- This topic has 159 replies, 39 voices, and was last updated 12 years ago by tadeuszkrieger.
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For those of you with automatic watches …
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AusFree Member
My auto watch kept (what I thought was) excellent time – ran fast about 30 secs over a month. The chrono then played up so sent it to be serviced (first service in 5+ years). Now gaining nearly 60 secs per week. Is this within acceptable limits for an auto. (It’s an Omega Seamaster chrono if that’s relevant).
Thanks in advance.
JeromeFree MemberSend it back pronto.
Should be a few seconds a week at most..
Currently awaiting three of mine to come back to me…meesterbondFull MemberIf it’s COSC certified (did it come with COSC certificate?) then it should be accurate to -4 to +6 seconds a day so yours would be outside that. Even if it isn’t tested to that Standard then it still sounds a bit high.
If you got it serviced at Omega and it bothers you, then I’d contact them and ask them to have another look at it.
teefFree MemberExpensive automatic watches are for show not for accurate time keeping – get yourself a digital if you don’t want to miss the train.
wrightysonFree MemberAs above sixty in a week is too much. However the jeweller is bought mine from told me it’s better to gain time than lose as the spring apparently takes time to settle in! Not so good the other way apparently, however true this is,I’m still not so sure!
skinFree MemberWhen I was 21 (now 42) I put my birthday money down as the first payment on my Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date. After about 9 months, I took it back because it was gaining time. I pointed out that it was gaining about 30 seconds and he pointed out that this wasn’t bad for a month. True, but this was gaining 30 seconds a. Your eye could barely keep up with the second hand..Shame I had to take it back because until then they hadn’t taken any more money from my account 🙁
I’ve still got it and have just paid more for a service than I did for the watch outright in the first place.
bikebouyFree MemberHow can you tell you’re gaining/loosing time..
Are you a time traveller prey tell? Have you found a portal to another dimension? Have you been and come back 60secs hence?
Are you really that bothered?
stilltortoiseFree MemberI read all this with slight disbelief. The only time (geddit?) I ever need to adjust my watch is the once or twice a year I go abroad. It was an aeroplane special and cost me £80, which I thought was quite steep, but clearly I’m getting good value for money.
My auto watch kept (what I thought was) excellent time – ran fast about 30 secs over a month
Really? That’s excellent time? 6 minutes out at every year? That sounds pretty poor to me 😯
morgsFree MemberI have a Tag Link auto and it needs adjusting once every couple of months but I normally only do it at the same time as I adjust the date on it.
Yeah yeah, digital is more accurate but there is just ‘somthing’ about a well crafted watch, especially an automatic that has been well engineered.
A Grand Carerra RS would be nice 😉
cynic-alFree Membermorgs – Member
Yeah yeah, digital is more accurate but there is just ‘somthing’ about a well crafted watch, especially an automatic that has been well engineered.Indeed…it’s called “hype” 😛
stilltortoiseFree MemberI must be watch naive. I have a watch that runs on batteries, but has “hands”. The clock face is not “digital” but is the mechanism? It keeps as good a time as I will ever need it to.
A hand-crafted watch does appeal from a purely aesthetic point of view tho’
mastiles_fanylionFree Membercynic-al – Member
morgs – Member
Yeah yeah, digital is more accurate but there is just ‘somthing’ about a well crafted watch, especially an automatic that has been well engineered.
Indeed…it’s called “hypeFunny this – I haven’t regularly worn a watch in about 10 years but having come into an inheritance I really want to get a ‘proper’ watch and am looking at £2700 Tags. It sounds mad I know, but I just want a proper ‘for life’ watch that can be passed down generations. I am also going to have it engraved to respect my mum & dad so every time I look at it, it will remind me of them.
So *for me* it is not hype, I just want something that will outlast me and generations to come.
simon_gFull MemberMost people’s battery-powered quartz things I see can be a minute off unless they sync to the radio clocks. But yeah, 60s a week is a bit much. I’d give it a couple of weeks to settle and if not, have it adjusted.
