Hour Hand Misaligning

[Ck8]

I have read in another forum that the hour hand can be misaligned when the minute hand is at the 12 o'clock position. The best way to check is at 6 o'clock when the hour hand should point directly at 6.
My GMT IIc is slightly off which I am cheesed off as when I first had the watch the GMT hand was misaligning.
I have rang Bexley and spoke to the technical person who says there is always a misalignment and it is to do with gearing. But I never had a problem with my Exp II; all the hands aligned for the 10 years I had the watch.

Can anyone explained the movement differences in GMT, GMT IIc and exp II as far as I know all these do the same thing.

Also how many here have their hour hand not quite aligned at 6 o'clock. Post some pictures if you can?

[slevin kelevra]

To be honest I wouldn't let that bother me mate.

I also wouldnt have asked Bexley for their advice! but you know my reasons for that.

What about calling another RSC and see what they say.

[Dan Pierce]

It's gear slack found in one degree or another in all watches. To counteract this when setting the time go past the correct time, then reverse the minute hand backwards to the correct time. This removes the slack.
dP

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Dan Pierce

It's gear slack found in one degree or another in all watches. To counteract this when setting the time go past the correct time, then reverse the minute hand backwards to the correct time. This removes the slack.
dP

X2 And that very very very tiny deviation quite easy to fix but its not life threatening or will harm movement in away.

[Rigsby1]

Originally Posted by Dan Pierce

It's gear slack found in one degree or another in all watches. To counteract this when setting the time go past the correct time, then reverse the minute hand backwards to the correct time. This removes the slack.
dP

Dan your like every man's swiss-army knife, I love the things you know.

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by Rigsby1

Dan your like every man's swiss-army knife, I love the things you know.

Thanks, Darren.
What I know wouldn't fill Leo's shot glass. It's the wealth of info here on TRF and the generosity of the those members who are happy to share.
dP

[WatchlLover]

Thank you Dan! The keeper of Herology knowledge!
Paul :-)

[George Ab]

That is a nice looking watch. Not sure if you have an issue. First, a 3185 (or 3186) is a 3185 regardless of what it is in. If I understand the issue, when you move the hour hand in the first position of the stem and the minute is at the 12 that each time you move the hour hand it just misses the alignment with the hour it is to point to. If it was me, next time I saw my local watchmaker, I'd ask him to realign the hour hand. I suspect it is simply a quality control issue when the hands were being aligned. My hour hands appears aligned on my 3185.

PS: According to Larry's (Tools) excellent post on the differences between the 3185 and 3186 the 3186 should have better alignment. http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=30808.

From Larry's post:

Movement: 3186
(excerpt from Henk Hoving)
The cal.3186 has exactly the same features as seen on the previous cal.3185, so there is no quickset date feature added as some guessed. The main difference between these calibers is the more precise setting of the 12 positions for the 12-hourhand when switching to another timezone.

The 12 hourhand clicks into the 12 positions without any play, and very precise and smooth, as the fixed positions where the hand clicks into, were moved from the center of the movement into the driving train of the hands, this eliminates the play that the older caliber has.

This resulted into a slightly higher caliber, from 6.4mm to 6.8mm, which resulted into a slightly higher case for the new GMT Master II when compared to the older GMT Master II.

Also, in this new GMT Master is the new, own hairspring fitted, the "Parachrom Bleu". This new Rolex-patented hairspring is very easy to recognise as the spring has a very dark blue shiny color. It consists of an alloy made of Niob (most part), Hafnium and a very small ammount other metals not described. This blue color is created because the Niob oxidizes in contact with air and formes a protective layer this way.

In comparison to the regular hairsprings, this new one consists of only non-Ferro materials, and is as such completely unsensitive to magnetic fields. Another major advantage is that this new spring is much less sensitive to temperature-variations, the frequency does not vary due to differences in temperature, which results into one of the most accurate mechanical watches you can buy today...

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by George Ab

That is a nice looking watch. Not sure if you have an issue. First, a 3185 (or 3186) is a 3185 regardless of what it is in. If I understand the issue, when you move the hour hand in the first position of the stem and the minute is at the 12 that each time you move the hour hand it just misses the alignment with the hour it is to point to. If it was me, next time I saw my local watchmaker, I'd ask him to realign the hour hand. I suspect it is simply a quality control issue when the hands were being aligned. My hour hands appears aligned on my 3185.

George,
You are correct. I misread Marks comments and replied to what I thought was the minute hand alignment.READ THE TITLE
With an hour hand alignment issue, I'd see a watchmaker.
dP

[Rigsby1]

Originally Posted by Dan Pierce

George,
You are correct. I misread Marks comments and replied to what I thought was the minute hand alignment.READ THE TITLE
With an hour hand alignment issue, I'd see a watchmaker.
dP

That's it you've done it now Dan, your off the swiss-army knife list,,,

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by Rigsby1

That's it you've done it now Dan, your off the swiss-army knife list,,,

D'OH!!
dP

[DSJ]

Originally Posted by Dan Pierce

D'OH!!
dP

[cody p]

minor issue. can be fixed. but why bother?

[2th Dr]

Mine is spot on, but if it wasn't I wouldn't do anything about it.

[Psmith]

I've seen this on several watches (not just Rolex). I agree it is slightly annoying, but rather than have the watch opened I would simply wait until service time and make a note of it then for the RSC.



Cheers

[Lion]

Since this very slight misalignment doesn't really effect the function or performance of the watches' time capabilities does it really matter???
Are we next going to measure this deviation and take it out 3 decimal place(.001)to be sure we are really accurate???

[Traveler]

For the price of a Rolex, the hands SHOULD line up EXACTLY..anything else is not acceptable. Mine are fine..maybe I just got lucky.

[Ck8]

Originally Posted by Traveler

For the price of a Rolex, the hands SHOULD line up EXACTLY..anything else is not acceptable. Mine are fine..maybe I just got lucky.

Totally in agreement with your statement. Time keeping is all about precision and if Rolex cannot get this simple thing right in their quality control before they sell the watch what hope is there for other brands. Perhaps other brands can do a better job and deserve my money rather than Rolex.

[JJ Irani]

I would find the mis-alignment most annoying.

In fact, that's one of the things I check out when I'm about to buy a new watch.

It's easy..........just unscrew the crown and set the watch time to 4 positions.....

6 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock.

All these positions of the hands will tell you if your hands are properly aligned or not.

JJ

[Ck8]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

I would find the mis-alignment most annoying.

In fact, that's one of the things I check out when I'm about to buy a new watch.

It's easy..........just unscrew the crown and set the watch time to 4 positions.....

6 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock.

All these positions of the hands will tell you if your hands are properly aligned or not.

JJ

Yes I would do now but I never envisaged Rolex, yes Rolex would not get such simple and expected thing to be anything but perfect.
Before I purchased the watch I read so many things here and I inspected the watch for all the things mentioned and looked for scratches; but never never never expected the hands did not align.

[htc8p]

i think hour hand misaligning is rare.

what should be looked at too is 24 hour hand misaligning