How important is accuracy for you?

D METAS

Mechanical watches:+- 10 seconds per day for me

--------

Quartz watches: OH BOY. +- 10 seconds per year

Otherwise:

For me it has no importance since I change my watch every day, I have some COSC and I love their accuracy but it is not very important at all, besides I have a Time Grapher to regulate my Seikos

My rotation is so vast that by the time I get back to any mechanical watch I have to set the time (to an atomic clock) again anyway. Even if the drift is a minute in a day, like on some vintage pieces, what's the harm? I've never had a new mechanical watch lose or gain more than about 20 seconds, even an inexpensive Seiko or Citizen (it's usually much better, actually).

I'm very glad I don't have OCD. I'm satisfied with excellence rather than perfection.

I have a Bulova Precisionist and I don't feel any "better" wearing it than any other watch in my collection.

I love accurate watches. I have a couple that continue to amaze me but I’m not bothered by some that are off by half a minute per day. To me it’s all a part of investment and expectations. Plus 30 seconds a day isn’t very important.

I can’t stand any watch that runs slow. Even a second or 2 slow. But I just have to accept it in mechanical watches but I’ll agree with @BadgeHoarder that 10 is the maximum I can live with

I try to regulate my watches as close as I can, but lately I haven’t been wearing mechanical long enough for it to matter. I switch up so frequently and been wearing a quartz often enough that I need to wind and set any of my mechanicals.

I especially like radio controlled watches for this same reason 😉...

Accuracy is not important at all for me. I rarely wear the same watch for two consecutive days so all my watches just power down in the watch box and I have to wind and set them again when I pick them up. I own watches running at +2 sec a day and others at +20 sec a day and it makes no difference to me.

I prefer accurate watches (ie running in COSC standard, whether certified or not). I'm an accuracy nerd, put my watches on a timegrapher and use an app to manually track watch accuracy of every watch I own/wear...including my quartz watches! I find I wear my most/more accurate watches more often and for more days consecutively. My less accurate watches (> +/- 10 spd) get one, two, days tops of wrist time. I may go longer by setting them behind say -30 seconds so they're only about +30 after two or more days.

I know it's not a big deal but call it a habit of a lifetime in a profession where timeliness and accuracy are highly valued.

It depends on the use case, my Seiko cocktail time presages are for parties and drinks, and the movement is appropriately inaccurate. My daily watches are much more accurate, Longines, Raymond Weil, Steinhart, Squale and Hamilton.

For a modern watch within manufacture spec. For vintage within 2 minutes a day since I usually only wear them for 1 or 2 days.

As others have said, I rotate my watches so frequently that it really isn’t that big of deal for me. I appreciate how accurate my Omega, but in reality I never really notice.

I’m getting less anal about it. My Laco loses about eight seconds a day but is too beautiful to make it less a watch. My Hruodland loses about a second a day and I love it equally. I suppose I have too many for it to matter too.

I’ll vote plus minus 10, because that’s what I’m fine with in my budget sub collection. But COSC, minimum, and preferably METAS for the primary collection.

Really, you have to adjust based on the watch - generally. But sometimes you get really surprised. My green/white Seiko Cub and my Steinhart both run at plus 1 second out of the box.

How I look at it is a watch is a time measuring tool in the first place. If it fails to do so or haz a slightly misaligned bezel it becomes an accessory to me.

For me, a slow watch is a no-no. I can accept a fast watch and having to periodically hack the second hand for the time to catch up, but I get impatient having to move the minute hand and wait almost a minute for the time to catch up.

Quartz: accurate enough, don't matter

Mechanical: not why I wear them, don't matter either

I knew what I was getting into, when I decided to go down the mechanical road, but especially for an automatic everyday watch I'd expect it to run more accurately. What's the point in not needing to wind the watch if you have to set the time everyday, anyway?

I chose A, but this is not always possible with the types of watches I buy. I do regulate my watches myself. However, I'm not a watchmaker so I lack the skills necessary to fully calibrate a watch movement. It's not uncommon to see 15 seconds or more deviation in the 4 positions on inexpensive watch movements even after I regulate it. However, with a watch movement of this type, the timegrapher cannot be the final determination. What really matters is how the watch performs on the wrist. As a result, I base my accuracy determination on 24 hour measurements on the wrist and then a 5-7 day average on the wrist. This may seem tedious but this kind of work (with other measurement tools and instruments) is my occupation so it's routine. Of all my watches, I have a couple of Vostoks, a couple of Invictas, and a Forsening that I haven't been able to adjust to my satisfaction. I also have a 20 year old Orient that is all over the place. I can't find a replacement movement so it may have to go to a professional.

If given the choice of the same model and one is COSC I will alway pick it. I haven’t picked up a CW 12 yet because I want a titanium white dial with the regulated SW300….but they don’t do that 😕

As long as it is within declared specs parameters I am ok. I got what I paid for and agreed on accuracy variability upon purchase. What I can't stand is being outside of parameters and having to regulate it myself. Some even say that is completely normal/acceptable🤯

I understand that you may not care if you have to set a watch everyday. But I don’t think you have to have OCD to want your watch (that you were many days in a row) to keep time.😉

So you think running slow is worse then running fast. Can you explain further? 😃

Heavily depends on the Watch. 5k+ Omegas? Should not be 10s/day off!

A Vintage Poljot that has not seen a single service in 30 years? 15s/day is excellent!

My watches keep time too. The difference between us is how far off the time is from atomic time, i.e., THE time, we're willing to accept.

I think it’s important to know that the time is when looking down at the wrist, which isn’t really possible it the watch looses or gain 1 minute per week in my opinion.

I'm fine with being close enough, as there's no impact to my daily activities, even if my watch is two minutes off (which is never the case because I set them as I put them on for that day). When I look at my watch, I want to know about what time it is, I don't care if it perfectly matches NIST time. My joy derives from looking at the watch, not how precise the watch is.

I'm curious if you are like this with other aspects of your life. Do you demand such precision with other things in your possession? I'm just trying to wrap my head around the need. That's why I mention OCD.

I regulate to < 4 spd and won't bother with it until it exceeds twice that value.

Certifications are a sales tool IMHO. What you buy is the movement.

For my Swiss Auto’s I usually accept a Cosc standard though won’t reset the time until it’s around 5 or more seconds off. Usually that takes some time 5 days or so. Have had the Oris on wrist for over a week and she is still under 10 seconds. Haven’t pulled the Crown once.

It may not be worse, but it's a personal preference that if you ran a poll here I bet over 90% would take fast over slow. Probably the main reason is that it's easier to reset to a reference time as you only have to hack the movement and wait for it to match the correct time.

Yup. I agree. That’s why I find more value in a mechanical watch vs automatic.