AP Movement Issue

[AlexWazo]

So I've had my 15450 since Nov 2018, bought new from an AD, when those were still around...and I decided to wind it up this past weekend after a week out of rotation. Movement always ran spot on prior to this.

Was wearing it all day Monday while working from home, got up Tuesday and noticed that the time was about 20 minutes off. It took me by surprise, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe I wasn't paying too much attention when setting the time, granted I was pretty certain in my mind that the time was fine even up to going to bed on Monday.

So I corrected it and told myself to check it more often during the day to see what happens. The rest of the day Tuesday it was spot on again as I had expected, but then we get to around 11pm. Everything seemed okay at the top of the hour and when I gave it a glance a few minutes after I noticed that the time showed something around 10:45pm. Just like that it was noticeably off by about 15-20 minutes.

I didn't plan on wearing the watch anymore after that, but there was still some power reserve left, so I left it out Wednesday to check every so often and low and behold the same issue, spot on until roughly 11pm.

Anyone ever have anything happen like this? The weird part to me is the consistency. It'll be accurate to the second during the day and everyday between 10-11pm it shoots back 15-20 minutes. Another strange occurrence to me is that when setting the time the minute hand seems to have more "play" than normal and isn't as smooth rotating around the dial with a smooth turn of the crown.

I did set the date prior to setting the time on Monday, but I'm sure the hour hand was at 6 prior to changing the date.

It's a long winded story that for sure means sending it out to Clearwater (once they reopen, as of 4/30 right now) but I have never encountered such a consistent malfunction in a movement before. I'm fairly wrist conscience and am pretty sure it has not had any hard bangs..otherwise my more fragile pieces would have certainly had issues by now. Any ideas what could cause such an issue? Also, any ideas if an issue like this would be covered under warranty (definitely no water damage and it's never been dropped or banged around)?

[maciej]

Seems like it may have been magnetized unless there was some sort of an event where there was an impact that isn't being mentioned.

[AlexWazo]

Originally Posted by maciej

Seems like it may have been magnetized unless there was some sort of an event where there was an impact that isn't being mentioned.

No impacts since I’ve owned the piece. I was considering it being magnetized but then wouldn’t it be consistently fast throughout the day instead of a random 20 minute jump?

[P2725TMB]

That does sound weird, it runs well for the day and then late in the evening loses time. Unless it just suddenly stops for 20 minutes before starting again there must be a point when it slows. Is it still running the next morning? Assuming so, has it still only lost 20 minutes or more by then? If it's not running perhaps it just doesnt have enough power reserve.

[AlexWazo]

Originally Posted by P2725TMB

That does sound weird, it runs well for the day and then late in the evening loses time. Unless it just suddenly stops for 20 minutes before starting again there must be a point when it slows. Is it still running the next morning? Assuming so, has it still only lost 20 minutes or more by then? If it's not running perhaps it just doesnt have enough power reserve.

Yep it would still be running by the next morning about 20 minutes behind.

[leisen]

My experience with caliber 3120 has not been good. And I've often heard about poor performance of it. Perhaps that's why AP has replaced it in the RO collection after only 14 years since its introduction on the market. I'm afraid it is a mechanism with many weak points.

[AlexWazo]

It happened again, right at 11pm the minute hand will snap back to show roughly 10:40. Date complication damaged?

[mnl]

i had something similar happen to me on my 15450 early this week, the time was off by around 35min. i was very confused so i just fixed the time and rewound it thinking maybe power reserve was low. i never really wind it, i just set the date/time whenever it’s needed at the end of a 28/30 day month so i thought maybe low power could’ve been the cause. thankfully it hasn’t happened since, been keeping track and it’s right on time since i reset it. it’s too bad that it seems to be a consistent issue with yours…

[mnl]

it just happened again today, it was about 40min ahead this time though. then when i took it off to take a shower it just completely stopped not sure what could be the issue here…

[Burlington]

Originally Posted by AlexWazo

It happened again, right at 11pm the minute hand will snap back to show roughly 10:40. Date complication damaged?

Best thing is to get it to Clearwater. Sounds like it would be covered by warranty if a movement issue.