Just out or curiosity does it matter if you set the time on a watch clockwise all the time, counter clockwise all the time or a combination of both.Does counter clockwise increase wear on the wheels etc?

 

Turn the hands either way. You’re safe. Watches are designed to permit turning the hands backwards. That goes for both mechanical watches, and quartz.

 

Except if it has a date complication, in which case I would never adjust backwards through the period when the date changes.

 

The rapid set function on a Vostok I have with Date complication is to wind forwards until date changes, go past 01:00 then repeatedly wind backwards beyond 21:00 and forwards again beyond 01:00 until you’re at the required date.

It works fine and the watch is more than ten years old now.

 

yup, i never adjust backwards for date and complication watches. for all else, either direction works!

 

Does this apply if the movement is in motion
I am always wary of turning backwards when the watch is running
Or is this ok

 

Fine on most watches to wind it back through a date change.

Okay running or stopped. The only thing I would caution against is if the watch actually runs backwards when turning the time backwards - not something I generally like to see.

 

I always wind clockwise to be safe

 

I've got an old Minerva that bound up when I went backwards a few hours after going past the right time. (Whether that was the cause of the stoppage or not, I don't know for certain)
Off to the watchmaker and now I'm definitely more cautious about winding backwards more than a little bit, that's just me though.

 

With a couple of my watches (an '83 Bulova and a 50's Benrus)trying to set it back results in the mechanism coming to a full stop, If turned further the second hand of the Bulova will move backwards . I can just hold it there stalled until the required number of seconds have passed then it immediately starts running again when released.
With the Bulova there's sometimes no resistance to setting it back a bit.

 

But this is exactly how semi-quickset watches function.

 

Does the Vostock Amphibia have the quickset you mentioned?

 

Exactly!

 

Turn the hands ahead until the date changes. Stop, then back the hands up to about 8:00. If the date backs up when you do this, it is not a “semi-quickset”. If the date doesn’t back up, then it is a “semi-quickset”. If it is a semi-quickset, each time you back up and advance the hands as described, the date will advance.

 

I stand corrected. I had assumed that since the instructions for all the date watches I've ever owned advise against setting the watch around the time when the date changes, that cranking it back and forth through that period would be inadvisable. Personally, I think I'll continue to avoid doing so unless explicitly told to by the manual if and when I ever own a semi-quickset watch.

 

The warning you read was for watches with a quick set date, and that warning was not to use the quick set function while the date change is in progress. That is a completely different thing than what we are referring to here, because setting the time backwards to advance the date would only be done on watches that don't have the quickset date - hence they would not have that warning.

I was working on a watch the other day and with this thread in mind, I took a video of how a semi quickset situation works, with the dial removed so you can see what's going on:

So you can see the finger on the date indicator driving wheel connect with the finger on the date indicator, and as I turn the crown to advance the hands, the fionger flips the date to the next number. When I turn the hands backwards the finger, which is spring loaded, collapses to allow clearance to get past the teeth of the date indicator without causing any damage.

It's perfectly safe to turn the hands backwards on most watches, even through the date change period.

Cheers, Al

 

As always, Al, you rock! Thanks for the informative video.

 

Funny. I was reading a article about the person who is responsible for the clocks in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and he is saying never wind a clock counter clockwise because it can damage the mechanism.

 

Apples to apples?

 

Depends on the clock. With most modern ones, counter clockwise is fine. But in a museum? Better to be safe, particularly with chime and striking clocks. With some early weight driven clocks, it is usually best to stop the pendulum before moving the hands in either direction.