How many seconds faster or slower is considered acceptable?

[hunz]

I just bought a 1601 which the seller described as 'jut been serviced'. Its running slower by a few secs, if have kept the watch face up to speed it up, but not sure if its working. Just wondering how many either side is acceptable for a recently serviced Rolex?

[adam78]

Really, any variation +/- 5 sec per day in various positions is really quite acceptable, especially for a 30-50 year old movement which may not have had regular service intervals over the years. It's still running within chronometer spec, after all. It can probably be tweaked by a good watchmaker to be even more accurate. The cal. 1570 (and 1560) were superb movements. I have had the 1560, 1570, and even 1520 movements in various of my watches regulated after service to keep on average within a few seconds or less per day.

It's best to develop a relationship with an independent watchmaker rather than taking it in to a jeweler and having it sent off somewhere.

[Alcan]

The C.O.S.C. (=ISO 3159) says:
For a movement with a diameter over 20mm (without housing) the mean value is between -4 and +6 seconds per day, measured over a period of 15 days. A single value for one day may differ up to 10 second from the mean value. The daily rates are measured under laboratory conditions unmoved.

[thesmallwave]

-4 +6/24 hours is accurate COSC

[hunz]

Originally Posted by thesmallwave

-4 +6/24 hours is accurate COSC

-4 +6 within 1 day is acceptable?

[hunz]

Originally Posted by thesmallwave

-4 +6/24 hours is accurate COSC

My 1601 is running 7 seconds behind after 36 hours. Good or bad?

[Numismatist]

Originally Posted by hunz

-4 +6 within 1 day is acceptable?

Yes it is, it's also what's certified by: http://www.cosc.ch/ , that's what the hangtag is for.

[hunz]

Originally Posted by Numismatist

Yes it is, it's also what's certified by: http://www.cosc.ch/ , that's what the hangtag is for.

ok. thanks for the confirmation. as above after 36 hours, this watch is running 7 seconds slow.

i'll try resetting it against my Mac laptops' clock and see how it fairs in the next 24 hour test

[Frogman4me]

I would use an atomic watch and time.gov to accurately measure the time.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by hunz

ok. thanks for the confirmation. as above after 36 hours, this watch is running 7 seconds slow.

i'll try resetting it against my Mac laptops' clock and see how it fairs in the next 24 hour test

Lets get things perfectly straight the COSC test and certification is a Average of -4 to +6 seconds over any 24 hour period.And you cannot test a watch for accuracy just over 24 hours.First give your watch a full manual wind 40 full crown turns clockwise only.Then set watch with any reliable accurate time source a quartz watch will do.Then wear as normal check time daily with same setting source over 5 full days. Then average out the loss or gain over those 5 days for a accurate rate of your watch.

[Paracentesis]

Originally Posted by hunz

ok. thanks for the confirmation. as above after 36 hours, this watch is running 7 seconds slow.

i'll try resetting it against my Mac laptops' clock and see how it fairs in the next 24 hour test

I use the hourly BBC "pips" on Radio 4 (FM, not Digital, as there is a delay). As Padi points out, time your watch over a period of several days.

[hunz]

Originally Posted by padi56

Lets get things perfectly straight the COSC test and certification is a Average of -4 to +6 seconds over any 24 hour period....with same setting source over 5 full days.

you mean leave the watch (without setting from day 1) for the 5 days?

how about night time, lay it dial up?

[hunz]

Originally Posted by Frogman4me

I would use an atomic watch and time.gov to accurately measure the time.

Originally Posted by Paracentesis

I use the hourly BBC "pips" on Radio 4 (FM, not Digital, as there is a delay). As Padi points out, time your watch over a period of several days.

I looked at time.gov but its only US times. BBC wont work for me either as i'm based in Australia. I tried worldtime.com but no seconds or secondhand reading! -- any other website suggestions for accurate time?

[robsteve]

Does this one work for you? National Research Council of Canada Atomic clock. It shows UTC time (GMT). You click on one of the maps to start it.

http://time5.nrc.ca/webclock_e.shtml

[hunz]

its only can/us, thanks anyway though

i found this site...

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/clocks/

[Paracentesis]

Originally Posted by hunz

I looked at time.gov but its only US times. BBC wont work for me either as i'm based in Australia.

It's possible to convert US time to your local time using mathematics. Your location is displayed as UK...

[robsteve]

Originally Posted by Paracentesis

It's possible to convert US time to your local time using mathematics. Your location is displayed as UK...

The link I gave also had UTC/GMT time on it. How many time zones are there in the UK; one or two?

Just wondering if the problem may be a network thing that we may not understand. Such as when you try to go to a US web site for some of the network TV stations, they will not stream video to you if not in the USA.

