Ticking Along Nicely

New mechanical watches are now an expensive premium niche product as they are no longer mass produced to the scale that they were in their heyday in the 50s and 60s, as well as the fact that they offer in most cases inferior performance to quartz battery powered timepieces. The pay back is in their much longer serviceability and the value they command long term, plus the continual enjoyment and appreciation of their engineering. Such timepieces need not be expensive though, here is a fine example. Vostok have been producing watches from their Russian factory for many years and this Red Square model shames some high end Swiss models for quality, particularly in the bracelet manufacture. These will cease production one day and will become collectable I’m sure. Take a look at this example on our Madaboutwatches site.

Series 18 of Top Gear started last week with a great feature on the best mid engined super car, other than the Ferrari 458. James May chose the McLaren MP4-12C and was seen sporting a rather distinctive vintage Omega Dynamic throughout the piece. The Omega Dynamic was launched in 1967 and marketed as the ‘first watch designed especially for the human wrist’. The distinctive ellipse shape was wider rather than longer in aspect, allowing it to sit neatly between the wrist bone rather than uncomfortably straddling it, sometimes a problem for smaller wrists. The design was very effective and from my own experience dealing with many of these over the years, not only is it a very distinctive watch it is also extremely comfortable in wear, especially with the wide leather strap which attached to the back of the watch with a special screw ring fitment.
 
The new line was a distinctive departure from Omega’s traditionally conservative looks and into a more fashion led look, although this was definitely a case of form and function as the watch used the same high quality 500 and 600 series movements of the halcyon period of production at Omega. It was so successfully received that by the early 1970s the Dynamic, available with both manual and automatic movements had become Omega’s best selling watch. The castellated ring to the rear of the case, fools the uninitiated into thinking it’s removal will reveal the movement, but it’s job is to secure the corfam strap or stainless bracelet to the case. The case itself is a monocoque design and the movement is accessed by applying force to and separating the crown end of a special split stem. A special Omega tool (107) removes the crystal and the dial and movement are rotated 30 degrees anti-clockwise, to allow the movement to be withdrawn from the front.

This ingenious design prevented many delicate movements from the perils of water ingress, dust and amateur meddling, but today it also provides a haven for unscrupulous sellers to house clapped out 1000 series movements in the numerous spare market cases that have flooded the market from the far east. Often accompanied with garish repainted or out and out fake dials, these models are often marketed as New Old Stock and are to be avoided. The Dynamic is not rare by any means but their popularity has ballooned in recent years as their 70s looks have come into their own, and values of good examples have risen sharply accordingly.

Here are a few examples from our current selection.

It seems many potential customers are worried about fakes particularly of well known brands such as Omega.

Fakes of vintage models are actually surprisingly rare. In the case of Omega it would be incredibly difficult to find a 1960s fake compared to finding the genuine article and most are very easy to spot. Current sports models are extensively faked, although in the case of the Omega, the genuine article is still relatively easy to distinguish from the far eastern copy. Rolex have the hardest time in proving their authenticity, mainly as a consequence as being the world’s most famous watch brand and the attention that attracts, good and bad.

In fact, the two bigger dangers you are likely to encounter in purchasing a vintage Omega for example, is in acquiring a ‘marriage’ or a ‘dog’. The former is the dealer name for a watch of dubious origin where the watch has been constituted from a movement or case from different eras, models or even manufacturers.

Take a look at this horror we acquired through our normal trading roots, bought knowingly for spare parts we may add!

The dial and movement are completely genuine Omega but the case is from an unknown mass market Swiss maker.  It’s an attractive watch but a complete fabrication and therefore worthless as a vintage Omega.

This is one is a bit more subtle.

