Question about Setting a Watch
There is a technical question I've had but have been embarrassed to ask because it seems so obvious and insignificant. WC seems like a good place to ask it, since there are like-minded watch enthusiasts like me, who have a pathological fixation on tiny details that escape the notice of other people.
When setting your watch, what happens when you set your minute hand precisely at a minute marker but the second hand is somewhere other than 00:00? When the second hand runs and hits the 12 o'clock mark, will your minute hand be perpetually off now as well?
Does this question make sense? Help!
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Yes, your minute hand will be perpetually off. 👍
I use to stop the second hand at 12 and then I set the time that is going to be in a minute for example... then i wait that seconds and when is just about to change the minute I make it run again. Otherway youll start some seconds away from real time,
At least I think that
Wow! There are no embarrassing questions and as my english is not my mother tongue I will try to answer it as good as I can.
I do think that the minute hand should be off when the second hand is passing the twelve o‘clock mark if you have set the minute hand on one mark and the second hand is already forward.
To avoid this situation and as long as you have a hackable second hand on your watch (which should be the case on your Omega) just set both hands together at twelve.
Hoping that could help.
While in hacking you are free to manipulate two out of three timekeeping factors, but not the seconds. Stopping the seconds at twelve makes it easier to match all three factors.
But you can have Hours and Minutes running atomic time while the seconds hand running a maraton or anything else than atomic if you want. You can also try to guess the position of the minute hand with your "off" seconds hand, but I don't see why you would want to makes everything harder and more uncertain?
Nothing to be embarrassed about with that question. That said, I’ve come to a point after years of being around mechanical watches that obsessing too much about its accuracy and being in sync with the actual time will only make you appreciate the hobby less, IMHO. Enjoy them for what they are… these watches have their own character and individuality. When you start to recognize and accept that, you will enjoy this hobby much better. YMMV, of course.
Nothing to be embarrassed about with that question. That said, I’ve come to a point after years of being around mechanical watches that obsessing too much about its accuracy and being in sync with the actual time will only make you appreciate the hobby less, IMHO. Enjoy them for what they are… these watches have their own character and individuality. When you start to recognize and accept that, you will enjoy this hobby much better. YMMV, of course.
In fact... and no sure if the following also happen to others.... My watch use to gain seconds every time I get involved in stressful situations.
I like having my watches set so that the minute hand lines up with a minute marker at the point where the seconds hand is at 12. When I set my watch, I hack the watch when the seconds hand reaches the 12, then set the time to the next minute. Using an atomic time app as a reference, I then push the crown in when the app shows the appropriate minute. On most of my watches, this works just fine, however I have some watches where there is some play in the hands. For example, I have a Norqain Adventure Sport Chrono which gains less than 2 seconds per day, but whenever I set the time and push the crown back in, it seems to take about 15 seconds before the minute hand starts moving. When setting that watch, I set the minute hand to be 1/4 of the way to the next minute, so that when I engage the crown, that offset will compensate for the delay in the movement of the minute hand, resulting in the minute marker lining up very closely to when the seconds points at 12.