Re: Why are consumer-grade quartz watches (deliberately set?) fast?

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:03:04 -0800 (PST), NadCixelsyd
<nadcixelsyd@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Let me digress: When I was a child some 60 years ago, consumer-grade
watches were accurate to about twenty seconds per day. Then, Bulova
invented the Accutron with a tuning fork, which was accurate to two
seconds per day. Thirty (+/-) years ago, quartz watches typically had
an accuracy of better than one second per day.

If they're tuned as precisely as pollible, some quartz watches should
be a tad fast, some should be a tad slow. However, I've noticed that
every quartz watch that I've ever owned runs a bit fast. So I tried
an experiment with two inexpensive quartz watches. Measured weekly
(using eyeballs and www.time.gov) over a period of four months
(without resetting), one watch consistently gained 3.5 seconds per
week. The other watch gained 2.5 seconds per week. In other words,
if I could adjust these watches to slow down by 22 and 15 milliseconds
per hour, respectively, they would have been accurate to within one
half second at all times for the past four months.

Well, to answer simply, it is better to come up for air a bit early
than a bit late. :)
I know, it's only seocnds, but it is probably an ingrained thing in
the watch industry that a watch should always be set a bit fast.
The mechanicals we always set a couple of seconds fast as well.
Better quality quartz movements would probably be able to do much
better than they are so perhaps it could be set closer to zero, but
compensation is still black magic, so it makes sense to aim for a bit
over to cover worst case scenarios.

As a secondary question, are any consumer-grade quartz watches time-
adjustable? I realize that most consumers only need the time to
within a minute or two, but I'm finiky.

Can't think of one. Certainly not in the mainstream movements by ETA,
Ronda, Miyota and Seiko. Although Omega and Longines with ETA
movements did use a trimmable circuit specifically made for them, but
can't tell you if they still use those on current models.
I'll keep an eye out though.

--

Regards, Frank
.

Relevant Pages

  • The History of Watches
    ... Prior to 1600 - The Earliest Watches ... in decoration and style of the watch. ... For the purposes of this paper, a watch is defined as a spring driven ... chronometer and pocket chronometer. ...
    (uk.rec.gambling.misc)
  • Re: ETA 980 163 - 15 jewel movement
    ... properly securing the movement while d'freemont and perhaps others ... I have two watches that have the ETA 2824 movement. ... well unfortunately you have no idea what you are talking about, the 2824 is more solid because it is a much larger movement, the 980.163 on the other hand is basically a ladies watch movement, built to go in a small case, but because of the sub seconds and thinness it is put into gents watches, everything is in proportion, a larger movement in a large case fits better, has larger hand pipes to carry the longer hands, it simply is more suitable for the job, putting a ladies movement in large case is like sticking a fiat 500 engine in a cadillac. ...
    (alt.horology)
  • Sale Price Citizen Watches Womens Eco-Drive Fake - Citizen Minimum Price Wholesale
    ... Sale Price Citizen Watches Women's Eco-Drive Fake - Citizen Minimum ... Supply 30% off discount for each watch paid by ... Citizen Ladies Watches Eco Drive BL1000-52A - AA: ...
    (uk.people.consumers.ebay)
  • Cheap Patek Philippe Complicated Timepieces Watches Replica - Patek Philippe Watches Wholesale
    ... Cheap Patek Philippe Complicated Timepieces Watches Replica - Patek ... Complicated Timepieces Fake Watch. ... Patek Philippe Complicated Annual Calendar 18kt Yellow Gold Mens Watch ...
    (rec.autos.sport.nascar)