This tidy looking 1960s Seamaster was actually serviced by a well known national watch repairer at massive cost with no mention of the problem with authenticty, reported to it’s previous owner.  It came as a bit of a shock when we gave him the bad news.  Again we bought it for spares. It takes a while to spot this one as it’s all genuine Omega, case, dial and movement. Detailed inspection reveals though that the case is ref. 166.012 designed for an automatic movement, most likely calibre 562 and it’s actually housing a manual wind calibre 420 movement.  Most traders would have sold this watch anyway without further explanation as it’s 100% Omega, but for us this watch is marriage of different parts from the Omega catalogue therefore not acceptable for sale under our certified Omega programme.

What is acceptable? New genuine spares are now rare for vintage Omega pieces so it’s perfectly acceptable to harvest donor parts from spare or broken Omegas. The easily broken items like stems, mainsprings, pallets, balances etc. can all be freely interchanged with other watches of the same calibre such was the engineering tolerance of Swiss watch production. Many parts are also interchangeable across different Omega calibres too. This is a really great reason to own an Omega in that if the worst happens, there is a good chance of sourcing spares and fixing the watch. This isn’t so easy with vintage Rolex.

The fitment of generic items like glasses and mainsprings is also fine, as all service parts tended to be generic in heyday of the mechanical watches anyway with large companies like General Resorts (GR) supplying service parts to cover all the major makes.

Dial restoration is a thorny issue and really comes down to the skill of the artist restorer. A good dial job is perfectly acceptable and always uses the original dial and batons if fitted. In the majority of cases the dial is completely stripped and repainted and the best restorers use the authentic finishes and graphic fonts for the period which is crucial for the watch to maintain it’s value. Nothing harms the value of a watch more than a bodged dial job and we’ve seen some horrors where the same generic Omega 70s font and ‘Halfords spray can’ silver paint finish is applied to everything from the 1930s onwards.

What’s not acceptable? -Bad dial jobs, dials with no feet from different calibres, stuck onto the movement. Vintage movements rehoused in ‘alternative’ cases.

This brings us on to Dogs.

Hopefully self explanatory but here we are talking about watches in poor condition sometimes dressed up to look good for sale. Some things to watch out for are over polished cases, garishly coloured dials and Ebay!.  Over polished cases are characterised by all the sharp edges being buffed to a round profile and the original brushed finish being lost. We can restore the brushed finish using original Omega specified tools,  but can’t put back a sharp edge on a case that’s been given the kiss of death on an industrial polishing machine. 

Garish dials are often seen on vintage Dynamic models (particularly on Ebay) seemingly conjured up to make them look wacky and contemporary. Vintage Dynamics don’t come with garish red and yellow dials and the models regaularly seen on our friendly auction site, often originate from dodgy repair shops in the far east and house worn out movements.

Movement faults are numerous and can consist of stripped winding gear, worn out jewels, corroded hairsprings, and worn rotors. These can all be present even if the watch appears to work OK on first inspection.

So there you have it, authenticity is only the beginning of the story and particularly with vintage Omega models it should not be your biggest concern.

I’ve have been tackling an Omega calibre 1020 today.  A 28,800 bph automatic movement c.1972, with fast day and date and hacking seconds.  It’s one of the first ETA designed calibres used by Omega and a truly heinous movement for watchmakers.

The friction drive mechanism is horrible, a driven wheel embedded in the bottom of the cannon that slips against the top pinion.  The slightest excess of pressure to adjust it with the pliers and it seizes up.   Too little and the hands won’t carry.   The watch will then drop 15mins or so a day which is the typical scenario encountered when a used one is inspected in the workshop.

The day change is critical, no oil can be used or it will stick and won’t flick over.  There’s a little spring that controls the idler for turning the day backwards, the tension on this is critical too or it won’t work. When you push on the second hand to replace it, the centre pinion disappears into the watch.  There’s no boss on the second hand and If you bend the pinion you will snap it trying to straighten it.  And then there’s the fact you have to make sure that the crown is in the winding position before releasing the stem or the winding pinion will disappear into the watch.  The movement will then need to be taken out again, the hands removed and dial lift to reassemble the setting gear.  To top it off the stem is the thinnest I’ve seen on any watch and it will snap as soon as you look at it.  If the crown is rusted on the stem you’ve had it and you will be buying a new stem as well as a new crown.

