Odd second hand behavior

[cap10amazing]

Hi,

Can someone take a look at this short video and see if they can figure out what is going on with the second hand on this watch? It seems to stutter going down from 12 to 6 but is fine going back up from 6 to 12. The watch seems to keep fairly good time so I have no idea what is going on. Please ignore my kids fighting in the background, I have twin 8 year old boys and they argue a lot. It's an automatic movement by the way.

YouTube - Second Hand Stutter

[Donf]

No idea, but a trip to the watchmaker is certainly in order!

[TRW Motorsport]

I am certainly not qualified to answer that question but if you flip the watch upside down, is it still normal going 'uphill' and stutter going down?

[DM71]

Hi Cap10amazing,

I think I can help you here. Now, I'm not a watchmaker, but I have and had a few Russian watch and what I see there on your video, is..........a normal sweep, yep, not too nice to look at, put it seems to be characteristic of many Russian MOVTS. I do not have all the terms and knowledge to explain with all proper words, but many of these MOVTS, like the Vostok 2426, do have an none direct second drive. Same thing on Miyota MOVT ( i think ), but not has bad. Actually, I think it depends on the amount of play in the gear train (probably not the proper term but...) and If I'm right, it can be adjusted so it doesn't move as erratically as that.

What is the MOVT in your watch? On about 4 watches I had with the Vostok 2426, 3 of them were really bad, it felt like if the second hand would slow down to a stop sometimes, then speed up then slow down. The funny thing though, is that at the end of the day, even with this annoyance, the watches were keeping really good time(within -2 to +4s a day). I'm sure if you post your watch with the video on the Russian Forum, someone will confirm or not what I just said. One thing for sure, there are a lot of knowledge people on the Russian forum and I found them helpful when I needed help. Good luck, but I'm almost positive you don't have a problem with your watch.

[Sodiac]

Looks fine to me, but of course I'm an Amphibian owner...

[ScottH]

The movement in your watch is what is known as "indirect center seconds". Probably all old movements were of this type but nowadays they are of the direct variety. What that means is that the wheel that drives your seconds hand is not in the power train that drives the balance assembly. There is some gear lash with this system and it's common for the seconds hand to stutter like yours. I have a $9k watch with a seconds hand that does the same thing.

[nhoJ]

Looks like an indirect seconds stutter to me too, although the heart attack at 3 oclock is pretty bad.

Here is an article explaining what is happening.
Invicta Seconds Hand Mystery Explained

Can be adjusted by a professional too.

[gigfy]

I can't speak to the Russian watch in the video, but if it is an "indirect" seconds hand then I do know a little about other modern movements that sometimes have this problem.

Sea-Gull ST16 / Miyota 82xx / Claro Semag CL888

These movements sometimes stutter due to incorrect tension or oil on the sweep second pinion brake spring.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot/invicta/invicta.html

BTW, the stutter does not affect the timekeeping & accuracy of the movement.

cheers,
gigfy

[cap10amazing]

I would like to thank everyone, I was surprised that the watch was keeping good time even with the strange behavior but now I think I understand a little better what is going on. I like the watch a lot and now I think I like it even better because it is the only watch that I have that I can show off it's strange behavior to people. Thanks for your help!

[TRW Motorsport]

So does this explain the reason why the second hand can travel backwards sometimes when setting the time (Miyota 8215 and Seiko 7S26)?