You learn something new everyday...
I had a collector point out that a majority of my watches have been "butchered" because they apparently don't set in the correct manner, and that any collector would have major issues with the watches.
While I pay close attention to detail, in the last 30 years, I have never stopped and said, "wait, which way am I turning the crown to set the time? Is it clockwise? Counter clockwise?" If the watch set correctly (i.e. I pulled out the stem and set the hands) and ran well, I didn't care. Over 100 watches bought and sold, and never once did I check the rotation of the crown, and not once did anyone say something was wrong with the watch.
Since I am bit dyslexic, I decided to draw a diagram of how most of the watches in my collection set the hands.
As you can see, the vast majority of my watches set in the counter clockwise (crown) to clockwise (hands). What is odd is that all these watches have been serviced, if at all, by different watchmakers. A couple, the 166.091 and 166.077, I am fairly confident have never been serviced, and one, the Technos, I know for a fact has never been worn or opened--it is a true "sock drawer" find. As you will see, the Speedies are the only two that set clockwise and clockwise.
What exactly does this mean?
The Air King is the last watch I had serviced...in 1999, by an old school Rolex trained guy, and it apparently sets wrong. The 1665 has had a lot of routine service over the years (per the case back), and my Rolex trained watchmaker recently went over the movement, and put in a new mainspring, and everything checked it.
Do I have incredibly bad luck to have collected watches that were manufactured or serviced by incompetent watchmakers? What causes the hands to go different ways? Does the way the hands set "make or break" the watch for anyone?
How do other's watches set?
Looks like I am just a backwoods watch rube, and have collected crappy watches that no one wants
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