Should I be worried about my A7750 GMT

[Drulee]

Sorry crossed lines there Dru, I meant on the watch they were originally on. Has the watch you've been having the current problems with calmed down yet?

Sort of, it gains just under two minutes in a 24 hour period, where as before it did this in a 12 hour period. This difference was a result of following your suggestion and aiming a couple of puffs of air into the balance assembly. Did I mention that once when it stopped (same day as my previous update), and wouldn't start up again by tapping the case, I got it going again with a puff of air aimed at the same assembly?

Since my last post about its status, and since the time I had to restart it with a puff of air, it has been running without any other problems. I wanted to make sure that the hour and minute hands functioned normally and that no other problem arose before making any adjustments to the timing. So that is my next step, which I will do this evening.

One important (I believe) note, when I opened up the case to blow some air at the balance assembly I saw that the member I had given it to switch movements (he said he had a lot of experience with DSN watches) had over greased/lubed the gasket. As well, there where what looked like many tiny carpet fibers stuck to the silicon. So I think it is safe to think that there may be other particles within the case I am going to attempt to wipe off the excess lube and blow out any dust, particles or fibers.

Any tips are welcomed. Plus, if you think it may be helpful I can take some macro shots of the inside.

 

[d4m.test]

I dont think any of us "at home modders" have clean rooms... But having carpet fibers in the gasket grease is a little odd. I could easily see how it happens, as I often am picking parts off the carpet... But they are always thoroughly cleaned before assembly again.
Hell, I think if I found a decent magnet to use, I could probably build a watch with the parts in my office's carpet!
Im really glad it has worked out for you and you can now adjust it to be accurate!!!!

 

[Drulee]

I dont think any of us "at home modders" have clean rooms... But having carpet fibers in the gasket grease is a little odd. I could easily see how it happens, as I often am picking parts off the carpet... But they are always thoroughly cleaned before assembly again.
Hell, I think if I found a decent magnet to use, I could probably build a watch with the parts in my office's carpet!
Im really glad it has worked out for you and you can now adjust it to be accurate!!!!

Maybe "carpet fibers" is too harsh a description I will try and take a pic later that will hopefully show what I'm talking about. I'm not criticizing the guy or anything, just didn't expect to see that much lube and the fibers attached to it. Otherwise I'm happy with the movement swap - especially since it seems to have fixed the problem on the other movement - hour and minute hands stopped advancing usually between 5 and 7, but GMT and seconds hand kept going.

 

[Drulee]

Alright before I "push the lever" to regulate this thing, just one question. Does it matter if the watch is still running or should I pull the stem out to stop it?

EDIT: never mind, I found the answer, the stem should be pulled out

 

[Drulee]

UPDATE

Well, I cleaned out the inside of the case a bit. Wiped off the excess silicon and any "carpet fiber" I could find. I then pushed the adjustment lever a couple of mm CCW, then a fraction of a mm CW. Gave the crown 10 turns (still not sure why ), shook it for a bit, then pulled the stem out when the seconds hand hit 12. It has been 12 hours since I set the time to my computer's clock and the movement has only lost 15 seconds, a lot better than the original 2 minutes

I'm leaving it for another couple of days (shaking it at irregular intervals - time to get one of those winders), to see how things go. If it looks like it will lose more than 20 seconds a day, I'll try re-adjusting, any less and I won't bother - perhaps at a later date.

I just want to thank everyone who posted here, especially sconehead and cbr. sconehead, I'm fairly certain that some debris got stuck in the spring and that my few blasts of air knocked it out - just hope it doesn't come back to screw things up again.

 

[d4m.test]

Congrats buddy!!! 15 seconds is acceptable, but let it sit for a few days and then make another adjustment! If at all possible, get it to run a few seconds fast. Then every few days all you need to do is hack it for a few seconds and your back to zero!
In any event, congrats!!!

 

[Drulee]

Remember, that was 15 secs in 12 hours Thanks.

Good advice about the "hack" adjustment method, though, sure would save a lot of time setting things again.

 

[d4m.test]

AHHHH, I misread... 30 sec per day is a bit much... Get it all done at once! Get it to +0-10 sec per 24hrs and be happy!

 

[DonBrizzel]

I am not all too worried about exact times with my watches. If it is off by 5 minutes every day, that's good enough for me. I have nothing in my life that warrants needing exact time to be kept. So at the end of the week, if the watch is off by a few minutes, just re-adjust and call it a day.

