Damned stationary hand! JJ, you're right!!

[Chris B]

Originally Posted by Felly Jr.

Bo, I think you should decide that you can't live with this "issue" and sell it to me at a deeply discounted price. I'll pretend I don't know about the quirk.

Dont do this to yourself Bo, cos you'll have all Daytona owners at it

Just enjoy pal

[SPACE-DWELLER]

I just hate the idea of having it tampered with already! I know per experience that every time that even the best of watch makers touch it, scratches and others signs of them having opened it are left on my watch.

[SPACE-DWELLER]

From another thread:

Originally Posted by grumpy

No reason to post this. Just trying to see if posting here is like other places that I visit.

Originally Posted by Welshwatchman

From Oyster ---> Chronograph the font lettering is erratically sized.

Is yours like this, Bo ?

I have checked another 116520 and it has the same large / tall O in chronometer.

Never noticed that until this picture.

Originally Posted by SPACE-DWELLER

Yes, mine look like this, too. And now we're at it, the one pictured above in fact shows the chronograph hand issue that I also have on my SS Cos (see that it's not pointing exactly on 12 on the Daytona that is not mine??). On my pics, you can see that the chrono hand is spot on, but that pic was taken before I noticed that it does not jump back precisely to 12 as it should.

Anyway, here are some pics of my SS Cos:

[grumpy]

I use the chronograph function frequently and I have noticed that it sometimes resets perfectly and sometimes not. I'll have to admit that I never worried over it before today.

The easy fix is to take parallax into account and never look at it from a position directly vertical or to the left of vertical. I'm not going to worry about it any more until service time 5 years from now.

Jim

[mj3200]

I have similar on my SS Daytona, but not to the same extent. If you stop it before the 30 it goes back to about a 1/4 of a second before the 12, but after 30 it travels clockwise to the perfect 12. Having said that I'm glad you have mentioned it because things like this send me mad - thought it was just me!!

My Lange and Sohne Double Split doesn't suffer from the same inconsistency, but then for $120,000 you wouldn't expect it to.

[teton]

I never had a Daytona but I had a few chronographs in the past and they all had issues. Sometimes the hands do not reset to zero accurately, sometimes the second jumps when you start the chronograph and sometimes the buttons do not operate smoothly. I got used to these problems and eventually figured them to be part of the mechanical chronograph experience. I had dive watches before as well and I had issues with the rotating bezel, sometimes they get stuck, sometimes they don't click consistently with the same feel and sounds, sometimes they don't line up at 12, etc. Finally when I went Rolex, I got me a datejust that had no rotating bezel and no chronograph functionality. I tell you, I can't be any happier.

Simple is good... expecially when you have OCD like I do.

-Teton

[thomas311]

Originally Posted by The Oak

On my older cheaper chrono's there was a way to adjust the second hand as well as the small hands on the chrono dials. Pulling the crown out all the way and pushing the buttons adjusted these hands. Don't have a rolex chrono so don't know.

i have a tag searacer pro that i dropped on my wooden floor a couple of months back. the second hand reset back to 12, but the minute hand was 1sec to the left. the layout is diff than the daytona...the chrono function has seconds/minutes go around the main dial (four hands on the face), mini secs at the 3 position and hrs. at the 9.

did the same thing, ran it again and reset it to see if it would go back to place but didnt. brought it in to Rogers Jewelry and they said they would have to ship it back to NJ for tag headquarters to take a look at. then i decided to call Tourneau in San Jose and the salesman gave me some great info.

he said pop the crown out. depending on which position of the crown pulled out, you can then push the chrono function buttons (2) to move/align the the seconds/minutes/mini/hour hands. it worked. thanked him and went on my way.

FWIW.

[roadcarver]

My Omega SMP Chrono Diver sometimes does not reset the hand in the minute sub dial dead center. Its ever slightly off.

[roadcarver]

I'm assuming your tag was a quartz? I know Seikos have the feature as well.

Originally Posted by thomas311

i have a tag searacer pro that i dropped on my wooden floor a couple of months back. the second hand reset back to 12, but the minute hand was 1sec to the left. the layout is diff than the daytona...the chrono function has seconds/minutes go around the main dial (four hands on the face), mini secs at the 3 position and hrs. at the 9.

did the same thing, ran it again and reset it to see if it would go back to place but didnt. brought it in to Rogers Jewelry and they said they would have to ship it back to NJ for tag headquarters to take a look at. then i decided to call Tourneau in San Jose and the salesman gave me some great info.

he said pop the crown out. depending on which position of the crown pulled out, you can then push the chrono function buttons (2) to move/align the the seconds/minutes/mini/hour hands. it worked. thanked him and went on my way.

FWIW.

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Originally Posted by grumpy

I use the chronograph function frequently and I have noticed that it sometimes resets perfectly and sometimes not. I'll have to admit that I never worried over it before today.

The easy fix is to take parallax into account and never look at it from a position directly vertical or to the left of vertical. I'm not going to worry about it any more until service time 5 years from now.

Jim

Good call that you aren't grumpy, Jim!

