I donned a '57 Omega Constellation with 505 movement yesterday morning and have continued with it today. I conducted a cash audit of a bank branch yesterday. This required balancing teller drawers and counting a large quantity of strapped currency in the vault. Being right-handed, counting the bills introduces a slight repetitive motion of the left wrist which holds the bills while the right hand is employed in counting. The Constellation sustained this repetitive motion for a little over seven hours. The arthritis in the CMC joint of my left thumb is making its presence known today.

I thought to check the watch and found that it has lost eight seconds since I had set it 24 hours before. The only time I checked the watch previously since it was serviced found it to lose 10 seconds per day.

I'm happy with this performance which satisfies my day-to-day timekeeping requirements. Reading in the Forum has given me the sense that many members are more exacting than I am, some much more so. Eight seconds is really fine in my view as I'm happy when most of my watches come in under 30 seconds per day. While I'm not likely to modify my perhaps sloppy minimum accuracy standards, it would be fun to read what others expect out of their mechanical watches.

 

It depends on the watch and when it was serviced. Some are capable of better timekeeping than others.

If either of my Omegas, freshly serviced, don't keep time to 2 seconds per day or better, I'm not happy. Fortunately for me, they do! The Accutron, of course that has to meet the 30 seconds per month specification (and it does).

My pin-lever zero-jewel Ingersoll watch from WWI keeps time to 15 seconds per day or better on the wrist, for the most part, and that is remarkable.

Tom

 

Under 20s a day is fine for my wrist watches although many beat that by quite a margin. (Constellation, 30mm & 500 series Omegas) But for my old railway pocket watches I fiddle the regulator until they are inside 5s a day..... because thats what they're designed to do and they do it so very well.

 

I never thought of the problem of arther itus and the self winding watch ! THOUGH -- I did work in an early HELBROSE self winder that you could wind it FULL UP with the stem ! sorry, I can not send a photo.

 

I check my watches every once and a awhile to see how they're doing. As long as they're within spec, I don't really pay too much attention. I rarely try a different resting position and if so, it just for shits and grins. Oddly enough, I have a G-Shock I wear when banging around and it's +1 sec a month.. Not even multi-band 6.

 

A tip to get the greatest accuracy from an automatic: wear it to bed. If you toss and turn enough, you'll help to keep it fully wound.

I wear all my watches to bed because I "need" to see the luminous without my glasses.

Tom

 

My moon watch is 5+ day

 

One advantage of modern high beat watches ( 8 bps [28,800 bph], or 10 bps [36,000 bph]) is that they are less prone to having the rate disturbed by the wrist motions you describe. The calibre 505 beats 19,800 bph (5.5 bps), which means the rate can more easily be disturbed by motion of the wrist. A 5 bps (18,000bph) watch would likewise probably be even more easily disturbed by wrist motion. You describe the watch losing 10-seconds per day on a previous occasion, yet it only lost 8-seconds when you were performing the audit. To me, that implies only a two-second change in rate from a normal rate. That is pretty good. I think I would be happy with that, but I don't think I'd be happy with a ten-second per day loss you got, after the servicing. In effect, your watch seems to have picked up 2 seconds over its normal rate, during the audit. I think I would strive to have it run more accurately (than a 10-second per day loss) during normal wear. That's how I see it.

 

That's how I see it too. From the consumer side, give it a month to settle down and then write down the offset on day zero and then the offset on day whichever, greater than 14. Bring this information to your watchmaker and have your watch "adjusted for wear". There's no reason for a daily-wear watch to be off as much as ten seconds a day when a simple tweak can bring it in.

Tom

 

For COSC Chronometre-certified watches I prefer to stay in positive territory (0 to +6 sec/day) and that's the case for the two watches I have with Omega Cal. 8500 movements. If either of these watches slipped into negative territory I'd probably have them regulated even if they're not losing more than 4 sec/day. After a watch has gained a full minute since its last synchronization, I re-synchronize the watch with a time standard.

I also have a watch with a manual-wind Omega Cal. 1861. Depending on the watch's position, it can lose up to 7 seconds per day or gain up to 7 seconds per day. I keep the watch to within +5 to +10 seconds of a time standard by varying the overnight storage position of the watch. Here's a graphic record of that watch's timekeeping over a 6-week period.

 

In my opinion that watch requires service and has for some time. Sure, the average rate over six weeks is +0.2s per day but that kind of variation is too much, in my opinion, for that movement.

Tom

 

yeah, and I think I've seen your name on the NAWCC site.... so I assume similar mental issues when it come to old watches..... "It was that good 75 years ago, why shouldn't it be now".

I love correcting the guys at work when they're reading the wrong time off their modern watch and I'm reading it off a model '92 Waltham or 992 Hamilton.

 

Anything under 30 sec a day , I am happy with that

 

I really enjoy the Hamilton 992's I have 3 at the moment from 1908, 1911, 1912, a 992E from 1931,and a 4992B from 1950. All are easily capable of 20-30 seconds per week, better if I really try.

 

My most recent long term test was with a Hamilton 992B I had just serviced. Tested both static and in wear, it was within 16 seconds in 3 months! Without re-setting or allowing it to run down. That's closer than 2 seconds per week accuracy. Truth to tell, there were minor variations over the test period where it may have varied 3 or 4 seconds in a day. But gains cancelled losses, and it was 16 seconds out at the end of the test.

 

For vintage I am happy with anything less than 30 s/day. I am not that hard to please.....
I prefer 30s/day 2915 than 2s/day 3570.50 for sure

 

I rotate my watches almost daily, so anything +/- 10 sec/day is perfectly fine with me.

 

From 0 up to +4 sec a day.