I’ve put it all back together and praying it will keep time.

We’ve had a number of returns recently due to watches being smaller than expected when received. We realise it’s difficult sometimes to get a sense of scale from the pictures on the site, but I think in many cases the description offered on the site is not being read properly.  There are also some key considerations about vintage watches and their size, in general.

Here are some helpful pointers below:

• The case diameter of all our watches is stated in the info box, to the right of the watch description.  Unless otherwise stated this is the diameter across the case from left to right not including the crown. It is not the face or dial diameter. which will obviously be a smaller measurement. 
• For square or oblong cased watches we quote the height x the depth not including the lugs.
• Please note that Vintage watches are much smaller than their modern counterparts, especially styles from the 30s and 40s. It is very rare for a vintage piece to have diameter greater than 36 mm.   For comparison a modern Tag Heuer or Omega sports model will have a diameter more like 41 mm or larger. If you are used to these modern ‘outsize’ watches you will likely be very disappointed by the wrist presence of vintage pieces.
• A standard size gents watch from the 1930s/40s will be 30-32mm.  We would today call this boys size but everyone from the postman to WWII fighter pilots would have worn a small watch.  Ladies watches of the day would have been around the 18-25mm size, even smaller.  For this reason we often list gents watches of the period as Unisex as the smaller sizes are more consistent with ladies contemporary sizes.
• Before making a purchase, download our Watch Sizer chart here.  Print this and compare the sizes with the stated case diameter on our watch description and to your wrist and/ or other watches you may have.

We are pleased to announce the introduction of our ‘Authentic Omega’ programme.  This has been produced in response to the growing secondhand market for Omega watches and sadly the growing trade in less than original and authentic Omega watches hitting the market.
From now on every Omega watch sold on PoshTime.co.uk will be issued with a card certifying authenticity with our official stamp and date of sale.  If it is subsequently proved an Omega watch sold by us is not authentic we will refund the price of the watch.
Sadly as interest in vintage Omega watches grows, so do the number of less scrupulous sellers attempting to pass off fakes and what we call in the trade ‘marriages’, a watch that has been made from case and movement parts of different years or models.
Every Omega watch we buy undergoes the following checks:
- Movement calibre checked for correct model
- Movement serial number checked for correct calibre / year of manufacture and dated
- Case references checked for correct model
- Case references cross checked against correct movement for year using Omega’s own vintage database information.
- Any restoration work like dial or case noted and reported
Once we are satisfied the watch is genuine we will issue an ‘Authentic Omega’  card which will be included with the watch on sale.

So you wake up on Monday morning at 6.30am to the sound of the alarm. It’s freezing outside and the central heating has barely taken the edge off. There is a dawning realisation that you have to go to work. You have no choice, you need to get ready, scrape the ice off the windscreen, sit in endless streams of traffic for an hour, spend 8 hours with other people that see more of you than your own family. You sit in meetings discussing policy statements or developing marketing strategies, you stare at spreadsheets, you feel undervalued, demotivated, you think your boss is an idiot, you then get to drive home and sit stationary for another hour. You make it home, you have your dinner, you sit and watch the TV, and you glance at the time. Off to bed and same tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Have you asked yourself why you do it? No, really ASKED yourself, Why do I do it.?

Doubtless you are reminded, I have a mortgage to pay, my family to support and feed, cars to insure and put petrol in, my hobbies to finance etc. Then you stop day dreaming and set the alarm for the morning.

Try this exercise. Work out your hourly rate. Just take your salary and divide it by the number of hours you work per year, thats the hours you work including all the unpaid ones, not the hours your contract says you do. This includes all the hours commuting, all the hours, preparing for a meeting, the hours spent waiting at weekends for planes for business trips, doing the ironing and washing for your business attire. Now add in the hours you spend thinking about work, what your boss said to you last week, whether I will still have a job next week etc.

