Timekeeping

[Ronnie k]

Is gaining 5 sec over a 12 hr period acceptable 16613 submariner

[1WatchDawg]

No Way!!!!!!!!!

[SearChart]

They can be more precise of course but it is by no means unacceptable.

EDIT: I see that you said 12hrs, I thought it said 24hrs. No that is not acceptable.

[Tools]

Originally Posted by Ronnie k

Is gaining 5 sec over a 12 hr period acceptable 16613 submariner

Usually you would do a valid test with a known standard over a week, and then divide by the number of days, to find an average daily variance.

If it were mine I would take it in for a regulation if the daily (24 hr) variance was off by more than 4 seconds.

[Ronnie k]

Thanks, I will see the dealer.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Ronnie k

Is gaining 5 sec over a 12 hr period acceptable 16613 submariner

First you cannot check any watch for accuracy the way you are doing it just over 12 hours.First give your watch a full manual wind thats 40 full crown turns clockwise only.Then set your watch with a reliable time source for this test any quartz watch/clock will do thats accurate enough.Wear your watch for 8 hours plus a day with reasonable wrist activity to wind it and keep power reserve at peak. Check time once only every 24 hours with same setting source, write down the lose or gain do this for 7 complete days,then average out the lose or gain over those 7 days for a accurate result. If watch is then showing poor accuracy over the COSC AVERAGE -4+6 spec get it regulated although some watches need a bit of time to adapt to the owners wearing habits.

[keepitsimple]

If you want to compare your watch to the COSC or other standards warranted by the manufacturer, you need to carry out a test in the way it is specified.

Wearing the watch - although in the end the obviously desirable target for accuracy - isn't that test . Watch manufacturers and repairers can't anticipate exactly how you wear it, and that can affect performance sufficiently to make it appear out of spec. when it may not be.

You can find the full COSC tests on-line, but probably the ones you need for overall accuracy are the 2 day each tests in the 5 standard positions (6H, 3H, 9H, DD, DU) averaging the result from those. Check those results against what the test standards are. It's time-consuming, but the only way to come up with a fair assessment of how the watch compares to what you should expect.

Do not wear the watch. Wind it fully each day and check the accuracy every 24 hours against a properly reliable source. Some quartz watches/clocks/Pc's etc. aren't necessarily good enough. Something like time.gov which adjusts for internet latency is fairly reliable, but refresh the link each time you use it.

COSC has other standards that have to be met, such as Mean Rate variation, maximum variation, maximum horizontal/vertical difference and a couple of others. You might not worry too much about those if the average rate comes out OK and the positional variances aren't too large, although a watch would fail the COSC test if it didn't meet those criteria too.

This will give you good data to present if you take it in for attention, give your complaint more validity, and possibly even help diagnose any problem. (Of course, it may also show that actually the watch IS running as it should - although from what you've noticed so far, it does sound a bit off).

If it's within spec. you still may find a helpful watchmaker can regulate it for you to match closer to your real-life experience if you keep note of that too, but a manufacturer may legitimately decline any warranty work except as a goodwill gesture..