What's more important? Accuracy vs. Power Reserve

No argument here for me -- I prefer having more accuracy and a higher beat rate to a longer power reserve. That's just one of the MANY reasons that I don't like ETA's moves away from the 2824-2 to the Powermatic series.

I am in such a long cycle that power reserve makes little difference.

I'm assuming the watch has a basic eta power reserve of ~38ish hours in which case I would prefer more accuracy, but if the watch has a lot of complications that are a pain to set I'll take power reserve

This right here. The rotation length nearly always exceeds any power reserve.

I have enough watches and switch often enough that neither one matters to me.

That grand Seiko 5 day PR almost gets me through my cycle (if I wear 5 watches a day)

Really depends on how many watches you own. But for me, even with only 4 watches in my regular rotation, I always appreciate my Hamilton Khaki Field's ability to not need winding when I reach for it.

Since I carry a smart phone which tells time with great accuracy, therefore I prefer more power so I don't need to reset and wind it. To me, the mechanical movement is a testament to what can be achieved with mechanical ingenuity and whether it is truly accurate, doesn't really matter. It has imperfections but at least it has a sole.

My Seiko kinetic has a four year power reserve. It goes to sleep after a day or so of inactivity, and when you wake it up, the hands go round and round until it returns to the correct time. I love watching that.

Because I don't change watches every day, I'd find better accuracy more interesting. By the time I get back to a watch it's usually been sitting for a week or more.

Until there is the unicorn’s blood 30 day mechanical power reserve, accuracy all the way.

I mean, technically there is -- it's called a battery, lol. Don't believe me? I give you the battery powered mechanical watch movement:

Nice donut reference. But, I lean towards accuracy.

Well played.

Accuracy all the way! An inaccurate watch that last 5 days is still useless. And to be real, my rotation makes any power reserve less than 7 days pointless.

The way my watch looks is far more important to me than accuracy or power reserve.

I have discovered the joy of a 5 days power reserve (Mark XX) and it is sooo comfortable in a two to three watches a week rotation. I my experience, a 70h power reserve feels a little bit too short to be sure that the whatch will outlast the weekend (always unsatisfied :p).

Accuracy, by far. I've always thought extreme power reserves were a funny sort of thing. "I can take my watch off for three days... AND IT STILL WORKS!" Well, golf clap, LOL. If I take my watch off on a Friday and want to wear it on Monday, I spend 15 seconds resetting the time, and we're off to the races again. I don't need a huge power reserve in any way, but I really appreciate accuracy a great deal.

Accuracy. If you have several watches you probably need to keep them somewhere nice, just get a watch winder.

I like to swap back and forth between 2 watches for a couple weeks, then rotate in a new pair. The low power reserve ones are a little annoying on this system. Even my very accurate COSC watches start to drift on accuracy at lowish power, in the bottom 1/4 of the reserve.

So, even the difference between 38hr and 42hr is meaningful for me, just staying that little bit more in sweet spot of the spring. My shift work means that a day off wrist may be more than 24 hours since I keep wacky hours.

Of course 70 and 80 hour power reserve models stay perfectly accurate a with a long day off the wrist. And Spring Drives do amazing on both fronts, dead accurate to the last minute of power. And hell yes, want a 9RA5 5 day power model.

I think all of us are ok on moving to a longer power reserve if the accuracy is held within a certain spec.

In my case, my Powermatic 80 and my 6R35 both do better than COSC, thus I'm happy with those movements lengthening the reserve. If they stunk (say -20 sec a day), I'd not be happy with the compromise.

More power unless the watch is below a minimum level of inaccuracy.

More power is much more useful for manual wind than automatic provided one has a watch winder.

I tend to wear one watch for long periods of time, so for me if much prefer an accurate watch over one with a long power reserve.

Yeah man, 120 is just a game changer 🤌

But how many extra 15 sec do you have on a Monday morning? 😅

In my case I do prefer low power reserve, it preserves more the life time of the watches, and I don’t need more than 1 or 2 days of power reserve.

I may be in the minority, but while I love that mesmerizing sweep of a high-beat, I also prefer a lower beat rate for reasons besides the power reserve. From what I understand, a high-beat rate subjects components to increased friction and wear, which means that with a lower-beat rate comes less wear and longer service intervals. So unless we're talking high-end luxury, I'll take longevity and power reserve over hyper-accuracy. If I want exacting accuracy from my watch, I'll grab my Casio Oceanus. 💪 Just my .02

I just did a long post on specs. Accuracy is it for me for no other reason than it is an indicator of a good overall movement IMO.

Accurate movement usually means better made movement which usually means better specs and longer life. This is not a rule, but just a common effect from what I've seen.

@GullibleAndroid makes a good point on the effects of friction, which is why many enthusiasts don't use watch winders. However, if you don't use the same watch every day this is probably not going to be as noticeable. The lubricants and main spring will likely give out long before your balance wheel does in a quality movement. Replacing a couple of wheels and jewels is not so bad by comparison.

Soul 🙂

Why are we here? I have a phone that can tell me the time on Mars to the millisecond and has access to a chatbot that will eventually become our master 🤖