Question to the pros out there: A friend told me that the way I position my Speedmaster overnight will affect the accuracy of it. F.e.: It will gain secods if I keep it crown up - it will loose seconds if crown down. Any ideas if this is nonsense or not? Appreciate your comments.

 

All mechanical watches have some positional variation. The amount and direction of the change based on the position will be specific to every watch, but it's definitely there.

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks for the info Al. Question: If my Speedy runs 12 seconds fast per day. Is there a specific position to keep it durníng the night to "loose" some time? And since I know that you know your business: My friend said, that the calibre of a brand new watch needs up to 3 months to seetle in. Is this right?

 

As I noted, it will be specific to the watch, so the only way to know what positions rub fast or slow, and by how much, is to try them.

I see a lot of people write about this "break in" period on watch forums, but when measured under controlled conditions I've never had a new watch show any significant change in the first few weeks or months. Ask yourself what use chronometer testing would be if the watch was going to drift significantly in the first months of use...this idea makes little sense to me.

Cheers, Al

 

Sounds about right. Otherwise watchmaking would be a lottery. As I wrote: Mine is about 10-12 seconds fast. Is this within tolerance? I hesitate to have it serviced only for this. It is brand new and other than this just perfect.

 

For the Speedmaster Pro with 1861 the tolerances for average daily rate (measured over 3 positions only) are from -1 to +11 seconds per day.

So yours appears to be on the high side, but still within what is expected. Note that if you have an Omega Boutique near you and they have a watchmaker on staff, they could likely regulate it for you to slow it down a bit. But I would try different positions overnight first to see if you find one that can shave some time off it.

 

good idea. I talked tour our local Omega Boutique and they said: "Totally within range and it needs at least 3-4 months to break in".

 

Translation - "We hope that in 3-4 months you will have gotten used to it and won't come to bother us."

 

I didn't know that you are a translator also....

 

Final question to Al: I will follow you advice and try different positions overnight. Isn't it bad for the pushers if it rests crown down for several hours since it rests on them?

 

Nope - no problems doing that.

 

I feel like Al needs his own Ask Me Anything (AMA) on reddit

 

*cough* Tourbillions *cough*

 

If you think about what a tourbillon does, it entire reason for being is to average out positional variation...

And there is also variation possible in planes that a tourbillon does not average out...dial up and dial down compared to vertical positions.

 

so I can lay the wahtch on the pushers overnite - right?

 

Yes it's fine

 

THX!!!!!!!

 

Pretty solid stuff from Al! It took me almost a month to figure out how my watch runs with different resting positions

 

Hi Al. Can I ask a couple of related questions please:

Is the tolerance different for an older Speedmaster Pro with an 321 movement?
Would only winding and wearing the watch for one day each week effect the tolerance?

 

Yes - the Cal. 321 is allowed to have an average rate of -1 to +16, and the tolerances behind that (Delta and isochronism) are also much larger.

No, the tolerances don't change. However if the watch isn't being wound and worn, it will still be right twice per day!

If you are asking if letting the watch sit for short periods of time will affect performance, with all else being equal, no it won't.

Cheers, Al