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Your watch is slow...REALLY?

artsyguy

Active Member
15/1/11
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I've seen a ton of statements that people say their watch "looses" 4 secs a day or "picks up" 9 secs a day, or some similar statements. My question is, how do they know that? I mean, I get up in the morning and select a watch and put it on. The time seems to be correct and a few seconds here or there never enters into the equation since I'm not keeping time at an F1 race.

So what's the deal and how do I measure accuracy?

Cohibas and cocktails,
Artsyguy
 

JC7

Respected Member
15/6/10
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I hadn't seen to many users say that they're losing "4 seconds" a day unless they just went to the watchsmith and had it regulated, and in that case they may be bragging.

If you really want to test it then set it by the time on your; pc, phone, atomic clock and recheck after 24 hours or buy a timing machine.
 

slimslim

I'm Pretty Popular
18/9/10
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i care about minutes a day. but i'm really not that picky. a minute or two a week and i'm fine with that :)
 

colt45gto

Renowned Member
22/12/10
769
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my dj was gaining 20 mins per week, hopefully when it comes back it should keep pretty good time. but if you consider a watch being out +/- 20 secs a day in the long run the watch time will be out by many minutes.

according to my ws the cheaper china movements will be out regardless but i put the question to him because he said or aimed this at my watch in the beginning, it maybe a swiss ETA in there what then? , he doubted that china would put a swiss ETA in a copy and then he opened the case and ate his hat. he then went on to say it probably needs demagnatizing and servicing then setting up. so i left the watch in his capable hands.

but yes a few seconds here and there could be the difference between the right time at the end of the week or a good 1/2 hour out. which isn't good for what appears to be an expensive watch.

hope this helps :)
 

Bonesey

Mythical Poster
Advisor
15/1/11
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If you've got a rep watch running as well as within COSC specs then you're definately on to a winner.
 

AHX

Renowned Member
3/12/10
783
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I do this, I know my Milgauss is +6s/d, on the edge of COSC regulations, which is -4s/d to +6s/d. The process is simple, set your computer to a time server (eg ntp.internode.on.net is what I use, defaults for the major two OSes are time.apple.com or ntp.windows.com) and set your watch to it. 24 hours later, set your computer to the time server again and compare your watch. However fast or slow it is, that's your reading.

For example, if I set my computer to an internet time server at 2:59PM today, and then stop the movement on my watch and set the time to 3:00:00PM, when my computer hits 3:00:00PM I pop the crown and start my Milgauss' movement at 3:00:00PM exactly.

Tomorrow, I set my computer to the time server at 2:59PM again, but leave the watch going from yesterday's time set. When the computer hits 3:00:00PM, my watch will be 3:00:06PM. It is consistently fast, always 6 seconds every day, which is how I know it is +6s/d and thus just within COSC regulations, which is what you want from a replica. I also know that since it is consistent in that, when I eventually get it serviced and regulated I should be able to get it to within 1s/d, which will be awesome.

By the way, computers, believe it or not, are not very accurate. You would think they are based on quartz watches but they can sometimes lose or gain time more than an automatic watch. That's why all modern operating systems come with the option to automatically set the time to internet time servers which are based on atomic clocks, which have unprecedented accuracy. (EDIT: And by the way, I work in IT, I didn't think keeping time was an issue for computers, I only know this because when I set my watch every day it would be 6 seconds or so, then one day it was like 2 minutes off and I'm like "wtf is wrong with my watch?" and I found out that because I had only set the time server manually once, the day I got the watch, the watch was being set to the computer every day which was quickly getting inaccurate, after a week the computer synchronised itself and corrected itself by like 2 minutes, so all of a sudden my watch was 2 minutes and 6 seconds off in one day not 6 seconds off! Now I changed the registry setting so the computer syncs itself every day)

Most people could not give a shit if their watch is anything less than a minute or a couple minutes slow/fast and only set them occasionally, roughly, but I like to keep mine deadly accurate so I take the 15 seconds to set my watch every day. Speaking of which *looks at computer time* she's 3 seconds slow!
 

jmd33

I'm Pretty Popular
12/3/09
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I use www.time.gov - It shows you the current margin of error. If over .2 sec, you can refresh to lower it.

Quartz will remain constant (i.e. fast 1 sec in 24 hours will always be 1 sec fast per 24 hours).

