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[abraxas]

Anybody willing to admit that they'd be likely to return a relatively inexpensive (Traser H3/6500 - $140) because the seconds hand didn't hit the indicies (up to 1/2 second off) 3/4 the way around? :)

Is this 'problem' at all typical for 'cheapie' watches?

And if I caved for my lust for Eddie's Precista Commander Titan, should I expect better quality? <sigh> If only it had a GMT style bezel... ;)

Thanks!

Why don't you attempt to correct this small problem your self? If you don't think you are up to it, why not ask a local watchmaker to remedy it for you?

I fully appreciate your feelings, I have been there myself before. There is nothing more satisfying than having the seconds hand fall spot-on and nothing more infuriating than the alternative.

If you choose to sell it and want to get a Precista, why not ask Eddie you want one with the seconds spot-on?

I must be in my ?Why not?? period ... :roll:

Why not drop quartz altogether? Get a real watch and you will never have the problem ever again. :D

john

[Si]

because the seconds hand didn't hit the indicies (up to 1/2 second off) 3/4 the way around?

It is something that has bugged me with most of the quartz watches I have owned - it is very off putting and I certainly have got rid of some watches because of it. To me it is a matter of poor quality control. It is not restricted to cheaper watches.

Not anally retentive at all! They just need to put the second hand on properly. I read something about quartz movements which boiled down to, I think, the fact that for longevity reasons / battery life there must be some play in the drive train of a quartz movement and this is how some companies justify this fault. To me, they should have found a way round this by now.

You shouldn't have to go to a watchmaker to have it fixed!

Si

[abraxas]

If you want to see precise and crisp (and I mean crispest) tracking ... check out a Rolex quartz.

john

[Drew]

As John said.. several highends do align tightly.

You will find that higher end quartz movments often have a form of a magnetic brakestop, a stepper motor hand control (for lack of the real term) to keep the second's hand inline. The Grand Seiko line's modules have this feature, and i believe Rolex does as well.

Try a little test... Take a look at your watch by holding it vertically and slowly rotate it counterclockwise, turning it vertically the same speed as the seconds hand advances --- first with the seconds hand going around downwards ticking off seconds, starting at 12 high and watch the seconds hand ticking along at the "1-2-3-4-5" hour markers. Note just where in relation to the indices, the hands' miss-alignment is now.

Then as the seconds gets to the 6, rotate the watch so the 6 is at top and the seconds hand is still "going downwards" clockwise.... does the hand stay off alignment, forward of the indice by the same amount, in its travel all the way around?

Then if you reverse this test and rotate the watch, kept vertical, so the second hand is "climbing" all the way around (as it is being rotated to keep second hand on the left) does it now appear to be lined up or below the indices? Or is it now over-center reading to the other side of the indice on each tick?

...I'm mentioning this simple checkout (hard to explain) due to seeing if the slop found in the non-brake stepper motors and gear lash can have the seconds hand "put" in alignment, in otherwise cheaper movements. Most just can't when they have a half-second sloppy gear lash in the design.

If by checking it out this way and seeing that you can't find less-than-a-half of a second slop, try looking at and seeing where it is when it points straight down, with gravity working... is the hand now staying aligned?

If so, then the hand, even when removed and reset, would always have at least a "half second" miss-alignment somewhere around it's travels on the dial. Yup the sloppy nature of the beast.

sorry, sounds a little complicated to explain but easy to play out.

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[Crusader]

I fully appreciate your feelings, I have been there myself before. There is nothing more satisfying than having the seconds hand fall spot-on and nothing more infuriating than the alternative.

Indeed. I second that.

[Rod]

My PRS3 and Traser 6502 are both spot on. Although my CWC G10 is marginally out.

:) :?

Rod

[redmonaco]

Anybody willing to admit that they'd be likely to return a relatively inexpensive (Traser H3/6500 - $140) because the seconds hand didn't hit the indicies (up to 1/2 second off) 3/4 the way around? :)

Is this 'problem' at all typical for 'cheapie' watches?

And if I caved for my lust for Eddie's Precista Commander Titan, should I expect better quality? <sigh> If only it had a GMT style bezel... ;)

Thanks!

I have a Tag 2000 (£795 new 2 years ago) that has the same problem, its bloody annoying and i now hate the watch :evil: I contactewd tag twice and they gave me some lame excuse taht there must be a certain amount of 'slack' in the movement and that there accepted tolerence is for the hand to align between 5 to and 5 past the 12 position. I told them mine doesnt and they still said it was normal!! :? Regarding you mentioning the problem on 'cheaper' watches, i was bought a watch from a market in italy for 2.5 Euro's and, you guessed it, it aligned perfectly. I sent an email to tag offering to send them the watch so that they could take it apart and see how its done, never did get an answer...

[Mrcrowley]

Is it a different issue............

Or could it be just that the dial is misaligned?

[Mrcrowley]

How did the word Anal get to be used in such circumstances?