If you’ve been honest in your assessment, you might probably find you are working for less than minimum wage. Now ask yourself, Do I really like my job enough to dedicate this much time to it? This is your life, you are spending the considerable part of it doing stuff you don’t like. Why? because you are scared that you won’t be able to pay your credit card debts, or the mortgage, or afford that new car that’s better than the neighbour’s one, or the new sofa that you’ll never get to sit on because you’ll be sat at work all the time.

18 months ago I walked away from a position as a Director of a small Water Engineering Consultancy. The business was struggling, and far too top heavy with Directors for it’s tiny size. I sold out my share and effectively made myself redundant. I walked away with a year’s salary, enough to pay off the existing mortgage. I had a plan, which was to turn my hobby of restoring and selling vintage watches into a full time business.

Back in 2001 I bought an Omega Speedmaster and got the bug, 2 weeks a later I bought another watch, then another. It was pretty clear that I couldn’t afford this habit. My dad was going through the same obsession. Together we bought every book on watch repair and together we taught ourselves over 5 or so years how to repair and restore vintage watches. I also bought a book on PHP Web Development. It must have cost me £7. It was singularly the best £7 I have ever spent and have turned over hundreds of thousands of pounds as a direct result of teaching myself how to produce database driven websites. I’m not a web developer though, I just learned enough to do the job, nothing more.

In 2002 we launched Madaboutwatches.co.uk it was one of the first watch sites on the internet trading secondhand watches (there are hundreds now) and definitely the only one offering the sheer number and range of choice that ours did.

In 2003 I created a spin off site Poshtime.co.uk concentrating on more expensive pieces which seemed to be attracting more and more interest. The two sites consistently supplemented our main incomes for many years, until the day in 2009 where I chucked it all in and went full time.

Within two months turnover doubled, and now with my wife Linda partnering me in the business, in our first year trading as a limited company, we are approaching a turnover 6 times what it was when we were trading part time. We are now earning a good living, not a fantastic one but nearly as good as when I was an Engineering Company Director in the Water Industry. The great news is because our outgoings have dramatically decreased as a result of working at home we are now better off financially than we have ever been. There were sacrifices though, nothing comes for free.

I’m not a business guru or successful entrepreneur and can offer no magic formula but I have got out there and had a go at turning my hobby into a home based business, with some success. It’s surprising how many people have had similar thoughts at one time or another only to dismiss them as pipe dreams. Here’s my advice for what it’s worth.

Step 1 - Clear your debts

The first step to being able to do this is to limit your financial commitments. The big one for me was the mortgage, but the next big one for a lot of people is loans and credit card debts. You will never be able to indulge your hobby full time as a business all the time you are paying a big mortgage, car loans and credit card debt. This is how people end up trapped in the corporate world, endlessly slaving to pay the interest on stuff they shouldn’t have bought in the first place. Limit your spending. Do I really need a new car? No. My wife still drives a 12 year old Focus worth about £700. She will now be able to replace it with something far more newer and shiny but you don’t get the opportunity all the time you are trapped paying off your debts.

In 2004 I took a friend’s advice and opened a Virgin OneAccount, it was the best financial advice I ever received and cleared my sizeable mortgage within 5 years through a combination of steadfast saving, prudence of the highest order and selling a few expensive assets along the way such as a BMW M3 and a Mercedes 500SL which I still miss now. The foreign holidays were replaced by an annual week in Cornwall and the last time I went for a meal out with the wife was over a year ago.

Step 2- Start Part Time

You can’t end your full time job and then expect to start full time making money the next day. Unless you are very talented, dedicated and have lots of money behind you, you are likely to be overwhelmed by your financial commitment and will be forced back to the corporate grindstone. Get it up and running now. If you tell yourself you don’t have time then, sorry, you don’t have the commitment. Make the time. If you can’t make profit now working part time, again there is little hope of it being a success as a full time venture. Chucking more hours at an unprofitable pursuit won’t make it a success. If it works and makes money for the few hours per week you are putting in now then there is no reason at all it won’t make much more money when you give it more time. I didn’t jump until I was fully comfortable that my part time business would scale to full time.

