Care

The date-change danger zone

On most mechanical watches with a date, using the quick-set between roughly 9pm and 3am can strain or break the date mechanism. A stopped watch is exactly when people make this mistake.

Why it happens

A date wheel doesn't jump at midnight by magic. For a few hours around midnight, a finger on the movement's date-change wheel slowly engages the teeth of the date disc, getting ready to push it forward. If you use the crown's quick-set during that window, you force the disc against a part that is already locked into it.

The result can be a bent finger, a chipped tooth or a date that no longer changes cleanly. On many watches that means a service, often a costly one.

Resetting a stopped watch safely

1. Pull the crown out to the time-setting position and turn the hands to 6:30. It doesn't matter yet whether the watch thinks it's morning or evening.
2. Push the crown to the date position and quick-set the date to yesterday's date.
3. Pull back out to time-setting and wind the hands forward through midnight. The date jumps to today, so you now know whether the watch thinks it's morning or evening.
4. Carry on to the correct time, then push the crown home. On screw-down crowns, screw it back in gently.

Winding a stopped watch first (20 to 40 turns of the crown, or until it stops on a hand-wound watch) means it won't stall while you set it.

The easy fix: don't let it stop

The danger zone mostly bites when a watch has run down in a drawer. Watch Winder counts down every watch's reserve and reminds you before it stops, so you're rarely resetting a date at all.