Is it normal for a date to change before midnight?

I have a couple watches where the date starts to change just before midnight and the day changes shortly after midnight.

I have experience of watches where the date begins to change at ten minutes before and finishes five minutes after. I think it has a lot to do with the initial hand alignment when the watch was assembled.

My watch was changing 5 mins before midnight even after full service. It has basic ETA workhorse movement, so I guess would be commonplace occurrence. Maybe high end in-house movements would be different, but idk.

I remember recently watching one of Wristwatch Restoration videos and upon restoration date was also changing bit prior midnight without bothering the professional watchmaker or even causing a comment.

Gee I learn something often on WC 👍 reading comments

Though it’s annoying (especially if you have bad OCD), I think it’s normal for the date to change anywhere within +/- 10 minutes of midnight.

I already searched for it in the past and found that it is a common thing for most movements. There are definitely some movements where the jump from the old to the new date is instant, but mostly it is in that time range because the date wheel is dependent on the day wheel, which in turn is dependent on the hour wheel. The date wheel is, as many of you know, wave-shaped, so while the catch rises on the wave up, it needs the day wheel to turn that little bit so that the catch can reach the downward direction and thus snap into place. That timing is exactly the time you mentioned and answer why is it before midnight is that the date wheel is set like that. If you move the date wheel a little further then your date will change after midnight for instance. That time is different in each movement because it depends on how big the ripple on the date wheel is and therefore also the date wheel itself. Some movements even have 45 minutes to set up. The main reason is that there is a great load on the spring and the entire mechanism of the movement, as when the date wheel rotates, and when there are more complications, for example, the day, it is all the more stressful for the entire mechanism and therefore take a bit longer

That’s is very good explanation 👍

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

You welcome mate 😉

Not every movement can change a date like a Seiko 9F. change a date like a Seiko 9F.

It’s basic mechanics. The hands are misaligned against the date wheel. Essential it doesn’t matter too much unless your OCD kicks in, I have have a few that did this and I removed the movements, removed the hands, pop the crown back on then advance the movement until the date advances, then reset the hands at 12, job done. You need to understand basic watchmaking though so if your not confident just let it go.

If it bothers you, a service adjustment by a competent watchmaker / jeweler should rectify the situation. It probably just needs a little tweaking. Personally, it wouldn't bother me. As long as my watch has the correct date when I put it on in the morning while getting ready to leave for work, then I am perfectly content. 🙂

Juxtaposing your wife's new Rado with my $25 Benyar 5185-M which has a basic Seagull ST6 automatic movement, it's surprising and satisfying to know that mine changes date in a snap consistently at 0001H. Not bad for a basic automatic movement.

All to say that I second the motion of everyone above, particularly @martin1111 and @TwiceTollingClock, and it's nothing to worry about. Might be even good to ask your wife if she minds it at all.

I doesn't bother her, but we were just curious if that's normal or we need to go to the AD. Apart from that the watch works fine.