
Discussion
I have an 'Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra >15,000 Gauss' which I bought new in May 2015. It has already been back under warranty in March this year because the hour hand came out of alignment so that it wasn't pointing at the hour baton on the hour. When it came back it was fine and was only gaining 2 seconds a day. It's now gaining 11 seconds a day and is going back again to be regulated. 11 seconds a day is nigh on 6 minutes a month which irritates me. Maybe I'm just too fussy? It's not what I expected from a £4K watch! What sort of accuracy do you get from your Omega?
UnclePat said:
No, you're not being fussy - that doesn't seem quite right.
Do you wear the watch a lot/daily? I only ask because the watch will be at optimal accuracy at full wind/power reserve. At low reserve, watches tend to speed up, which might explain the fast running. Lots of people aren't quite active enough to maintain a full reserve through rotor auto-winding alone. I really doubt that's the reason though, especially as you wear it at night, but if you hand-wind it fully daily and it still remains that fast, then you'll know it's an issue with the movement.
I also presume you're using an accurate time source to check the deviance? Something like time.is would work. The clock on Computers, mobile phones etc. isn't good enough, as it periodically updates via signal, and thus changes.
Magnetism would also cause a watch to run fast, but given this is a 15,000 Gauss watch, it obviously cannot be that.
It's also worth noting that the -4/+6 COSC deviance is the AVERAGE daily rate over 10 days - a COSC watch is perfectly capable of being +11 secs on one day and still being within spec. In fact, the daily rate can be +/- 10 secs from the average daily rate.
Having said that, it still sounds wrong - I've had non-COSC ETA movements that are easily less than +/-1 sec daily. Co-axial movements require just the right amount of exact lubrication, otherwise they can be problematic.
Thanks for the reply. I wear the watch all the time apart from 10 minutes a day when I shower as it currently has a leather strap on it. Do you wear the watch a lot/daily? I only ask because the watch will be at optimal accuracy at full wind/power reserve. At low reserve, watches tend to speed up, which might explain the fast running. Lots of people aren't quite active enough to maintain a full reserve through rotor auto-winding alone. I really doubt that's the reason though, especially as you wear it at night, but if you hand-wind it fully daily and it still remains that fast, then you'll know it's an issue with the movement.
I also presume you're using an accurate time source to check the deviance? Something like time.is would work. The clock on Computers, mobile phones etc. isn't good enough, as it periodically updates via signal, and thus changes.
Magnetism would also cause a watch to run fast, but given this is a 15,000 Gauss watch, it obviously cannot be that.
It's also worth noting that the -4/+6 COSC deviance is the AVERAGE daily rate over 10 days - a COSC watch is perfectly capable of being +11 secs on one day and still being within spec. In fact, the daily rate can be +/- 10 secs from the average daily rate.
Having said that, it still sounds wrong - I've had non-COSC ETA movements that are easily less than +/-1 sec daily. Co-axial movements require just the right amount of exact lubrication, otherwise they can be problematic.
I use a radio controlled clock to check it. I know this is correct as I checked it against the BBC time signal and it only updates during the night.
Omega tell me the tolerance is -1/+6 for my movement and seem happy to take it in at their cost to fix it without any additional dialogue.
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