Hi. I have recently purchased an Elite 1000 watch and am wondering about accuracy / timekeeping. I have only had the watch 2 weeks and was wondering what accuracy I can expect from a new COSC watch, which I understand should be within +6 / -4 seconds per day. I wear it during the day and take it off overnight. It was out of COSC for the first week then settled down to about -3 / -4 seconds a day but for the last 3 days has been losing 6+ seconds per day. It has lost 3 seconds during the day today while on my wrist all day, which is worrying me. Therefore, I have some newbe questions.
Should it have been within COSC specs from the start or does a new watch need time to 'bed in' and if so how long?
Do I need to invest in a watch winder for overnight or just keep it on?
Will the orientation of the watch overnight affect accuracy? The COSC certificate implies face down was the most accurate in the tests and I have been leaving it face down but it still lost about 3 seconds overnight.
Will it be sufficiently wound on my wrist or do I ned to manually wind it too? I understand that the level of wind can affect accuracy of a watch, is this true of a COSC watch too?
Are there other factors I need to take into account, or do I just need to contact Christopher Ward?
I know it is only a few seconds but I paid for a COSC spec watch so I really want COSC accuracy. Other than that I am really pleased with the watch.
Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Richard.

People do report watches need a settling in time. Who knows if that’s true or not. I’ve seen it myself though.

It may need to be wound further. Depending on how active you are, it may not get a full wind, and low power reserve can affect accuracy.

Placement also does affect accuracy.

Winders may or may not be required. Really more of a personal preference.

It certainly should be within COSC spec though and CW should take care of it if it’s not.

Welcome to the forum, BTW! The C60 elite is a pretty great watch in any case.

I'm pretty sure that when I've worn watches that probably haven't had a lot of wear, they need a bit of time to settle down.

Also, I have a couple of watches with a power reserve, and they definitely run less accurately as the power runs out. Without a PR it's hard to tell whether the watch is actually fully wound.

Thanks for the replies. When I wind the watch I get to a point where the resistance increases and I stop winding then, under the theory that it is fully wound. I understand that you can't overwind an automatic watch but have read about stripped teeth on the cogs. I will give it a bit of time and try different positions for it overnight. Thanks, Richard.

I would give it a full wind & then wear it all day & see where you are at.
Power reserve can affect accuracy & so can positioning, try it face up overnight & see if that helps.

Hi,
I have the same watch for about two years now, and generally it is well within COSC.
On several occasions, my watch suddenly became slow, outside of COSC specification. The root cause, in my case, was that the watch became magnetized. Obviously your case may be different.
While it seems, from searching the internet, that the more common symptom of a magnetized watch is running too fast, this is not the case with my watch, and it thus took me a bit of time to realized this is the problem the first time it happened.
I used a phone app for measuring magnetism to verify this (I used the Android "physics toolbox sensor suite" app, but I'm sure there are other apps as well).
I got a demagnetizer from Amazon, and this resolved the issue for me (on several occasions).
Trying to figure how this happened (playing Sherlock Holmes using that app , it turns out that my MacBookPro laptop has a surprisingly strong
magnetic field, focussed roughly were my wrist lies when typing. I now take off the watch when using the laptop (unless I'm using an external keyboard), and IIRC it got magnetized only once or twice in the last year and a half.

On a related note, the COSC +6/-4 refers to an average over several positions, the COSC certification (little yellowish card that came with the watch) has the numbers for each position. I monitor my watch accuracy regularly (guess that's the engineer in me) and my watch generally tends to run at about +2 spd when I wear it. When taking it off, e.g., for the night, I put it at the 3-o'clock-up position, in which (based on my watch's COSC certification, and also in practice) it tend to run a bit slow. With that habit it's roughly neutral over 24 hours and I very rarely have to set it.

Tricky17 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 10:58 am Thanks for the replies. When I wind the watch I get to a point where the resistance increases and I stop winding then, under the theory that it is fully wound. I understand that you can't overwind an automatic watch but have read about stripped teeth on the cogs. I will give it a bit of time and try different positions for it overnight. Thanks, Richard.

I would give it about 40 winds to ensure it is fully wound and then carry out your accuracy checks.
Watches are sensitive to different angles they are left at, some better than others, some worse.
But it should be in the ballpark of the COSC specs.

If after this it is still outside the specs then you could contact CW to see what they can do.
I hope this helps.

Watches I have with a power reserve run slow as the PR reduces. Fully would they are spot on, pretty much. Without the PR I am sure I wouldn't notice this behaviour.

Update: As predicted by some of you the watch did seem to need a settling in period and after about 2 weeks the watch improved to 2-3 seconds per day, occasionally 1 spd, averaging about 2.5 spd over the next three weeks. It has since settled to about 3, occasionally 4 spd, average 3.3 spd over the last couple of weeks. These measurements were by no more scientific method than visually comparing the watch with an atomic clock app but that is accurate enough for me, and the average over a number of days will be quite accurate. Therefore, the watch has dropped to within COSC specs and I am happy with that. I try to wear the watch every day but my amount of wrist movement will vary I suppose, affecting the amount of auto winding. I am new to mechanical watches, so this is all an education to me, is it usual for a watch to vary a little bit in accuracy over time, from week to week? BTW, I am generally very pleased with the watch; when I look at the time I still think, yes it was an extravagance, but it was worth it and it does look good, which makes me smile inside. Thanks again, Richard.

3 secs a day is really good, especially if it's gaining 3 secs. If it's gaining you can just stop the watch for a few seconds every so often. If it's losing time, it's a bit more of a faff as you have to reset the time forwards. I wrongly assumed mechanical watches would be spot on before I appreciated the complexities.

There's 86400 seconds in a day. Being out by only 3 seconds is very good, when you think about it.

Hi. Thanks for that. I can certainly live with an accuracy of 3 seconds a day, even when it is losing those 3 seconds. I just reset the time every couple of weeks or so when it gets to a minute slow. Is it usual for a watch to vary slightly from week to week?

Tricky17 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:50 am Is it usual for a watch to vary slightly from week to week?

It can be. There are many factors which go towards determining how a watch performs.

I put this article together last year. It might help to explain some of the ideas.

Tricky17 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:58 pm Update: As predicted by some of you the watch did seem to need a settling in period and after about 2 weeks the watch improved to 2-3 seconds per day, occasionally 1 spd, averaging about 2.5 spd over the next three weeks. It has since settled to about 3, occasionally 4 spd, average 3.3 spd over the last couple of weeks. These measurements were by no more scientific method than visually comparing the watch with an atomic clock app but that is accurate enough for me, and the average over a number of days will be quite accurate. Therefore, the watch has dropped to within COSC specs and I am happy with that. I try to wear the watch every day but my amount of wrist movement will vary I suppose, affecting the amount of auto winding. I am new to mechanical watches, so this is all an education to me, is it usual for a watch to vary a little bit in accuracy over time, from week to week? BTW, I am generally very pleased with the watch; when I look at the time I still think, yes it was an extravagance, but it was worth it and it does look good, which makes me smile inside. Thanks again, Richard.

Its great that your watch makes you smile inside...

David

Further Update. Unfortunately the increase from 2-3 spd to 3-4 spd appears to be part of a trend of increasing inaccuracy as the watch is now averaging 4-5 spd. Therefore, it has now drifted out of cosc again and I have no reason to believe this will not continue. It seems to be a drift in accuracy rather than a sudden change. Does anyone have any ideas before I contact customer service? Thanks, Richard.