Daytona Power Reserve

[viper123]

I've a Rolex Daytona (116520). About 1 year old, bought new from an AD.

The power reserve is working out to be about 36 hours max. According to my manual and what I knew (or though I knew), the power reserve is meant to be about 72 hours.

Just took it to my local AD today to have them look at it and they told me that it's meant to be 36 hours.

Can anyone shed any light on this?
Is the AD right, or are they misinformed?
If my watch does have a reduced power reserve, what might be causing it?

They've taken it in and are doing an examination, but I'd be interested to get feedback on this. I'll know the answers from the workshop in a few days, so I can update this later - but would still love feedback in the interim!

[zillap]

Originally Posted by viper123

I've a Rolex Daytona (116520). About 1 year old, bought new from an AD.

The power reserve is working out to be about 36 hours max. According to my manual and what I knew (or though I knew), the power reserve is meant to be about 72 hours.

Just took it to my local AD today to have them look at it and they told me that it's meant to be 36 hours.

Can anyone shed any light on this?
Is the AD right, or are they misinformed?
If my watch does have a reduced power reserve, what might be causing it?

They've taken it in and are doing an examination, but I'd be interested to get feedback on this. I'll know the answers from the workshop in a few days, so I can update this later - but would still love feedback in the interim!

Its 72 hours! Is the cronograph on? That takes 10% off the time. Something has to be wrong. Lets hope Larry comes here, and that your AD fixes that problem!

[Tools]

How did you determine that your Power Reserve was only 36 hrs ?

It should be 72, as has been said. But that is if you wind it fully then set it down and walk away..

It may not be that if you just take it off your wrist and set it down.. It is likely that you may not provide enough activity over time to fully top off the power simply by wearing it....

What happens with a mechanical is that it eventually settles in to having a power reserve of exactly what you put into it during the day............ for some this could mean it gets "topped up" every day. For others, it may only be about 20 hours, and for even others, your watch may stop during the night....

[padi56]

Originally Posted by viper123

I've a Rolex Daytona (116520). About 1 year old, bought new from an AD.

The power reserve is working out to be about 36 hours max. According to my manual and what I knew (or though I knew), the power reserve is meant to be about 72 hours.

Just took it to my local AD today to have them look at it and they told me that it's meant to be 36 hours.

Can anyone shed any light on this?
Is the AD right, or are they misinformed?
If my watch does have a reduced power reserve, what might be causing it?

They've taken it in and are doing an examination, but I'd be interested to get feedback on this. I'll know the answers from the workshop in a few days, so I can update this later - but would still love feedback in the interim!

They are misinformed the in-house Daytona movement has a power reserve of around 72 hours thats when its fully wound.And to fully wind it from say stopped or when new around 40-50 full crown turns clockwise.What the reserve means when watch spring is fully wound it should run for around 70 plus hours off wrist.But if main spring is not fully wound it will not last as long etc low activity while wearing. Or watch was say only half its power reserve when taken off wrist .

[viper123]

Okay - so we're agreed on the 72 hour thing. The Chronograph is not on, but in any case, it wouldn't go down by 50%!

But what is this about winding it (40-50 full crown turns)? I thought that the movement was self-winding?

[Tools]

Originally Posted by viper123

Okay - so we're agreed on the 72 hour thing. The Chronograph is not on, but in any case, it wouldn't go down by 50%!

But what is this about winding it (40-50 full crown turns)? I thought that the movement was self-winding?

Now we are getting somewhere.............

Yes.. it is self winding.. But that does not mean that if you put it on your wrist it automatically comes up to being fully wound... It takes a lot of wrist action to fully wind a Daytona..

If you have not wound it fully 50 times and set it down to watch it run out, then you do not know if the power reserve is 72 or 36.... What you do know is that you have only put 36 hours of power into it by wearing it... These are two very different things...

[padi56]

Originally Posted by viper123

Okay - so we're agreed on the 72 hour thing. The Chronograph is not on, but in any case, it wouldn't go down by 50%!

But what is this about winding it (40-50 full crown turns)? I thought that the movement was self-winding?

That is correct but when you start off any automatic watch is best to fully wind it first to its full power reserve.If you say shake the watch a little to start it then wear.Its possible then if you wear it say 8 hours a day and have say a desk job with low activity.Then you will only top up the power reserve to say half its proper reserve.Then take it off wrist and it will stop in a much shorter time but your AD will check it out.

[DerekS]

from my little experience with my Daytona, If I wore it for a few days and had it wound fully, it would last about a less than 3 days sitting in the watchbox. Probably closer to around 60ish hours.

[viper123]

Sounds like Tools is explaining it. Seems I don't know a great deal about my own watch - didn't realize it could (or should) also be handwound!

Out of interest - how do you 'hand-wind' it? Usually the Crown is screwed down tight. How would I know when it is fully wound?

[viper123]

Tools - thanks so much. It's clear now. As per my other question:

How do you 'hand-wind' it? Usually the Crown is screwed down tight. How would I know when it is fully wound?

