Reply With QuoteIt all depends on how you wear your watch; I wear mine for months at a time so accuracy is important as it minimised the frequency at which I need to adjust it.
This may be an unpopular opinion:
Like many others on here (I suspect), I rarely wear any watch for more than a few days at a time. When I pick one up out of the watch box in the morning, I have a quick glance at the G-shock and set the one I’m wearing to the nearest minute. I then go about my day and put it away when I go to bed.
Now a watch that is meant to run within certain parameters and loses accuracy implies something’s not right but given that I start the day at +/-60 seconds and will inherently reset the time within the next 3 days, to me, makes any lofty accuracy ambitions superfluous.
While it’s a nice demonstration of engineering, I must say that the presence of chronometer certification does little to incentivise me to a purchase...
...or is it just me?
It all depends on how you wear your watch; I wear mine for months at a time so accuracy is important as it minimised the frequency at which I need to adjust it.
Don’t like to be slow but a minute or so fast I can live with.
Does it matter? Not really. If it did we’d all wear F-91s
But I do appreciate the engineering and marvel at the accuracy that can be achieved.
I have had a couple that, with some care on how I left it at night when not worn, I could get to run consistently at +/- 0 and that is quite satisfying.
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Last edited by notenoughwrists; 11th October 2020 at 15:44.
A little fast is also better. Less likely to be late, and easier to change to the correct time.
I wear them the same way as you and never measure any for accuracy....except if I'm selling it. If it doesn't gain or lose more than a minute in the day, I'm not overly-bothered. I rarely do anything of consequence that makes any greater accuracy than that, necessary.
Having said that, I can understand the alternative view. Pay thousands for a watch and surely the least you can expect is that it tells the time accurately.
Does anybody know of a free watch timer/grapher app/website? I'm amazed there's no free version out there... or at least I can't find one.
That’s a good thought process OP. I like you rarely wear my automatic watches and when I do it is only for a day at a time (weekends). So yes I suppose even if it was running a minute fast/slow isn’t really a problem.
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I use the Twixt Time app (not sure if it was free but if not it didn’t cost much at all). Also I sometimes measure against time.isOriginally Posted by fm.tz
I posted this earlier in a different thread, but it allows you to time and save the details for multiple watches.
Accuracy has always been important to me and even more so since lockdown as I am now wearing my watches for 8 days or so each at a time in rotation. I check and record my watches against time.is daily.
I mind less about accuracy than I did but it is nice to have. The satisfaction of regulating my Komanderskie, so that's as accurate as my Explorer, gives me great pleasure. Generally for mechanicals, I am fairly relaxed. Quartz is a different matter.
To my mind a quartz watch should be as accurate as possible, preferably to the second, so for my non-atomic G-Shocks and my Citizens, I check them daily and reset them when I notice they're off by a couple of seconds. It's just a foible I possess.
Like others, not that bothered about accuracy. Anything less than +10 secs a day is superb in my book. I don't think I've ever owned a watch that ran spot in, including many Rolex etc. Even those run wild on my wrist.
I'd be happy +/- 1 min per day for an auto for something cheap and cheerful, but for several thousand I'd be looking for +/- 20 secs or less otherwise I'd feel robbed.
I went through a phase of wanting a super accurate watch.. The pinnacle of which is the 9F Grand Seikos and Citizen Chronomasters at +/-5s per year. But all gone now and love the fact my mechanicals are not perfect (like me!) - but if within 2-3s a day I'd be very very happy with that!
I'm ok if it's out by one minute per week. I can set it on Sunday evening and know that it's still near enough on Friday afternoon.
I bought a new automatic a few months ago, and that was losing about 35 seconds per day. I've been keeping a close eye on it (using M$ Excel) and it has been steadily improving. Currently -25 seconds. I think it had been sat in store for a few years, so maybe the lube is slowly doing its thing. It does lose a fairly consistent amount each day (+/- 1.5s), so once it has settled it can hopefully be regulated and keep excellent time.
Am using 'Smart GPS Time' on Android for reference time as I found the time supplied to my phone by the network could be out by as much as five seconds.
There speaks a man who doesn't own an F-91, mine is around 10 seconds out a day minimum 🙂
I don’t need to be anywhere within “seconds per day” accuracy. Likewise, I don’t need 300m WR.
That doesn’t stop me buying way over spec’d watches.
I do like a gadget though - so I bought an Atomic G-Shock to set my other watches... & later, a similarly equipped Citizen...
Needless to say - they are exactly in sync... then I set the seiko to exactly the same time...
Not because it needs to be that accurate - it’s just a WIS thing...
z
I think this is where I’m at, +/- 20s per day is plenty good enough for an auto / mechanical for me!
Which begs the question; would you pay over the odds for a B&M Clifton / Formex Essence etc... which was COSC certified. I’m not sure I would in principle, but I would definitely have to fight the feeling of getting a lesser watch...
My watches lose or gain between 0.5 and 8 secs per day. Depending which I wear for 2 weeks or so at a time I set them slow or fast so that they end up going in and out of spot on time and end up the same amount out by the time I change to a different watch.
F.T.F.A.
I understand why an automatic/mechanical watch won't be perfectly accurate. In fact I'm amazed how accurate even the lower-end automatics are, given how it's all powered by a spring. A spring!
What I don't understand is how a quartz watch can be out by a few seconds per day. Surely the crystal has a specific & precise timing?
