Acceptable time gain/loss for vintage timepiece.

[Bill Hughes]

What is an acceptable amount of time loss or gain over a 24 hour period before getting a watch serviced?

 

[Bill Hughes]

Let me be a little more specific. Say a watch loses 2 minutes over a 24 hour period - I’d say it’s fine. But what if it loses 30 minutes over a 24 hour period? Is that still acceptable?

 

[Peacoat]

2 minutes over 24 hours wouldn't be acceptable to me.

 

[Interbak]

Personally I’d be annoyed if any of my mechanical watches, vintage or modern, lost 2 minutes in a week.

 

[CatsCan]

I still own an English verge fusee watch dating to 1815. After service by a watchmaker specialized in vintage timepieces it runs down it's full chain in 31 hours and loses one to two minutes when it lays face up on my desk. It is adjusted to 4 positions. When worn it can either gain a little or lose a little, but not more than ten minutes per 24 hours. Sometimes it just stops when carried around. But I don't use it. I just love to wind it up every once in a while and stare at it. Many people say this is beyond expectation for a verge fusee that old, but my watchmaker says, that even cheaper watches made about 1800 were designed to be within this window when new. When properly repaired and serviced it should be back to it's designed accuracy. Everything less is either caused by money saving repair techniques, a fault that has not been found and thus kept un-repaired or a built in fault which has never been corrected (his words).
My younger watches were from the 1940s to 1960s (all sold now). They were wrist watches and kept the time within one minute, gaining or loosing not more than 30 seconds per 24 hours. Depending on the build, I tried to wind them every morning at closely the same time for the period of wearing them. On some watches I noticed that they lost a few seconds during the first half of the spring and gained about the same amount of time towards the end of the reserve.
To find out if their accuracy was acceptable, I always compared these watches with my mobile phone's watch exactly 24 hours after I fully wound them. I found anything within 30 seconds acceptable. One minute loss or gain was way too much for me. But this refers to less than higher end watch movements.
A vintage chronometer which is repaired, serviced and properly maintained should be withing five seconds per 24 hours. But I never had one. All watches I had in daily use were properly serviced and maintained on a regular and frequent basis, say every four years.

Cats

 

[CatsCan]

Say a watch loses 2 minutes over a 24 hour period - I’d say it’s fine

I'd say, it has to be serviced/repaired...
Chances are, that it has to be cleaned and oiled. If not cleaned, it will wear and things get worse, likely making a repair necessary, translating to higher costs. Cleaning and oiling is a standard service which is usually not expensive if not cheap. This extends the lifespan of any mechanical watch.

 

[RickP]

I'd say, it has to be serviced/repaired...
Chances are, that it has to be cleaned and oiled. If not cleaned, it will wear and things get worse, likely making a repair necessary, translating to higher costs. Cleaning and oiling is a standard service which is usually not expensive if not cheap. This extends the lifespan of any mechanical watch.

I agree with it just needs a cleaning and lube. Old oil gums up and drags. from my experiences, springs rarely go bad on well made old watches. get it cleaned and enjoy it. Ive got several old family watches, and if I can keep them to a minute or so a day Im happy

 

[Bfd70]

For a mechanical watch that i am winding everyday i wouldn’t care if i lost 5 min a day. I’d just reset it. For an automatic 10-15 sec a day is fine. I reset my the watch i’m wearing to the exact time every sunday because i enjoy doing it.

 

[revkev]

New Seikos are between -3 to +25 seconds/day. I like to regulate them so they are between 0 and +8/s. I would say anything that is over -10s/day after a regulation will need a service. On avg, a watch needs servicing every 5-10 years, YMMV depending on watch and usage. But 2 minutes a day is far too many. Thats 14 minutes a week!!

 

[CatsCan]

For a mechanical watch that i am winding everyday i wouldn’t care if i lost 5 min a day. I’d just reset it. For an automatic 10-15 sec a day is fine. I reset my the watch i’m wearing to the exact time every sunday because i enjoy doing it.

Although it is funny, that this old thread resurfaces after two years, I like it to see that there is still someone interested in this kind of stuff here on the lounge. My oldest watch is a 1815 dated english pocket watch made by the typical Coventry co-up which employed the so called apprenticeship system. It was made for the American Market and bears a typical Pseudo Maker's name. It is a fine watch however and I had it "restored" by a watchmaker specialized in old english watches. It runs it's full chain in 31 hours and loses or gains in total less than 5 minutes in 24 hours in a face up position on my desk. When I wear it (I don't) it is unpredictable how much it loses or gains. But not more than 15 minutes I'd say based on my trials. These are fantastic numbers for a verge fusee watch of this kind with a regulator of it's type.
For any serviced later pocket watch with a lever escapement I would expect better values, though. For any early 20th century Swiss, German or US made wrist watch in good condition I would be extremely worried if it lost 5 minutes a day!

Edit: after reading through the older posts in this thread I see I repeat myself