Faulty movement or me?

[Sam79]

Hi,

Purchased an ETA movement a couple of weeks ago and the date mechanism appeared to be faulty. It wouldn't 'click' over at midnight but instead started to gradually roll over from about 11:45. Added to that, once the stem was put into the date change position, it would spin the hour & minute hands around making it impossible to accurately set the date & time. 

I connected the supplier who requested the movement was sent back for inspection by their watch maker, who came to the conclusion that the movement was of poor quality and I was refunded in full, as he had also checked another couple from stock which had similar issues. Although I should clarify that the watch maker only mentioned the problem with regard to the date not clicking over, but nothing about the hands spinning. So I'm not sure if he tested it with a dial & hands. 

But I was still left needing a movement and found another supplier. Unfortunately, it appears to have similar faults to the last one. I say similar, because there is some marginal improvement in the quality of this mechanism. However, the date change on this movement still suffers from the same gradual roll over problem and the hour hand spins when trying to set the date. 

Has anyone experienced similar problems? Could it just be a badly manufacturerd movement or is it something I'm doing wrong? 

Thank you in advance for any help. 

[HSL]

Well, there are a whole range of designs in the field of date changing mechanisms.
Some movements use spring loaded  date clicks to get a nice and crisp date change while other just use a gear and rely on friction to hold the date ring on place while date is changing, this style is found on ETA quarts and some clones too.
Many of the latter once starts sliding the date over sligtly before midnight and can be finished at midnight or a littl bit after.

But all movements should have a position where you could set the time without the date moving, except when it is supposed to do that. If you turn the time for 24hours ahead the date will also change a day. If both date and time moves at the same time it is an erratic behaviour.

Depending on the quality of the movement i guess ETA might have less quality control of the production and might let one or two erratic movements through but I hardly Think a whole batch would slipp through to the market.
Since you didn´t say which movement it is you had it makes it impossible to answer all of your questions but hope you got some answers.
 

[Sam79]

14 minutes ago, HSL said:

Well, there are a whole range of designs in the field of date changing mechanisms.
Some movements use spring loaded  date clicks to get a nice and crisp date change while other just use a gear and rely on friction to hold the date ring on place while date is changing, this style is found on ETA quarts and some clones too.
Many of the latter once starts sliding the date over sligtly before midnight and can be finished at midnight or a littl bit after.

But all movements should have a position where you could set the time without the date moving, except when it is supposed to do that. If you turn the time for 24hours ahead the date will also change a day. If both date and time moves at the same time it is an erratic behaviour.

Depending on the quality of the movement i guess ETA might have less quality control of the production and might let one or two erratic movements through but I hardly Think a whole batch would slipp through to the market.
Since you didn´t say which movement it is you had it makes it impossible to answer all of your questions but hope you got some answers.
 

Thank you HSL for taking the time to answer my question, it's much appreciated. 

The movement is a ETA255.462. With regard to forwarding it 24 hours it does start moving the date over at around 11.45, so by 11.55 it's in-between dates. I did consider the possibility that this wasn't a fault and just a design feature, although it seemed strange (I'm new to the watch hobby and wasn't aware that some movements don't 'click' over). 

But both movements (from different suppliers) carried the problem with one or both thr hour & minute hands spinning when the stem was placed in the date change position. 

I have successfully fitted a couple of ETA movements previously with no problems but my confidence has been dented with this latest project. It just seems strange that both movements would have this fault, particularly when they're quite an expensive ETA. But if I am doing something wrong,. I can't figure it out. I've removed and refitted the dial and hands a number of times just in case one or the other wasn't seated properly but it all seems fine. 

The watch maker said that this is just the way that particular movement is. However, I can't be sure if he was referring to the date change over and/or the the hands spinning in the date set position. 

Thanks again. 

 

[HSL]

I took a quick look at the service sheet for this movement and it seems like it rolls over the date with the gear number 23 in the schematics. So probably a slow change of date. The quick date setting is gear number 27. 
Otherwise it should function as a normal ETA Quartz movement with the settings.

[Sam79]

Thank you once again HSL. I have so much to learn. 

The roll over is a design feature then, but the date set position shouldn't affect the hour & minutes hands? The fact that it has happened on both movements from different suppliers might suggest it's an inherent fault because I can't think of anything I've done wrong. 

I wonder if the hands I'm using could be causing the problem. Is that possible? They're from an Omega seamaster. I was told that this movement was a direct replacement for the the original mechanism so I thought the hands would be a natural fit. 

 

[clockboy]

It's not a fault thats how it is designed. However if you are not happy you can remove the hands re- fit in your preferred position IE re-fit them @ 12:00 when the date is just changing and then the date will be fully changed @ approx 00:45.