Have I read through this entire procedure to know what is required to complete the job properly?.
Is my watch grossly inaccurate? Note: if so, you should take your watch to a professional for diagnosis and repair.How much does a professional charge for watch regulation, and is this amount worth the peace of mind?.
And here’s an added bonus: I will show you how to do this for free! Improved accuracy plus higher appreciation, for free – wow, what a win-win-win!īut there are also inherent risks in doing this Opening a watch exposes the inside of the watch and can affect the water and dust seal of the backplate. You will also learn about your watch’s inner workings through this process which will provide you a deeper appreciation for your watch that you will feel every time you check the time. It can be done fairly easily if done with proper care, patience and attention to detail. Watch regulation is possible to perform by yourself and I will take you step-by-step through this process. So is that the end? Just accept whatever accuracy you get? …the honest answer is “it depends.” Therefore you don’t typically see regulation in watches below $500. Manufacturers do, at times, regulate watches before the watches leave the factory, but this is an extra manufacturing process that drives up the cost.
Watch regulation is the process of adjusting the tension on the hairspring, which speeds up or slows down the reciprocating rotation of the balance wheel (like speeding up or slowing down the pendulum on a grandfather clock or a metronome). Luckily, there is a solution… watch regulation. However, some of us (and I’m the worst-offender) are perfectionists and expect the world out of our affordable watches. Within 15 seconds-per-day really isn’t bad.
Watches below the $500 mark are typically going to run anywhere from +30/-30 seconds-per-day on paper and +15/-15 seconds-per-day actual. It is possible to get close to perfect, but it requires a level of precision and quality that is not available to me in my price range. You can imagine that such small components with intricate features are difficult to package all together in a way that will mesh perfectly for accurate movement. But I’ll be the first to admit that an inaccurate watch that requires the time be reset every couple of days is just plain frustrating. Mechanical watches are cool, plain and simple. Just think of the brilliant minds that thought up the concept of these mechanisms and continued on to develop them into the usable and producible designs that exist in our watches today.
The video series that accompanies this written guide can be viewed below, or on the WATCHSPEC Youtube channel. Please continue reading to achieve higher accuracy in your watch today!
In this article you will receive a detailed step-by-step how-to guide on watch regulation, making it possible for you to perform this by yourself, for free! It may seem intimidating, but with this procedure you will find that watch regulation is actually fairly easy.