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Second and minute hand alignment - PO 43.5 - 8900

cej2007
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Greetings from a newer member who has read thousands of posts trying to learn from all of you who are way more experienced than I am. Try not to bother.

I’m very happy with my PO 43.5 with the 8900 movement.

Is there a trick when setting the time with the seconds hacked to the 12 o’clock position getting the minute hand to align exactly on the minute mark. I struggle to get them to sync/align and have tried every combo I can think of.

Any and all help would very much be appreciated.
 
JimInOz
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I usually don't worry too much about perfect sync between hands.

But when I'm testing watches for accuracy / timekeeping I hack the movement at 12 (zeroed from a time source) and wind the minute hand about 30 minutes past the time, and then wind backwards to the next minute coming up on the time source.

At HH:MM:59 seconds on the time source I set the crown and find that this keeps my mechanical watches +/- 1 second different to the time source. It's also important that the crown doesn't turn at all when pushing it in.
 
Jones in LA
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I understand your frustration, as I am silly-fastidious about having the minute hand align with a minute marker when the seconds hand passes 12:00. The fact of the matter is that each watch movement seems to behave in a unique way when the hack is released. More often than not, the minute hand will jump slightly forward or slightly backward when the hack is released. I have found that I need to get accustomed to each watch's behaviour when setting the time, and proceed accordingly. As a matter of practice, I always set the minute hand well past -- say 45 min -- the desired time mark, and then move the minute hand backward to the time mark. This seems to take care of most or all of the mechanical slack in the system.
 
JimInOz
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PS: I think it was @Archer that explained this a few years ago. Doing it this way removed the effect of backlash in the wheel train.
 
cej2007
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JimInOz JimInOz
I usually don't worry too much about perfect sync between hands.

But when I'm testing watches for accuracy / timekeeping I hack the movement at 12 (zeroed from a time source) and wind the minute hand about 30 minutes past the time, and then wind backwards to the next minute coming up on the time source.

At HH:MM:59 seconds on the time source I set the crown and find that this keeps my mechanical watches +/- 1 second different to the time source. It's also important that the crown doesn't turn at all when pushing it in.
Good point about pushing the crown in correctly. I am paying attention to that now. Thank you!
 
cej2007
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Jones in LA Jones in LA
I understand your frustration, as I am silly-fastidious about having the minute hand align with a minute marker when the seconds hand passes 12:00. The fact of the matter is that each watch movement seems to behave in a unique way when the hack is released. More often than not, the minute hand will jump slightly forward or slightly backward when the hack is released. I have found that I need to get accustomed to each watch's behaviour when setting the time, and proceed accordingly. As a matter of practice, I always set the minute hand well past -- say 45 min -- the desired time mark, and then move the minute hand backward to the time mark. This seems to take care of most or all of the mechanical slack in the system.
Thank you for making me feel that I’m not alone in my OCD. It does jump but doing what you recommended and being careful to not rotate the crown works, thank you so very much!!!
 
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