Step 3 - Go Guerilla

There are two stages to this, you need to work out the bare minimum you can possibly live on. This is much lower than you think, especially if you clear your debts. Compound interest is scary, calculate how many hours you have to work just to pay for the monthly interest on your loans, then multiply that for the time you expect to have to keep paying them. if you are planning to work from home you’ll save a fortune in petrol or train fares. You won’t need to buy new suits or expensive sandwiches from your work based deli.

The second phase is ‘run it on a shoestring’. You don’t need flash offices, you don’t need flash IT equipment. You certainly don’t need staff , to start with anyway. Do it on the cheap or even better for free. Google is your friend. Bribe a friend to write a great website for you, but you will save and make thousands if you learn to do it yourself. Get your presence out there in Google. Setup a desk in a bedroom or the garage or whatever. This is your new office, get used to it you are going to be spending a lot of time there. There are clever ways and means of making your business look much bigger and more professional than it is.

Step 4 - Learn what makes business Tick,

If you don’t know what a profit margin is or the difference between net and gross profit, find out or find someone that does. It’s amazing how interesting accounts becomes when it’s your money you are accounting. Find out the implications of being a sole trader, partnership or a limited company, but don’t let any of this scare you off. Get the business running first, worry about the paperwork later. You have to be making money for any of this to be a concern, and many people get scared off trying by horror stories of how bureaucratic it all is. We only registered and got accountants involved in our business when we knew there we trading at a level that could no longer be considered a hobby. There are many reasons why you shouldn’t start your own home based business, but fear of the admin involved shouldn’t be one of them. Admin wise we use an Excel spreadsheet, a copy of Money Manager for Payroll and a good knowledge of the HMRC website. The rest my accountant deals with.

Who shouldn’t start a business -

If you are sort of person that can’t live without 3 holidays a year, you will probably fail, sorry. I had 5 days off last year. I’ve spent 2 days in the last year out of email contact, that was Christmas Day and Boxing Day. You really have to love what you do because you will be spending a lot of time doing it, far more than when you thought you were working hard for someone else. The thing is when you are doing it for yourself it feels OK. You can work Saturdays and Sundays without that gnawing resentment that your company is taking you for granted. Making a business out of your hobby will spoil your hobby a little though, you will find a pressure to monetise it that wasn’t there before. The good bit is though when there is a nice day and you don’t fancy working, you don’t. Try that one on your Boss. “I’m not coming into work today because I can’t be arsed”. I regularly can’t be arsed but thankfully my work ethic and self motivation is sufficient to make up the effort at another time.

If you are the sort of person that needs someone to tell you what to do next, again I’m afraid this isn’t for you. Self guidance is mandatory for business owners. If you are the sort of person that struggles to get out of bed in the morning, then join the club, thankfully I’m also the sort of person that can work past midnight if circumstances dictate.

Common misconceptions. “I’ll have more free time” . No you’ll have less, certainly initially. Tuning your business to run itself is a whole other ballgame which I’m currently exploring. The trick is to make what you like doing, your business, then it doesn’t matter any more.

Who should start a business?

Those that are frustrated making money for someone else. Those disillusioned by corporate nonsense. Those terrified of getting to retirement age and looking back on their 50 years at work and wondering where it all went. The grass is always greener on the other side if you dig out the weeds and feed it with fertiliser.

Will you be happier?

Maybe but maybe not. I’ve personally struggled with the isolation of working alone and also working with your wife which has it’s pitfalls. You may also have significant issues with loss of status if you were previously a company Director or Team Leader in charge of large team of people. I even sometimes feel guilty when friends and family have to struggle their way to work at that 06.30am alarm call on a cold, snowy morning. I should be there fighting the corporate fight too?. Then I realise this is the trap we are conditioned to fall into. All you are fighting for is to line someone else’s pockets in the hope they will line yours.