Very offputting for a picky, 100% hetrosexual to hear :shock:

[Mrcrowley]

Thanks guys...glad I'm not the only one who's picky about the seconds hand (even on a lowly quartz). :D

Drew, I preformed your test, and while my eyes are a bit on the tired side tonight, I do believe I detect slop all the way around!

With this new insight, I think I'm just going to live with it, else I could just end up chasing my tail looking for cheapie-quartz-watch-seconds-hand-nirvana.

And John, I do have a real (non-quartz) watch...my Seiko (gulp!) Black Samuria, that I'm very fond of; SHS and all:



Great watch.

I had the Ti version. That looks huge on your wrist. Yet I have small wrists & mine just looked ordinary. Weird.

Thanks again all!

[swanbourne]

I've noticed that some quartz actually drift in and out of indexing. Some of them as they traverse the dial a single revolution, which suggests a dial printing error but some do it differently. I have an Omega quartz which sometimes falls halfway all the time and then next time I look, it's exactly on the index all the time. There is a little "whip" in most quartz seconds hands, which probably accounts for some of the bad indexing we see.

Eddie

[docd]

My Precista commander titan (after much close observation) provided the following 'droopy' performance - the watch was kept vertically upright - any backlash in the second hand gearing would tend to give an advanced reading of time at 15sec (gravity pulling the hand down to advance the time) and a retarded reading of time at 45 (gravity pulling the hand down to retard the time.

At 15sec position second hand is 15sec + 1/4 sec
At 45sec position second hand is 45sec - 1/5 sec (ish)

With the watch head horizontal the second hand lines up with the second divisions consistently well all the way around the dial.

So I'd say there is definitely a bit of backlash - but not enough for me to sweat over - I hadn't even noticed it until today 8)

[Crusader]

My IWC mecano-quartz Fliegerchrono wobbled at nearly +/- 1 second, the Traser P6500 is spot on, the CWC G10 is very marginally off (not enough to bother me, though - and I am hard to please).

[Rob (NZ)]

How many of you have actually shot a high frame rate movie of your mechanicals to see if the second hand 'falls' on the marker. I'm willing to bet it doesn't on any watch, or at least not consistently. We however, especially on a high beat watch, don't notice as it appears to be in constant motion.

Regards,

Rob.

[Crusader]

How many of you have actually shot a high frame rate movie of your mechanicals to see if the second hand 'falls' on the marker. I'm willing to bet it doesn't on any watch, or at least not consistently. We however, especially on a high beat watch, don't notice as it appears to be in constant motion.

Regards,

Rob.

Paging Mr. Ming Thein ... although I am not sure the Lange rates as just another "mechanical". :D

[rfrazier]

How many of you have actually shot a high frame rate movie of your mechanicals to see if the second hand 'falls' on the marker. I'm willing to bet it doesn't on any watch, or at least not consistently. We however, especially on a high beat watch, don't notice as it appears to be in constant motion.

Regards,

Rob.

Good point. When replacing hands, getting the hour, minute and second all in sync is a chore. For 28800 A/h, the second hand isn't going to be more than 1/16 sec off, and 1/10 for 18000 A/h, I think (half a beat max). :) For jump second watches (i.e., quartz), it can be 1/2 second off (half a beat max).

Best wishes,
Bob

[abraxas]

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

And John, I do have a real (non-quartz) watch...my Seiko (gulp!) Black Samuria, that I'm very fond of; SHS and all:

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

I much-much prefer it to the steel (unprotected crown) version. Nice watch. The Nato suits it.

How did the word Anal get to be used in such circumstances?

Very offputting for a picky, 100% hetrosexual to hear :shock:

The quote below will give you a good indication of 'anality' ...

How many of you have actually shot a high frame rate movie of your mechanicals to see if the second hand 'falls' on the marker. I'm willing to bet it doesn't on any watch, or at least not consistently. We however, especially on a high beat watch, don't notice as it appears to be in constant motion.

Regards,

Rob.

Sorry Rob, that?s just too anal. :booty:

john

[Chisholm]

I recently purchased a second hand expensive quartz diver. It was in excellent condition except for two problems. The first is that the day on the day date window is slightly off parallel to the window. Should this bother me? The other was that the luminbrite pip was missing from the bezel! To solve this problem, a local watchmaker lent me his jar of bergeon luminbrite paste. I dripped luminbrite into the "pip" hole with a sharpened toothpick. When it had set I tamped it down with a wooden tamper made with the toothpick cut off at the end. Afterwards I filled the pip hole flush to the bezel with clear epoxy resin and this now looks pretty well as it would have originally. I know I am justified in the pip problem driving me mad, but I wonder if I am OTT about the day display.

Martin :?

[docd]

How many of you have actually shot a high frame rate movie of your mechanicals to see if the second hand 'falls' on the marker. I'm willing to bet it doesn't on any watch, or at least not consistently. We however, especially on a high beat watch, don't notice as it appears to be in constant motion.

Regards,

Rob.

Eddies already done it for the Precista Commander Titan quartz - nothing wrong with it's positioning (especially with the parallax) :D