Watch Watch (Brief Update) (OT)

For those few people who are following along, my solar Seiko quartz watch, the one I wrote about in June, passed the 90-day mark running one and one-half seconds slow. Considering Seiko only claims accuracy to within 20 seconds a month for this ordinary $150 watch, that's remarkable. It extrapolates to accuracy of six seconds per year, which puts it easily into the category of HAQ—high-accuracy quartz. Meanwhile, I have a watch which is purported to be a real HAQ watch—a Bulova Precisionist 262 kHz similar to this one—that was 23 seconds slow at 60 days!

A reader who is "in the know" told me that many garden-variety solar quartz Seikos and kinetic quartz Seikos can be accurate to three seconds a year, which is closer to perfection than Seiko claims for its deluxe Grand Seiko models—such as this one that has the company's innovative part mechanical, part quartz Spring Drive.

Enough of this now,

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kye Wood: "I am that someone in the know and I heartily endorse that post. Super odd addition, I've had 30 G-Shocks from lowly to insanely expensive models. Bombproof all, but the lousiest accuracy I've ever gotten, every one."

Comments

[Terry Letton]

Seems like the peaches are working with a different definition of time than Seiko😎

[marcin wuu]

G-Shock GX-56BB. It's a huge thing, but oddly beautiful at that, in that slick retrofuturistic way. A thing future soldier could wear in a space war and no one would bat an eyelash.

[G-Shocks are tremendously popular. You're in good company. My favorite watch is a Casio, but a very different one. --Mike]

[Benjamin Marks]

I have read that a couple of things can make a quartz watch run slow. Battery strength and discharge rate can have an effect. So can corrosion at the battery terminals or gunked up lubricant in the movement. Those quartz movements are much simpler than a mechanical caliber, but they are still mechanical devices, after all.

I have one of the Bulova "Moon watches," which has that Bulova Precisionist 262 kHz movement you mentioned. I bought it used and last week it just stopped dead. The new battery should be here Tuesday.

I like the look of your solar watch. Amazon lists it as "currently unavailable," so maybe you have a scarce watch. . .(!!!)

I have one solar watch, also a Seiko. It is this one here:

https://www.amazon.com/Seiko-COUTURA-Quartz-Stainless-Casual/dp/B073NQYFDV/ref=sr_1_30?dchild=1&keywords=Seiko%2Bsolar&qid=1632694413&sr=8-30&th=1

Listens for radio signals from the Mother Ship every night at 2:00 AM and resets itself to the US Atomic clock. LOL. Waaay too much precision for me. I do find that when I wear it, I tend to drive with my wrist in the sun.

[Clay Olmstead]

I don't know how watches are made, but I do know something about semiconductors. When I was in that business, we'd make high-grade and low-grade versions of the same product, but they would all be the same chip inside; only the testing, packaging and price would be different. It's much cheaper to make them all the same and just change the part number slightly.
So it could be that a lot of those Seiko watches have the same insides, and the cheaper ones just aren't guaranteed to work to the same accuracy of the more expensive ones. Maybe somebody who knows more about watches than I do can say whether that applies.

[Moose]

Sample variation is a big factor. I'm sure you've read Roger's essays on sample variation in lenses on Lensrentals.com

Same thing here (and in everything else!) If all the individual bits are at or near nominal value, great. Or if they happen to vary in complementary ways, great. But that's only some of them.

I have had for many years a Timex Expedition, combo analog/digital watch that keeps exceptionally accurate time. I only adjust a couple of seconds when time changes, spring and fall.

I think the analog part is wearing out; it doesn't stay in perfect sync with the digital readout any more. I couldn't believe it, but it's still available new, so I have a new one in the wings. I don't expect it to be nearly as accurate. But I live it for travel, where analog can show local time and digital time at home. The Indiglow back light is great, too.

I have another, fancier, more expensive, analog Expedition that keeps terrible time, I would have to check it every few days, if I wore it. \;~)>

I also have a $10, plastic, off brand, military look analog watch that is within a second or so per month. And name brand watches that are mediocre in time keeping.

