Hey all, I have with me a 39.5mm PO with caliber 8800. The watch has been perfect in time-keeping in the past year with an average of +2 secs/ day.

However, today I've noticed that my watch is gaining time too fast i.e. 6 secs/MINUTE. You read that right.

I know that a magnetized watch would play with the accuracy of a watch. Since this is an "a-magnetic" watch, I believe it is not due to magnetism. I did however bump into the missus on the way to the bathroom, but it was a minor bump as my wrist/arm did not even hurt her nor myself.

Any help?

 

Your watch can still get magnetized. Yes METAS watches are a magnetic which means a magnet will not affect the function but it can affect the accuracy.

 

It might be the coils are entangled. When this happens it shortens the rotation of the balance wheel, which increases the beat rate.

Another possibility is the hairspring being out of alignment.

It usually takes a more substantial knock to do these things, but the fact that the fast running corresponds with you bumping into your wife makes it a possibility. Simple fixes for a watchmaker

 

Ah thanks for the replies. Will be sending it in for some checks. Just feeling somewhat disappointed that a minor thing like this would cause a huge trouble.

Back to my old seikos which have gone through much worse knocks than this

 

Running into your wife is what you remember. I smack into things so often I forget it the next minute.

 

Update:

Left my watch aside for the past 2 days, as it was on low power reserves, the watch seems to run perfectly with very accurate timing.

Decided to test the watch by fully winding it and so far so good. Probably detangled the coils? Hopefully the problem doesn't recur

 

It would make no sense to call it a-magnetic if the main purpose of the watch is compromised. METAS movements can indeed get magnetized but all the parts that are responsible for timekeeping are immune to it and won't be affected.

 

I have been told by a watchmaker that a magnet wont stop a METAS watch from functioning/halting (seconds hand moving) but it can still get magnetized and somehow affect accuracy.

 

A correctly adjusted and non-faulty METAS movement will still perform within specification up to (and likely over) 15k gauss. So while magnetism can alter the accuracy of a METAS movement, it will still perform within specification. This is part of the testing.

 

Exactly what i was saying. It will affect accuracy. My METAS watch is stable at +1 sec a day. I would rather keep it at that than get it magnetized and have it run at +5 a day (which is still within METAS specs).

 

It could go either way though . For some, magnetism might make it more accurate. The deviation of my watch as tested in the lab was only 0.1sec difference between normal and magnetised. Although that's an average so how much each position changed I don't know.

 

Recently had an SMP 300 2500D serviced. Ran +2 for a while and is suddenly running +1.0 per hour. I've demagnetized several times with no change. Should I send back for service?

 

Yes.