Hey everyone,

Happy 4th!

My father has a planet ocean 8500 that he bought new from an AD a year ago. Today he mentioned to me that when the watch is dead after not having worn it for a few days, he would usually shake it to start it up and then wind it up by turning the crown. However he noticed that after a vigorous shake or two, it sometimes doesn't start by itself even when he sees the rotor moving. Usually he'll shake it once or twice more after that point and it'll start up.

He asked me if his was normal. He's no stranger to automatic watches, but this is the first where he's noticed this occurance. So I tried it myself and sure enough after an aggressive shake I didn't see any movement with the seconds hand to indicate it had stared up even when I saw the rotor moving. It took one more shake after that to start it. I thought it was a bit strange as I too have a PO8500 and it'll start from a dead state even after a small shake.

He hasn't noticed any accuracy issues with timekeeping.

Any ideas? I'll refer him to this thread so he can read it himself.

Thanks!

 

Are watches supposed to start after a vigorous shake? I would consult the user manual.

 

Wind it until it clicks

 

Yes, as I stated before, he does this. What I said was, he usually shakes his watch until it starts and then he winds it properly with the crown. His PO and mine seem to exhibit different behavior in regards to starting from a dead state.

 

Sure they are. To get an automatic started after its dead, a shake should be enough to do that

 

My point is that if he is counting on a vigorous shake to start the watch and run it completely from a dead stop, it is likely going to be something that does not works all the time

 

Yeah I'd wind instead of shaking. Still, shouldn't take too much to get it going, that seems a bit odd. It's still covered under warranty so he can ask the AD to look at it.

 

I've never heard of the shake before wind approach to getting power going on a watch before. But, we each have our own WIS quarks with our watches.

I'll hazard a guess on what's happening: The amplitude of arc you are shaking it isn't enough to get the rotor moving sufficiently to transfer the requisite power. Ergo, him needing to add another shake or two to get it going. I can't imagine, in my novice knowledge, that there's anything to worry about as winding works and time keeping is spot on.

Perhaps one way to test this is after a full wind, wear the watch for a few days to make sure there's been enough usage to have plenty of power saved up. Then, let it wind down. If power runs out short of the watch's stated reserve, perhaps there is a fault in the power transfer mechanism?

Perhaps our resident experts can chime in and find fault in my logic where I cannot. Either way, that's my two cents worth.

 

Have him wind it first, and if t doesn't start, give it a shake. My guess is he will not have this problem if he just reverses the two steps...

 

Have him strap on the watch and shake it like this: