Watch problem that gave me a chuckle...
Okay, here is one that gave me a chuckle today: I have this watch I practice on, basically a Chinese case with an NH35, another aftermarket dial, and $2 watch hands from Tajikistan. It's truly a practice watch, no beauty, but it was reliably enough to wear, with an accuracy around -8 to -10 seconds a day. Fine, not slow enough to regulate it.
Then I noticed that it was slow to start at times, and that it started losing more time than normal. So today I put it on a timegrapher. At first the typical -10 s/day, but there were sudden rate drops, about every minute.
Would you like to guess what was the reason? 😉
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Either balance lever is out or debris in the movement?
Either balance lever is out or debris in the movement?
Thanks for playing. No, that's not it. In fact, it wasn't even the movement in the strictest sense.
Hands are rubbing up against either the dial or the crystal?
It was actually the seconds hand. It had developed a slight but consistent curvature throughout its length, and must have made very light contact with the crystal in roughly the 25 seconds position. (This also means that something else was not 100% flush. I didn't notice any debris though, and the watch was working previously. There were no signs of wear on the seconds hand.) I took a plunger I install seconds hands with, and tried to straighten out the seconds hand a little, then reinstalled the movement into the watch case.
The watch was consistent again at around -10 s/day.
Hands are rubbing up against either the dial or the crystal?
You came in under the deadline. We have a winner! 🥳
You came in under the deadline. We have a winner! 🥳