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How accurate time keepers are reps compared to gen


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Hi All,

A bit of a novice question, so appologies in advanced.

I have 2 reps. a "perfect" Sub and a Planet Ocean 4th gen. Both are a few secs fast per day.

Would the real deals keep much better time?

How many secs do the gens lose per day?

Many thanks

Dan

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Rolex's keep possibly the worst time, they can be really quite aweful. My gen keeps worse time than the rep, so really don't worry bout it lol.

I am very happy with my reps and their accuracy. They both have ETA movements, the sub has supposedly been serviced and does keep slightly better time.

I just always assumed a gen Rolex would have very tight tolerance levels and woudl lose secs a year not days. Is this sort of accuracy simply not possible in any automatic movement?

Thanks agian

Dan

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Most [all] automatic movements will be +/- seconds a day...

Normal for Gens & Reps alike...

There are exceptions: Planet Oceans and Spring Drives, for instance.

The Omega Co-Axial gets Quartz-like accuracy, according to some owners, my brother included. The Seiko Spring Drive doesn't count, obviously, but ... damn!

You'd be hard-pressed to find a replica as accurate as a well-tuned Omega Co-Axial.

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I am very happy with my reps and their accuracy. They both have ETA movements, the sub has supposedly been serviced and does keep slightly better time.

I just always assumed a gen Rolex would have very tight tolerance levels and woudl lose secs a year not days. Is this sort of accuracy simply not possible in any automatic movement?

Thanks agian

Dan

COSC chronometer spec (like rolex's with superlative chronometer on the dial) is -5 to +6 seconds a day. that's for a genuine swiss made watch from rolex, omega, breitling, iwc, sinn etc.

seiko (who invented the quartz watch) and citizen have both produced long since out of production and quite expensive models that were accurate to less than a minute a year. but seconds a year may not be possible. primarily because just tempreature differences can cause a bigger variation than that. here is one of my favorite articles on the search for the ultimate in accuracy :D

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=42169

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There are exceptions: Planet Oceans and Spring Drives, for instance.

The Omega Co-Axial gets Quartz-like accuracy, according to some owners, my brother included. The Seiko Spring Drive doesn't count, obviously, but ... damn!

You'd be hard-pressed to find a replica as accurate as a well-tuned Omega Co-Axial.

I so want a spring drive. I just wish that the design that Seiko used wasn't so -- Japanese. It has no class and a busy dial.

/Tim

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I so want a spring drive. I just wish that the design that Seiko used wasn't so -- Japanese. It has no class and a busy dial.

/Tim

these are a little less busy than the 600m diver ;)

btw the bezel on the gmt is sapphire for no scratches!

post-1397-1174108068_thumb.jpg

post-1397-1174108104_thumb.jpg

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Hi All,

A bit of a novice question, so appologies in advanced.

I have 2 reps. a "perfect" Sub and a Planet Ocean 4th gen. Both are a few secs fast per day.

Would the real deals keep much better time?

How many secs do the gens lose per day?

Many thanks

Dan

My reps with eta movements are accurate to within about 5-10 seconds per day, which isn't bad for an automatic movement. They're better than my gen air king, but it has a little age on it. My Japanese 21J (supposedly a myata) is accurate to about 30 seconds per day, still not in the unacceptable range. I can't comment on the accuracy of new gens as all my gens are decades old vintage classics. If they're good to a minute a day, you're grateful.

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Mt current daily beaters are very good: my Navitimer Serie Speciale with ETA 7750 gains less than one second per day and my Panny 113 from Davidsen looses just over three seconds a day. On the other hand my new Steelfish with ETA movement was gaining more than a minute a day which meant that it wasn't really reliable enough to use because of the danger of missing trains and the like. So the Steelfish has gone to be serviced and I hope that it will be a much better timekeeper when it returns.

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Replica and genuine mechanical watches are tweaked to run a little fast out of the box for 2 reasons. A hacking mechanisim that's running 30 sec fast per day is easy to reset daily just by pulling out the crown and stopping the mechanisim until the time is correct. The second reason is that over time as oils dry, a watch will tend to loose time so one that is gaining time will give the owner a longer service interval.

Fine adjustability is a very interesting pursuit as you get into the COSC numbers realm. This is where the margins of technology and nanoscience are pushed by the high horology manufacturers to get mechanical accuracy as good as it's going to get. When you read about R&D worrying about the air turbulence the adjustment screws on the balance wheel make,.....well...it must be fun to operate in an accuracy standard where that makes a difference!

As for our reps, I've had Asian movements that I've been able to adjust to +3-5 sec per day and some that I couldn't get closer than +- 30 sec/day. It's a crap shoot out of the box. A decently made 17 jewel or better mechanical watch, oiled and adjusted, should give you +- 15 sec/day.

And it's not all about accuracy, its accuracy in positions. Mechanical watches tend to gain dial up and loose crown down due to friction in the balance wheel jewel. The amount your watch gains and looses in these positions is important to on the wrist and on the bedside table daily accuracy. A watch that is adjusted to work very well dial up on a work bench might be an inaccurate watch in daily use.

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