Is accuracy important to you?
I love the beauty and complexity of the mechanical movements. It is a real fascination to me and part of my enjoyment in watch collecting. However, when I wear them, I find myself frustrated by having to reset them to be correct. That may be a different problem (OCD) I know. But I find myself interest in quartz or atomic watches for the accuracy. I have 2 of the atomic ones just to make sure I can set my other watches accurately when I want to wear them. Anyone else have this struggle?
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Todd
I’m interested in vintage watches right now and trying to learn basic watch servicing. Need more time.
Phoenix
Member since
Last active: 3 hrs ago
Yes. I strongly appreciate accuracy, which is why I have a timegrapher and regulate watches when needed. Pretty much all my mechanical watches run better than COSC standards when worn on the wrist now. I find it very satisfying to get a watch dialed in to running just a second or two off the atomic clock per day.
I picked out today's watch last night. I wound it and set it. It tells me the same as my phone (for now at least). Good enough.
Yes. I strongly appreciate accuracy, which is why I have a timegrapher and regulate watches when needed. Pretty much all my mechanical watches run better than COSC standards when worn on the wrist now. I find it very satisfying to get a watch dialed in to running just a second or two off the atomic clock per day.
That’s awesome. I’d love to be able to do that. Maybe someday
That’s awesome. I’d love to be able to do that. Maybe someday
It’s really not that difficult if you have patience and a steady hand. It really increases my enjoyment of watches that may have come out of the box running 20 or 30 seconds off, and turning them into precise timepieces.
I have absolutely no need to ever know the precise time, yet accuracy is extremely important to me. Historically, the primary function of a watch was to tell the time, and the more accurately a watch can do that, the more impressed I am with it. My most accurate mechanical watch (GMT Master) gains between 1-2 seconds per week, while my most accurate quartz (X33 Skywalker) has gained 1 second in the 157 days since I bought it. I find both equally impressive. My most recent watch (IWC Pilots Chrono 41) seems to lose about 6 SPD - I still really like the watch, but would like it all the more if it was closer to most of my other mechanicals, which run well within COSC specs.
I never thought I was but during the 1 Watch Challenge, my watch was gaining enough time that it started bothering me because it was my daily. So I would say my daily watch would need to have a certain standard of accuracy (+5 seconds a day, maybe 10?). Before the 1 Watch Challenge I would say no.
I wore quartz watches for decades and would get rid of ones that were more than 5 seconds off per month. When I bought my first mechanical watches, they were sub-$100 with -20/+45 spd movements, so I tried to prepare myself for terrible accuracy. However, I've been pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of my cheap watches. One is about +1.8spd on wrist and I can positionally regulate it overnight so I never need to adjust the time. The other varies between +3-10 spd. I typically set it 30s slow and don't reset until it's 30s fast...about 1 to 2 weeks. At first this bothered me, but now I'm OK with it and enjoy the interaction (it's manual wind with a 36 hr PR, so interaction is necessary daily).