How slow/fast is your Zodiac running?

[dawej]

Since I started to wind my watch before wearing, I have noticed it runs significantly more accurate. Now it looses just a couple of seconds a day. The last four and a half days (approx. 110 hours) it has lost just 22 seconds! That is with some good winds in the morning and normal wear during the day. That must be a good result for a 70's Sea Wolf? Or am I a bit over excited? 

That means that, in theory, if I set the watch a minute forward, it could run for 25 days before running a minute behind.

In comparison, how slow/fast is you Zodiac running? And how often do you wind/wear it?

[Butch]

This never ceases to amaze me. No offense meant either! Think about the spring, in its little round case. Now think of the science behind this.

In the morning you should pick it up and wind it 20-30 times. Now the spring is wound up tight. This uses less energy to make the watch run. Throughout the day your arm movement KEEPS the spring wound and using less energy. When you take it off at night, wind it again, thereby keeping the spring wound tight. This allows it to run for the night, using less energy. Less energy means more accuracy. In the morning you should pick it up and...

UV can probably explain this better than I can.

Another example is the Triple Date Moonphase. As it approaches midnight on the 31st many things will happen. The energy build up is tremendous, thus causing a loss of time. Then at midnight (more or less, depending on your watch, its last service, your watchmaker, etc.) the Day flips, the Date Flips, the Moonphase flips, and on some of them, the MONTH flips. Boom! All that energy is released for the flips, the energy build up is gone, but the time loss has already occurred. But it kept running! To a lesser extent, the same thing happens every night on this model, except for the month flipping.

So my point is, just because it is an automatic does not mean that you do not wind it. Wind it for better accuracy. The Zodiac calibers 7X and 8X can be made to be extremely accurate as they are excellent running movements. There are flaws in their design, but not when it comes to accuracy.

<putting soapbox away>

[dawej]

Hehe, I did not know that. Thank you for the lecture!
But with that frequently winding in mind, is ~4 second slow a day reasonably good?

[Ultra-Vintage]

This never ceases to amaze me. No offense meant either! Think about the spring, in its little round case. Now think of the science behind this.

In the morning you should pick it up and wind it 20-30 times. Now the spring is wound up tight. This uses less energy to make the watch run. Throughout the day your arm movement KEEPS the spring wound and using less energy. When you take it off at night, wind it again, thereby keeping the spring wound tight. This allows it to run for the night, using less energy. Less energy means more accuracy. In the morning you should pick it up and...

UV can probably explain this better than I can.

Another example is the Triple Date Moonphase. As it approaches midnight on the 31st many things will happen. The energy build up is tremendous, thus causing a loss of time. Then at midnight (more or less, depending on your watch, its last service, your watchmaker, etc.) the Day flips, the Date Flips, the Moonphase flips, and on some of them, the MONTH flips. Boom! All that energy is released for the flips, the energy build up is gone, but the time loss has already occurred. But it kept running! To a lesser extent, the same thing happens every night on this model, except for the month flipping.

So my point is, just because it is an automatic does not mean that you do not wind it. Wind it for better accuracy. The Zodiac calibers 7X and 8X can be made to be extremely accurate as they are excellent running movements. There are flaws in their design, but not when it comes to accuracy.

<putting soapbox away>

You did just fine.  And I agree, the science behind mainsprings is pretty amazing.  That the width, thickness, length, and rigidity of a long thin coiled strand of flat wire can be used to correctly supply adequate even power to a watch movement over time.  In addition, how precise the relationship of those 4 attributes has to be, as that same configuration (of width, thickness, length and rigidity) may not work correctly in any other watch, but the changing of one or more of those attributes and it can.

[Butch]

Thanks UV. As for the other, when it comes to vintage watches, +/- 2 min. per day is acceptable.  When you are talking seconds then that is pretty damn good. An example of that that I do not advertise is that my watchmaker said the SSW I have for sale is keeping to about +/- 10 seconds per day. Oh yeah, and it is OK to dive with it. But why push it?

[Sea Wolf]

Butch is it true that your SSW is indestructible?  I saw that on an old SSW ad somewhere.

Found the review of your watch with that claim:  http://www.timezone.com/library/archives/archives0051

[Butch]

Not true! I saw that article years ago and started shrieking with laughter. This of course, brought my wife running over from the other wing of the mansion. (Did I ever tell you I made my fortune in the 1990's as an Authorized Zodiac Dealer?) I raced to the library (I remember a side thought at the time: Who read books any more? Note to self: sell off these 10,000 leather bound tomes and turn this into a fitness gym) and promptly fished one of my many SSW's out of the 10' X 10' walk-in watch safe and took it out to the 6 car garage garage as my wife followed me with concern. She had witnessed such madness before and had fear in her heart. Then I grabbed my 5 lb. hand sledge hammer off the wall hanger but thought, too much. So I got my 3 lb. ball peen hammer off the work bench and thought, Hmmm, better not scratch up the workbench. So I laid the watch on the concrete floor, then thought better of it and fished out a left over piece of granite from when we refinished the 2,000 square foot kitchen (much to the cook's surprise as we had just done it 2 years before that in marble which turned out to be too soft for counter tops) and in a relatively short period of time made that SSW not only inoperable, but pretty damn ugly too. The piece of granite was fine though so I put it away. My wife then asked me, "You read another watch review on Timezone again, didn't you Dear? I thought you promised the doctor you would not visit that web site any more after the last episode." I hung my head in shame and mumbled "Yes Dear." as I got out the broom and dust pan, my face becoming as red as a smacked ass from both shame and embarrassment.

[Sea Wolf]

  I would like to see the video or photo of this event.  I have often thought of putting a hammer to my SSW to prove it's unbreakability.