Reply To: Watch Timing

[david pierce]

Paul,
If you put the watch on a timing machine and the dots are scattered all over the screen, as opposed to a straight line, it probably means you have a magnetism problem. It looks like you ruled out oil and dirt as a cause but the timing machine will show a scattered pattern in both cases. When you pull the balance wheel out of the watch and look at the bottom side of the wheel there should be some cuts into the rim. This is because the wheel has been dynamically balanced and the cuts are the metal that was removed to put the wheel in balance at the factory. In my view this produces a better working product than the old static poising process with balance screws. The modern wheels don’t look as good as the old wheels with the balance and meridian screws, but a lot of thought and engineering went into the solid wheels.
david