However, I can understand the frustration. When I was in my teens, my Mom took me out to the mall to buy me a watch. My family did not grow up with a lot of money, and when my mother took me to the store for a birthday present, all I wanted was a nice stylish watch. I had 200$ to spend, and was excited because I never had that much before for a birthday gift. I ended up buying a 198$ fossil after taxes. Got it home and then waited for a week to be able to get it after my birthday dinner. Got it that night and couldn't have been more excited, but noticed one thing. I set the time that night Mom bought it before I had to give it up and when I opened it on my birthday, it was 2 hours off. My first thought was that it had a bad battery and took it to the watch shop to get it replaced. The watch smith then told me that the watch was manufactured wrong and that it would always lose about 2 hours every 5 days. We tried to take the watch back to where we bought it, and they wouldn't take it back because we had the case opened up. Total bummer. So my Mom basically spent 200 bucks on a paperweight. I was bummed for a while, not because the watch was bad, but because of my Mom's loss.

-DJ

 

[Drulee]

I am not all too worried about exact times with my watches. If it is off by 5 minutes every day, that's good enough for me. I have nothing in my life that warrants needing exact time to be kept. So at the end of the week, if the watch is off by a few minutes, just re-adjust and call it a day.

However, I can understand the frustration. When I was in my teens, my Mom took me out to the mall to buy me a watch. My family did not grow up with a lot of money, and when my mother took me to the store for a birthday present, all I wanted was a nice stylish watch. I had 200$ to spend, and was excited because I never had that much before for a birthday gift. I ended up buying a 198$ fossil after taxes. Got it home and then waited for a week to be able to get it after my birthday dinner. Got it that night and couldn't have been more excited, but noticed one thing. I set the time that night Mom bought it before I had to give it up and when I opened it on my birthday, it was 2 hours off. My first thought was that it had a bad battery and took it to the watch shop to get it replaced. The watch smith then told me that the watch was manufactured wrong and that it would always lose about 2 hours every 5 days. We tried to take the watch back to where we bought it, and they wouldn't take it back because we had the case opened up. Total bummer. So my Mom basically spent 200 bucks on a paperweight. I was bummed for a while, not because the watch was bad, but because of my Mom's loss.

-DJ

As I live in the city and don't drive myself, as I would like to stay out of jail - road rage, not drinking and driving - I use mass transit a lot. It is actually a lot faster than taking the car. So when it comes to catching a bus on time, or just missing it and having to wait half an hour for the next one, having a watch which is accurate to within 30 seconds is quite useful.

 

[DonBrizzel]

Well that is actually a pretty good reason to have a pretty accurate watch

Forgive me sir. Wasn't trying to poke at you at all, just curious as to why people would need a watch to be that accurate.

-DJ

 

[Drulee]

Well that is actually a pretty good reason to have a pretty accurate watch

Forgive me sir. Wasn't trying to poke at you at all, just curious as to why people would need a watch to be that accurate.

-DJ

Oh, no offense taken And I was just giving you one reason to have an accurate watch I just hate waiting, when I don't have to.

 

[DonBrizzel]

I hear ya. I would hate to have to wait an extra 15 minutes for public transportation when its pouring down rain or 15 degrees outside.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you!

-DJ

 

[Drulee]

I hear ya. I would hate to have to wait an extra 15 minutes for public transportation when its pouring down rain or 15 degrees outside.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you!

-DJ

Like I said, I hate waiting - so if I miss a bus, it's taxi time

It's running about 20 secs slow now, so I'm going to adjust one more time...

 

[sconehead]

Good to hear alls going well Dru. One final bit of advice though. When I regulate my watches I always wear them, after all, you want it to be as accurate as possible while it's ON the wrist during your everyday activities, so regulating and wearing it at the same time makes sense to me... :wink:

 

[Drulee]

Good to hear alls going well Dru. One final bit of advice though. When I regulate my watches I always wear them, after all, you want it to be as accurate as possible while it's ON the wrist during your everyday activities, so regulating and wearing it at the same time makes sense to me... :wink:

I have actually been wearing it on and off all week, to at least keep it wound and check its accuracy. All my other PAMs are feeling neglected though Plus I've got two coming back from Rex and another two in Ziggy's hands, so once they have returned I don't how much wrist time the 088 will get Actually it is one of my favourites, for the moment.