THE JOURNAL

What Factors Cause Misalignment of the Seconds Hand in Replica Quartz Watches?

News centrePublished 2017-08-24

　　Many people are aware that quartz watches can experience seconds hand alignment issues during operation, which is a common characteristic across quartz movements due to the principle of quartz crystal resonance powering the mechanism. Slight misalignment against indices is usually unnoticeable unless inspected closely, so there is no need to be overly critical about it as it is a widespread occurrence. What, then, causes the seconds hand on a replica quartz watch to not align precisely with the markers?

　　The relationship between the seconds hand and minute hand differs from that between the minute hand and hour hand. The latter uses a fixed gear engagement where the position of the cannon pinion, motion work, and hour wheel remain fixed, preventing slippage under normal conditions. The connection involving the seconds wheel and minute wheel is different due to necessary slippage when setting the time. For quartz watches, three main issues can cause stopping or misalignment: a depleted battery requiring replacement; improper assembly where the seconds hand is not mounted level and touches the underside of the crystal, causing intermittent stopping; or an oversized hand hole causing the hand to fit loosely on the movement post, where shocks can dislodge it against the underside of the crystal and cause it to catch.

　　Seconds hand misalignment relates to hand alignment tolerances, which are regulated by watchmaking industry standards as hour and minute hand coordination error. Small gear backlash is necessary for smooth wheel train rotation, and the gear design determines the amount of play, with the seconds wheel gear tolerance usually being the largest. Hour hand gear play is the smallest, which explains why the seconds and minute hands may show slight movement on many models. Additionally, if the seconds hand central pivot axis is slightly tilted, the hand may deviate from the dial indices at certain positions. Regardless of the cause, overall timekeeping accuracy is not affected.

　　If the hand does not align on a chronograph model, the central chronograph seconds hand remains stopped under normal use. You can press the pusher at 2 o'clock to start/pause and the pusher at 4 o'clock to reset to zero, which helps conserve battery life. Relevant industry standard QB/T1249-2004 specifies that when aligning the minute hand with the 12 o'clock marker, the angular displacement of the hour hand relative to the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock markers should be less than 3 degrees.

　　While the hour and minute hands are specified, there are no regulations regarding the second hand. Therefore, as a user, one can only hope that watch brands install the second hand as close to the centre line of the markers as possible; alignment is, of course, ideal. As long as the watch's timekeeping error is consistent, there is no need to be overly critical of the second hand's precision.

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