I like mechanical watches mainly because I like the idea of having 100+ parts (many of them moving parts) crammed into a movement only a few millimetres thick. They’re marvels of engineering, and you can pick up a japanese auto for less than most Casios.
AusFree Memberthanks all.
And yes, a Casio would be more accurate, but as Simon g says, there’s the appreciation of the engineering and design in some watches. Horses for courses and all that!
Harry_the_SpiderFull MemberMy automatic Seamaster drops 6 to 8 seconds a day. Always has in the 9 years that I’ve had it. It is still within spec though.
thisisnotaspoonFree MemberThailand, £25 for a Seamaster ‘Replica’
Weighs the same
Indistinguishable on the outside
But quartz doo-dahhhs on the inside mean it needs a battery every 5-10 years and will probably never need a ‘service’.bikebouyFree MemberI’ve got many watches BTW, I’m a bit of a fan too.. But I’d look further than TAG for a watch to hand down.. Plenty of better watches out there and way more exclusive for that kinda money (IMO)
mastiles_fanylionFree MemberThailand, £25 for a Seamaster ‘Replica’
You were ripped off then – you can get them in Tenerife for £10.
😉
(I had my copy stolen from my house – the thief will have thought it was his birthday when he spotted it, only to get home and see it for the cheap copy it was). 🙂
mastiles_fanylionFree MemberI’ve got many watches BTW, I’m a bit of a fan too.. But I’d look further than TAG for a watch to hand down.. Plenty of better watches out there and way more exclusive for that kinda money (IMO)
Perhaps, but a Tag is the brand I have always liked and I am primarily buying it for me.
wrightysonFree MemberMF my old man just treated himself to a tag, the one jenson button advertises, is it the carrera! Anyhow it’s lovely but the best bit about it is the quarter glass on the back side where you can see all the workings. Amazing engineering!!
mastiles_fanylionFree MemberMF my old man just treated himself to a tag, the one jenson button advertises, is it the carrera! Anyhow it’s lovely but the best bit about it is the quarter glass on the back side where you can see all the workings. Amazing engineering!!
Yeah I am looking at the Carrera too (not sure which one) – but the jewellers say I can’t get it engraved because of the glass back which is a bit of a bugger.
randomjeremyFree MemberMechanical watches are a thing of beauty, sure they aren’t as accurate as a solar powered radio controlled g-shock but that’s not what they are about; some people just don’t get it. Unless you’re in the SAS a few seconds a month inaccuracy doesn’t matter in the slightest. In my opinion a nice watch is the only acceptable piece of jewellery a man can wear 🙂
cynic-alFree MemberAus – Member
there’s the appreciation of the engineering and design in some watchesDesign and quality…yes.
Engineering? Dream on, how many of us know enough & have opened the watch up to now? None.
I like watches BTW, I own half a dozen including 50s automatics from the generation above me. I’m unlikely to spend £xK on a watch though (too tight and IMO good design needn’t cost the earth!) and I simply don’t believe anyone outside the trade who claims they can appreciate the innards.
tadeuszkriegerFree MemberI’ve got a Seiko number 5 from the sixties, it was serviced in the nineties and it wanders by about eight/ten seconds a month. So I’d say 60 sec a week is pretty poor indeed.
geoffjFull MemberAny thoughts on something like this?
I’ve got a significant birthday coming up, and I might treat myself.
I’ve already got one of the Seiko Automatic Divers for everyday – this would be for best.
cynic-alFree Membergeoffj – Member
Any thoughts on something like this?I’ve got a significant birthday coming up, and I might treat myself.
I’ve already got one of the Seiko Automatic Divers for everyday – this would be for best.
