Regulating a watch for the first time

First time regulating a watch, my experience.

Tools

I received my Weishi 1000 timegrapher (127€) couple of days ago and i allready have a cheap watchtools kit. Other than that i needed couple of wooden toothpicks.

Knowhow

Just watching guides from youtubers about regulating and using timegrapher.

Watch

Seiko 5 automatic 7S26 movement

My target

I hope to get somewhere between -5 to + 15 seconds a day. Beat error target is below 1ms.

Amplitude tells how the movement is doing, higher the better. Low amplitude means either need for service (cleaning, lubricating and so on) or that there some other problem. That is something i cant do anything about. So rate and beat-error will be tinkered.

Using timegrapher

Timegrapher is basically a plug and play thing. There are settings, but if you dont want to you dont have to change anything but the LIFT ANGLE. Google told me that 7s26 movements lift angle is 53 degrees so that i needed to change.

First results

Seiko 5 did not do well on timegrapher. Face-up positions showed -30 s/day ang beat error of 3 ms. Not a great start. Amplitude was 233 wich is ok. Not great but acceptable.

Opening caseback and tinkering with levers

As my watch needed both beat-error and rate tinkering you should start by setting beat-error as tinkering it will anyway effect the rate.

First slight nodge to lever and back to timegrapher. Now beat error was over 7ms, so face started reddening (my face not the watch). Just kept going and nodge to other direction and now it was 3ms, so i had figured what direction i should go. After about 7 times it was done (0.0ms), better than i tought i could do.

Setting the rate was same, but on on the movement there are + and - signs so you know wich direction you should go. From -30sec to about +5sec a day took 8 times pushing the lever.

End results and feelings

Watch has now zero beat-erros and rate is +5 seconds a day so it was much better than i thought i could reach as beginner. I had great fun and will regulate rest of my watches when i have time.