Flyback Second Hand

[AVphile]

This past weekend, I purchased a new Datejust 41. It is a magnificent watch in design, manufacture and performance. In fact, as advertised, it gains slightly less the two seconds per day (so far, at least).

The only feature it lacks as far as I am concerned is a second hand which flies back to 0 to make the setting of the watch quicker and easier. I am hardly a Rolex expert, but I don't believe Rolex has embraced the idea of the flyback despite its functionality.

Does anyone know why? Is it for a technical reason or a marketing one?


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Jonathan

[Burlington]

You may be mixing up a couple of different things here.

Flyback chronographs can reset to zero without the need to stop, reset, restart. It’s all done with one touch.

The function of stopping the second the hand during setting the time is known as a hacking movement.

Just simply wait until the second hand is at 12:00 on the dial and pull the crown out. This will allow you to set it as accurately as needed.

I’ve never come across a movement which ‘fliesback’ during time setting ?!

[eonflux]

Panerai has a feature on some models, such as my previous 275, that when the crown is pulled all the way out to the time setting position, the second hand jumps to the 60 position, to facilitate setting of the watch more accurately to a reference.

It was a really cool feature. Didn't have to wait until the second hand hit 60.

For Rolex to do this, would have to redesign their movements.

This is not called a flyback feature, which as pointed out above, is something on some chronographs--most chronos do not have a flyback feature.

[Burlington]

Originally Posted by eonflux

Panerai has a feature on some models, such as my previous 275, that when the crown is pulled all the way out to the time setting position, the second hand jumps to the 60 position, to facilitate setting of the watch more accurately to a reference.

It was a really cool feature. Didn't have to wait until the second hand hit 60.

For Rolex to do this, would have to redesign their movements.

This is not called a flyback feature, which as pointed out above, is something on some chronographs--most chronos do not have a flyback feature.

Very cool - didn’t know about that one. A nice touch on a military watch !

[AVphile]

The feature I described turns out to be a very rare bird, indeed. A Lange & Sohne offers it in a limited number of its watches, calling it a "Zero-reset mechanism". Upon pulling the crown out fully, the second hand goes to zero. Glashutte offers the same feature in some of its Senator watches. Apparently, only the Germans care about that degree of accuracy (and ease) in resetting the time on a watch.