32xx movement problem poll and data thread

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Utomow

Important thread unfortunately I don’t have proper timegrapher to contribute here

And you most certainly dont need one, as things like timegrapher and loupes can and will be many Rolex owners worst enemy. Afraid today most all of these watch timing and magnifying tools, are best left to to the watchmakers who have trained for many years on how to use them. In over 50 years of owing and wearing Rolex watches never felt the need for timegraphers, phone timing apps, loupes and the rest of todays stuff. Thank god my life was never run to the exact second, just wear my watches check time once a month or so. If out by a minute or so might adjust and I have never been late for appointments missed planes or trains if any of my watches were a few seconds either way out.

[Michael N Q8]

I have a 2018 BLRO and have noticed this problem. I have taken it to the local service center twice to be regulated. This is about 3-6 months ago.

What I can say for sure is that when the watch is wound and kept on wrist it maintains time within 2 sec per day. If left to run down, it loses time increasingly.

I have not taken any data but after reading these threads its clear mine has this problem. I will try to gather some data and post it.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Michael N Q8

I have a 2018 BLRO and have noticed this problem. I have taken it to the local service center twice to be regulated. This is about 3-6 months ago.

What I can say for sure is that when the watch is wound and kept on wrist it maintains time within 2 sec per day. If left to run down, it loses time increasingly.

I have not taken any data but after reading these threads its clear mine has this problem. I will try to gather some data and post it.

All mechanical watches when the mainspring runs down could loose a few seconds, but we are only talking about a few seconds and not minutes or hours. All mechanical watches run better and more accurate when the mainspring is at peak power -reserve. So even when worn will do no harm whatsoever to give a manual wind once a week or so.

[Michael N Q8]

Originally Posted by padi56

All mechanical watches when the mainspring runs down could loose a few seconds, but we are only talking about a few seconds and not minutes or hours. All mechanical watches run better and more accurate when the mainspring is at peak power -reserve. So even when worn will do no harm whatsoever to give a manual wind once a week or so.

Yes, I agree, and I do this often. I have a few other models with the older gen movements, i.e. 2 x daytonas, a sea dweller and an Explorer 1 and these all gain a few seconds a day, but mostly very consistently.

This issue is different so as to notice it. The first time I saw it I was very surprised and thought I had made a mistake, but after a few times of it happening I realized its a problem, but since I had taken it back twice, I didn't bother anymore, and now I see that others have it.

My 15 year old Daytona performs better than this BLRO.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Michael N Q8

Yes, I agree, and I do this often. I have a few other models with the older gen movements, i.e. 2 x daytonas, a sea dweller and an Explorer 1 and these all gain a few seconds a day, but mostly very consistently.

This issue is different so as to notice it. The first time I saw it I was very surprised and thought I had made a mistake, but after a few times of it happening I realized its a problem, but since I had taken it back twice, I didn't bother anymore, and now I see that others have it.

My 15 year old Daytona performs better than this BLRO.

How much was it losing a day, what was the state of the mainspring when you noticed it was losing. Was the watch on a machine winder, worn, or off the wrist when you noticed it losing a few seconds.

[Michael N Q8]

Originally Posted by padi56

How much was it losing a day, what was the state of the mainspring when you noticed it was losing. Was the watch on a machine winder, worn, or off the wrist when you noticed it losing a few seconds.

This is just an estimate as I will take proper records from today...I would say that if I keep it wound and wear it, it remains accurate within 1-2 sec per day. It has done this for the last 2 days.

If I leave it without wearing or winding, after a day, its 3-5 seconds slow, after 2 days its 8-10 seconds slow, and then greater than 12 sec on the 3rd day.

As I said, this is not the same trend with my other Rolexes. I don't have any winders or proper measuring equipment. I simply compare it with the atomic time which is essentially the time on an iPhone.

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by Michael N Q8

I will take proper records from today... As I said, this is not the same trend with my other Rolexes. I don't have any winders or proper measuring equipment.

