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Mechanical Movement Shock: your experiences.

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#22 ·
ffritz said:
Says who, or rather, where's that ridiculously high number taken from? How does a watch get accelerated to 10000g by playing golf or tennis? Assuming the watch is on the wrist, of course, not substituting for the ball..

Serious question. I'd really like to know where this nonsense comes from.
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Some "internet experts" claim that, since the ball may be experiencing that level of g-force when it is struck, and the watch is connected to your arm when the club/racquet is striking said ball, then the watch must also experience the same level of Gs as the accelerating ball.

...Said internet experts clearly slept through their high school physics courses.
 
#23 ·
ffritz said:
It's the direct impact of the hard watch case on a hard surface at considerable speed that's responsible for this very sharp acceleration. It causes the balance wheel to move severely due to its inertia and possibly bend a pinion, entangle the hairspring coils or move the regulating lever a little. Nothing you do while the watch is on your wrist and only makes contact with clothing or soft, human skin gets remotely close to this level of g-forces.
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Well, this isn't really true. Watches can contact hard surfaces while on your wrist - walking through a doorway and clipping the door frame is the most common. Balance springs can get tangled on the studs from this pretty easily, if the shock happens in just the right direction, at just the right time. That's what happened to this 7750 based watch:





After unhooking it, the balance spring had to be adjusted, as it was bent and no longer centered:



Same issue with this Rolex:



So it does happen when wearing the watch. If you consider this "damage" or not is debatable, but it certainly requires an intervention. You aren't going to bend a "pinion" (I think you meant pivot) while wearing the watch that is equipped with shock protection, but things can happen without damaging the body.

If the watch is dropped, it can do other damage. This one the bracelet fell apart:



The dial shifted to one side and jammed up against the hour wheel, stopping the watch:



This is an example where the direction of the shock made a huge difference.

So although I don't recommend wrapping your wrist in bubble wrap or anything, the idea that nothing bad is going to happen while you are wearing the watch (without you being damaged also) just isn't the case.

Cheers, Al
 
#24 ·
I knocked a watch off the rail in my kitchen and using my cat like reflexes I tried to catch it before it hit the floor. Rather than catching it I batted it across the room where it bounced off the wall and fell 4-5 feet to a tile floor.

In the aftermath I was left with a gouged wall, dented case and a watch that runs fine
 
#25 ·
I have done a reasonable amount of shock testing. I agree with the watch being worn as stated above.

What I have found is that as long as the watch is on the wrist, the body takes most of the G load and slows the watch down. A strap has slightly move shock absorbing qualities as a bracelet, but not enough to matter.

What kills a watch is a drop or direct impact of something hard.

As long as there is a person between the object and the watch, the watch will be ok.
 
#26 ·
Archer said:
Well, this isn't really true. Watches can contact hard surfaces while on your wrist - walking through a doorway and clipping the door frame is the most common. Balance springs can get tangled on the studs from this pretty easily, if the shock happens in just the right direction, at just the right time. That's what happened to this 7750 based watch:





After unhooking it, the balance spring had to be adjusted, as it was bent and no longer centered:



Same issue with this Rolex:



So it does happen when wearing the watch. If you consider this "damage" or not is debatable, but it certainly requires an intervention. You aren't going to bend a "pinion" (I think you meant pivot) while wearing the watch that is equipped with shock protection, but things can happen without damaging the body.

If the watch is dropped, it can do other damage. This one the bracelet fell apart:



The dial shifted to one side and jammed up against the hour wheel, stopping the watch:



This is an example where the direction of the shock made a huge difference.

So although I don't recommend wrapping your wrist in bubble wrap or anything, the idea that nothing bad is going to happen while you are wearing the watch (without you being damaged also) just isn't the case.

Cheers, Al
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Excellent post as always. Actually, bracelets/straps falling off the watch due to spring bar failures is probably my biggest paranoia. I change out spring bars yearly on almost all of my watches, and also changes the bars in bracelet clasps occasionally as well. I've seen some watches at meetups where the spring bars look like the only things holding them together are wrist cheese and arm hair. That scares the hell out of me.
 
#27 ·
Nordlys said:
I've worn my mechanical watches whilst playing tennis plenty of times. Granted, I have a one-handed backhand, so the watch never experiences any shock from the ball contacting the racquet. But I've never experienced any detrimental effects from waving my arm around during sport.

