A buddy of mine recommended a watchmaker to work on one of my watches. I was in the area of the watchmakers shop. So I stopped in to check the place out. I asked about his service on a watch I was wearing.

The watchmaker mentioned he needed to take a peek at the movement to give me a quote. NO issues with that. Since the watchmaker is unknown to me my reply was not without me being present.

Now we go over to his watchmaker bench. He removes the case back wearing his loupe he inspects the movement. He mentions the movement needs a service. Now for the bizarre part. The watchmaker takes the watch puts the watch to his ear. He tells me he is listening to the beat of the movement.

Then replies your watch is 1/3 of a beat off needs a full service. Either the guy is the guru of watchmakers or a big time goof. I'm leaning towards goof. I may be wrong. However I have no faith in his skill set. It sure was a interesting assessment of the timing of the watch.

It goes without saying I do not plan on this watchmaker performing any service on my watches.

 

Ah finally the beat reader has shown himself. This was a fun read

 

I may be wrong but if he is able to diagnose the problem by just listening to the movement he might as well perform a full service without touching it so you shouldn't worry.

 

If he knows the beat rate of the movement then it is possible to listen for 5, 6, etc. beats per second to see if it matches what is should be. Not sure how well that indicates anything though, as I would assume if it were the case then the timekeeping would have been quite poor. I imagine you are correct in that it is a cool parlor trick that many who walk in off the street may fall for.

(now watch Archer come in and correct the heck out of my assessment )

 

Another thing @voere does he know your knowledge of watch movements? I think sometimes service providers in many industries say, or in this case do, really simplified things for customers. Right or wrong. I know if he did that to my watch I wouldn’t think twice about it, as I simply don’t know it isn’t very professional.

 

He might be able to hear a large beat error (sort of the difference between tick and tock). If you have a mantle clock that's out of beat, it will drive you mad listening to it as it is very noticeable and sounds like someone with a limp.

On the other hand, this tells you nothing particularly about the state of the movement service requirements really. Couple of pointers:

If your watchmaker allows you to be at his bench then he has no real concerns about cleanliness. I don't allow anyone else into my clean room. If you'd asked to be present at my bench, I'd have turned you away.

If your watchmaker is desperate for work and making it obvious, then he's probably no good. There is sufficient work out there for any watchmaker who knows what he's doing.

Regards, Chris

 

I agree
I'm not sure what listening to the ticking does I'm no expert. I figure that is what timing machines are made for. If the guy would have put the watch on a timing machine that would be my preferred way to have timing checked.

As far as his inspection that was half A. Some items that are worn on a watch you can't see until the watch is torn down. I'm not trying to criticize the guy. However I sure am curious how he can be able to tell the watch was 1/3 of a beat off by ear.

Usually I never ask to see what a watchmaker is doing at his bench. However something about the guy did not appear normal. However in the past I have had some very bad dealings with watchmakers. One watchmaker put a very big dent on a dial. It was done during his custody of the watch. He denied denting the dial. We parted ways on bad terms.

 

I beg to differ. Our family heirloom, 230-year-old, long case clock has had a significant beat error for at least three generations - it's part of the character of the old boy. Despite the "error" It keeps excellent time, and I think it would take quite some getting used to if someone was to actually correct it.

 

From now on I'm now listening to all of my watches to get their input on any servicing they may need.

 

I think you can even listen to a quartz to tell if a battery needs to be changed.

 

I have a bit of a soft spot for things that function consistently but not necessarily exactly within specification so, can appreciate what you're saying. The "error" in this case does not affect timekeeping significantly.

If you're happy with the noises it makes, then no reason to change it. I am very attuned to inconsistent repetetive noises so, it would drive me scatty.

Regards, Chris

 

Me too, married 45 years this month.

 

I like my watchmaker he is an idiot about everything except watches he charges me 120 to repair clean broken watches 65 for good watches
sold me a Rolex original bracelet for my Tudor for 3 bills not a scratch on it and he is a collector

 

Here is the watch that I mentioned in an earlier post the dial was dented while a watchmaker had the watch in his shop for service. I realize that stuff happens. Not the greatest watch but it had the makings of a nice watch. The watchmaker denied denting the dial. That was unacceptable to me.

How was the dial dented who knows After I picked the watch up I polished the case it had some nicks. I keep this as is for a reminder to be cautious when dealing with unknown shops.

The dial would be a fairly easy fix. I could send it out for a refinish. Every now and then I hunt around for a replacement dial. So far no luck with that.

I wear this watch as a beater type watch. If I ever find the correct dial. Then I would have a brushed finish applied on the case. The dent is between the 10 & 11 indices Not the greatest picture of the watch. I had to get a good angle to show the dent.
As they say S happens.

 

I used to get a V8 tuned by a old guy that could pick a distributor out of whack by less than half a millimetre
Could put his hand behind a exhaust pipe and change a carbbie screw quarter mil and make a car quarter mile half a second quicker.

Know a botanist you could give any blade of grass in the world almost and he could tell you what it is and where it's from

Just saying ............ Freaky people do exist

 

Post of the year!

 

Interesting diagnosis, but really unsure what exactly this means.

One option is beat error, and that is measured in milliseconds, but there is no "whole" number associated with it, so how can it be 1/3 of a beat off, when there is no such thing as a full beat? In order to hear beat error, it would have to be huge - tolerances for beat error on most Omegas are that it should be less than 0.8 ms, and to most watchmakers that is a very big tolerance - I like mine to be zero if possible, and sometimes in positions they will show 0.1 or maybe 0.2. I very much doubt his hearing is good enough to detect an event that is a fraction of a ms in duration difference.

The other option is the rate, so let's for the sake of it say that the watch beats at a slow rate of 18,000 A/hr. Let's do some math...18,000/60 is 300 beats per minute, and divide that by 60 is 5 beats per second. So each beat is 1/5th of a second long. If it's out by 1/3 of 1 beat, that means it's running at either 17,999.666 A/hr, or 18,000.333 A/hr since he didn't say which direction. Again very unlikely someone can hear that, in particular when I doubt he held it there for a complete hour, so the error he's apparently detecting over a few seconds would be a very small fraction of that 1/5th of a second. Of course if the watch in question has a higher beat rate, the fraction gets smaller...

So is this, as some suggest, some form of simplification for the sake of a customer who may not know about watches? I highly doubt it - this is just nonsense. I think most watchmakers would put the watch on a timing machine, not to their ear.

Keep in mind that anyone can hang out a shingle and call themselves a watchmaker - in most jurisdictions it is not a protected title.

Cheers, Al

 

My urologist once...never mind.