Great, very welcome.
To take reliable data, you need to measure under well defined and documented conditions for which you require a minimum of instrumentation, otherwise movement amplitudes and their change with time cannot be determined. Rates can be measured quite easily also without instrumentation. If you can measure similar to what is described in post #11 (see Tables) and post #56 then you can determine the status of your 32xx caliber, and also compare the results with your other watches, so you will obtain a quantitative picture. It’s also nice to be able to determine when a service should be done, and if the service was successful.
Please report your results here.

[Driver8]

This is very useful thread, so thanks for posting it up.

The only thing ‘missing’ is the length of ownership (which would obviously add a huge layer of complexity to collating the data and probably isn’t practical to capture here).

The only reason I say that is that I’ve noticed a few guys saying they have no issues on a watch that’s only a couple of months old, which is obviously great news, but mine was also incredibly accurate for a full 18 months before it started losing time. That seems like the common observation. If the issue IS adverse wear on the seconds wheel pinion, that will only come with time as (as we know) Rolex regulates their watches from the factory, so you’d expect great accuracy to start with.

Either way, I think this is an important thread and the more contributors we get the better.

[sgwatchguy]

Originally Posted by saxo3

Thanks for your data, I have some questions:
CHNR (2018): Did you permanently wear it on your wrist? How often did you wind the movement? Did it stop during the 4 months?
BLNR (2020): same questions, applied to the 43 days
Note: both watches run a bit slow, i.e. rates (s/d) are not positive. This also depends on your wearing pattern and many other factors.

CHNR:
- 12-14 hours of wear everyday, 5 or 6 days a week,
- always DU overnight or when not being worn,
- I did not wind the movement for that entire duration of 4 months.


BLNR:
- 12-14 hours of wear everyday, 5 or 6 days a week,
- always DU overnight or when not being worn,
- I’ve not wound the movement since I started wearing this month and half ago.

Hope that helps. Yes I realize they’re both running slow, I’ve not noticed striking time loss day to day, to warrant further investigations or actions. Question is, do I need to?

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Michael N Q8

This is just an estimate as I will take proper records from today...I would say that if I keep it wound and wear it, it remains accurate within 1-2 sec per day. It has done this for the last 2 days.

If I leave it without wearing or winding, after a day, its 3-5 seconds slow, after 2 days its 8-10 seconds slow, and then greater than 12 sec on the 3rd day.

As I said, this is not the same trend with my other Rolexes. I don't have any winders or proper measuring equipment. I simply compare it with the atomic time which is essentially the time on an iPhone.

Michael while I agree there is, or was, a slight problem with the 32 series movements, much like the few problems with the cal3035,cal3135,cal3186 plus many others all rectified over production years. But in todays age with the use of phone apps and timegraphers these tiny so called problems are reported on forums, and then blown out of all proportion. Just wonder how many 32 series movements are in this world today, most probably a 1000000 plus. And just wonder how many of these movements have been sent back to Rolex for adjustment. What this boils down to speaking for myself I cannot see any reason whatsoever not to buy and enjoy wearing any 32 series movement watch. But must admit I wear my watches and only check time once a week or so no matter the movement inside, thank god my life's not run to the exact second .

[Michael N Q8]

Originally Posted by padi56

Michael while I agree there is, or was, a slight problem with the 32 series movements, much like the few problems with the cal3035,cal3135,cal3186 plus many others all rectified over production years. But in todays age with the use of phone apps and timegraphers these tiny so called problems are reported on forums, and then blown out of all proportion. Just wonder how many 32 series movements are in this world today, most probably a 1000000 plus. And just wonder how many of these movements have been sent back to Rolex for adjustment. What this boils down to speaking for myself I cannot see any reason whatsoever not to buy and enjoy wearing any 32 series movement watch. But must admit I wear my watches and only check time once a week or so no matter the movement inside, thank god my life's not run to the exact second .

To be honest, I am not obsessed with every second slower or faster. Whenever I get a new watch I do check it for a few days just to see that all is ok. I recently got a pristine Explorer 1 and checked it. It does +2 sec a day and maintains that pretty well.

