Sudden recent timekeeping change on Ti Planet Ocean 9300 - why?

So, I'll first introduce the watch, although this first part is not about my concern today, it's about a change in timekeeping last week. But I wanted to show how steady and consistent the watch has been after Omega regulated it last December.

Also, don't let this make you assume that I obsess over all of my watch timekeeping rates. I only track the ones that I have in my current rotation which I keep running - right now that is only this Planet Ocean 9300 and my 2013 Speedmaster Pro. All my other mechanical watches are off the winders and in the safe right now (when going away for a couple of days I lock them up and haven't taken them all out yet).

I bought my Ti Planet Ocean 9300 in March 2016 and it was running anywhere from +3 to +4 sec/day for the first month. By month 2 it was running +4 to +5 sec/day. By month 6-9 it ws running +5 to +6 sec/day. Slowly getting faster after arrival, except for Oct 2016-March 2017 it was back down to +2 to +3 sec/day. These measurements were taken with several data points over 15-45 day periods to get a stable average, and then I'd leave the watch alone for a while. I wasn't too concerned, although running closer to +1 would have been nice.

Then it started to speed up again last summer to be 4-5 sec/day fast again, but when it finally ran +6.1 sec/day over 10 days just before Thanksgiving 2017, Omega took it in and regulated the watch at the Culver City service center. It came back Dec 13th 2017 running consistently under +1 sec/day for the next 90 days. Again, the above is not what I'm concerned about.

For the first 90 days back from service it spent 95% of the time on my wrist (because I'm including sleep since I wear a watch to bed). I would wear another watch for 8-10 hours at a time, 2-3 times a week, so the 9300 never spent more than 8-10 hours at a time on my Wolf programmable dual watch winder, until my birthday last Thursday when I put on the Wolf winder for two days to try out my Speedmaster Pro.

Before last week the Planet Ocean was freakishly accurate, and it was never slower than +0.0 or faster than +1.5 sec/day over a checking it during that 90 day period (about 30 data points, so I checked it an average of once every 3 days). It tended to run similar rates in all positions on my Timegrapher as well, with a delta of less than 2 seconds out of 6 positions.

I was absolutely thrilled, and sometimes I felt like the Ti Planet Ocean 9300 could be my only watch, gaining only 67 seconds after 81 days by March 4th. The best part was that I knew I didn't really need to check it vs atomic time, because it was so consistent day to day. I didn't check it between March 8th and 15th and when I did it had gained only +1.4 sec/day.

At that point I put the watch on the Wolf winder for a couple of days last week, almost exactly 90 days after I received the watch, where it had only gained 79 seconds in those 3 months! I had no concerns about the watch until after this point when things changed.

I went to wear the watch again last weekend and found that it had gained an average of 4.5 sec/day (12.7 sec in 67 hours). It had never gained that much on the wrist or winder before, with it's fastest rate of 1.5 sec/day before this (as stated above). Blaming it on the winder, I gave the crown about 20 turns and put it on my wrist and have worn it non-stop since then, and in the past 37 hours it's gained 6.5 seconds in 37 hours for an average of +5.7 sec/day.

The average for the past 104 hours is +5.4 sec/day. That's quite a jump in rate for no reason (see below). If you see the charts I've included, that is about 6x faster than it was consistently running for the previous 3 months.

I put it on my Weishi 1900 Timegrapher and its consistently running +5 to +6 sec/day in each of 5 of the 6 positions, and +4 sec/day with the crown down (except when dial up it was wandering between +4 to +6 sec/day, while the rate only wandered by 1 sec/day in the other positions).

The delta between the 6 positions is the same 2 seconds as before. The beat error is 0.0 in 2 positions (12 down, crown down), 0.1 in 2 positions (dial down, crown up), and 0.2 in 2 positions (dial up, 12 up). The graph does not look erratic or irregular, rather it's pretty steady and stable.