Autos vary a little depending on how they sit over 24 hours. So, I regulate autos over 7 days because they are not totally consistent.

I have gotten all of of my reps within COSC over a 7 day period (a little bump here, a little touch there). I even got real lucky with one and got it +/- 0 over 7 days.

If I get something running +/- 10 sec over 24 hours, I'll usually open it up and regulate it. Anything less than +/- 10 sec I don't bother.

The reps don't usually come properly regulated, but with a little effort it's easy to get them to run in COSC.

[Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care about time?]
 

tah

Active Member
7/2/11
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0
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I also know that since it is consistent in that, when I eventually get it serviced and regulated I should be able to get it to within 1s/d, which will be awesome.

Don't think you'll ever see that kind of accuracy. I've owned several high dollar gens with in house movements, ETA...etc...etc....

If you ever do see +/- 1 second a day you can believe that it won't hold that for very long. Either the geartrain wear will cause increased friction and slow the watch, or will get "broken in and run faster over time. Also how will you test the +/- 1 second. Face up, face down, using the COSC eight or twleve (whatever it is) positions and then averaging over several days? You can Google the COSC testing methods and see what I'm talking about.

Look at it this way, +/- 10 seconds a day is 99.8% accurate. +/- 6 seconds is 99.97% accuracy. Do you REALLY expect an automatic movement to beat that day in and day out? If so get a Quartz. The "better" ones run within seconds a year.

Just an FYI, COSC is -4/+6. I think that's damn good!

Just to correct the last post. I based the numbers on 12 hours, should have been 24.

10 seconds a day off is 99.99988% accurate. Formula 10/(60x60x24), 10/ 86,400.
6 seconds a day off is 99.99993% accurate. Formula 10/(60x60x24), 6/86,400

I think you still get the idea. Trying to beat this performance in an automatic movement is a sure road to insanity.
 

Bonesey

Mythical Poster
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15/1/11
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It's just yet another little OCD aspect of WIS's behaviour :) We're all nuts anyway, why not go with the flow :p
 

artsyguy

Active Member
15/1/11
339
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Whewww...as the original OP, I guess there are a number of answers to my somewhat simple question. I've decided based on this thread that I love watches and just don't care that much about super accurate time. Sounds like a replica is the right place to be!
 

GreenHornet

Known Member
30/8/10
181
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Whewww...as the original OP, I guess there are a number of answers to my somewhat simple question. I've decided based on this thread that I love watches and just don't care that much about super accurate time. Sounds like a replica is the right place to be!

Amen brother, I resemble that remark. To be perfectly honest, I now have around 10 reps, of which 8 are A7750's and 2 are A21J's. I also own about 20 gens; a mix of Invicta's, Seiko Kinetics's , Pulsars, and Bulova's. Nothing high end, but all decent watches. I rotate the favorite 3 or 4 daily, and use the others on special occasions or just when I feel like mixing it up.

But 95% of the time, when I want to know what the current time is, I whip out the trusty old "iPhone" and get it. I own lots of watches because I mainly like the appearance and the technical aspect of an automatic chrono. Whether they are a few seconds a day or even a few minutes a day fast or slow really doesn't matter to me. Even with a watch winder, I find I have to reset the ones that I don't wear very often when I put it on anyway.
 

levelmanroger

Mythical Poster
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1/10/08
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The iPhone has a free atomic clock app. It's great for checking watch accuracy.
But since no auto or mechanical watch is perfect, and I rotate watches a lot (rarely wear the same watch more than once every 2 weeks), I normally have to reset my watches whenever I put them on. Takes 30 seconds - no big deal. So I really don't care about COSC unless the watch is wayyyyyy out.
 

sixbennetts

Known Member
21/5/07
197
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I NEVER cared about accuracy until I got into reps, now I'm obsessed with it! I've been able to open any watch I have, (mostly cheap 21j's, but I used to have a 7750 Pam 188), and swing that little lever to get them to within a few seconds a day. It's not hard once you get your open, grease, re-seal technique down, and get good at just barely touching the adjustment arm. Then I rely on the position I leave the watch in at night to keep them within a few seconds for weeks. To gain a few seconds, lay the watch down at night on it's back, crystal up. To loose a few seconds, lay it on it's side with the crown down. To loose even more time, about 10 to 15 seconds or so, lay the watch on it's side, crown up.