I also got the new Breitling 806 reissue and that has a 70 hour reserve and also keeps a more or less consistent +2 sec per day over 3 days. This is not an issue for me, even 5-10 per day is not an issue.

Its just this BLRO that has inconsistent performance that points to a latent problem and when I saw these posts the penny dropped...

[peterskinner]

Well, if there are 1000,000 of the 32...based watches, then even a small number of faults will get amplified. One thousand ‘faulty’ watches would be one fault in a thousand watches.
Doesn’t take many active, obsessive, owners on forums to create quite a strong impression. How accurate that is.....who knows?

[Smobews]

SD43 bought in July 2020

Running -0.3 SPD on the wrist (loses 9 seconds a month). Resting dial up at night. Highest amplitude of 281 dial up, lowest 238 crown down. Delta of 3.8 seconds.

My mainspring seems to be continually fully wound. If I try to manually wind it at any time during the day (except in the morning), it is fully wound.

[JohnnyMack]

I just sent my SD43 in after a 1.5 years of ownership.

It was running up to -10 sec/day behind. It was super annoying paying this much for a watch to have to reset it once a week.

It was worse when I traveled and wore it 24/7.

Yes, I like to be on time, and noticed it falling behind at the end of a week.

I got it back about two months ago and now holding +0.2/sec since last check, and I have not had to reset it.


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[travisb]

Zero issues with any of mine with updated movements.

[HiBoost]

Originally Posted by Smobews

SD43 bought in July 2020

Running -0.3 SPD on the wrist (loses 9 seconds a month). Resting dial up at night. Highest amplitude of 281 dial up, lowest 238 crown down. Delta of 3.8 seconds.

My mainspring seems to be continually fully wound. If I try to manually wind it at any time during the day (except in the morning), it is fully wound.

Thanks for the data!

How are you determining that it is fully wound? Mine seems to wind forever. Does yours actually stop at some point where the crown won't turn further? I've tried putting it to my ear while winding and I think I might hear a subtle change in sound after some point, but it's very slight.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by travisb

Zero issues with any of mine with updated movements.

Thanks! So, "no issues" vote, very nice, w/o data. Purchase date? Watches/movements? Wrist time?

[HiBoost]

Originally Posted by padi56

All mechanical watches when the mainspring runs down could loose a few seconds, but we are only talking about a few seconds and not minutes or hours. All mechanical watches run better and more accurate when the mainspring is at peak power -reserve. So even when worn will do no harm whatsoever to give a manual wind once a week or so.

That's a key issue with a watch that has a low amplitude at full wind, even though it keeps good time in that condition (e.g. mine). When my power reserve gets low, it crosses an amplitude threshold where the timing goes to complete crap. I've seen it go to -160 s/d in this situation. So this new amazing "70 hour power reserve" is kind of nonsense if I have to make sure it never uses more than 50 hours of it or else the timing drifts like crazy.

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[1William]

No issues.

[TswaneNguni]

Originally Posted by TswaneNguni

No idea about amplitude .

DSSD JC 2018 (3235) was -5s/day .
RSC (Only Rolex I have ever sent to RSC)
Running perfect now .

Might just ad -5s/d ,after fully wound ,dial up for 24 hours .
Checked for three days,but fully wound every day and resting dial up .
It was constantly -5s/day for every day .

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by HiBoost

So this new amazing "70 hour power reserve" is kind of nonsense if I have to make sure it never uses more than 50 hours of it or else the timing drifts like crazy.

Absolutely correct, based on data I say that it can be even << 50 hours because of a too quick (within 24 hours) decay of amplitudes < 200 degrees. Some of the "no-issue reporters" may not have seen yet that this started already for their watch.

[Annan]

Originally Posted by Driver8

This is very useful thread, so thanks for posting it up.

The only thing ‘missing’ is the length of ownership (which would obviously add a huge layer of complexity to collating the data and probably isn’t practical to capture here).

