Positional error, accuracy or correction

As many of you know, the Ingenieur 3227 is a watch that is very dear to me. My Inge has been losing a second or two per day since I bought it (used, in good condition) but this has always bothered me a bit. After the watch came back from a complete service, it still lost about a second per day and I was a bit disappointed about that but I didn't want to send it in for adjustment.

A while ago, I started experimenting with the position in which I pose the watch at night. Normally, I pose the watch 'crown down' so I can easily read it at night. In this position though, the watch lost some time overnight. During a week or so, I checked the time with a atomic clock before going to bed and immediately in the morning while posing the watch in different positions and it didn't take long until I found out that when I pose the watch 'dial down' it gains one to two seconds per night. It even depends on what time I go to bed and what time I have to get up!

So, now I am able to have my beloved Inge run almost spot-on day in and day out, just by taking care of how I pose the watch during the night.

I am very glad I took the time to do this little experiment and my appreciation for the Inge has even grown!

Kind regards,

Clemens

Wow. But seems like a lot of effort...

Thanks for the data. I guess it's fascinating to learn the mystery of how the relative accuracy can be impacted - and figure out your remedy.

It's just seems like quite a bother for a few seconds a week!!! Sometimes I can barely muster the thought-power to decide what shirt or suit to wear - let alone figure out what position to rest my watch in....

I will agree with you that the Ingenieur 3227 is very solid with regard to accuracy - although I have not timed mine in a long time - I recall posting a couple years ago that I experienced about a 1-2 seconds gain per week!!

Positional error, accuracy or correction

I have a 3227 and a 3275 and love them both. Minus (or indeed, plus) two seconds a day is brilliant for a mechanical watch. I must say that I agree with Richard Sheridan it does seem like an almighty effort for the sake of a second or so a day. Altogether a bit of a palaver.

It was fun figuring it out..

I agree that a few seconds per day are quite meaningless but it was fun to figure out that the position matters a bit :-)

As for the effort: once you know the 'correct' position, there is not much more to do than put it that way when you take the watch off at night.

Kind regards,

Clemens

Hi Clemens, thanks for testing, I did this ...

before myself, but have to say I lost some interest in it.

However, in general I concluded that all my watches perform the best when put at rest during the night in the position "dial or face down". This way my CFI, for instance, and also my VC Da Vinci, gain 1 or less sec. per day/night. But a significant factor is also how you behave during the day.

Ciao, Rob.

i would say accuracy to a second a day...

is very good for an automatic watch. very very good!
stephen