You will have a better life. Being master of your own destiny is a great feeling though, and can be especially liberating when you are also not expected to be a master of anyone elses. Since giving up the corporate world, I’ve opened the doors to many opportunities that i wouldn’t have even considered previously. I’ve made wonderful new friends, indulged some lifetime ambitions including building a recording studio and recording progressive rock music with some very talented people.

I somehow think this is only the beginning. Good Luck!

We sometimes get emails from concerned customers who after receiving their new watch, can’t get it function as it should.

Nine times out of ten, this is due to an unfamiliarity with vintage watches rather than a fault with the watch itself. Here are few pointers if you are struggling.  We’ll start with the real basics.

1. It’s wasn’t running when I opened the box! 

 Your watch may arrive, not running, when you open the box.   If this is a mechanical piece, Don’t Panic!  This is normal.  Believe it or not we do get emails from customers having bought a vintage 1940s or 50s piece asking why we didn’t fit a new battery before despatch!  We manually wind every mechanical watch we sell beofre despatch, but by the time it reaches you, the chances are that it has reached the end of it’s wind, or is is about to, so the watch will stop.  It needs winding.  If you bought an Automatic and that isn’t running on arrival,  again, Don’t Panic, see 3) below.  If you have bought a battery watch and it it isn’t running, PANIC.

2. How to wind your watch

Manual wind watches need to be wound FULLY before they will keep time over 24 hours or more. The single biggest reason for a watch stopping prematurely is because it hasn’t been wound sufficiently and this is the first question we will ask if you have received a watch from us that you believe isn’t working correctly.  Most of the time the explanation below will resolve the issue.

 Most people are nervous of ’over winding’ a watch but the term is an urban myth.  Watches are said to be overwound when they stop or seize in the fully wound position, not as a result of ‘overwinding’ as such.  To wind the watch fully the crown must be rotated clockwise some 10-20 times until the natural stop of the mainspring is reached. At this point the resistance to winding becomes so great that it is obvious that the spring is fully wound.  Once fully wound the movement should run continuously for at least 24hours depending on the movement.  A single rotation of the crown is unlikely to run the watch for more than a few seconds.  Winding the crown anti-clockwise will not wind the watch. You will hear a faint clicking noise, but this is the winding gear, free-wheeling like the pedals on a bicycle when you coast downhill.  This facility is provided to enable you to grip the crown and wind the watch with a back and forth motion without actually releasing the crown.  This makes it easier to wind but be aware the crown only winds the watch in one direction.   

3. Automatic Watches are mechanical watches too.

Automatic watches are NOT battery powered, they are also mechanical watches with the addition of an eccentrically weighted rotor mechanism that winds the mainspring from movement of the wearer as the watch is worn instead of manually winding via the crown.  Again if the mainspring is not wound sufficiently the watch will stop.  Considerable wrist movement is required to fully wind an automatic watch during wear and some early non-efficient designs including bumper designs should only really be considered a maintainer, once the spring is wound manually. 

The vast majority of automatic watches can also be wound manually.  This facility is important if you wear a watch for only part of day and won’t be wearing it long enough to wind the mainspring by movement alone.  This is our No.2 ‘My watch doesn’t work query’.   If you find your automatic watch doesn’t run properly, wind it manually first.  If you constantly have to manually wind it or it still doesnt run then we can investigate these issues.  Be aware that an automatic mainspring will continuously wind and will have no fully wound stop like a manual wind watch. 

4. Hand Collision

The next biggest reason for your watch not running is hand collision.  Although we take the utmost care to pack our watches carefullly, there is little we can do to legislate against the package being moved violently which can occasionally dislodge the fine tolerance on the hands.  Rarely, a hand can come dislodged entirely and in most cases is an easy fix but does involve you sending the watch back to us for a free repair.

