Gummy/old oil? You’ve had it for 4 years, then add X months/years since it left the factory. Though it should still be ok unless it’s been out a lot longer.


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I still think it’s low voltage from your “new” battery that caused the slowness. Sometimes, though you think you might put in a new battery that has been never used, you might have kept the batteries for quite a number of years before you use it.

Do you have a multimeter? Check the voltage first before you install the battery. And if you still noticed the 20 sec slow the next day, take out the battery to check the voltage level again. If it’s like more than 0.1 V lower than yesterday, it’s likely the battery somehow shorted while it’s installed.

Hope my above experience helps.

 

Thank you both! Will check.

 

With a willingness to be corrected, it is my understanding that it is impossible for a quartz movement to run slowly more than a few tenths of a second a day. A 20 seconds a day error is an indication that the movement is intermittently stopping.

The reasons for intermittent stopping, as has been noted in other responses, are myriad. If replacing the cell does not cure the problem, most repairers simply toss the movement and fit a new one because the labor cost to service a quartz movement is far beyond the cost of replacement.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

 

With a willingness to be corrected, it is my understanding that it is impossible for a quartz movement to run slowly more than a few tenths of a second a day. A 20 seconds a day error is an indication that the movement is intermittently stopping.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

Thank you James. That was my understanding too.

Even when the battery power is at near zero, it will keep accurate time, until it dies.

So then, the question is, what causes this intermittent stopping?

 

I honestly forget the technical name of the component in the electrical part of the movement but am quite sure that if you have access to a 'good' watchmaker shop they will have a proper diagnostic meter to test it.

If you have it checked you're probably going to be told that you need to replace the movement. What happens is that the movement begins to draw either too little or too much current from the battery. This is the result of the part I can't remember going bad.

2 years or more ago I bought a vintage Citizen chrono that looks a lot like a Speedmaster. Pretty neat watch and I paid 300 bucks for it and postage from Croatia added on also. They are hard to come by so I bought it.

It began running slow so I took it to a friend who has every instrument imaginable for testing & fixing watches. The result was I bought a new Citizen movement and a new case while I was in the mood to spend more money on an old watch.

This one; just for reference, read on.....

The watch never gains or loses and water tests to 10 bar and it looks new. When a quartz movement fails there's only one choice. It's a matter of whether you are willing to spend on it. I'm glad I fixed it up but seldom use it. I still wear a mechanical Aquaracer daily but have one heck of a nice quartz watch if I want to use it.

 

Quartz, from basic electronics it either works or not. Slowing down? Not enough current supplied, what causes less current? Bad supply or higher resistance somewhere.

 

Not quite.

Assuming no electronic faults, the circuit will continue to run pretty much "to time" right down to the point where there's insufficient voltage for it to operate (whether from low battery or poor connections).

But, if there's a problem with the train (dirt, old oil, tooth damage etc), then the hands may not advance every time the circuit pulses. That makes the watch lose.

Assuming no damage, a simple service will cure it but - at least in a commercial setting - replacement usually makes more sense.

If I service a quartz movement (which I do quite regularly on obsolete and / or expensive stuff btw) I have to de-case it and re-case it. That's basically a movement swap in terms of time.

But I also have to service it while it's out. Let's say on a simple timepiece + date that takes me an hour to strip, clean, inspect, assemble, lubricate, and run tests.

Now, say I aim for a bench rate of £80 per hour (there's a LOT of "non bench" time in this business which is necessary, earns nothing, but has to be paid for somehow). So the hour to service "costs" me £80 of other stuff I could be doing. And I have more than enough other work to fill that hour.

That means that, if a replacement movement is available and costs less than £80, it makes financial sense to replace rather than service.

But service is almost always an option.

 

Perhaps there is no one symptom of how a analog quartz movement fails. Not all analog quartz have the same features. A movement with EOL (end of life) will advance the second hand several seconds. A movement lacking EOL typically has a second hand that will pulse in place. A cleaning and lube has been known to work with either symptom. I would imagine a movement can run slow when friction is too high yet not enough to stop the hands.

 

This is an old thread but I hope my experience may help others. I also had a quartz watch running really slow - losing ten minutes or so in twelve hours. Completely baffled until I put the watch in front of me while I was getting on with work (lots of online meetings etc, need something to pass the time....). I noticed that, just as 3366carlos said, the second hand was occasionally 'stalling' at certain points i.e. it would run fine and then hit a point where the second hand would just go back and forth at the same point, before moving on again. It would do this for, say, 5 seconds or so every 5 or 10 minutes. Clearly dirt in the train somewhere. Plan to strip it down and clean (it's my own watch and I enjoy playing around so makes more sense than replacing the movement).

 

Just demagnetize it.

 

Just curious…what does this accomplish in a movement with a permanent magnet rotor?
Regards, BG

 

If you set it 1 hour fast it will be many months before you get fired for being late.

 

On old movements there are impedance networks to fine tune the resonance the quartz works on.. such a tuneable network could be just one reason of
slowing down.

 

On old movements there are impedance networks to fine tune the resonance the quartz works on.. such a tuneable network could be just one reason of slowing down.

That flag you have under your moniker instantly inspires confidence.

How old is "old"?
My watch was made post 2000. Maybe even post 2010. Surely that's not THAT old?

 

Dependent on how precise and how advanced the builders do their movements, its still done by today. But one could assume in fully automated lines they found a more sophisticated solutions..
As the laser tuning of hairsprings in the mechanical swatch manufacturing lines .