I always have 2 watches, a dress watch and an every day watch.
For an every day watch I prefer an analog Timex with the Indiglo feature. I’ve worn them for decades. By the time the battery runs down the watch is a bit beaten and the band is stretched, so I just toss it and buy a new one (about every 3 years).
5 months ago I bought a new one. After about 3 months I noticed it was losing a minute every hour. I had the battery tested and it showed to be good. Because I had worn it for 3 months the store refused to exchange it and said I should contact Timex.
Timex warrant insists the watch be shipped in a certain manner, and then a check has to be included to cover return shipping. All in all I’d end up paying $20 to fix a $38 watch. Nah. I’ll just toss it and buy something else.
And then, after losing a minute every hour for 4 weeks straight, it stopped doing that. For the last month it has kept perfect time. I can’t figure out why it was losing a minute every hour and now I can’t figure out why it doesn’t.
To be clear, did the problem first appear only after three months, before which it was working properly? Because a minute per hour is a lot– There’s no way you could fail to notice that within a day.
It worked perfectly the first 3 months. Then it started losing time. Every morning it was exactly 24 minutes behind. I started monitoring it and determined it was losing 1 minute every hour.
Figured it was the battery even though the batteries aren’t activated until you buy the watch. Both Kohls and Batteries Plus tested the battery and it was fine.
The mystery is why is started functioning properly. It certainly couldn’t have fixed itself.
Simple crystal based watches use a crystal that oscillate at 32768Hz. Which is 2[sup]15[/sup]. So a 15 stage flip/flop will yield one pulse a second. Which can be used to drive a second hand stepper motor. Typically, after this the remainder of the watch is mechanical, with 60:1 reduction for minute hand then 12:1 for the hour hand. There are very few ways you can make this lose one in 60. My suspicion is that there was a mechanical issue that was causing the 1:60 for the second hand to minute hand to stick, or miss, once a minute. Perhaps a tiny speck of dust on the gear that is connected to the second hand, so it came around every minute, that took two attempts to get past, or some other mechanical miss-alignment or binding. So it took two seconds to do one seconds worth of movement , once minute.
It is possible that over time it managed to wear down, or shift whatever was causing the binding.
Wearing watches makes them have constant body heat temperatures. That can make watches do different things than if they are sitting in a drawer and at a cooler temperature.
Some mechanical watches will work when worn, but not work if not worn. That is because your body heats up the oil in the watch and allows the gears to run easier.
Electronics can work/not work depending on cool/warm temperatures.
So to be scientific, be sure you are comparing the watch while wearing it as you did before. That would also include mechanical movements of your arm.
Bulova Precisionist. A "tad’ more expensive than my $38 Timex.
I have a gold watch that was presented to me when I retired from my first career. I’ve never worn it and off the top of my head I don’t remember what make it is.
I have the exact make and model of watch … it will just up and stop for hours or days … then just start running again … no rhyme or reason to it … the good news is that’s it’s never more than six hours off … which is close enough for me … but I did buy a new one just because everyone else had a problem with it … sheesh …
