GMT/Exp owners, does your GMT hand line up?

[Magic-Matt]

Hey guys,

Had my beautiful Exp II 42 for a week now and very happy. However, just noticed the orange GMT hand doesnt seem to completely line up on the hour marker.

OK, I hear you, OCD...!!! Maybe, but just wondered if anybody else out there with a GMT or Explorer has noticed this? Is it normal, how bang on should this hand actually be? Mine is exactly aligned at 3 minutes before the hour!

Ive read posts where people have sent their watch back to get this corrected, but I dont think I'll go to that trouble as the important hands Hour/Minute line up perfectly!

Maybe post some pics and we can compare...

Thanks for reading!

[joe100]

Well, the orange GMT isn't pointing to the minute marker, it's pointing to the large numbers on the bezel. Looks close enough for me. Not worth cracking open the case and adjusting the hands. All that work for very very little gain.

[Cc1966]

That orange hand is pointing at the bezel numbers, so no worries...

[padi56]

Originally Posted by joe100

Well, the orange GMT isn't pointing to the minute marker, it's pointing to the large numbers on the bezel. Looks close enough for me. Not worth cracking open the case and adjusting the hands. All that work for very very little gain.

Have to agree its the outer bezel the second time zone hand lines up with and not the minute markers.Plus there is a tiny amount of free play in the hand stack on most mechanical watches.

[kilyung]

As long as all my hands line up at midnight, I'm good.

[ecsub44]

Your minute and second hands are off slightly too at 12:00.

Wouldn't bother me at all.

[watchwatcher]

Mine do...I think. Not sure they would pass the scrutiny of the magnification of your pic, however.

[beshannon]

Originally Posted by Magic-Matt

Mine is exactly aligned at 3 minutes before the hour!

What? The GMT hand? It is pointing to 1800 hours, what are you trying to accomplish?

[jrs146]

I have a GMTIIc - my hands are spot on. Maybe it's something that a service can fix?

[TAKUYA]

Originally Posted by joe100

Well, the orange GMT isn't pointing to the minute marker, it's pointing to the large numbers on the bezel. Looks close enough for me. Not worth cracking open the case and adjusting the hands. All that work for very very little gain.

[Magic-Matt]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Although I agree that this hand is intended to point to the outer bezel, in turn the hour markers on the dial are intended to line up with the 24 hour numbers on the bezel right? Therefore in theory the GMT hand should point sharply at an hour marker at the corresponding time (in a perfect world).

Personally I think this has to do with something Peter mentioned, that the gears on the hands have a certain amount of play or slack as Ive also heard it called.

IMO I also think that as all the gears in the "motion work" rotate through 24 hours, the very slightest microscopic deviation between the teeth spacing (which will always occur) will result in "slightly" different minuscule positioning of the hands (especially GMT) as they point to different positions around the dial.

Anyway, just my engineering thoughts over a cup of coffee!

Enjoy those watches fellas!

[Vincent65]

The minute and second hands are not at 12 either, they are before/left of it

[Magic-Matt]

Originally Posted by Vincent65

The minute and second hands are not at 12 either, they are before/left of it

Youre absolutely right, but that doenst bother me as I can simply adjust this myself by resetting the time with the crown

[Singslinger]

Nothing to worry about - enjoy a great watch!

[Magic-Matt]

Turns out they're all slightly different gents, so I think I can safely file this one!

Even on the official pics the GMT hand deviates slightly!

Food for thought for the OCD owners out there!

[Roller07]

You have had your watch for a week and you are just noticing this?

It looks like none of the watch hands are aligned properly.

I would take it back and demand a complete refund.

[Vincent65]

Originally Posted by Magic-Matt

Youre absolutely right, but that doenst bother me as I can simply adjust this myself by resetting the time with the crown

Yes, but what I meant was that the 24hr hand will move as well, of course, so if you advance the hour/minute hands, so the 24hr pointer will be even further ahead, in relation to the other hands, which was the whole point of your thread/initial concern, right? It's minor anyway, I wouldn't worry about it - have it corrected at service

[Magic-Matt]

Originally Posted by Vincent65

Yes, but what I meant was that the 24hr hand will move as well, of course, so if you advance the hour/minute hands, so the 24hr pointer will be even further ahead, in relation to the other hands

OK, I gotcha now Yes, what you say is true, although I think the minute hand is only about 1/6 of a minute away from the 12 marker.

Interestingly I have noticed that the GMT hand lines up EXACTLY at in the first hours of the day 6am - 11am, then it goes off a bit, and then by about 8 - 9pm again it starts to line up perfectly, and so on...

I believe this has something to do with the way the internal gearing is machined and/or maybe the dial printing is not super exact. At the end of the day there as bound to be some micro-millimetric in-discrepancies, so I guess this is whats causing it!

Check out the other pics Ive posted by the way, I believe this is something that probably occurs on just about every GMT type Rolex, if you observe closely enough!

[Magic-Matt]

And just for a laugh, for the record, here you have it... lining up PERFECTLY at 10:00h! Mad!

[Soflobusinessman]

Some of us need high strength OCD medicine...