5. My watch is running way too fast!

Another common problem is that the watch runs way too fast say 15min too fast in a day.  Rest assured that we would never sell a watch exhibiting these sort of errors, but the reason for this ocurring is that the hairspring has become ‘coilbound’ during transport. This is quite common after a service where the fresh oils can sometimes find themselves in contact with the leaves of the hairspring. Again this is an easy fix if the watch is returned to us.

6. My watch is runnning way too slow!

It is not possible for a mechanical watch to run much slower than 5 mins a day, so what often is the case, is that the watch is stopping and restarting later once jolted or the hands aren’t carrying (see 7 below).  

7. The watch is running but the hands aren’t moving.

This is more common than you would think and is characterised by a moving second ahnd but the minute and hour hands are stationary or dropping large amounts of time.   The reason for this is the clutch mechanism that drives the hands.  If it loses friction, it will no longer drive the hands around the dial, although the second hand continues to run.  Returning the watch to us will enable us to resolve this issue where we can re-adjust the cannon pinion or other friction drive.  This problem often occurs if you have been winding the hands vigorously in order to set a correct date.  Check there is no ‘hidden’ fast date feature which can sometimes be activated by winding past 12 then back to quarter to, to flick the date over again. This is much faster and less harmful to the watch. 

8. I can’t pull the crown out.

Most likely you aren’t pulling hard enough.  Try inserting a fingernail between the case and crown and lever it gently out or wiggle the crown a little to release it from the setting spring.  Again, people are nervous about vintage watches and how much force to apply. The same goes for chronograph pushers which sometimes need considerable force to push them.  Remember always apply the least possible force first, forcing or getting angry with a vintage watch will certainly break it.  Before pulling harder make sure you don’t have a locking crown. These are fitted on Rolex, Tudor and Omega waterproof models and require the crown to be twisted anticlockwise to unlock it before the crown can be wound or pulled out. Also be aware that some watches use split stems which means that if an excessive force is applied when pulling out the crown to set the time the winder will come completely adrift from the watch.  Not a massive problem to resolve if you manage to retain the crown and stem but rather disconcerting when it happens.

Hope this helps, if you are in doubt, talk to us first.      

‘Serviced and running well’ means we’ve inspected, cleaned, lubricated and timed the watch either over a 24hour period or more likely on our electronic timing machine. The actual work carried out depends on the watch and can range from a hairpring degrease and lube to a complete strip down and rebuild with replacement parts. Needless to say we don’t sell any watches incapable of running continuously and keeping time and we offer a 30 day warranty against this.

As regards actual rates of timekeeping this depends on a whole host of factors including how the watch is worn (positional accuracy) level of wind in the mainspring, quality and type of the movement etc.

We would consider anything over 3 mins per day an unacceptable error, in most cases 60 secs per day would be normal, but again many watches are capable of being regulated to within a few seconds per day with careful regulation by the owner over an extended period.  The key in timekeeping is consistency.  If a watch consistently loses or gains 60secs per day during normal wear then this error can easily be corrected through adjustment of the regulator.

A watch that shows erratic timekeeping due to bad poise or beat error, will indicate a more significant underlying issue, but in all cases the age, quality and condition of the movement need to be considered along with how the watch is being used, how it’s wound, dial position etc. 

Another point to be aware of is that a regulator that is not in the mid position does not automatically mean the watch needs a service.  When the watch was originally made, the mid position would indeed be the mean of the range of regulation but over time hairsprings change shape, are replaced or re-pegged or an adjustment needs to be made for wear.

There are only two ways to ascertain if a watch needs a service. The first is if it doesn’t work and the second is through an inspection of the movement, looking at cleanliness, lubrication, wear to the pivots and jewels, shape of the hairspring and amplitude of the balance.    Servicing a watch based on time intervals is not a good policy especially if the watch is rarely used or part of a largely static collection. 