The only reason I say that is that I’ve noticed a few guys saying they have no issues on a watch that’s only a couple of months old, which is obviously great news, but mine was also incredibly accurate for a full 18 months before it started losing time. That seems like the common observation. If the issue IS adverse wear on the seconds wheel pinion, that will only come with time as (as we know) Rolex regulates their watches from the factory, so you’d expect great accuracy to start with.

Either way, I think this is an important thread and the more contributors we get the better.

Exactly right....could not agree more. The poll is currently running almost 2:1 favoring no issues but I also have to wonder about length of ownership.

[Mystro]

Originally Posted by HiBoost

That's a key issue with a watch that has a low amplitude at full wind, even though it keeps good time in that condition (e.g. mine). When my power reserve gets low, it crosses an amplitude threshold where the timing goes to complete crap. I've seen it go to -160 s/d in this situation. So this new amazing "70 hour power reserve" is kind of nonsense if I have to make sure it never uses more than 50 hours of it or else the timing drifts like crazy.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

And this is what most of us movement nerds spoke about the way Rolex tried to extend their power reserve with the 32 series movements. Their ultra thin single barrel method is more of a modification than a genuine solution to a usable 72 hour power reserve. Why did Rolex go against the well established and proven dual barrel mainspring???
Dual barrel mainsprings will blow a single barrel spring away in power reserve accuracy. Movements from Omega and Panerai will maintain a strong and consistent amplitude way into days of their power reserve yielding outstanding accuracy on day 3 of power reserve. Even if you don’t care about a 72 hour power reserve in your Rolex, you probably want it’s accuracy to not fall off at the 48 hour mark.

[winst]

So, over a 100 people have contributed to the poll and over 30% have issues with their movement. Far from acceptable for any watch manufacturer, let alone for a premium brand like Rolex. As much as I like the new Datejusts I will be sticking with 31.. movements for now. Good luck to those of you who have been having the issues and I hope you get them sorted. I would not be worried whilst the watch was in warranty, my worry would be that this movement might not be capable of lasting 10 year service intervals. Also, if you did have it serviced by RSC’s it will only be covered for 2 years after.

[EEpro]

Originally Posted by Annan

Exactly right....could not agree more. The poll is currently running almost 2:1 favoring no issues but I also have to wonder about length of ownership.

It took 11 months for the problem to show on my TT DJ41. Went to -30 seconds per day after a 1 month nap. I owned 3 watches with the 3235 at the time and tested them on the timegrapher. SD43 and 2 DJ41. I own none of them now.

[Wcdhtwn]

I thought my SD43 was losing time, then I thought it wasn’t. Over the past few days I’m now convinced it is. My new SkyD may be also. So here’s a question: is the Apple Watch good for being the standard that I use to measure against? I always measure at home so discrepancies between cell towers shouldn’t be an issue.

[Mystro]

Originally Posted by Wcdhtwn

I thought my SD43 was losing time, then I thought it wasn’t. Over the past few days I’m now convinced it is. My new SkyD may be also. So here’s a question: is the Apple Watch good for being the standard that I use to measure against? I always measure at home so discrepancies between cell towers shouldn’t be an issue.

Proper time keeping source:
For Apple/ios people, please use the
“Emerald Time” app developed by Emerald Sequoia from your app store.

[Chester01]

We need a new poll, how many do and not have watch OCD.

[Mystro]

Originally Posted by Chester01

We need a new poll, how many do and not have watch OCD.

If I had to steer this forum in a direction, I would much rather encourage ocd time keeping and movement understanding than “What watch holds the most value” or all the commodity trading that has plagued this Rolex forum the last three years.
At least the by product of movement education is better horological knowledge and experience. Once that is established as a base line, value and what watch to buy will take care of itself without the need to ask.

[Rori]

My SD43 starts it’s life with me with a +2.5 seconds / day. 1 year, 3 months later its -0.5 a day. The last month the watch lost merely 16sec!
I don’t know if this is considered an issue by the experts.
Update: my watch is never fully charged since it’s off my wrist while sleeping “8 hours” then when I’m exercising “3 hours” then we should add the fact I also alternate with my Tudor.


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