When the power reserve begins to die

[Phil8352]

I guess my question is, when the power reserve is up does the watch go from keeping perfect time to completely stopped, or does it gradually start losing time by a meaningful amount?

Just looked at my Sub that I haven’t worn in a few days at 6:30 pm and the watch was still ticking but read 4:20 pm

[Easy E]

It will gradually degrade. My experience with a 12 series sub, or comparable 32, is after 48 hrs it becomes quite slow and by 60hrs it’s nothing more than animation. That said, 2 hrs off seems a touch excessive to me. Need to more precisely define “a few days.”


Edit: quite slow = double digit seconds off. Not minutes or hours.

[inadeje]

There are several reasons why the power reserve on automatic watches can develop issues. In my experience the most common is the spinning pendulum bearings deteriorate to the point they’re unserviceable creating enough friction to impede the correct movement of the pendulum or a complete failure of the bearings causing the pendulum to make contact with the case back, also impeding its proper rotation and subsequently not winding the watch. This phenomenon is usually audible to a keen ear if the case back is brought close to the ear and the watch rotated slowly. A scraping noise will be heard or in the case of shot bearings a grinding noise. The other alternative is a mainspring at the end of its serviceable life, but much less so.

[Phil8352]

Originally Posted by Easy E

It will gradually degrade. My experience with a 12 series sub, or comparable 32, is after 48 hrs it becomes quite slow and by 60hrs it’s nothing more than animation. That said, 2 hrs off seems a touch excessive to me. Need to more precisely define “a few days.”


Edit: quite slow = double digit seconds off. Not minutes or hours.

Worn it maybe a few hours here and there since Friday. Watch was purchased brand new from an AD last December. Had exact same issue with an LB purchased grey (Takuya) two weeks ago that was originally purchased in October 2020.

[Mystro]

Here is a typical Submariner 12 series Power Reserve test.

Rolex Submariner 41 Power Reserve Test:

07/31/21. wound/set +0.0 @ 7:15am. 3UP. +1.0 @ 9:30pm
08/01/21 +0.75 @ 6am +0.0 @ 7:45pm
08/02/21 -2.0@8am -4.0@1:30pm -5.0@5pm - 6@6:30 -8@9pm …………….…-9@11pm.
08/03/21 6:01am Stopped. Results 70 hours and 46 minutes

[Phil8352]

So it sounds like I have something wrong with both of my Subs? Sweet

[subtona]

Metaphor for life.

[Easy E]

Originally Posted by Phil8352

So it sounds like I have something wrong with both of my Subs? Sweet

Are you winding them at least 40 full turns after they sit for a few days?