2026-07-09

Taught my jeweler something…

I like delving into various topics and/or hobbies, learning about them, becoming an 80% expert, then moving on to something else.  I’m enjoying that process with watches currently.  One thing you have to do with a mechanical watch is “regulate” it.  This is the act of checking how well it keeps time and tweaking a tiny lever inside, much like you do a pendulum grandfather clock.  You can check it each day, jot it down on a piece of paper then average it.  Or you can use a fancy instrument that measures it accurately in a minute or two.  The instrument is expensive, but the jotting it down process takes days and several trips.  I found some apps that use your phone microphone to give you a relative idea how well it’s doing in about a minute.  I showed it to my jeweler and we used it to get mine regulated to within less than three seconds in only a few tries during one visit.  For a mechanical watch anything better that +/- 5 seconds per day is considered properly regulated.

The only catch is you need to be somewhere quiet and free from vibration.  What I found works best is inside a car in a quiet part of town away from busy streets. Interesting.  
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