[Rudism]

I have a relatively inexpensive Seiko 5 mechanical watch that I really like, but as much as I love the idea of mechanical watches I simply don't have the patience to tend to it. Accuracy is a big problem (at least with my specific watch). Half of the time it's magnetized and running a few minutes fast per day, and the other half (shortly after de-magnetizing it) it's running a few minutes slow per day, meaning I needed to remember to adjust it every morning and always had to assume there's at least a minute or two margin of error one way or the other any time I read it--almost completely defeating my reason for wearing a watch in the first place.

For a while I wore a solar-powered Casio that self-adjusted every morning using the NIST atomic clock radio signals, and the peace of mind knowing that my watch was always accurate was such a pleasure in comparison. It was kind of cheap build quality and eventually fell apart, but I don't think I'll ever go back to a mechanical watch again after that.

[jerlam]

Even though my mechanical watch wasn't as inaccurate as yours (mine was only a minute or two off a week), the act of regularly adjusting it to match the true time slowly changed my impression of it from a "serious timekeeping device", the image cultivated by marketing, into "this is a silly hobby for people who have too much time and money". Doubly so when you look how much it costs to repair a mechanical watch.

This single-use timekeeping device was literally the least accurate timekeeping device on my person, compared to my phone and computer.

[aredox]

It's also the only timekeeping device that will still work after three days away from an electric plug, and the only one you would wear all you life.

1 second/day is 10 PPM. Reaching that accuracy with only mechanical means in a device small and robust enough to be worn on the body is something to admire, not to fault for its limits.

[ska]

> It's also the only timekeeping device that will still work after three days away from an electric plug

Quartz watches go years on a small battery, and keep better time.

Sure, it's admirable engineering, it's just most obsolete. And that's ok!

The role of watches as jewellery has kept mechanicals going far more than practicality.

[epcoa]

"It's also the only timekeeping device that will still work after three days away from an electric plug"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_clock

Lasting years on a battery is easy.

[poooogles]

Why not both?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Drive

Advertised at +-15 seconds a month, but in reality it's much better than that.

[panopticon]

> It's also the only timekeeping device that will still work after three days away from an electric plug

I get your point, but I can easily get >2 weeks out of my Garmin Fenix or over a month if I put it in battery saving mode.

[aredox]

It won't do that in 5 years, let alone 10. You'll be unlikely to find a replacement battery, too.

[jerlam]

I replaced my mechanical watch with a G-Shock that lasts ten years without charging of any kind. Even my current Garmin will last a week when charged - it will last even longer if I turn off every single feature.

I use the Garmin to track my exercise - I don't care if the mechanical watch will last all my life if it doesn't do what I want it to do, and it's not even that great at the one thing that it does do.

There aren't a lot of normally-priced mechanical watches that get 1 second/day accuracy. That precision can be admired in mechanical watches, but as I said, it becomes a fun expensive hobby.

[bpye]

Digital watches also exist, last years on a single cell and some have a solar cell to extend that. A cheap Casio F-91W is accurate to 1 sec/day and I imagine you’ll find others that can do better.

[bookofjoe]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/casio-casual-black-resin-digital-...

[93po]

People (including myself) often wear mechanical watches because they really enjoy the engineering/history/whatever of mechanical movements. To me, I enjoy getting to wind my watch/set the date and time/have a reason to interact with it. I enjoy that it's a conversation starter for some people (hey, nice watch!) and for others it's an opportunity to talk about something I enjoy. It's also nice that it's aesthetically very pleasing compared to a random seiko or electric watch.

[eggy]

Well, when the collapse happens and you have no batteries, satellites, etc., you can use the stars[1] to tell time and reset your mechanical watch to within a reasonable estimate given the circumstances. I own a relatively cheap mechancal watch I adjust every week. I bought a Garmin vs. an Apple/Samsung watch too. My Garmin battery lasts about 20 to 24 days depending on how I use the watch vs. 24 to 48 hours. It does more than I need, but has come in handy in my line of work.

[1] https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/tell-time-by-stars.htm...

[WillPostForFood]

Half of the time it's magnetized and running a few minutes fast per day, and the other half (shortly after de-magnetizing it)

Wow, that's bad. Do you know what is magnetizing it? A cheap Seiko 5 should be able to keep time within a few seconds a day. Minutes a day means it is broken. It isn't a just tuning issue, there is something else going on.

[bayindirh]

Yes, it sounds a degaussing and calibration. My simple Seiko 5 with 7S36C is within +/- 4 seconds per day, and I never adjust it except short-month skipping.

[WillPostForFood]

Given that is minutes off even after demagnetizing, makes me wonder if there has been water intrusion, or it is old and the oil is starting to gum up.

[ce4]

Put it one a timegrapher and check amplitude, beat rate & beat error in different watch positions (watch dial up, dial down, crown up, crown down etc.). There are timegraphing apps on the iOS/Android app stores (using the microphone for detecting beat signals) for a very quick test. The watch's tick signal may be a bit on the weak side but i usually get some data in a reasonably silent environments with direkt contact of the watch to the phone's body.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_timing_machine

[encom]

Can you recommend any (Apple or Android). A quick search on the Apple store only returned things that looked scammy or terrible.

[bayindirh]

Seiko 5s have clear back covers generally, and a water intrusion should be pretty visble, in my opinion.

Oil age maybe a factor, but maybe it’s dropped? I had a Swatch with an ETA movement (with shock absorption nonetheless), and I somehow managed to damage its balance wheel assembly by dropping to a soft carpet from ~80cm, because it started stopping when it was not in dial up position. They even opened it and recalibrated and oiled it, but it’s dead.

[alpaca128]

Accuracy can vary a lot even within one price segment. My Seiko 5 was pretty inaccurate too, while my current watch cost 30 bucks more and has less than 3 seconds deviation per day. So I set the time once every 1-2 months and that's perfectly fine for me. But it's definitely not the most practical tech.

> almost completely defeating my reason for wearing a watch in the first place.

Maybe it's just me but I don't need perfect accuracy on a wristwatch. If one minute more or less matters I'm already too late anyway.

[drivers99]

I also got really into learning about watches and watching a watch repair stream on twitch (in 2020), and I even pulled out my great-grandfather's pocket watch from the 1890s and got it serviced/repaired (or at least running again for a while but now it won't run again; I suspect the person I took it to didn't do a great job).

When it came to buying a watch for myself I also ended up also getting a solar powered Casio with NIST synchronization ("Waveceptor"), the type with hands (for the looks). I love the idea that it's technology without software updates or battery changes (hmm, does the battery you charge with solar wear out?), and always keeps perfect time to the second without any effort on my part. This one (price seems a lot higher than before): https://www.casio.com/us/watches/casio/product.WVA-M640D-1A/

Somehow, watching all those meticulous adjustments to make sure the mechanical watches kept good time made me prioritize that to the point I didn't even get a mechanical watch.

[shimonabi]

I'm the same. I had several Seiko 5 watches in the past and even modded one of them with a hacking mechanism. I would monitor the accuracy every week with a timegrapher app on the phone and try to make small adjustments.

The convenience of having a modern Bluetooth-syncing cheap Xiaomi fitess watch is so great I don't believe I'll ever go back.

[LegitShady]

I own a cheap seiko 5 as well. It's basically so close to perfect you need a specialized device that measures its error to a ridiculous degree to figure out its running slightly fast. It's like average 3 point something seconds a day.

There's something wrong with your watch.