From +1 sec to -3. IWC 3717 starting to run slow

Hi friends,

I've got a bit of an annoyance with my 3717. It's starting to run slow instead of running +1 per day as it used to.

Here's what happened in the last couple of months.

For about 2 months the watch was sitting idle in a draw, not worn.

6 days ago, I put the watch on a new winder I purchased. I found it was running slow on the winder and not fast. I thought it might be the difference between it winding on the winder rather than on my wrist.

24 hours ago when I woke up in the morning, I strapped the watch on and reset it to zero. When I went to bed, I took the watch off facing crown up on its side (as I used to do every night 2 months ago).

I checked the time about 24 hours since setting it to zero, its -3 to -4 seconds now.

I somehow doubt the winder could have caused this (but wouldn't rule it out).

What's your opinions?

My watch is over one year old now and always ran +1.

PS; the watch is still under warranty. But the concern is, the watch does have some dents on the case from when I dropped it, but that was a long time ago and it didnt affect the time keeping. I'm afraid that Richemont will rule that I damaged it IF it goes to warranty centre. Richemont has a horrible reputation for after-sales service here in Australia.

Minus 3 or 4 seconds is well within tolerance levels. There is nothing to fix under warranty.
Over time a watch will wear and deviation will adjust depending on lubrication, trauma and use.
Try placing the watch in other positions at night to see if the variation is different.
This is not a real problem yet.

HI Sven W
"Richemont has a horrible reputation for after-sales service here in Australia." - please tell me more, I might be dealing with them soon with a new watch of mine, so I would like to know what I might be dealing with.
Rather prepared than not :)
p.s - my watch ran about +4/-2 out of the box, all depending on wear/rest position

I have had a number of watches handled by Richemont in Sydney and have to say the service has been nothing but faultless. I have had warranty repairs, paid repairs and services done and have always been happy with the results. I have always got what I wanted and needed done at a price commensurate with the work required and the value of the watch. I recently dropped my Aqautimer in for a check up and it too had a couple of nicks and dings on the case and was losing over a minute a day and whilst I have no recollection of dropping it or hitting it hard I am sure I probably contributed to the performance of the watch some how - I mentioned this when dropping it in - it is about a year old and still under warranty, and was pleasantly surprised when I received an email response saying that my watch had been checked and it needed re-regulating, new seals and a quick check over and that this would all be covered under warranty.

My advise is this - ask your self, would you drop it in for a service if it was running +3? If not, I wouldn't drop it back in for running -3 either, leave it until it is over 2 years old and drop it in for a grease and oil change at which time it will come back sparkling new - I am sure you wil be happy with the service from Richemont.

One thing I just noticed from your comment though, if you dropped it, even if at the time it didn't affect time keeping, it may be worth sending it in for a check - just because it didn't suffer straight away doesn't mean it want haemorrhaging already.

Cheers,

Ben

Before you set it on a winder, do you actually wind the watch? Because the winder does not wind the spring inside the movement, it just keeps the rotor moving which gives the movement a kick, but not a full wind. The watch needs to be fully wound first, once its wound and the seconds starts to move, the winder keeps that 44 hour power reserved, and the whole movement runs together equally. It's like when people shake their watch, it just gives it a kick start but not a proper wind.

Give that a try, hopefully that is the case. Good luck! I have the same watch and it's been nothing but great for me, and the winder will definitely keep the movement in good shape when not worn.

Nonsense. By keeping the rotor rotating, it does indeed wind the mainspring. It may take a few hours, but it will wind the watch to a full power reserve status. On ones' wrist, you may not attain a full wind depending on how actively you are moving about.

Because the movement has a clutch mechanism, it cannot overwind. It is a good idea to manually wind a watch to a full status, if it has been at a stop.

When I bought my latest watch, I brought my fastest running watch to the AD and it was reglated in three days to perfection without cost.

By the way, having more than one watch and wearing them in circulation, I set the watch to be worn every morning. 3 to 4 seconds a day then is nothing for the day ahead.

Kind regards,
Paul

Does your winder keep the watch in a vertical orientation? That's a slow orientation for many movements whereas resting on its back tends to be a bit faster. Try laying your watch on its back for a day or two and see what happens with the rate.

Watches will run differently on a winder compared to on one's wrist. In a winder, the orientation of the watch is consistent, and on one's wrist it is constantly changing.

I also notice some slight and random variation day-to-day (say +2 seconds one day and -1 another, for example). I attribute that to the fact that each of my days isn't identical. One day I might spend most of my time at my desk with my hands up at the computer keyboard. Another day, I might be out-and-about, driving walking, visiting shops, etc. Variations in the orientation of the watch, and for how long, can have a [generally] small effect on daily running rate.

If I'm curious about the performance of a particular watch I'll keep a daily log for a week or so. I can then get a sense of its average performance. When I've done that several time for a particular watch over a number of months, I've found the time keeping to be pretty consistent. And were I to see a significant variation from past results, I'd consider that it was probably time for that watch to go in for service.

I tend to wear a particular watch for several weeks at a time. Those of my watches that tend to run slightly on the slow side I'll set 10 to 30 seconds ahead when I first start to use if for a period. That way it will be on the proper minute of as long as I'll usually be wearing it(before switching to another of my watches).