[jchcollins]

To my horror earlier this morning, I accidentally dropped my 218 while holding it in one hand to move some things around on the shelf in my closet where it lives when not on my wrist. It landed face-down on the bottom wooden shelf in my closet, whether bouncing on the carpet first and winding up there, or just falling directly I did not see. Total fall was about 5 feet or a little less. On the surface everything is fine - 4 hours later it is still humming away and keeping accurate time, and it would appear that I didn't even scratch the crystal, but just got me to wondering - are Accutrons more or less succeptible to shock due to the tuning fork movements and other associated components...is this something to worry about? I will take a closer look tomorrow to see if the timekeeping has deviated from it's normal performance (loss of about 2-3 seconds per day) but again - everything seems intact at the moment.

I know that my father unintentionally abused this watch (probably even before I was born) at times to where worrying about something like this is probably silly...but just curious.

Thanks,
-John

 

[oliverb]

Accutrons are reasonably shock resistant. Many of us owners have done the same as you over the years without damage to our watches. Like any small, intricate device you would not want to overdo it. It has been said in the past - by unknowing folks - that the Accutron movement is delicate. Not so.

 

[jchcollins]

Honestly I'm kind of surprised that in the 1 year + I've had this back from it's servicing overhaul, that something like this did not happen earlier. I wear this watch at least 3 times a week if not more often. Oh well, the price we pay for enjoying them instead of letting them sit on the shelf all day I suppose. I do remember one fine day at school the week after this watch was first given to me 17 years ago - I went around a corner too fast and DING!! went the crystal against a metal pole. It kept on humming then as well, though I had a little mark on the crystal (that of course only I knew was there) for the next decade plus. It's funny the details I can remember related to this watch...

 

[thumbs]

Who has the balls to test one to destruction?
All in the name of science, of course!
Tell you what, If you all chip in and buy me an Astronaut, I promise to test it out over the next 20 years....

 

[oliverb]

Who has the balls to test one to destruction?
All in the name of science, of course!
Tell you what, If you all chip in and buy me an Astronaut, I promise to test it out over the next 20 years....

:lol:

 

[skypilot]

I bought my first Accutron in 1974 and I wore it continuously until it quit in 1992 and it suffered many shocks including many many many 12 gauge shotgun recoils, falling to the sidewalk at least one when a bracelet failed and once falling off of a roof. They are really pretty tough.

Thumbs offer to test an Astronaut is heart warming, what a sacrifice, a model for us all !!!

 

[akkatron]

I dropped mine on the wodden floor once... It landed right on its side. Talk about bottoming out the fork... Anyway, it was completely fine. These movement are tough, until you start messing with the indexing mechanism. As long as that's covered up, these movements are beasts.