Zenith Daytona, is this normal ? Chrono Big hand not at 12 o clock position after RSC

[eugenetsang]

Originally Posted by ratty

As I have tried to explain above, based on the photos in the 1st post, I don’t think the chrono hand is misaligned, it’s pointing directly at the minute marker at the 12 position. I think the crown is slightly misaligned to the minute markers. It looks to be about 20 to 30 seconds out of line. I presume a dial swap is the only rectification for this.

Agreed. And for the owner spending $1000+ on service, RSC should make good on making the watch back to 100%. Should be no reason as to why RSC said they've tried their best and there's nothing more that can be done.

If that is really true, that will be pretty sad

[ratty]

Originally Posted by eugenetsang

Agreed. And for the owner spending $1000+ on service, RSC should make good on making the watch back to 100%. Should be no reason as to why RSC said they've tried their best and there's nothing more that can be done.

If that is really true, that will be pretty sad

Well if the watch has it’s original dial, why should Rolex change it?

The crown will not have moved since it was new and presumably no other owners have complained about it, or even noticed it. I’ve seen a few dials on which, when you look really closely, the placement of the crown and or hour markers are not perfectly in line with the minute markers. You say that Rolex should have taken it “back to 100%”. What do you call 100%? If the crown or hour markers are out by 0.001 of an inch, would that be OK? You certainly would not be able to see that or probably accurately measure it.

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong here, but the crown and hour markers are often fitted to the dial with pins which are attached to the back of the crown or marker. These pins fit into holes in the dial. There has to be some play between the pin and the hole, the pin has to be slightly smaller than the hole to locate in it. This difference will only be a matter of thousands of an inch, but there will be play.The pin might be slightly off from being exactly ninety degrees to the back of the crown. The back of the crown is unlikely to be perfectly flat. Depending on how the front of the dial is coloured, that might have a bearing on just how flat the dial surface is. I wonder how accurate the crown extremities are? A human hair is about four thousands of an inch thick, about a tenth of a millimetre. From experience in making accurate pieces of machines I can easily imagine there easily being two or three thou clearance between the pin and the dial hole. There will be an acceptable tolerance on the diameter of the pins themselves and I can easily imagine that that’s about five thou. If the pin is not exactly straight that could easily knock things out of line by a few more thou. When these individual clearances and tolerances are added together you can easily get to the point where the alignment could easily be visibly out if you look close enough. Even taking all of these points in mind, the assembled dial may well still be within the manufacturer’s tolerance.

I am quite sad as to how I like my watches set. The second hand has to be as close as possible to the twelve mark when the minute hand get to twelve. I am also interested in how accurately my watches keep time. But I also accept that because the watches are made up of numerous parts, each with there own + or. - tolerances things will never be perfectly in line or perfectly accurate. They can be very close, but not perfect. This idea of 100% is fine on paper, but an entirely different thing to actually manufacture.

[eugenetsang]

Originally Posted by ratty

I am also interested in how accurately my watches keep time. .

If you want a watch that accurately tells time, then i am sorry that mechanical watches are not the ones for you. Quartz is the way to go.

I hate to disagree with you saying our mechanical watches are "with tolerance", plus or minus XX... But isn't that what all these luxury watch companies boast about? That they make the "most accurate" time pieces? If that is what they are boasting about, then there should not be any margin of error, ala Quartz movement, Citizen eco drive radio controlled.

Other than my phone being the most accurate, my "most accurate" watch that I have in my collection is my Citizen