Never show a non-watch guy your chronograph...

M'Bob

...without first telling him not to go ham on the little buttons.

So I handed over one of my cal. 321 Speedmasters to a friend who wanted to take a look, and he repeatedly pressed both chrono buttons in an unwound state before I could tell him to cool it. I’ve never thought to do this myself. Can it cause any potential movement damage? Thanks.

wilderbeast

As a music teacher, I can confirm it’s the same with children and percussion instruments.

Archer

You mean the ones you are meant to hit? 😉

Quick music class story...back in grade 7 we moved up from playing recorders, to actual instruments. Mrs. Freeland (my music teacher) had us all in class and we were all allowed to try the different instruments. Everything from clarinets, trumpets, drums, French horns, flutes and all that. She would listen to each of us have a go, and then we were asked to write down our 3 choices for the instrument we would like to play. All the guys wanted either trumpet or drums, so those were choices 1 and 2 for me. As a joke, I put the Tuba as choice 3. I regretted that - that thing was heavy... 🤦

wilderbeast

Ha ha! But tuba players are rare and therefore popular...

I always tell my students, the art to playing percussion instruments is learning when NOT to play... as any orchestral player who has had to count 137 bars' rest will tell you!

Archer

The fact that the watch is unwound makes no difference. If he tried to hit the reset without stopping the chronograph, and pressed really hard, there's a chance of damage, but it's not likely...

wristpirate

I hope you have defriended him now

M'Bob

Thanks. Strange, he hit the start button first, the chrono hand advanced perhaps one minute, then failed to move again regardless of which button he then pushed (trying both...repeatedly) until the watch was wound. By me.

Archer

If it's going to stop when low on power, it will stop as the minute counter tries to flip - at about 1 minute. If everything works with the watch wound, then you have no issues that weren't already there to begin with...