Anecdotal reports are meaningless as predictors.

[All very true, but Kye Wood told me that he's had many samples of solar and kinetic quartz Seikos with the very good accuracy I mentioned (he's named himself now so I don't feel bad naming him), which is what I was going by. I have another Seiko, battery powered, and it will hit 90 days on August 5th or so, and it's slightly over 2 seconds slow as of today.

I'd actually love to buy 30 cheap Seikos and gather data on their accuracy over a year of monitoring, but that's pretty extreme geekery and I really do have better things to do, both with my time and my money... :-P --Mike]

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

Funny you should mention your watch.
After a few months of reading and drawing up numerous shortlists, I finally pulled the pin and bought one. It was an end of line, and a global search to find somewhere that still had it in stock new. Joys of a slender wrist mean most of what is made today is just too big - and I even looked at women’s / unisex models too.
It’s this one - https://www.citizenwatch.eu/product/bm8430-59ee/
And after a couple more months in transit, it finally arrived, today, just as we were sitting down to dinner. Now I just need to charge it up, and wait for lockdowns to end so I can find a jeweller who can adjust the bracelet strap for me.

[I like your taste. That's essentially Citizen's version of the Seiko SNE039 I linked. I like the little design refinements though. Hope you enjoy it! --Mike]

[Stan B.]

I recently bought a used '61 Bulova mechanical in Exc Cond for $200. Keeps time to the minute for at least 2 days- all the accuracy I need these days, esp since I no longer develop film.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

Thanks Mike,
At one point I had a short-list comprised solely of Seikos, including the SNE039, but they’re a bit long, lug-lug.

My ideal is a Casio - LCW-M510D-2AJF. I was looking at their ana-digi watches. The above one has pretty much all the features I want in a daily wear that is set & forget (analog time, digital day & date, so no adjusting date for end of month).
I’ll see how the Citizen feels on my wrist, given the Casio is a bit longer between the lugs, before deciding whether to acquire it (or make an Xmas suggestion).
Casio did a similar watch in Titanium, to keep weight down, but from memory it’s a tad larger than this one - but I could be wrong.
All the best.

[Dave]

Seiko has the reasonably-priced accurate quartz watch formula down pat, I'd say.

That "other brand" with the HAQ could probably be adjusted to keep accurate time.

(The Watches You Can Afford website has a gain of five seconds in three months for a Claremont model.)

An Amazon.uk comment: "have now had for three months and it has not lost or gained one second . . . "

================

Now, my old Seiko 7A28-7039 chronograph still keeps good time (about the same as the newer Seiko watches I recently bought) and is about 38mm in case diameter. A much better size for my skinny wrist than the SSC715 (43.2 mm) I recently bought -- mainly to have a chronograph while the old Seiko is refurbished.

This link
( https://www.thewatchsite.com/threads/7a28-7039-the-most-beautiful-seiko-ever.25673/ ) shows the nice black inserts in the bracelet. It's quite an uncluttered look for a chronograph.

[Andrew L]

I have an automatic Orient, and of course the daily and monthly ratings for accuracy on automatics is considerably less than quartz. However, I have found two things which make mine run surprisingly accurately (think ~3 seconds a week). 1. storage (when it's not on my wrist) matters. If I lay the watch face up, it gains time. If I hang it so 12-o'clock is up, it slows down. So a combination keeps it remarkably "on." 2. Magnetization (or lack thereof). Lately I noticed my watch was running quite fast (around +45 seconds every day or two). I downloaded a magnetometer app for my phone, and sure enough, the watch had a magnetic signature. $12 later, I got a very dodgy blue plastic demagnetizer from China, and it works wonders to remove the magnetic signature and restore accuracy! Automatics are tetchy, but they are fun.

[Keith Trumbo]

Dear Mike,
Thought you’d like to see this:

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/all-fine-art/_cutaway-model-nikkor-zoom-lens-5a08

Thank you always for your wonderful site.
Kind regards
Keith Trumbo