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Question by Hawaiian Eye: Seiko Automatic Dive watch? I have a Seiko "Automatic" dive watch that is self winding,by simply wearing the watch,My Question is: Why does it always gain anywhere between 1 - 5minutes(5 minutes is if I don't reset after awhile)it's an expensive watch my wife gave me but its bothersome sometimes,when it it gains time, but then again it's better to be EARLY than late.... Best answer:Answer by ymingy@sbcglobal.net
So, the basic concept behind all watches nowadays is to power a quartz crystal somehow. Quartz will always have a characteristic frequency oscillation when a certain voltage is applied to it. It's that frequency (which is very, very damn accurate) that has been behind all the timekeeping technology for the past few decades (greatly surpassing the accuracy of old spring or pendulum driven watches and clocks). Now the problem is, when that voltage decreases, the crystal will oscillate at a different speed. Thus, all the timekeeping mechanisms that depended on the quartz vibrations will be out of whack as well. This actually happened to a whole COUNTRY once. That country wanted to conserve energy, so they lowered the frequency that their outlets put out from 60 Hz to roughly 50 Hz. All the grandfather clocks in that country kept accurate time (because they still relied on a pendulum), but the electronic clocks, alarm clocks, etc all began to slow down. It was a pretty funny news article to read. But as far as it applies to your watch, it's simply because it runs low on batteries. There are actually very high class and silent kinetic watch winders out in the market that you pop your watch into, and keep it charged that way. I've plunked down a link for a (very expensive =x) watch winder so you have an idea of what to look for, but you can probably find much, much cheaper ones on ebay or something. http://www.watchvaults.com/watch-winders.html Sigh, please feel free to ignore the incorrect answers below. Even though it's mechanically charging the spring, it is still a quartz watch. http://www.seikousa.com/Technology/TechHome.aspx?technologyId=2 Note the fine print. First Quartz watch ever powered by human movement.
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