Date setting on vintage manuals

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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

My Ocean Pearl (great favourite of mine - see below) was behaving strangely. Every night it would appear to stop or slow, anything from 5 to 30 minutes, sometimes not at all.

Image

I assumed it was something to do with the date change, and took it to the repair chap. He said that it was immaculate except that the cannon pinion had been working very loose, and he reckoned that someone had been changing the date by rapid advance of the hands. I said that if I needed to do it I went back and forth between 8 and 2, slowly and giving it a rest every few "days". He said this was correct, but someone who had it before me must have been doing it the other way. He said he's known people, when a watch has been stopped, to advance the hands through 2 or 3 weeks...bad move, apparently.

Anyone else had experience of this problem? The chap reckons mine should be fine now, but I thought it might be worth passing on to any vintage newbies out there. :D
Steve
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Mr Rick »

Thanks for the tip Steve. On my vintage watches, without a quick date feature, I no longer bother to correct the date. I guess I'm just lazy. :D
Rick


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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

I had to smile last week. I went to spend Easter with my mother who is partially sighted, and checked her watch. It's a Rotary quartz I got for her birthday a couple of years ago, and we looked around for ages before finding one with black hands and a white dial for high contrast. Well, the date window is miniscule, even I can't see it without a magnifying glass, and sure enough it was a couple of weeks out.
"Shall I alter the date for you?" I asked.
"Oh, I'd forgotten it had a date," she said. "No, don't bother." :D
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by ianblyth »

I did read about setting the date for older watches without quickset. Wind it past 12 until the date clicks over and then wind it back to about 10 and forward again until you have the correct date. I thought it was a bit strange but as I read it in a few places I take it it must be OK.
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

That would bear out what this chap said, Ian. He reckoned 9 to 12, but I guess the gearing picks up at different times on some watches. It kind of goes against what I read somewhere that you should never wind the hands backwards. Still, this guy is one of those time-warp characters, well into his sixties I'd say, and he told me he's been working with Omegas and the like for more than 40 years. People like that seem to inspire immediate trust, don't they? :D
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Kip »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote:That would bear out what this chap said, Ian. He reckoned 9 to 12, but I guess the gearing picks up at different times on some watches. It kind of goes against what I read somewhere that you should never wind the hands backwards. Still, this guy is one of those time-warp characters, well into his sixties I'd say, and he told me he's been working with Omegas and the like for more than 40 years. People like that seem to inspire immediate trust, don't they? :D
Having checked in the past with those far more experienced than myself, I would agree with your watchmaker.
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Thanks, Kip.
He also had a couple of Geneve Dynamics for sale, around half the price of the London dealers. If the colours had been right I might have been tempted!
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by 1961tone »

Thanks for this post. What a prat I feel like now but I will be a prat no more setting or altering the date on my vintage watches! My third reply on here and already I am learning the sort of useful information I signed up in the hope of finding.
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

You can often find the answers to questions by doing a search among older threads, instead of people asking the same questions over and over again. We did talk about making a FAQ thread once precisely for that reason.
Beware of opening too many old threads, however, as a Newbie...you might be considered to be speedposting by some. As long as you make a meaningful comment, should be OK though! :D
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Fnew »

This is exactly why I keep my vintage Omega Seamaster on a winder. I wear all my watches in a rotation and if I had to restart and set the watch every time I wore it, I would be advancing the date through a full month. I have never considered going past 12 and then back to 10 or 9 though.
Fred

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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Fred, do you know the calibre number of the movement in your SM? If it's a 500 series (e.g. a 565) then it should have a 2 position crown for quick setting. As long as the hands are outside of the setting zone (say 9pm to 1am) you should be able to pull the crown all the way out and push it all the way back in. This advances by one day. My 1971 Dynamic has a 565 and so uses this system. It's quite robust. You might want to check it out.

EDIT - checked your post in Vintage Gallery. It's a 560, so no quickset - back and forth 9-12

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db. ... &Omega_560
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Re: Date setting on vintage manuals

Post by Fnew »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote:Fred, do you know the calibre number of the movement in your SM? If it's a 500 series (e.g. a 565) then it should have a 2 position crown for quick setting. As long as the hands are outside of the setting zone (say 9pm to 1am) you should be able to pull the crown all the way out and push it all the way back in. This advances by one day. My 1971 Dynamic has a 565 and so uses this system. It's quite robust. You might want to check it out.

EDIT - checked your post in Vintage Gallery. It's a 560, so no quickset - back and forth 9-12

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db. ... &Omega_560
Yep, no quickset. When I had it refurbished I thought that function was broken and required repairing. The gentleman who did the work informed me that that movement never had a quickset for the date.
Fred

C60 COSC, Orient Mako XL, Raymond Weil Traditions Auto, Daniel JeanRichard Grand TV, Vintage Omega Seamaster, Baume & Mercier Riveria Auto, Citizen Eco Drive, 121 Time Custom Chrono, Invicta Speedway, vintage Seiko Business A, the one I built
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