Time to service?

I never do as it’s an inherent quality (weakness?) of mechanical watches. If you want accuracy, go with quartz.

That was kinda my expectation getting into mechanical watches, based on the research I’d done. I just don’t know if this level of time loss is normal, or indicating a bigger problem.

I wore the watch all day today, happily, so I’m definitely not too concerned with it, hahaha.

Yeah that seems a bit much, that's a cool line up right there.

Before you spend a lot of money, check to see if the watch has been magnetized. There’s lots of YouTube videos to tell you how to do this procedure. If if it has been magnetized, it’s a pretty simple thing to demagnetize it. Demagnetizer’s can be purchased off eBay for about $10-$12.

I wondered if that might be the case. I’ll look it up.

If you are loosing 2 minutes per day, that’s too much. A couple of things to consider though before you send it in:

• Is it positionally sensitive? My Oris Aquis gains 10 s/d when worn on the wrist. 5 s/d when face up, 3 s/d when the watch face is vertical.

• Is it fully wound? Your Seiko is +45/-30 when the movement leaves the factory on full wind. Many movements (including Seiko) will begin to loose time as the spring unwinds. This isn’t a problem for an everyday watch as the rotor winds it quite well. Your Willard only has 36 hours of power reserve, so if you weren’t wearing it the whole time, it definitely is at the end of the PR.

• Is it really losing that much time? You set it kinda sorta against a watch that isn’t dead on accurate. That watch could be gaining time.

My recommendation:

1. Wind your watch 50 times

2. Set it to the second against your phone

3. Wear the watch for 12 hours (+/-1 hour).

4. Check the deviation against your phone to the second and multiply it by 2.

5. If it is off by more than 30 s/day, it might need a servicing.

I’ll do this first thing in the morning to check and get a more precise measurement. Thanks for the advice!

I’ve currently been wearing the watch since 10:30am (it’s just before 9:00pm now). When I wound and set it this morning it was within 15 seconds of my phone. It’s now over a minute off.

It might need a servicing. I’m a scientist by trade, and the first thing I look for is reliable data. You don’t have that yet. 😉

Good luck!

If its losing that much it almost certainly needs servicing. That’s just something that comes with mechanical/automatic watches.

I bought a used Gerard Perregaux a few years ago and have just had to send it for service. It just comes up from time to time.

I also have my dad’s old Citizen EcoDrive which is dead. I tried replacing the power cell and that didn’t work. Then I remembered my dad had tried that too and was told the movement had to be replaced. He never did. It happens to quartz too.

I have a SPB151 and it runs near perfect. These are workhorse movements and this watch is too young to be having issues. So I would take it in, I'm happy to refer you to a great watchmaker in California if need be.

That is a lot of loss for an automatic. I suggest downloading an app called "Watch Accuracy Meter", which is free. Wind the watch fully and place the watch up to your phone's microphone. Keep to a quiet room while the phone listens to the movement. The display will trace the beat of the movement, marking the ticks and tocks with dots just as a watchmaker's timegrapher will. This method is certainly not as accurate as a timegrapher, but it will show a ballpark reading of the speed of the movement in +/- seconds and the Beat Error in microseconds, and while 0.00 ms is ideal, it's not likely. If you see dots all over the screen on the trace, it's an indication of a problem, or at least a need for regulation. If you have another automatic that keeps good time, do the same thing and compare. Gravity is a factor as well, so when you change the orientation of the movement, crown pointed up, down, flat on its back, flat on its face, you may see a difference in the trace. A massive change in one or more orientation may indicate a more serious problem. Hopefully, it's something a regulation will cure.

Before spending hundreds on a service, you should first check that it isn't simply magnetized due to shipping.

I've got two Willards , neither are particularly accurate, so much so I sent one off to Seiko UK to be regulated - sadly they don't offer that service 🤯

So if I was in your boat I'd be looking for a watchmaker to regulate it for you rather than a service.

Good Luck, keep us posted & lovely watch 👍👍

The watch is losing time and not gaining, so my first thought is that it isn't magnetized. I would expect an accuracy of -25/+15 spd from such a movement, even though they are generally more accurate than that. Losing 2 minutes a day is outside a normal accuracy for that watch.

Quite frankly, I'd send it in for service.

Thanks WC fam for all your feedback. It’s been very helpful to assess what to do next. Specifically for @fredcrook and @cornfedksboy I downloaded two apps to help measure the watch.

One that allows me to simply check in through out the day, and calculate the time gain/loss — I’ve got a reminder set for 12 hours from now to check in. Did I need an app for these? Certainly not. Am I a sucker for marketing? Oh most definitely.

The other was a watch accuracy meter … which displayed some interesting (but not surprising results):

Here’s the result of the Turtle. In the world of mechanical accuracy, I’m content with this. Looks like the beat rate error is maybe a little high… but I don’t actually know what that means, and I didn’t pay for the upgrade to find out 😅.

And here’s the Willard:

That seems about accurate to what my original pic indicated. I have no idea what’s happening with that big curve at the end, heh.

Obviously, these measurements should be taken with a grain of salt as they’re measured using a pair of EarPods in a Texas home in the middle of a heat wave where I literally cannot escape the sound of my AC. But both of these numbers are feeling pretty accurate to the experience of these two watches. I’ll post back later after the 12 hour check in.

That’s great to know. I was hesitant to send to Seiko in the first place, because I keep hearing stories of people being without their watches for months. We’ve got a couple reputable places in Austin that I’ll reach out to.

What app are you using for the gain/loss?

On iOS I’m using an app called “Twelve O’clock” to manually input the time to track differences. I just did my 12 hour check in and it’s coming up at -142 sec/day.

The other app is called “Timegrapher - watch accuracy” with a wired pair of Apple EarPods. Both apps are free, and seem to have produced similar results.

Thanks for the info. Sorry about the watch.

It’s all good. I’m loving this watch regardless of the time loss — but I’ll probably send it in. Doing some quick research to see if it might be magnetized.

Loosing or gaining time for the mechanical watch depends on many factors...definitely loosing time by 2 minutes per day is not a good accuracy...still as per my observation for mechanical watches I am putting some points which affects the accuracy are as below.

1. Temperature: Now a days due to global climatic conditions we are experiencing too many variations in temperature which is major cause for accuracy of a watch.

2. Percentage of spring winding also affects watch accuracy...we experience losing of time as spring unwinds.

3. Position of watch also affects accuracy ...so that chronometer watches are considered to be highly precise machines in watch industry. Still they also tend to lose or gain time, but which are within acceptable limits. Highly precise chronometer watch considered to be +or-2s/day accurate..still if we consider temperature as a major factor..it affects this accuracy range also which tends to +or-10s/day.

In my opinion ...get it calibrated and N'joy your watch...