Help! Grand Seiko SBGP017 quartz hand misaligned
Hello Watchcrunch family!
I recently purchased the Grand Seiko SBGP017, "Sea of Clouds", at an official GS boutique, and unfortunately ran into a problem once I took time to gaze at it at home. The second hand is misaligned! This is my second GS quartz, and this is supposed to be the higher-end quartz to +/-5 seconds a year.
I pulled out the crown to stop the second hand on the double markers in order to take this photo, and to me, the second hand is off by a bit, making the second hand miss all of the other markers... What do you think?
I've taken it back to the boutique and they are sending it for servicing...
I'm super bummed out about this happening as I haven't even worn it out yet!
Has anyone else experienced this?
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Yea this is a common issue with ANY quartz watch. It is super hard to get the seconds hand align with the indices with a quartz movement. I would exchange it for a mechanical movement.
Dang that sucks, those precise stepper motors in the 9f quartz are supposed to be aligned. Hopefully they fix it !
Are you sure you're looking at the watch straight on? Moving your head, or even looking at something with one eye and then the other can make a big difference. See parallax effect.
Having said that, the minute hand may be off too. If the second hand is at 12 the minute hand should not be there!
Other than that Ms Lincoln, how do you like the watch? I'm tempted, I have the sbgv238 and I love it. But, I'm concerned it's too small.
It's so close, from the picture it looks like parallax error. You took the picture from the left, so the hand looks like it's shifted to the right. And parallax error will look different at different points around the dial, since your looking from a different angle. If you want to obsess, to be sure you have to rotate the watch so the seconds hand is at 12 o'clock as it moves around the dial, and you have to look at it dead on, right between your eyes. Parallax error is probably greater than than whatever misalignment may or may not be there, and depending on how you look at your watch it will always appear slightly off. Yes, I've obsessed about it too.
The mis-alignment can happen from getting bumped during shipping etc.... It is being fixed so that is good news. I recently had sent my GS Automatic back because it was not keeping time within the stated specifications. Without question it was taken care of under warranty; thats the benefit of Seiko service. Unfortunately, it was gone for four months!
It's all part of collecting, stuff happens from time to time.
I ordered this watch from a microbrand called Straum, which likely doesn’t have the QC Grand Seiko does. The hour hand was misaligned with the indices when the minute hand was at 12, which drove me wild considering I’ve assembled a watch before and that seems rudimentary. However the founder was pleasant to work with and the round trip was about a month between the west coast of the US to Switzerland.
This is another shot taken. What do you think?
It's so close, from the picture it looks like parallax error. You took the picture from the left, so the hand looks like it's shifted to the right. And parallax error will look different at different points around the dial, since your looking from a different angle. If you want to obsess, to be sure you have to rotate the watch so the seconds hand is at 12 o'clock as it moves around the dial, and you have to look at it dead on, right between your eyes. Parallax error is probably greater than than whatever misalignment may or may not be there, and depending on how you look at your watch it will always appear slightly off. Yes, I've obsessed about it too.
This is a better shot, what do you Think? Misaligned?
The mis-alignment can happen from getting bumped during shipping etc.... It is being fixed so that is good news. I recently had sent my GS Automatic back because it was not keeping time within the stated specifications. Without question it was taken care of under warranty; thats the benefit of Seiko service. Unfortunately, it was gone for four months!
It's all part of collecting, stuff happens from time to time.
Thanks for the reply! This is a good opportunity to see how Grand Seiko handles this situation. I just hope this gets resolved well as I’m a big fan of the brand.