Recently, I've noticed that my new automatic watch (a Seiko SARB033, picture below) that I've had for a month or so was not running as accurate as I'd hope.
I believe these Seikos will have an accuracy of +/-6 seconds per day. To my dismay, my watch was recording +20 seconds per day. Though it's still within Seiko's specification, the fact that it's not as accurate as other people's watches didn't sit well with me.
In addition, as it's still within spec, I can't claim any warranty or have it changed either! The simplest way is to bring the watch to a watchmaker and has him/her regulate the time. But being a cheapskate, I did some searches on how to do this myself without forking out any money.
I recently found out that manual winding a watch (or lack of it) might be responsible for my SARB's dismal display of accuracy. To my pleasant surprise, hand winding it did have a huge effect on the accuracy. Right now, my watch is recording a +10 seconds per day rate - still not what I'd like but it's a 50% improvement over the previous reading. I'll take that +10 sec any time!
From what I've learnt, the self-winding feature of most automatic watches are not that efficient. This is simply because we are not moving as much as the movement needs. What happens is the watch is usually not having the full power reserve capacity and this, in turn, affects its accuracy.
Hand winding the watch will fill up its power reserve and this makes the watch able to keep time at its optimal performance.
So How To Manual Wind An Automatic Watch?
It's a fairly easy exercise. Just grab the crown (the knob that sticking out from the case) and then rotate it. As you rotate, the crown will tighten the mainspring and filling up its power reserve. It's very easy to do just don't apply to much force or you can break the movement inside it.
Here's a simple video showing what actually happens when we rotate the crown.
Write a comment