Anyway, an update:

I phoned my NEAREST AD today and told them about the problem. They were not happy to service my SS Cos, at all, since I did not buy it from them!

But I told them that Rolex has a world wide service net, and that it is a part of their job to service Rolex watches, regardless of where they were purchased. He agreed.

So on Thursday it's going to be fixed, and he told me that if they cannot fix it, off to Rolex SA it goes.

[Vanessa CW21]

Bo, unless those watchmakers at your AD are getting paid directly by Rolex, they have no obligation whatsoever to service that watch at no charge if you didn't buy the watch from them. That's the advantage their customers have if they need to use it, and that's why it is important as a consumer to weigh your benefits in purchasing from a local dealer with a watchmaker on the premises.

That being said, you asked for my opinion on the working of the watch; unfortunately I haven't been in this business long enough to have had the privilege to receive the training on their chronograph movement, so I'm sorry I can't help you with this.

[ROLEX MAN]

Haven't had the problem of not settling on 12''

but start/stop button takes about 5 seconds to "pop" back!

had it bach to AD amd they wanted to fix it but I didn't want it touched will wait for sevice,

[ezmoney46]

Originally Posted by SPACE-DWELLER

Well, even if I timed something lasting 2 hours, the chrono hand would still not jump back to precisely 12 o' clock if the chrono hand is stopped at between say 5 and 29 secs. past 12.

But as stated, it does jump back to 12 precisely if I reset it after the chrono hand has passed 30 secs.

Anyway, I don't mind so much now that I know that I can indeed have the chrono hand stand at 12 if I want it to. So if I am timing something and the event timed ends at XX.XX. and 12 seconds, I can just make a note of that, and then start the chronograph once again, let the chrono hand pass 30, stop it and then reset it.

I might have it checked by RSC sometime, but I don't want to have the watch opened because of this "issue" (if it indeed IS an issue altogether).

You guys are killing me

Now I know why I have a SS sub date, less than half the cost and the bezel never lets me down when timing anything

No, seriously the Daytona is a fine watch I just can't do without the date feature.



Steve

[Andad]

Originally Posted by Tools

I'm not even touching this one...

................

Damn it Larry - you beat me to it again.

[TARDIS]

It seems that chronograph watches are not everyone's cup of tea.

I flipped this one for similar reasons as JJ but the timer sweep hand on it ALWAYS returned to 12. It was a superquartz BTW.



Cheers
Steve

[BuffaloRolex]

I'll be curious to see how this saga ends. Reads like a bestseller...

[teton]

Originally Posted by BuffaloRolex

I'll be curious to see how this saga ends. Reads like a bestseller...

It will end when people realize there are way too many problems with a mechanical chronograph that they eventually flip it. Why does a mechanical chronograph even have small seconds instead of center seconds anyways? Why does the buttons sometimes not operate smoothly and consistently? Why does the chrono second hand flutter? Why does the chrono second hand sometimes not return to 12 consistently? There are way too many issues to deal with and that is why I only want simple watch now. Forget all the hype, a mechanical chrono is just not designed to be used but only looked at, and admired for it's possible utility. This is true regardless if your chrono costs $1500 or $20,000. I think the world of mechanical chronos simply have not progressed to a point where these design problems have been taken care of. This is sort of like a classic car, you can drive it sometimes and admire it always but really you do not want it for your daily commute.

-Teton

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by teton

It will end when people realize there are way too many problems with a mechanical chronograph that they eventually flip it. Why does a mechanical chronograph even have small seconds instead of center seconds anyways? Why does the buttons sometimes not operate smoothly and consistently? Why does the chrono second hand flutter? Why does the chrono second hand sometimes not return to 12 consistently? There are way too many issues to deal with and that is why I only want simple watch now. Forget all the hype, a mechanical chrono is just not designed to be used but only looked at, and admired for it's possible utility. This is true regardless if your chrono costs $1500 or $20,000. I think the world of mechanical chronos simply have not progressed to a point where these design problems have been taken care of. This is sort of like a classic car, you can drive it sometimes and admire it always but really you do not want it for your daily commute.

-Teton

Teton,
I respectfully disagree. I've only owned 4 chronos but have never had an issue with them, ever. There have been many robust chrono movements produced. No question they're more complicated and more complications translate into more possible issues. But that's far from probable.
Just my 2 cents.
dP

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Vanessa, you were spot on!

I went to my AD today to have the chronograph hand issue fixed. My AD refused to fix it unless I pay for the service although he - over the phone - had agreed to do the service despite the fact that I had not bought the SS Daytona from him.

[ErikAalto]

I would have to agree with the simplistic approach. I mean no offense, as I myself wouldn't turn down a free Daytona were one offered to me, but doesn't it seem a bit impractical to own a watch with features you do not use? I would love to have the chronograph feature so I could time stuff, but what I am deducting from this thread is that a lot of Daytona owners only use the chronograph to keep it functional, not for its function. Why pay a premium for something you aren't going to garner full use of?

Are Daytonas purchased for their form, or their function?

[Tools]

Originally Posted by ErikAalto

............
Are Daytonas purchased for their form, or their function?

They're purchased for their mystique and the braggin' rights...