Also - should I be concerned that the Rolex workshop is opening it up and examining it 'unnecessarily'? My usual moto is don't mess when it's working.

Wish I'd posted before going to the AD!

[gmaines]

Just unscrew the crown but do not pull it out like your going to change the time, and turnh it forward to manually wind it...

[viper123]

Thanks - How would I know when it is fully wound?

[padi56]

Originally Posted by viper123

Thanks - How would I know when it is fully wound?

Just unscrew crown first position then give it around 40-50 full crown turns clockwise dont worry you cannot overwind.You might feel a tiny bit less resistance when watch is fully wound but Rolex are very smooth winders so hard to detect.And when you screw the crown back just finger tight no need to put any force or screw it down really tight.

[viper123]

Perfect - thanks. Final Q - should I be concerned that the Rolex workshop is opening it up and examining it 'unnecessarily'? My usual moto is don't mess when it's working.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by viper123

Perfect - thanks. Final Q - should I be concerned that the Rolex workshop is opening it up and examining it 'unnecessarily'? My usual moto is don't mess when it's working.

Well I would have thought first test would be a full wind to check its power reserve.And then if not up to spec then crack open the case to investigate further but you should not have a problem with any Rolex authorised watchmaker.

[Tools]

Originally Posted by viper123

Perfect - thanks. Final Q - should I be concerned that the Rolex workshop is opening it up and examining it 'unnecessarily'? My usual moto is don't mess when it's working.

I wouldn't be concerned.. They likely will not even open it; they will run a power check first and say that they don't see anything wrong or can't duplicate the problem.....

[brkanand]

I hope by now the power reserve has improved!

[viper123]

Thanks to all - I'll do a final update when I hear back from the dealer. Let you know what conclusion they came to.

[therolexguy]

Originally Posted by viper123

Thanks to all - I'll do a final update when I hear back from the dealer. Let you know what conclusion they came to.

Welcome and let's see pictures of that thing!

[chris russell]

Originally Posted by viper123

I've a Rolex Daytona (116520). About 1 year old, bought new from an AD.

The power reserve is working out to be about 36 hours max. According to my manual and what I knew (or though I knew), the power reserve is meant to be about 72 hours.

Just took it to my local AD today to have them look at it and they told me that it's meant to be 36 hours.

Is the AD right, or are they misinformed?

I'm not sure if the AD is misinformed or not, (I doubt it), but they certainly are 'misinforming' you!

Yes, the powere reserve is very clearly advertised to be 72 hours.

[cwwhk]

Very useful information here. I always thought fully wound is 30 to 35 turns. So it's actually 40 to 50 turns. No wonder my watches seem to last only 2 days off wrist.


Thanks guys.

[Tools]

Originally Posted by cwwhk

Very useful information here. I always thought fully wound is 30 to 35 turns. So it's actually 40 to 50 turns. No wonder my watches seem to last only 2 days off wrist.


Thanks guys.

The Daytona has a much larger mainspring whereas the ladies has a much smaller mainspring. Daytonas 4130 movements have 72 hr reserve. The Zenith has the typical 42 hr reserve, 3135's etc., too and the ladies have a 35 hr reserve..

[viper123]

Ok - so I promised that I'd update this post when I got the watch back.

Firstly there is no issue with the watch - it was my lack of knowledge about the manual winding, which this forum solved. The technicians at the AD wound it fully and assured me they got 70 hours out of it before it conked out. I will test this myself in the next week.

Second, it took them more than 3 weeks to say if there was an issue with the watch at all. Coupled with their lack of knowledge about the specification in the first place I'm deeply dissapointed by this. They also delivered the watch back to me dirtier than I gave it (clearly been handled by a very sweaty man who didn't think to wipe it down). I hope that this is not reflective of Rolex service worldwide, but blunty put the Israeli service sucks. I'll be getting my watch serviced abroad when the time comes.

Thanks again to all on this forum for their help.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by viper123

Ok - so I promised that I'd update this post when I got the watch back.

Firstly there is no issue with the watch - it was my lack of knowledge about the manual winding, which this forum solved. The technicians at the AD wound it fully and assured me they got 70 hours out of it before it conked out. I will test this myself in the next week.

Second, it took them more than 3 weeks to say if there was an issue with the watch at all. Coupled with their lack of knowledge about the specification in the first place I'm deeply dissapointed by this. They also delivered the watch back to me dirtier than I gave it (clearly been handled by a very sweaty man who didn't think to wipe it down). I hope that this is not reflective of Rolex service worldwide, but blunty put the Israeli service sucks. I'll be getting my watch serviced abroad when the time comes.

Thanks again to all on this forum for their help.

Well looks like the power reserve factor is fine as long as you get around 65 plus hours on a full wind off wrist I would not worry.As to your watch being dirty on return thats unusual in my experience, but thats mainly with London and various Far East RSCs.