SIGforum
What would cause an automatic watch to run VERY fast?
January 04, 2019, 07:59 AM
stickman428What would cause an automatic watch to run VERY fast?
I have a Seiko Diver that is running VERY fast. I have not had time to nail down exactly how fast it is but it appears to be running over 1 hour fast in a 10 hour period.
I didn’t pay a lot so I’m not the least bit scared of opening it up and trying to fix it if there is any reasonable chance I can fix it myself. It probably isn’t worth paying a professional as it’s an inexpensive watch.
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The price of liberty and even of common humanity is eternal vigilance
January 04, 2019, 08:02 AM
Mars_AttacksIt's probably been magnetized. The balance spring is sticking to itself and causing an amplitude error.
Have someone demagnetize it, or buy a cheap demagnetizer and do it yourself.
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Eeewwww, don't touch it!
Here, poke at it with this stick.
January 04, 2019, 08:03 AM
mttaylor1066I had two movements in my Tutima UTC do the same thing... both movements had to be replaced. (Tutima did so at their expense, it is a mass-produced Swiss calibre they use in that watch.)
I can't recall the stated diagnosis. It might be that Tutima found it cheaper to do a heart transplant on my watch rather than invest the labor in fixing the issue.
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Company, villainous company hath been the spoil of me.
January 04, 2019, 08:10 AM
V-TailYou've driving the DeLorean, haven't you?
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים January 04, 2019, 08:21 AM
Sig2340A switch to decaf may be needed.

Nice is overrated
"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
January 04, 2019, 08:34 AM
stickman428It’s not that.

It’s one of Seiko’s smaller divers that has a tiny movement that is known to be hard to fully charge unless you are quite active. Worried that could be the issue I shook the absolute hell out of the watch yesterday.
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The price of liberty and even of common humanity is eternal vigilance
January 04, 2019, 08:35 AM
kz1000Hold me closer tiny diver.
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"Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"
"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
-Bomber Harris
January 04, 2019, 08:43 AM
sigmonkeyPut it in a bowl of rice and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds on high during the super blood wolf moon eclipse January 20th. Or something like that.
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! January 04, 2019, 08:50 AM
kz1000quote:
Put it in a bowl of rice
Tiny Asians will come fix it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"
"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
-Bomber Harris
January 04, 2019, 08:51 AM
Georgeairquote:
a cheap demagnetizer and do it yourself.
This is exactly what I did with a watch several years ago and worked perfectly. I was flying a lot at the time and one theory is that affects it. Whatever the cause, the demag may work.
I bought this exact model for twice this price in 2011.
Link
You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02
January 04, 2019, 09:59 AM
jhe888Magnetization is one possibility, and an easy one to test. It could be other things, too.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. January 04, 2019, 10:06 AM
mbinkyAbout six months ago I was doing quite a bit of soldering. The next few days I noticed my Seiko diver had started gaining about +10 a day. This watch was a consistamt -10 to -15 a day normally. I found an app by Lepsi for my iPad that checked for magnitisn. According to it my watch was magnitized. I bought a cheap demagnetizer off of amazon, ran my watch over it, and the app no longer showed magnitism. And it went back to its normal loss per day.
January 04, 2019, 10:10 AM
ChuckWallOK, here's your answer.
Get the Lepsi app for detecting magnetism. Very easy to set up and use and FREE.
https://www.lepsi.ch/I'm IOS so I got it from the Apple App store
Get a cheap demagnetizer from Amazon or eBay. Follow the instructions.
Here's the page. Look closely, they are all the same device. Pick one. Easy to use, I demag my Sinn once a month because computer use magnetizes it.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...7&crid=2SYOZ108WLKSYWorks like a charm.
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MAGA
January 04, 2019, 10:18 AM
GWbikerquote:
Originally posted by kz1000:
Hold me closer tiny diver.
"Groan" - Reginald Dwight.
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"Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them".
January 04, 2019, 10:19 AM
Sig2340quote:
Originally posted by kz1000:
quote:
Put it in a bowl of rice
Tiny Asians will come fix it.
The tiny Asians will not give it back because it is in their rice bowl.
Nice is overrated
"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
January 04, 2019, 10:35 AM
OKCGenequote:
Originally posted by kz1000:
quote:
Put it in a bowl of rice
Tiny Asians will come fix it.
Aahhhhhh Sum Ting Wong!
We go to lunch now.
.
January 04, 2019, 11:54 AM
stickman428ChuckWall, thanks man! That app is REALLY neat. So my tiny diver is in fact magnetized.
I guess I’m into automatic watches enough to buy a cheap demagnetizer. I retired my G-shock and wear an automatic watch pretty much exclusively now.
Can even a small amount of magnetism mess things up? I’m not getting a very strong reading from my watch but I am picking up magnetism.
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The price of liberty and even of common humanity is eternal vigilance
January 04, 2019, 01:45 PM
Rick Leequote:
Originally posted by ChuckWall:
OK, here's your answer.
Get the Lepsi app for detecting magnetism. Very easy to set up and use and FREE.
https://www.lepsi.ch/I'm IOS so I got it from the Apple App store
Get a cheap demagnetizer from Amazon or eBay. Follow the instructions.
Here's the page. Look closely, they are all the same device. Pick one. Easy to use, I demag my Sinn once a month because computer use magnetizes it.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...7&crid=2SYOZ108WLKSYWorks like a charm.
This is exactly what I did and it worked perfectly with my Sinns and Breitling.
January 04, 2019, 02:53 PM
stickman428Ok this is interesting. Another Seiko Automatic of mine that is running a little fast is also reading magnetized. The reading is however much lower than the Seiko Diver
Is it a good idea to periodically demagnetize a watch?
I wondered this so I searched the internet and found someone claiming to get two of their watches to run much more accurately (slightly less fast) after being demagnetized.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The price of liberty and even of common humanity is eternal vigilance
January 04, 2019, 03:18 PM
rduckworquote:
Originally posted by stickman428:
Ok this is interesting. Another Seiko Automatic of mine that is running a little fast is also reading magnetized. The reading is however much lower than the Seiko Diver
Is it a good idea to periodically demagnetize a watch?
I wondered this so I searched the internet and found someone claiming to get two of their watches to run much more accurately (slightly less fast) after being demagnetized.
Yep. Magnets are everywhere today. iPad, iPhone, you name it. If it makes noise, it probably has a magnet.
Good luck,
RMD
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