Get a nice dress watch.
meesterbondFull MemberSeems expensive for a Tissot… also, is it Quartz or auto. If Quartz, then seems very expensive.
qwertyFree MemberFor my 18th I got a Tag Heuer Formula 1 for £85, its been worn every day, had multiple straps replaced, one service and, 2 years ago a new bezel fitted …. for £85!!! This year it was in need of a new strap and a service, they wanted £85 for the strap and £200 for the service. After 21 years of faithful use it is now not cost effective to maintain…… and I thought mtbs were expensive!!!!!! Still a simple and smart watch that I miss.
Same model and colour as the one JMC won if anyone fancies a momento of the era.
CougarFull MemberI must be getting old.
If I spent two and a half grand on a watch, I’d expect it to keep perfect time or I’d expect them to be sending someone round to adjust it for me. If it was gaining several seconds per day I’d be of the opinion that it wasn’t fit for purpose, and if the reseller had told me “well, it’s ok because it’s gaining time, it’s only a problem if it’s losing it” then I’d be due in court on an assault charge.
If by expecting a £2700 watch to be accurate I’m “missing the point” somehow, well, I guess I am. If I had that kind of money to spend on something solely to look good on my wrist, I’d get a bracelet or a high class prostitute instead.
mastiles_fanylionFree MemberI am not getting my watch to keep accurate time (my life is generally not governed by time that much) – just to get something permanent to remember my mum and dad by and so I can pass it down to family when I die.
100% purely personal reasons.
CougarFull MemberWith all due respect, your kids will probably think of it as “that crap expensive watch dad gave me that doesn’t keep time properly.”
(-:
geoffjFull MemberI am not getting my watch to keep accurate time (my life is generally not governed by time that much) – just to get something permanent to remember my mum and dad by and so I can pass it down to family when I die.
You never actually own a Patek Phillipe
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You just keep making the payments on it 😆bikebouyFree MemberHey no offence, each to thier own and all that. If you’ve got your heart set on a TAG then Sir spend your money.
I too have a TAG F1 from back in the day, the Orange one. I love it although the battery has ebbed away, but I’ll get it changed one day. It was the first watch I bought with my very first salary…
I used to get the replacement straps in Orange but after the shortage of about 15 years ago I decided to fit the metal strap, still looks amazing now TBH. I sometimes wonder what it’s worth now.I bought a Hublot Bronze to celebrate something significant a few years back, it was a guilty purchase and I was egged on to buy it. Couldn’t bring myself to wear it, eventually (2weeks) took it back and got full price refund from the jeweler..
stilltortoiseFree MemberI do “get” the appeal of a fancy watch, I just had no idea they were such poor time-keepers. Cougar’s probably right though, I inherited by Grandad’s old watch. To be honest it may not have been that expensive, but I thought it was horrible and never wore it.
meesterbondFull MemberIts auto. Aren’t Tissot and Omega the same innards?
Both Tissot and Omega are owned by Swatch Group who also own a company called ETA who produce movements. Until recently, ETA movements were inside a huge proportion of mid (and although they’d only reluctantly admit it) quite a few higher end watches.
Basically a company (like IWC for example) would buy the movement in kit form (called an Ebauche I think) throw away the bits they felt they could make more accurately, refinish and rebuilt the movement and install it in their own watches.The movements also come in a number of different qualities depending on the tolerances etc…
So whilst the movement in the Tissot and the Omega may well come from the same place (to be honest, I’ve no idea what, if anything, Omega do to the movements) they’re not likely to be same.
TurnerGuyFree MemberAren’t Tissot and Omega the same innards
The Swatch Group owns Omega and Tissot, and a shed load of other premium brands.
It also owns most of the movement makers, like ETA.
So unless you make your own movements, like Rolex, and Omega for certain watches, most watch manufacturers will be getting their movements from one of the main movement suppliers owned by Swatch.
You can get the movements in different grades though, so the more expensive watch may have a better grade of movement in.
In addition Omega tend to rework the movement anyway – my speedies Lemenia based movement is coated in something flash.
Doh – usurped…
randomjeremyFree MemberCougar yes you are missing the point but it’s ok, each to their own and all that
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