I've never experienced any shock-related damage to my mechanical movements, but I've also never dropped a mechanical watch onto the floor, as I'm very cautious when taking off and putting on my watches. I feel like damage from falls is a far greater risk to mechanical movements than almost anything that could happen to the watch while it's on your wrist.
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I play tennis all the time with a mechanical watch, that has a vintage movement. I've also played while wearing a vintage Speedmaster, and a JLC Master Compressor Memovox...



All were fine. I used to have a 2 handed backhand so the watch was more involved, but have switched to a one handed backhand now. I've never had any issues either, even when I've hit the deck going after a shot...
 
#28 ·
ffritz said:
Says who, or rather, where's that ridiculously high number taken from? How does a watch get accelerated to 10000g by playing golf or tennis? Assuming the watch is on the wrist, of course, not substituting for the ball..

Serious question. I'd really like to know where this nonsense comes from.
Click to expand...
he was obviously making a joke, apparently it went over your head.
 
#29 ·
Something that's related to watch shock resistance is watch cold resistance.

A watch is more shock resistant on the wrist the same way it is more cold resistant on the wrist.

The watch needs the wrist to absorb energy in shock situations, the same way it needs the wrist to provide heat energy in cold situations.
 
#30 ·
With my watch on my left wrist, I remove my left hand from the shopping cart when I go over the yellow detectable warning truncated domes. I don't honestly fear damage to the watch, but why risk it?
I did drop a watch from my wrist onto a tile floor when a hollow steel rivet in a Sinn (mostly) titanium bracelet clasp broke. It suffered a tiny nick in the edge of the case and a slight change to the accuracy, so no disappointment there. I was more disappointed to learn that Sinn was using hollow steel rivets in their pricey tegimented titanium bracelets. The second time it happened it only fell to a soft landing a few inches. Despite the obvious weakness in the clasp, I still adore the watch.
 
#31 ·
I rode a mountain bike for a couple years wearing my Sinn 8829 ti I and eventually the rotor came loose. Fairly simple repair and it was back running.
 
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#33 ·
Maybe I’m a maverick, or just dumb, but I’ve chainsawed, mowed lawn, hiked, banged my left wrist into my dog and kid more times I can count. I have no movement damage yet on any mechanical, other than my SARB running obscenely slow (-1 minute a day) that happened after a few months of NOT wearing it.
 
#35 ·
CoffeeCat2112 said:
You have speed bumps in your supermarket?
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Not inside but outside. It’s a warning to visually impaired persons who are about to enter a space with moving vehicles.
Image

The speed bumps inside the store are typically small children who stray from their guardians.
I’M KIDDING!
It could be an emotional support animal too.
 
#36 ·
Archer said:
Well, this isn't really true. Watches can contact hard surfaces while on your wrist - walking through a doorway and clipping the door frame is the most common. Balance springs can get tangled on the studs from this pretty easily, if the shock happens in just the right direction, at just the right time. That's what happened to this 7750 based watch:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, that's why I explicitly wrote "and only makes contact with clothing or soft, human skin", and "unless the watch case makes direct(!) contact with a hard surface..". Banging the watch against a door frame is a direct impact on the watch, of course.

Archer said:
You aren't going to bend a "pinion" (I think you meant pivot)
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True, of course. :) I corrected my post.
 
#37 ·
ffritz said:
Says who, or rather, where's that ridiculously high number taken from? How does a watch get accelerated to 10000g by playing golf or tennis? Assuming the watch is on the wrist, of course, not substituting for the ball..

Serious question. I'd really like to know where this nonsense comes from.
Click to expand...
Some article about RM27-03. RM27-03 claimed 10000G shock resistance and article was saying it's enough to play tennis or golf (I don't remeber which may be both or may be it was two papers). 10000G is no so riduculous if peak 3100G correspond to fall from 1m to wooden floor. Shock accelration is proportional to square root of the height of the fall, so peak 10000G should be fall form ~ 1.7m to wooden floor. I think if hard part of tennis racket hit the watch that kind of shock may happens.
 
#38 ·
#40 ·
Shock is calculated based on the acceleration due to gravity, the height of the fall, the mass of the object, and most importantly - the distance in which it decelerates on impact.

It is that final factor that can result in some ridiculously high g "shocks".
 
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