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Owlsu
·So is your point that quartz watches are more accurate than mechanical watches? I 100% agree with the accuracy of your claim. But pray tell, how is that germane to the discussion of a 3861 Speedy Pro being an upgrade over the 1861?
We enjoy our moonwatches for many reasons. But timekeeping accuracy has never been a premier selling point of any 1861-powered watch, in the contemporary marketplace in which the Speedy competes for buyers. Before the big-box price increases in the 2010's, a 3570.50 was an exceptional value for getting a Lemania-based manual-wind chronograph. A movement that would've been otherwise accessible for 5x the price when modified & cased-up in its various iterations found in Breguet, PP, or VC manual wind chronographs.
Movement technology has advanced in the last 2 decades, and the 1861 has been left behind. I purchased my Speedmasters in spite of their poor accuracy (not because I was drawn to their timekeeping prowess), because I liked their other features. For me, the purchasing decision for each Speedmaster has included weighing: "does the pleasure I get from all of the other features and design cues on this watch outweigh the displeasure of having to reset the watch every 4-5 days because of its movement's poor accuracy?"
The answer's always been 'Yes', but therein lies the excellence of the new 3861. I'll never even have to contemplate this question again on future Speedy Pros because the 3861 will have better timekeeping accuracy, plus other upgrades like magnetic resistance.
Anecdotally, here how my 1861 ownership experience has compared to other movements:
- 8900 Planet Ocean: +1 second every 4 days
- 8900 Globemaster: +1 second every 2 days
- 8800 SM 60th: +1 / day
- 2500C SMP 300: +3 / day
- 2500C Deville: +6 / day
- 3130 OP: +3 / day
- 3135 Sub: +1 / day
As for my 1861's:
- FOIS: +11 seconds / day
- Hesalite Pro (big box generation): +10 / day
The only modern watch I've owned that were less accurate than the 1861 was a Reverso Duo with 854, which ran +25 / day. That Reverso also got magnetized every Monday morning when I went through the airport security, and every Thursday afternoon on my return flight, whenever I took it with me on weekly work trips.
Note I didn't include my 3291.50 X-33 that I had in the late 2000's above, because I don't consider the accuracy of a quartz movement relevant to a discussion why some of us consider a 3861 movement to be a welcome upgrade over the 1861.
The 1861 can be made to run much more accurately than that, even though it may not be that way when you purchase one. My 1861 2016 Speedmaster was running at +16spd when I bought it and stayed that way for 3 years until I decided to regulate it when the warranty ran out and then for the next year it ran at +0.5spd after I did.
It's a movement that technically can run very accurately as long as it gains the same amount day after day, consistency is a good sign you can also achieve good accuracy.
