Question on accuracy of Tissot watch
Don Awalt
I received a Tissot LeLocle Mechanical-Automatic watch as a gift. It's a
very nice watch, I love it. My understanding is that it should have the
accuracy of a quartz watch, but it has one odd behavior I have not seen with
quartz.
I have made it a point to wear the watch all day for about 4 days, to ensure
it's wound. I set it and two other cheaper quartz watches to the same time,
and during the time I wear the watch (from about 5:30 am to 10:30 pm) the
Tissot does not gain/lose any perceptible time - < 1 sec for sure.
Overnight however, it picks up anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds - evey night!
And it's fast, not slow, which tells me it's probably not due to a problem
with not being wound. That's 1/2 sec to almost a full second an hour
overnight! Seems something is wrong?
Is this something that settles in, or is it the way I am storing the watch
(ie does it need to be set down in a particular position?) Or is there
something wrong with the watch? This could easily be inaccurate fast by 2
minutes a month if I just set it and left it. I have never had a cheaper
quartz watch be that inaccurate.
Thanks for your help - I love the watch but I can't believe that it gains so
much time overnight.
Don
Bo Williams
You cannot expect quartz accuracy from any mechanical watch for any
sustained time. Picking up 3 to 5 seconds overnight is well within the
bounds of "reasonable," and is in fact within COSC standards (-4 to +6
seconds daily). You should also be pleased that it currently keeps
perfect time on your wrist.
It's doubtful your watch can be regulated to be any more accurate than
it is now. However, you might experiment with placement at night (dial
up, dial down, crown up, crown down, etc.) and see if it changes its
behavior.
Your watch is doing very well and appears to be, from what you've said
about it, in perfect order. Enjoy it.
--
Bo Williams - will...@hiwaay.net
http://hiwaay.net/~williams/
Jack Denver
Mechanical watches are known to be sensitive to position (the direction the
dial is facing) because of gravity - the balance wheel spins like a top when
the watch is flat but rests on its axle like a wagon wheel when the watch is
vertical. The amount of friction and thus the amplitude of the balance wheel
is much lower when the watch is vertical, so timekeeping tends to speed up
(each swing is completed in less time). Also, when you set the watch down
it is cooler than on your body and also the spring unwinds somewhat
overnight. All of these have an influence on timekeeping as well. That is
why a mechanical watch can never approach the theoretical timekeeping of a
quartz .
"Don Awalt" <dona...@removethisgmail.com> wrote in message
news:TdudnVEfouW...@comcast.com...
Don Awalt
What I don't understand is, this watch is supposed to use the mechanical
apparatus to build up energy (kinetic?) that then powers a quartz mechanism,
so it's supposed to be as accurate as a quartz watch - it's any automatic
quartz watch. So the mechanical aspect is only used to store energy -- the
clock is run by quartz just like a battery would do.
Not true?
"Jack Denver" <nunu...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:PsydnaqiKIvM9jDe...@comcast.com...
Bo Williams
> Thanks for the rpelies.
>
> What I don't understand is, this watch is supposed to use the mechanical
> apparatus to build up energy (kinetic?) that then powers a quartz mechanism,
> so it's supposed to be as accurate as a quartz watch - it's any automatic
> quartz watch. So the mechanical aspect is only used to store energy -- the
> clock is run by quartz just like a battery would do.
>
> Not true?
Not true. Your watch has an ETA 2824-2 movement in it and is fully
mechanical. There is no quartz movement in your watch.
Don Awalt
"Bo Williams" <will...@hiwaay.net> wrote in message
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