I am annoyed if watches do not run within their specification - which manufactures have been tightening above and beyond even COSC. I will get a watch adjusted until it is in specification.
So accuracy is important to me.
How accurate do they need to be is a different question - probably a few seconds a day - rule of thumb for me is mechanical should be accurate to 1min/week.
I only like SQ quartz accuracy so something like accuracy of at least 10sec/year
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 11th October 2020 at 18:37.
It needs to be in specification for me, and I typically wear watches that are rated COSC or better. I like a watch to be within a couple of seconds per day, and am dissatisfied if it is more than around 5 seconds out - it probably won’t last long in the collection otherwise.
I tend to change watches either daily or every other day, but that is not the point for me - I like to see the attention to detail, and that includes accuracy. If a movement is capable of excellent accuracy, then it seems lazy of the watchmaker to not achieve this (AP, I am looking at you)
I think if you switch from one to the next every few days, though it’s nice to know it can, it doesn’t really matter. I can’t see any watch company selling watches by saying they’re accurate to a minute or so a day, but that is t your point. However, I wear mine for months or years at a time. So while it doesn’t matter to you, it does to me because I can’t be arsed to reset the time every few days or weeks. I just want it to be as right as it can be for as long as I can tolerate it.
So in short - depends on the owner.
I had my 1980 Rolex 1655 Explorer11 serviced by Rolex and it is good for +2secs over a 28 day period. For that reason I expect everyone of my Rolex to be the same and they are all damn near to it.
There is no point in paying thousands for a watch that gains or loses 2 secs a day at the most. If it goes beyond those limits give the repairer a rollocking.
I understand the original question, for years, or at least until I found this place, I wore my only good watch a 116610 sub every day and it was phenomenally and pleasingly accurate. I then discovered other brands and designs (Speedy pro, Hamilton, Seiko, Steinhart, Longines) and now really am not that bothered. I wear them for a few days or a week and rotate to another watch.
I feel much more liberated and enjoy them from a aesthetic point of view.
My tolerance for inaccuracy tails off pretty steeply upwards of about 5 secs / day of it. If I take a watch with me on a trip I just don't want it to be 20-odd seconds out after a few days.
I find that inexpensive Seiko automatics often gain about 20s a day or worse, but I've regulated a couple of Seiko 5s myself this year and got them to roughly +5 seconds per day without too much trouble. It's not uncommon for relatively cheap mechanical watches to be accurate within 4 or 5 secs a day.
But each to their own, and of course if accuracy is the main thing, radio-synchronised Casios (or Citizens, or whatever you fancy) are your friend.
Who tells the time using their watch? That's what a smartphone is for.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
I wonder how accurate all of those nasty fake watches are?
That pretty much sums up my position on accuracy too. Within +/- 3 seconds a day and I’m very happy. On the rare occasions I wear my nice mechanicals these days, I always set them from the GMT website to the second.
I think a distinction needs to be made between "accuracy" and "precision." Ie one thing is to be accurate to a certain reference time but what is more important is the consistency of the movement. I would rather have a watch that is consistently 10 seconds fast than one that is inconsistent.
https://www.revolution.watch/accurac...vely%20trivial.
I'm with you on this.
My benchmark is usually my Breitling B-1 and I set the watch to that (or maybe time.is if I forget to do it when I put it on), if it's not noticeably out the next day I don't reset it (and by that I mean more than a minute or two).
I usually switch watches every 2 or 3 days, because I have a fair number and like to wear as many as possible.
It's good to know a mechanical watch can be very precise.
After all, it's their whole purpose, but, especially with vintage watches, I can live with them not being so.
I'd rather have a cosmetically good condition of a watch which loses or gains a couple of minutes a day than a beaten up one that keeps perfect time.
M
Last edited by snowman; 13th October 2020 at 09:00.
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
My 16610 (89) gains ten seconds a day, so I set it 3 minutes slow and consider change it when its 5 minutes fast.
My DJ (78) loses ten seconds so I set it 5 minutes fast and change it when its 3 minutes slow.
Works ok for me over a couple of months.
Modern I might be tempted to be a bit more anal but really, if I need exact exact ill look at my phone. I tend to gaze at watches just because I love them and dont really register the time. ops.
Perhaps I'm increasingly unusual nowadays in that I pretty much use only my watch to tell the time, virtually never the phone and only rarely the computer. I use the watch to know when to join all the conference calls at work as well as for my daily commute, where I like to time getting to the station as close as possible to the train departure time. For me, therefore, both precision and accuracy are very important, which partly explains why my two daily wearers are GS (one quartz and one spring drive). For a mechanical daily wearer, I'd tolerate a maximum of +/-5spd, so it wouldn't need adjusting more than once week.
Accuracy to me is important when buying but not important when owning. I don't know the accuracy of any of my watches as I never wear the same one long enough to notice. I do however always check them on an app before selling to make sure any buyer is happy and to make sure I'm not selling a lemon.
This is the accuracy I like in my watch
Very honourable.
I never check mine for reasons stated above and tend to be a little anxious selling them as I always presumed I would need a timegrapher. I thought spending the money on one just for the sake of selling a watch seemed OTT. I think I’ll start following your example!
I just use am app from the Google play store for £4.99. One day I'll upgrade to a timegrapher!
I set time according to myI watch having lived all my working life tied to time i no longer care however it would peeve me if a watch radically lost or gained whilst on my wrist
I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
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