Dr. Ito's thorough analysis of mechanical watches!! Vol.9 - You should not rotate the hands of a mechanical watch backwards!｜高級腕時計の販売・買取ならコミット銀座

Good evening everyone!

This column talks about mechanical watches from an engineer's point of view. This is the ninth installment.

"Mechanical watches cannot have their hands rotated backwards!?"

I will talk about this topic.

The commonly-held rule is that "When adjusting the time, move the hands in the forward direction (clockwise) ." When dealing with customers at the store, many of them are concerned and ask, "Is it true that the hands should not be rotated in the opposite direction?" But is that really the case?

This time, I would like to explain things step by step to help ease some of your concerns. Please read to the end!

Is reverse rotation a burden on a watch?

If you search for "clock setting reverse time" on the Internet, you'll get the following results:

・This is absolutely not allowed as it puts a strain on the machine.

・It is possible for a few hours

For watches with skipping hands, an effective technique is to advance the hands a little further than the desired time, then move them back and push the crown in.

・No particular problems

* Jumping hands: After adjusting the time, when pushing the crown in, the position of the minute hand shifts by a few minutes.

So which one is the correct answer?

First of all, regarding the view that it is "absolutely not okay to do this," this is incorrect!

As far as the movements I have come into contact with as an engineer, there have been very few that have been damaged by turning the hands backwards when setting the time. Simple two-, three-, or four-hand models with standard construction have almost no risk of damage even if the hands are turned backwards when setting the time.

The information on the Internet is incorrect!

As for Rolex, the brand we handle the most, we honestly can't think of any models where you can't rotate the hands backwards.

In fact, if you search the Internet, you will find many comments such as, "The gears of a mechanical watch tend to rotate in the same direction, so rotating them in the opposite direction puts a great deal of strain on the internal parts," and "It may also cause damage to the gears and surrounding components." However, to be frank, this is incorrect.

Some people may think that when the hands are rotated in the opposite direction, all the internal gears rotate in the opposite direction at the same time, but in fact, only the gears near where the hands are attached rotate in the opposite direction, and the rest are stopped. In other words, the load on the movement when adjusting the time does not change significantly whether it is rotated forward or backward. The proof of this is that the instruction manual for models that do not have a fast-forward date function describes how to advance the date by moving the hands back and forth around midnight.

In addition, for models that allow the hour hand to be fast-forwarded separately, such as the GMT-Master II, the correct way to use it when traveling abroad is to move the hour hand forward or backward to indicate the time difference with the home time, so it is also fine to rotate the hand in the opposite direction.

Models that do not allow the needle to rotate backwards

So far, we have said that it is generally not a problem to rotate the needle in the opposite direction, but there are some exceptions.

The first one is a watch with retrograde hour and minute hands.

This watch is designed with the assumption that the needle will move in a certain direction, so it is best to avoid rotating it in the opposite direction as it increases the risk of malfunction.

And then there's "Frank Muller Crazy Hours."

"Crazy Hours" is a watch in which the hour hand jumps to show the time according to the randomly displayed indexes. It is a very playful watch, but it is also designed with the hands moving in a certain direction, so please avoid moving them backwards.

You should also be careful about models equipped with complicated mechanisms such as perpetual calendars and minute repeaters.

summary

What did you think?

Basically, a three-hand watch with a simple structure will not break simply by rotating the hands backwards, so you can use it with peace of mind. However, if you rotate the hands backwards and then immediately fast-forward the calendar, there is a higher risk of it breaking down depending on the time of day, so please be careful.

Also, for some watches with complex display mechanisms, when adjusting the time, make sure to rotate the hands forward rather than backwards.

We hope that this article has been useful to you and has piqued your interest in luxury watches! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly and we will answer them thoroughly. We look forward to your visit and inquiries.

Look forward to the next one! See you next time!