Hi Art,
To the best of my knowledge there's no such thing as a timing machine that automatically detects lift angle - I don't believe it is possible to detect it. I see your watchmaker is using the Delph Electronics system, so I went onto their web site and was able to quickly find the image of the setting menu where the lift angle is set. If he goes into the setting menu there is a spot where the lift angle can be adjusted by clicking either + or - arrows, as shown below:
He may not know where these settings are, but they are there. Note that most timing machines default to a 52 degree lift angle, and if your watchmaker services a lot of Rolex watches for example, he may not need to change it very often as many Rolex movements have a 52 degree lift angle. But outside of Rolex it's not as common, so if he is leaving the lift angle at 52 all the time the amplitude readings he is getting won't be accurate. In some cases this can mean a large error, as lift angles can be much lower than 52, and in some cases higher (lower is more common though). Each error in lift angle represents about a 6 degree error in balance amplitude (not a hard and fast rule, just an approximation), so your watch has a higher lift angle than what is shown by approx. 12 degrees or so. For other watches the error is much more significant, so for example a Cal. 321 chronograph movement has a lift angle of 40 degrees, so setting the machine to 52 would create a very large error.
Cheers, Al
Click to expand...