Tweaking the Parachrom!

[Flyer737]

Hi all,

I have had my GMTIIc just over a month, and took it back to an official Rolex dealer, complaining that my watch was consistently losing 3-4 seconds a day based on wearing every day. The dealer said they would show the watch to their official onsite Rolex approved engineer, who put my watch on a meter and could immediately tell it was running slow.

He told me as the watch was bordering on limits he suggested under warranty he tweak the movement and this would change the centrifugal force and would be able to speed it up. I asked how accurate he could get it, and stated he would need the watch for 48 hrs to monitor and adjust accordingly. He has done this and the watch has been returned to me, however upon leaving it the watch engineer, he explained to me how it was better to have the watch running slightly fast, as you would never be late. I wasn't entirely convinced by this best practice and asked if it could be just adjusted to be more or less bang on! He stated he would do his best!

I have now had the watch back, having been adjusted, monitored and pressure tested, and it now runs consistently 3-4 seconds fast per day. If the watch can keep this consistency, would any of you recommend I take it back to improve accuracy further! Any thoughts comments would be greatly appreciated!

[karmatp]

I am personally very happy with a mechanical watch that runs 3-4 seconds fast a day. Usually, I can self regulate by positioning the watch while resting to keep it near perfect.

Try the crown up, speed it up or crown down, slow it down methods and you might be able to get it spot on. Check out your owners manual and it will give you more info.

[kkchome]

I agree with karmatp. 3-4 seconds a day on the wrist is totally acceptable.

When you go to sleep at night, place the watch on your nightstand crown facing down and see how that goes.

[Starwalker]

In singapore, I was at the RSC cuz my new daytona was running according to my own calculations 4 seconds slow. I gave it to the attendant there and stold them my problem. She gives it to a rolex technican and in about 5 mins he came back saying it was -3.5 seconds slow and that I should come back in 30mins. The cool part about the RSC here is that you can see the Rolex technicians working behing a glass screen - like a glass labroratory. I saw him open the case back, do a few interesting things - adjusting something within it, put the watch back together, screw the case back on, he came back to me "Sir, your watch is almost 0.5seconds fast!!!". Beautiful! The service at the RSC here is extremely good, very happy with it. +2/3 seconds would have still been fine by me, as long as it wasnt running slow, the thought ofthe watch making me late was a bit frustrating.

[argee1977]

I'd take it back and get it regulated, i mean after reading the sales pitch by rolex anything with a parachrom hairspring should be running at +/- 1 second at worst!

[tomc1944]

Try This.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Flyer737

Hi all,

I have had my GMTIIc just over a month, and took it back to an official Rolex dealer, complaining that my watch was consistently losing 3-4 seconds a day based on wearing every day. The dealer said they would show the watch to their official onsite Rolex approved engineer, who put my watch on a meter and could immediately tell it was running slow.

He told me as the watch was bordering on limits he suggested under warranty he tweak the movement and this would change the centrifugal force and would be able to speed it up. I asked how accurate he could get it, and stated he would need the watch for 48 hrs to monitor and adjust accordingly. He has done this and the watch has been returned to me, however upon leaving it the watch engineer, he explained to me how it was better to have the watch running slightly fast, as you would never be late. I wasn't entirely convinced by this best practice and asked if it could be just adjusted to be more or less bang on! He stated he would do his best!

I have now had the watch back, having been adjusted, monitored and pressure tested, and it now runs consistently 3-4 seconds fast per day. If the watch can keep this consistency, would any of you recommend I take it back to improve accuracy further! Any thoughts comments would be greatly appreciated!

Short answer No and regulation is nothing to do with parachrome spring or any other spring .Just simple adjustment of the timing screws or correct term Microstella screws on the balance wheel.Remember in a day the escapement of a mechanical watch pushes the gears 432,000 times. Since a day has 86,400 seconds and your watch just gains 3-4 seconds.You should be very very happy with such a accurate watch.Stop all this worrying over a few seconds,just wear your watch in good health for the next few decades thats far more important I can assure you.And why anyone would want to get the back off any watch just for 3 seconds amazes me.And after regulation on machine,it dont mean it will perform exactly the same on your wrist.

[dohmer]

Originally Posted by padi56

Short answer No and regulation is nothing to do with parachrome spring or any other spring .Just simple adjustment of the timing screws or correct term Microstella screws on the balance wheel.Remember in a day the escapement of a mechanical watch pushes the gears 432,000 times. Since a day has 86,400 seconds and your watch just gains 3-4 seconds.You should be very very happy with such a accurate watch.Stop all this worrying over a few seconds,just wear your watch in good health for the next few decades thats far more important I can assure you.And why anyone would want to get the back off any watch just for 3 seconds amazes me.And after regulation on machine,it dont mean it will perform exactly the same on your wrist.

`
+1

A minute (fast/slow) or so a month is GOOD. There is few jobs or meetings that req. accuracy to the second!

[padi56]

Originally Posted by dohmer

`
+1

A minute (fast/slow) or so a month is GOOD. There is few jobs or meetings that req. accuracy to the second!

Then they should buy a quartz or radio controlled watch as no mechanical watch, any price any brand, will give that accuracy unless its a watch in a million.And would doubt that any meeting or any ones job would rely on the absolute second of any retail bought wrist wearing personal owned watch.