Robert

[Paracentesis]

Only one time zone in the UK. Your Canadian link works perfectly and displays the correct time, according to my IWC.

[Haroldglen]

My 116200 Rolex DJ ran about 10 seconds too fast over 24 hours, for the first year. I sent it to the Rolex Dallas Service Ctr. and they remedied it. However, it now runs about 5 seconds too fast, which is acceptable. Better fast, than slow!

[robsteve]

Originally Posted by Paracentesis

Only one time zone in the UK. Your Canadian link works perfectly and displays the correct time, according to my IWC.

It should work, it was a Canadian that invented the Universal time standards Sir Sanford Flemming invented it for use with the railroads in Canada. As a side note, the Royal Canadian Institute created the National Research Counsel, to which my link pointed for the clock application.

Sir Sandford Fleming - Father of Standard Time
In 1876, Sir Sandford Fleming missed a train he was supposed to travel on in Ireland. The train's schedule had misprinted the departure time as p.m. instead of a.m. Fleming was inspired to create a 24-hour international clock based on the world globe meridian of Greenwich (Greenwich mean time).

Establishment of Universal Standard Time, Fleming recommended the standard to the Royal Canadian Institute in 1879. Standard Time was accepted universally in 1884. Sir Sandford Fleming was behind the adoption of the present time meridians in both Canada and the U.S.

Standard time in time zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads on 18 November 1883. Before then, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by some well-known clock (for example, on a church steeple or in a jeweler's window).

Standard time in time zones was not established in U.S. law until the Act of March 19, 1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act.

from the site linked below
http://inventors.about.com/od/fstart...ordFleming.htm

[hunz]

Sorry chaps. Like I said above, I'm based in Australia now. Does the canadian site allow oz timescales?

Otherwise Worldtimeserver.com is good enough?

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/curre...city=Melbourne

[padi56]

Originally Posted by hunz

you mean leave the watch (without setting from day 1) for the 5 days?

how about night time, lay it dial up?

I did state in my original post set your watch with any accurate reliable time source but you must check daily with the same first setting time source wear/rest your watch as you normally do.

Originally Posted by hunz

Sorry chaps. Like I said above, I'm based in Australia now. Does the canadian site allow oz timescales?

Otherwise Worldtimeserver.com is good enough?

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/curre...city=Melbourne

What don't you understand just set your Rolex watch with any quartz watch.For the period of the test 5 days any quartz watch will be accurate enough.

[Racer X]

My advice is to be content with a vintage watch that runs a few seconds fast or slow every 24 hours. A few seconds off per day is like 99.998% accuracy (there are 86400 seconds in a day!) and perfect accuracy is not really what these watches are about anyway. If you need a watch that is perfectly accurate, a quartz movement is the way to go.

[Paracentesis]

Originally Posted by hunz

Sorry chaps. Like I said above, I'm based in Australia now. Does the canadian site allow oz timescales?

I'm beginning to think this thread is perhaps a "wind-up". Use the Canadian site, and use arithmetic to derive your local time.

[hunz]

huh? -- this isn't a "wind up" geezer Am on my 2nd day of testing!

[hunz]

Update half way through the tests..

After:

1st 24hrs: 3 seconds slow - watch left "Dial Up" at overnight
2nd 24hrs: 1 second faster - watch left "Dial Up" at overnight
Halfway through 3rd 24hr mark: 3.5 seconds faster - watch left "Dial Up" at overnight

Question:

As the watch is gaining time now, should I lay it "Crown down" to slow it down during this testing, or leave it dial up (for continuity)?

[Alcan]

Originally Posted by hunz

Question:

As the watch is gaining time now, should I lay it "Crown down" to slow it down during this testing, or leave it dial up (for continuity)?

Read post #3.

[slcbbrown]

I've got several older models and would be happy with a +/- of 30 seconds per day. At the end of a work week, I'll be off 2 or 3 minutes. I also travel and reset my watch to local time and never attempt to match atomic clock time when I reset.

[hunz]

Originally Posted by Alcan

Read post #3.

are you referring to your first line sentence in your post or the scanned Rolex instruction/guide?

I'm following Padi56's test advice in post #10, but need some clarification

Re testing.. After:

4th 24hr mark: the watch is now reading 5 seconds Faster - watch left "Dial Up" at overnight

As the watch is gaining even more time now, should I lay it "Crown down" to slow it down during this testing, or leave it dial up (for continuity)?

Your thoughts/advice?

[darthmouse]

Leave it the same way each night. Say it gains 20 seconds in the 5 day test. Then your average is +4 seconds. Don't worry about the process much.