New IWC pilot

[AlicW]

VERY good to know. Can you please explain what is disastrous when a factory "reroutes" the seconds to run @ 6:00 on the clone 7750? Is it simply a case of more frequent failures or is it something else? I'm probably not in the market for one of these due to the thickness, but curious about the running seconds issue. Thank you.

This issue is well documented here for the A7750 so a search will bring up tons of info, basically the ETA7750 and therefore the asian clones of that movement are designed for running seconds at 9. In order to transfer functionality to the 6 o'clock position requires extensive additional gears and drive train which was loading the movement with additional friction, this results in poor timekeeping, very low power reserve, failure of the seconds dial or entire movement in many cases.

It might just be me being cynical but there does appear to have been a move towards seconds at 6 by the brands who have been forced into making in house movements by the restriction of ETA movements. Its probably a way to differentiate the in house movement but it must be building a suitable mass of models that supports an asian Seconds at 6 chrono movement now

 

[Sagebrush]

This issue is well documented here for the A7750 so a search will bring up tons of info, basically the ETA7750 and therefore the asian clones of that movement are designed for running seconds at 9. In order to transfer functionality to the 6 o'clock position requires extensive additional gears and drive train which was loading the movement with additional friction, this results in poor timekeeping, very low power reserve, failure of the seconds dial or entire movement in many cases.

It might just be me being cynical but there does appear to have been a move towards seconds at 6 by the brands who have been forced into making in house movements by the restriction of ETA movements. Its probably a way to differentiate the in house movement but it must be building a suitable mass of models that supports an asian Seconds at 6 chrono movement now

Thank you. I was finding "beware!" type posts but wasn't able to quickly find an explanation as clearly stated as yours. I agree with you that it is surprising that this trend hasn't inspired the factories to develop a workhorse seconds @ 6 chrono calibre to ape the ValFluerier one that powers these Pilot chronos. I wonder if this one includes the antimagnetic iron cage as well.

 

[Teetertank]

VERY good to know. Can you please explain what is disastrous when a factory "reroutes" the seconds to run @ 6:00 on the clone 7750? Is it simply a case of more frequent failures or is it something else? I'm probably not in the market for one of these due to the thickness, but curious about the running seconds issue. Thank you.

Yes, more frequent failures I understand. Don't have one myself but to reroute the seconds at 6 requires additional parts, wheels and modifications to the base movement which impacts reliability of a movement which is already fairly complex due to chronograph function.