The history books credit John Harwood, an English watchmaker, founder of the Harwood watch company in the early 1920’s, as the inventor of the automatic wristwatch. 

Harwood had a vision of a new, more reliable wristwatch and recognising that dust and dampness were decisive factors leading to most wrist watches inaccuracy and functional problems, he looked to develop a watch with a winding mechanism inside the watch.  This would eliminate the need for an opening in the case for the winding shaft.

And so the story goes that some children playing on a see-saw gave John Harwood a decisive idea for his ”self-winding mechanism”.

On 16th October 1923, John Harwood registered his invention at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property of the Swiss Confederation at Berne.  He had travelled to Switzerland (watchmaking center of the globe) to locate the perfect “technical conditions” to help him realise his invention.  On 1st September 1924, he was issued with patent No. 10 65 83 for this pioneering invention, and at the 1926 Basel Trade Fair, Harwood exhibited the world’s first automatic wristwatch in serial production.

This innovative watch used a small weight iside the watch that would swing and bump back and forth racheting a small gear which wound the watch.  The watch had no crown and was set by rotating the bezel.  A special mechanism would disengage the watches automatic “bumper” movement, and engage the hands for setting.  When setting the watch, a white dot in the dial opening above the “6″ appears.  Once set, the user would have to rotate bezel in the opposite direction, re-engaging the movement, and a red dot in the dial opening above the “6″ appears, signalling the readiness of the movement.   The Harwood Watch company failed in 1931 and the patent expired.

Rolex acquired the patent and the rest is history, with all the major watch houses having their own versions of the automatic movement.

The early bumper type movements were eventually replaced by half rotor designs where the eccentric weight was allowed to rotate freely on a central shaft. Endless variations, combinations and design improvements ensued from various watch manufacturers including revolutionary designs from Seiko in Japan that eventually did away with the manual wind mechanism entirely, relying totally on the movement of the wearer to the power the watch.

Unfortunately despite the innovative use of human power, the primary weaknesses of the mechanical timepiece were never fully overcome and the quartz revolution overwhelmed them in the mid 1970s.

Ownership of an automatic watch is much the same as it’s manual wind counterpart.  The same rules and limitations apply for water resistance, shock, and accuracy but we also need to consider the subject of power.

 We’ve had several instances recently of customers believing a watch to be faulty because the watch stopped after an hour of use.  More often than not the problem is that mainspring wasn’t wound sufficiently to power the watch.  There are two factors involved; the first is how the watch is moved in order to turn the rotor and wind the gears, which in turn wind the mainspring. The second is how long it is able to wind for.

If you pick up a completely unwound watch and place it on the wrist at say 8pm for a dinner engagement which involves remaining largely stationary, then retire at midnight with the watch placed on the bedside table, you will likely find the watch stopped at 4am or similar.  It’s not faulty , it’s just that the rotor didn’t get enough of a workout to power the mainspring through the night.

Conversely if you started at 7am and actively throw your arms in all directions all day, you may find your watch will seemingly magically power itself at rest for 40 hours or so (depending on the movement, length of mainspring etc.). 

It’s for these reasons that I always advise giving an automatic watch a thorough manual wind before fitting it to your wrist, you can then be assured that there is then plenty of power and the rotor will happily maintain it all the time you are wearing it.  Certain auto mechanisms are more efficient than others too. The early Omega bumpers cal. 341 et al. are particularly inefficient, although a joy to wear and will resist all attempts to run well from rest without a good manual wind first. A well serviced Seiko however will happily run seemingly on fresh air due to it’s incredibly lightweight rotor and low friction gear train to the mainspring. 

As a final point I remember a heated debate on a watch forum about how automatic watches were useless in space as there was no gravity to act on the eccentric mass of the rotor.  A simple demonstration however negated this argument.  Turn your automatic watch upside down, remove the case back and observe what happens when you spin the case between your fingers in a horizontal plane.  The rotor stays stationary, as the case turns.  Inertia in action!, no gravity required.