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Problem with Accutron

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T

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Hello Everybody!

I bought Calibrator a few weeks ago and after a few minor adjustments it was running great. It was set by me one notch above the center bar and was losing about 2 seconds per day while gaining them back during night time while laying on the night stand face up. So, overall it was zeroed withing 24 hour period. It ran like that for two weeks and then something happened. For no apparent reason (no magnetic fields or hard impacts or drops) it started to run fast. Really Fast! I tried to set calibrator to the maximum negative position (-), but all I got was about 40 seconds fast per day. If I move calibrator to the max (+) it runs 2 minutes fast per day. I bought this watch from one of the Amazon's vendors, so they do not want to replace it, but agree to repair it under 2 year warranty offered by them. It is a hassle. But the thing is that I do not really understand what could have caused such a dramatic change in my watch's behavior. It appears that calibrator still controls speed of the watch, but at much higher than normal rate. Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions on how to address this problem? I have a big suspicion that seller does not really have much experience with calibrator watches, so I am not particularly happy about letting them poke around my piece. Although I may not have much choice....

Thanks.
 
O

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#2 ·
Welcome to the forum! Sorry you are having problems with your Accutron. Sounds like it may need phasing or adjustment of the pawl fingers as they meet the index wheel. If the watch is out of phase it can begin to run very fast. As to why it suddenly did so, who knows. I bought one that would gain a couple of hours within a 24 hour period. This adjustment should be done by a competent Accutron trained watchmaker.
 
T

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Discussion Starter · #3 · (Edited)
Thank you for reply. The problem is that I doubt that seller has "competent Accutron trained watchmaker" in the house. They sell a lot of different watch brands and provide their own repair warranty on sold items, but Accutron has extra mechanism that is not found in other watches and may interfere with "normal" regulation... It looks like you are saying that you also have Accutron that runs 2 hours fast per 24 hour period. I guess this is common problem for those watches....
 
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#5 ·
Magnetchief said:
Isn't this model an automatic mechanical movement ?
Why would it have pawl fingers and an index wheel. Or did I miss something?
Click to expand...
To the original poster, is your "Accutron" a vintage tuning fork Accutron or a modern watch with a quartz or mechanical movement? By your 2 second comment I assumed you were referring to a vintage tuning fork Accutron.
 
T

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Discussion Starter · #11 ·
Well, after looking at the inner regulator through the back glass and comparing it to ETA 2824, I found that it is pretty much the same thing with the exception of a massive multi-gear add-on which rotates fine adjustment part of the regulator using external "calibrator" keyhole. Considering that external calibrator has +-15 seconds range, I assume that "fine" adjuster also has wider range than the normal ETA 2824. After coming to this conclusion, I have opened my watch and pushed coarse adjustment lever toward the center of the watch. Then I closed my watch and centered external calibrator. Post my adjustment watch slowed down to about 30 seconds per 24 hours. Today, I have opened watch again and pushed inner coarse regulator more toward the center of the watch. I suspect that it went too far left and watch is going to be way slower than it should be... I guess I will see results of my second intervention pretty soon. I will most likely have to open it again to regain some speed..... The whole idea of having "calibrator" is to have easily adjustable watch..... Obviously this is not the case with my watch.......
 
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Discussion Starter · #12 · (Edited)
Just an update :

After much play time :001_smile: and regulation I have managed to bring watch to somewhat good state where it runs at +/- 1 second a day. The big problem with this watch is that its pace varies dramatically between lying on the table face up and being on one's wrist. It runs substantially slower while being worn than when it rests peacefully on the table. So, overall "user error" correction is achieved by balancing pace between 7 hours on the nightstand, when it runs fast and 17 hours on the wrist, when it runs slow. After all of my open case regulation balance is achieved at calibrator being somewhere around the first positive offset. Before the original collapse it was in the opposite location (the first negative offset).

Overall my opinion about this watch - it does not worth the money it is being sold for. MSRP is $1650. I got it for about $1020 and I feel that I have tremendously overplayed for what it has to offer...

One other observation, I was listening for watch's ticking with stethoscope, and it seems that the loudness of the mechanism is not steady. It somewhat goes up and down in long waves. I am not sure if this is normal or not and not sure if it means anything or not. I hope that this does not mean that the watch is out of beat.....
 
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taliyev
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