My timegrapher isn't a high end unit, and I don't expect it to get amplitude right (the sale claimed co-ax compatible but don't believe everything on the internet). With the Lift Angle set for 38 it's always had amplitudes in the 265-280 range, before and after this rate change. I can only use it to pick up a "relative change in amplitude" and there isn't any change.

This change in rate happened practically overnight on a high quality winder, and continues on my wrist. The watch does not appear to be magnetized, and degaussing the watch had ZERO impact on the rates or timegrapher before vs after (pass through degausser). The watch has never been subjected to a shock, and certainly wasn't exhibiting this behavior before the winder. There is no evidence of the introduction of a new poise error as the delta is still quite small. The house and outside temperature has also been pretty stable as well. I have not had a need to check the power reserve.

WHAT COULD CAUSE THIS WATCH TIMEKEEPING TO SHIFT IT'S RATE UP IN ALL 6 POSITIONS, WITH NO OTHER CHANGES IN THE DELTA, BEAT ERROR, OR AMPLITUDE?

The only thing I can think of if that there has been a change in lubrication somewhere inside for unknown reasons, or some debris got onto the silicone hair spring, and if either of those is a real problem then I'm worried that running it could damage something. I don't know if it should go back to Omega even though the current rate is within spec (upper limit). I started a new timing chart today, after setting the watch back to Atomic time, but should I be checking power reserve if it hasn't ever stopped on me?

Here are some screen shots of the rates in the past vs now:

This first ones are screenshots of my timekeeping app that I took at 81 days of continuous running and timekeeping, where you can see it it averaged 0.8 sec/day and never strayed beyond running +0 to +1.5 sec/day. I also have shots at 15 days, 33 days, and 75 days of running straight, which looked very similar so I'm not going to waste space with them:



It continued like that for the first 90+ days (I didn't do another screenshot until today), but for the past 4 days it has jumped up to running several times faster. See where the rates shifted up suddenly between March 15-17 while on the winder, which haven't returned to normal after wearing it again:

You have too much time on your hands. You need to get a hobby... 😉





J/K...

Wow, you sir have impeccable watch care!

Are you using an iphone program with the attached ear pod mic to measure the timing?

This is my hobby. And I'm a headphone addict too.


I'm using WatchTracker app, which requires me to have impeccable reflexes to tap the screen when the watch hands hit a specific time, and then the app compares that result to atomic time. It saves all the data in a database, and it can export the data into a spreadsheet if you so wish.

Just wear it and enjoy it, don't worry about the timing as much. that is just to technical.

I had a similar issue with a Sinn 656 I purchased in the early years of this century. The watch would run at a stable rate for weeks or months at a time and then suddenly start running at a slightly faster rate - perhaps 4 to 5 seconds per day. Then, for no discernible reason the rate would drop back down to normal.

It was my only Sinn and I chalked it up to Sinn being a mid tier brand that possibly did not use the better grade ETA movements.

In 2013 it was time to have the watch serviced since I noticed a drop in the amplitude on the timing machine.

Post servicing the watch's rate has been rock solid. I can only guess that it may have been a lubrication issue from the factory.

My PO 8500 movement seems to gain a bit of time when on the winder. It runs -1 sec/day normally and about +.6/day on the winder. Nothing like yours though. I’ve only had my watch for 2 months so the sample is small. I think I’d take it in if I were you. Having read your other posts I’m sure you know your boutique well. I bet they’d have no issue sending it in on warranty for you. Good luck with it!

I'm going to watch it for a while (heh heh) and see what else it does - although I do hate it when my favorite and most frequently worn watch jumps from running better than +30 sec/month to +2 or +3 minutes/month for no discernible reason.

For the past 36 hours it's gained 5.7 seconds, for a rate of +3.8 sec/day which is just under +2 min/month.

That's still 4x faster than the previous 3 months. It's a watch that I don't let run down, which means now I'll have to re-set it every 3-4 weeks instead of every 3 months.