[greekbum]

I would leave it alone.

[dkpw]

This letter from Rolex may help you relax, and reiterates the sound advice from Padi.

[watchmaker]

Originally Posted by padi56

Short answer No and regulation is nothing to do with parachrome spring or any other spring .Just simple adjustment of the timing screws or correct term Microstella screws on the balance wheel.Remember in a day the escapement of a mechanical watch pushes the gears 432,000 times. Since a day has 86,400 seconds and your watch just gains 3-4 seconds.You should be very very happy with such a accurate watch.Stop all this worrying over a few seconds,just wear your watch in good health for the next few decades thats far more important I can assure you.And why anyone would want to get the back off any watch just for 3 seconds amazes me.And after regulation on machine,it dont mean it will perform exactly the same on your wrist.

While i more than agree that 3-4 seconds is perfectly reasonable, I thought i would chime in and say that any watchmaker who knows what he was doing would start off by looking at the hairspring. It is quite common for the spring to catch on itself or the curbpins and this will cause a gain.

So when regulating I would start by examining the hairspring, ensuring it is flat and concentric (adjusting as necessary) Then I would move on to the time adjustment screws.

The watch will be tested on a Witschi M1 chronoscope fully wound at the zero hour (and checked against tolerances which vary by calibre) and then tested again 24hours later. I will then fully wind again and this time test the power reserve. I believe even small jobs should have time taken on them. Thus reducing the chance of the watch coming back in with a fault i didnt notice. My advice is always opt to leave your watch for a couple of days to be sure of optimal performance. If you want it done in 30 minutes, that isnt enough time to check for possible faults.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by watchmaker

While i more than agree that 3-4 seconds is perfectly reasonable, I thought i would chime in and say that any watchmaker who knows what he was doing would start off by looking at the hairspring. It is quite common for the spring to catch on itself or the curbpins and this will cause a gain.

So when regulating I would start by examining the hairspring, ensuring it is flat and concentric (adjusting as necessary) Then I would move on to the time adjustment screws.

The watch will be tested on a Witschi M1 chronoscope fully wound at the zero hour (and checked against tolerances which vary by calibre) and then tested again 24hours later. I will then fully wind again and this time test the power reserve. I believe even small jobs should have time taken on them. Thus reducing the chance of the watch coming back in with a fault i didnt notice. My advice is always opt to leave your watch for a couple of days to be sure of optimal performance. If you want it done in 30 minutes, that isnt enough time to check for possible faults.

While I would agree with you to examining the hairspring to see if it was catching etc.But above poster was saying his watch was consistent -3-4 slow and after regulation +3 +4 after.If hairspring was catching surely his watch would not show such high consistancy.

[watchmaker]

If the spring is caught it will essentially be shorter, resulting in a gain, however a bend either vertically or laterally may cause a loss. In any event regulation always starts at the hairspring, gain or loss.

The truth is many 'watchmakers' do not know how to adjust or make a hairspring. For them an inspection to see that it is not actually snapped could be all they know to look for. Unfortunately in an industry where there are so few professionals, there are many who take shortcuts, and may not understand the finer details for watchmaking. For many, being able to take a watch apart, replace broken parts and put back together is enough for them to call themselves watchmakers, when in fact, they are more technitians. Simply put, there are not enough WOSTEP watchmakers and too many self taugh ones.

[dohmer]

Originally Posted by padi56

Then they should buy a quartz or radio controlled watch as no mechanical watch, any price any brand, will give that accuracy unless its a watch in a million.And would doubt that any meeting or any ones job would rely on the absolute second of any retail bought wrist wearing personal owned watch.

Amen to that!

[Tools]

With a mechanical watch, a person needs to decide what they will be satisfied with...

Anything else and disappointment will surely be the result..

However, finding a watchmaker who will chase that elusive second or two can be more frustrating than anything you will ever know.. There are just too many things that will affect the timing.. Temperature, position, wearing habits.. even how loose or tight you wear it on your wrist can affect the amplitude of the hairspring and affect the timing..

Personally, I would have taken in a watch that is 3 or 4 seconds slow....only because I don't like a slow watch... I would hope that it would come back within a second or so.... but the watchmaker is turning several tiny screws on the perimeter of the balance wheel only a notch or so and balancing out each side... Asking him to take a watch that is operating at 99.992 percent daily deviation, "tweaking" it and resulting in 99.995 daily deviation may be asking entirely too much..

[B. Doggy]

This thread sounds like a movie title.

[Flyer737]

Padi56, new to the forum, and new to Rolex ownership, I think you should take a chill pill, I was only after some courteous advice, not a rant and criticism, after all it was the Rolex AD that suggested tweaking it!

[Flyer737]

As far as I am concerned I think it running slightly fast is better than it running slow, however when it was running slow, I tried the laying it flat technique at night to no avail. I have however since tried laying it on it's side since it's tweak as described in my first post and it seems to be not actually gaining 3-4 a day now, more +1/2 or so the last two days. I think it's a case of letting it settle, maybe the laws of physics are more powerful at slowing down rather than speeding up!

[SDDS]

interesting info

[nektar]

3 sec/ per day it is ok!!!!!!