Setting your watch without damaging it

Almost all the damage owners do to their own watches happens during setting. The two classic mistakes are using the quickset date while the calendar mechanism is engaged, which can chip the teeth that drive it, and forcing a screw-down crown that has not started on its thread. Both take seconds to avoid.

The safe order is always the same: wind first if the watch is stopped, then set the date, then set the time, advancing the hands forwards past midnight so you know which twelve hours you are in. Everything below expands that sentence.

What each crown position does

Pulling the crown out changes what it is connected to, through a mechanism called the keyless works. Our guide to how a mechanical watch works covers the parts; this is what you feel from outside.

A watch without a quickset has two positions, and its date is advanced by running the hands round through midnight repeatedly. A GMT or annual calendar may put more than one function on the first click. Where a manual exists, it is authoritative: mechanisms vary.

The date change danger zone

On a conventional date movement, the calendar is driven by a wheel turning once every 24 hours that carries a finger. For several hours either side of midnight that finger is engaged with the date ring, taking up slack and then flicking the ring on by one. The date does not jump from a standing start; the mechanism spends hours preparing.

Use the quickset during that engagement and you are pushing the date ring against a part already under load. The usual result is nothing, which is why owners get away with it for years. The occasional result is a chipped tooth or a bent jumper spring: a movement-out, dial-off repair.

Manufacturer manuals commonly caution against changing the date somewhere in the window from about 9pm to 3am, the exact hours varying by caliber. Treat that as guidance rather than gospel, and find your own watch's window.

Finding your own watch's danger zone

You can establish this in ten minutes, and it is worth doing once per watch.

1. Set the hands to about 7pm.
2. Advance them slowly, watching the date window through a loupe.
3. Note the hour at which the date first creeps rather than jumps. That is the start of engagement.
4. Keep advancing until the date has fully flipped, and note that hour too.
5. Add an hour of margin at each end. That is your danger zone, and you never quickset inside it.

On many movements the creep begins in the late evening and completes shortly after midnight; on instantaneous calendars the window is much narrower. Your own numbers beat a rule of thumb.

Midnight or noon: which twelve hours you are in

A watch's hour hand has no idea whether it is showing morning or evening. Set it twelve hours out and everything looks correct until the date flips at lunchtime.

To resolve it, advance the hands until the date changes, then keep going to the time you want. If the date changed as the hands passed 12 and you then set 3 o'clock, you are at 3am; go forwards past 12 again and you are at 3pm. One extra rotation of the crown settles it.

Always advance forwards. Turning back is not automatically destructive on most modern movements, but backlash in the motion works makes setting less precise, and some calendar and chronograph mechanisms specifically discourage reverse movement through the change window.

The correct procedure, step by step

For a typical automatic with a date and screw-down crown, do this literally.

1. Take the watch off. Setting it on the wrist puts sideways load on the winding stem.
2. Unscrew the crown counterclockwise until it releases and springs out.
3. If the watch is stopped, wind it gently in that position, 20 to 40 turns, until it runs.
4. Pull the crown fully out to the time-setting position.
5. Advance the hands forwards until the date changes. That position is midnight.
6. Keep advancing forwards to roughly 6 o'clock, well clear of the danger zone.
7. Push the crown back to the first click, the quickset position.
8. Advance the date to yesterday's date, not today's.
9. Pull the crown fully out and advance the hands forwards. The date rolls over to today as you pass midnight, so you know you are in the correct twelve hours.
10. Continue to a minute or two before the correct time, then bring the minute hand gently up to the exact minute.
11. Wait for the reference seconds to reach zero, then push the crown home.
12. Screw the crown down immediately, and check it is seated by trying gently to pull it.

Step 8 is the one people skip. Setting the date to yesterday and walking the hands through midnight is what answers the AM and PM question.

Hacking and non-hacking watches

A hacking movement stops the balance when the crown is pulled fully out, so the seconds hand freezes and you can start the watch on a chosen second. Most modern movements hack. Many vintage calibers and some budget movements do not, and the seconds hand runs on while you set. That is a design choice, not a fault.

To set one precisely, let it run down completely, set the hands a few minutes into the future, then wind the crown at the exact second the reference reaches that time. The watch starts on the second. Short of that, set the minute hand a touch past the target and accept an error of a few seconds, smaller than most movements' daily rate anyway.

Screw-down crowns without cross-threading

A screw-down crown threads into a tube in the case, compressing a gasket to seal it. Cross-threading damages both crown and tube, and repairing that is a case job.

To open, turn counterclockwise with light pressure until the crown releases and pops out. To close, push the crown gently against the case and turn it counterclockwise first. You will feel a small drop as the threads fall into register. Only then reverse and turn clockwise, still lightly, until it stops. If it resists early, back off and start again. It never needs force.

The rule that follows: screw it down immediately after setting, every time. An unscrewed crown offers no seal, and most flooded watches were flooded through an open crown rather than a failed gasket. The same applies to screw-down chronograph pushers.

Winding, by hand and after a stop

To wind a manual watch, take it off the wrist and turn the crown clockwise in short, smooth half-turns between thumb and forefinger. Stop the moment you feel firm, definite resistance. A hand-wound mainspring is anchored to the barrel wall, so nothing protects it if you keep going, and a broken spring or bent stem is the result. Winding daily at roughly the same time is a sound habit.

To restart a stopped automatic, hand-wind 20 to 40 turns with the crown pushed in before setting it. That gives enough torque to run at healthy amplitude, which makes the rate you then observe meaningful. Do not shake it instead: fifteen seconds at the crown does the job properly, while swinging the case spins the rotor against its bearing at accelerations it was never designed for, as our guide to automatic versus manual winding explains.

Chronographs, GMT hands and moonphases

For a chronograph, the sequence is start, stop, reset, and reset should only be pressed once it is stopped. Most designs protect themselves, but some vintage movements are not so forgiving. Running a chronograph continuously is possible on modern designs, though it keeps the chronograph train and its friction coupling in constant use: a wear consideration rather than a safety one. See our chronograph guide.

For a GMT, work out which hand your watch moves. A traveler GMT jumps the local hour hand in one-hour steps while the 24-hour hand keeps home time, so you set home time on the 24-hour hand and jump local time on arrival. A caller GMT jumps the 24-hour hand instead, leaving the main hands alone. The GMT and world time guide explains which is which.

For a moonphase, advance the display in whole days, using its corrector or by cycling the hands through midnight, counting from a date when you know the moon's phase. Never use the corrector inside the date danger zone: it is usually driven from the same 24-hour wheel.

After a long stop, and checking the rate

A watch that has sat for months should be treated gently. Wind it 20 to 40 turns and listen. If it does not start, do not shake it and do not keep winding: a watch that will not run at full wind needs a watchmaker, and a long stop is exactly the case described in our servicing guide, where the oils have dried where they sat.

If it does start, let it run for an hour before judging it, then set it against a proper reference: a network-synchronised phone is accurate enough, as is a national time signal such as the MSF broadcast maintained for the National Physical Laboratory.

Then run a seven-day rate test. Set the watch to the reference to the second, note when, and compare against the same reference at the same hour each day, recording the difference in seconds and whether it is fast or slow. Keep your habits consistent, including the position the watch rests in overnight, since that changes the rate. After seven days, divide the total deviation by seven for an average daily rate. Our guide to timing your own watch covers interpreting it.