Hi everyone, I have a PO8500 42mm that I wear as part of my rotation. Since I don't wear it everyday, it sometimes dies due to no power reserve. I noticed that when I start to wind the watch via the crown in position 1, it takes about 5 rotations for the seconds hand to start moving. I guess I naturally assumed it would only need 1 rotation of the crown it would give it enough power to start up. I bought the watch new as well.

Is this normal for this movement to need several rotations of the crown to "start up" from a dead state? I couldn't find anything in the Operating Instructions about this.

Thanks!

 

@Archer .... Any insight on this?

Thanks in advance

 

In my experience it consistently took around 8-10 turns with both of my PO2500s, and, it takes 15-16 turns to start up my calibre 3135 Rolex Sea-Dweller 4000 (ref 116600) from a dead stop. Additionally it takes about 3-5 turns to get any of my Speedmasters running (whether calibre Ω321 or Ω1861). So your experience is perfectly in family with mine.

 

I don't clearly remember my PO8500 doing this but now I'm curious. I'll make sure to check for it when the power reserve depletes

 

Thanks G-boac. Anyone experience this with a po8500 specifically?

 

Normal...

 

Hey POinNY I got around to confirming this. My PO8500 will take about 6-8 rotations of the crown before the seconds hand starts to move. What's weird is sometimes it'll even start with as little as 4 rotations. There's no consistency but I guess that's the natural of mechanical things

 

The 8500 has 2 barrels, one automatic barrel that has a slipping bridle and one manual wind barrel that has a normal bridle. The first winds of the watch wind the manual barrel and at this point no energy is being transferred to the gear train cause there are no winds to the automatic barrel. It makes sense that the manual barrel winds all the way first and then the automatic barrel, if that was the case then it would take 25 turns of the crown in order for your watch to start, but the barrels actually wind together with the turn of the crown. Imagine 2 empty buckets connected at the bottom with a tube and you are filling one of the buckets slowly with water. The watch also has to have enough power in the barrels to overcome the locking of the escapement.

 

Sometimes one turn and a shake get it moving... Its about how mich tension it needs to start the movement.

 

Stiction my friend. An interesting type is friction.

 

On the very rare occasion mine has stopped just taking it out of it's box starts it before i even start winding.