The quartz quandary: the sloppy seconds hand pointer

[chuckmiller]

In short, almost no one can tolerate the sloppy bouncy seconds pointer behavior associated with most quartz movements. Bounce is one thing, I can get past that, but it's very annoying to see the pointer consistently miss the marks.

So, what about this? Remove the movement from the case, pop off the hands (requires an inexpensive tool), then press them back on in perfect alignment (requires another tool).

Seems simple. What am I missing? That won't fix bounce but could fix the more annoying issue. No?

[happyscrappyheropup]

In short, almost no one can tolerate the sloppy bouncy seconds pointer behavior associated with most quartz movements. Bounce is one thing, I can get past that, but it's very annoying to see the pointer consistently miss the marks.

So, what about this? Remove the movement from the case, pop off the hands (requires an inexpensive tool), then press them back on in perfect alignment (requires another tool).

Seems simple. What am I missing? That won't fix bounce but could fix the more annoying issue. No?

Probably overstated for the IWL crowd, there is a healthy quartz collecting group here.

As far as repositioning the seconds hand, that would probably only work with a precise movement like the 9F. Don't other quartz movements vary in how they hit the markers?

[Kronos]

Here's what the American brand Vaer says about this issue:

https://www.vaerwatches.com/blogs/jo...nd-not-aligned


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[tribe125]

So, what about this? Remove the movement from the case, pop off the hands (requires an inexpensive tool), then press them back on in perfect alignment (requires another tool).

Seems simple. What am I missing? That won't fix bounce but could fix the more annoying issue. No?

You can realign them and they might well still miss some of the markers. If they’re off at ‘12’ and equally off with every other marker, then you have a chance, but this isn’t usually how it is. You would still need a dial with perfectly spaced markers, which isn’t absolutely guaranteed.

I believe it also possible to improve the hit-rate by tightening the movement (which some makers probably do) to decrease backlash, but this increases the rate of wear. Some movements (eg Grand Seiko) have additional components to deliver an almost perfect hit-rate, but this is quite rare.

Once I learned that is natural for stepper motors to work this way (and that ‘looser’ movements had a longer life), I stopped caring about it, not that I cared too much before.

[chuckmiller]

Here's what the American brand Vaer says about this issue:

https://www.vaerwatches.com/blogs/jo...nd-not-aligned


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Good article!

[mlcor]

I solved this by only having one quartz watch, my Dan Henry, which has small seconds so I can’t tell if it’s hitting the marks perfectly.


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[Kronos]

.

Once I learned that is natural for stepper motors to work this way (and that ‘looser’ movements had a longer life), I stopped caring about it, not that I cared too much before.

The Vaer article makes the same point about the motors. It goes on to state that some industry giants, like Swatch and Casio, have solved this issue -- and reduced per unit manufacturing costs (and eliminated jobs) -- by investing in machinery that performs full robotic assembly of watches. Viewed this way, this misalignment is almost a positive, a hallmark of the human touch in the assembly process.

I must add that I never even noticed this issue -- until I became a WIS-in-training by joining watch forums. Like Alan, I was never too bothered by this issue to begin with. Now, I am learning to "unsee" it.


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[Tim.]

I had this issue with my PADI GMT, and as Alan mentioned, it was not equally misaligned on all the markers, The markers are very large and also quite raised up from the dial so I think that accentuated the problem, there was no way I could live with it. I sent it back to Seiko under warrantee and it took a couple of months in the middle of covid to get it back, they managed to put it right though, not sure if they replaced the dial or re applied some of the markers but it's good now.

[Samanator]

I have basically three solutions for this:
Solution one buy GS quartz watches- the three I have had hit all the marks every time
Solution two the G-ShocK ani-digital solution like my Frogman connected- the hands and markers are so big yet far apart you really can't tell if they are anywhere close and it really doesn't matter.
Solution three Quartz watches should be digital only - Nothing to misalign