Hello, I am new here. I hope to have a question about my speedmaster answered. I have a speedmaster that I purchased new approximately 3 1/2 years ago. It was manufactured 4 years ago. I wear it every day and I wind it full every morning. Recently, I noticed that it stopped in the middle of the day. I gave it a full wind and tested the power reserve which resulted in approximately 47 hours. I should note that despite the fact I have read that the speedmaster power reserve should last a few hours longer, the couple of times I have tested mine it has not gone beyond 48 hours. Anyway, all went well for about a month until this morning when it stopped again approximately 24 hours after winding.

I have read that a short power reserve may be an indication that the watch requires service. However, this watch is well short of being five years old per the serial number and has only been in use 3 1/2 years. I have also read that sometimes people do not fully wind of their speedmasters and experience such problems. I am fairly certain that I am fully winding this movement to the point where there is significant resistance that will not allow more.

Should I send this watch in for service early, or should I run it until the fifth year of use and then send it in? Any thoughts will be appreciated.

 

There are many watches called "Speedmaster" so knowing which specific watch you have, and what movement is inside would be helpful.

But assuming this is a Speedmaster Pro, with a Cal. 1861 inside, are you fully winding the watch until it cannot be wound any further? If so, and it has never run more than 38 hours, then it has never worked properly. My gut tells me that you have not been winding it fully.

Cheers, Al

 

Thank you for your response! Actually, I have a correction. That was a typo in my original question. I usually get around 47 hours but never have gone beyond 48. I will try to edit my question. Nevertheless, I have read quite a few posts where people are claiming to get over 50 hours so that is where I thought my watch was falling short.

Anyway, what is mostly concerning me is the fact that the watch stopped randomly a couple of times in the past month. I assumed that even with less than full winding it shouldn’t stop after 24 hours. Are you up attributing that to lack of winding as well or do you think I have an issue here?

By the way, to answer your question the movement is 1863.

 

Clearly there's a very big difference now that you are saying it was running for 47 and not 38 hours. I am assuming this is with the chronograph turned off, correct?

The official power reserve is 48 hours as listed by Omega. When I service these, I typically get in the area of 51 to 51.5 hours, and in fact I just finished an 1863 last week and it ran for 51 hours after service. I would not expect a 4 year old to run quite as long, so the fact that yours is running at 47 isn't a big concern.

When it stopped after 24 hours, are you absolutely sure you wound it that morning? If so, then yes there's some problem - what exactly I can't say as a watch that only sometimes stop very short of the expected power reserve is not a common thing (unless you forgot to wind it). The watch is meant to be wound daily.

Cheers, Al

 

I know for a fact I have not forgotten to wind the watch. What I can tell you is that from time to time, including yesterday morning, I feel resistance more quickly than other times. Yesterday for example I felt resistance after 17 turns and so that’s all it got. Then it was dead the next morning before I got to wind it. Other mornings I don’t start feeling the resistance until about 25 turns. This of course is on a daily basis. When I start it up initially it allows me to wind approximately 50 turns. I know others out there have said they wind for 70 or more turns, but that obviously depends on how much they are actually turning the crown with each rotation. My turns tend to be pretty full and so maybe I get fewer.

Does any of this help?

 

So back to my original question. If this is something that is occurring every once in a long while should I seek service now or wait another 12 to 18 months and send it in when the watch is due for service? Are you hearing anything that you have seen before and can potentially cause additional damage?

thanks again for your help!

 

I was getting over 48 hours on mine, I think once I timed 52.

Can you take it into an Omega Botique? The one in San Diego has a watchmaker that would check it out and give an assessment.

When I have problems, I take my watches in to get serviced. It is a bummer when it's prior to the recommended interval, but I figure it is better to be safe. I have my modern Ploprof in for service now. I had Omega service it 3.5 years ago, but an issue came up with setting the time, so I figured it would be best to get it serviced.

 

Really up to you if you want to live with it or not...

 

I totally get that but what I am wondering is if in your opinion this is something that can wait, or will waiting create additional problems that may become more costly to fix.

 

I can certainly take it in for an assessment. The cynical side of me says that the answer I’m going to receive is that I should leave it for service, hand over $800 please. Has your experience been different?

 

Well then it must be user error from time to time. I will be more on top of that and let you know. Thanks.

 

When I took my X-33 in for service I was pleasantly surprised that it was serviced free of charge. My X-33 was the military version, and Omega services those free of charge irrespective of who owns watch. I did not know this prior to taking it in for service.

The Botique told me exactly what was wrong with my ploprof, so I could have taken it to my local watch maker for repair, but I decided to have Omega make repair. But I see your point.

 

Geeze, don't say this in the vintage forum, you'll be roasted on the spit!!

Tom

 

Well, I am checking the power reserve again and as of this morning the watch is still functioning after a full wind yesterday. Tomorrow morning will be 48 hours so I will let you know what happens then.

In the meantime, since you have a tremendous amount of experience with these things I thought I would ask an unrelated dumb question. I have been told that with automatic watches the more you wear them the more accurate they can be. I have always assumed that that is because keeping the watch on your wrist maintains the power reserve at an optimum level. Are there any such benefits if one constantly wears a manual wind watch? I assume continually wearing a manual wind would not improve the power reserve, but does it improve accuracy?

 

Wearing it will average out positional errors, while not wearing it will not. It depends entirely on what those positional errors are and how you store it if it will more accurate when worn or not.

 

ok. I have found that my watch tends to run about three seconds fast per day when worn and slows down when rested crown down. I was just curious about what I had been told regarding wearing mechanical watches as much as possible to keep them more accurate.

 

So go figure. The watch ran 50 hours. This is like taking a car with engine noise to the mechanic only to have it purr at the shop! Anyway, while I feel certain I was fully winding it before, maybe that was the issue. I guess an 1863 that hasn’t been serviced in 4 years running for 50 hours means the power reserve is good to go.

 

The movement 1863 means you have a display case back, right?
Can't hurt posting a clear high-res picture of the back of the watch on here. I've been surprised on multiple occasions how much can be diagnosed with a good picture.
And if not, at least this thread finally has it's obligatory picture