Seiko 8f32 perpetual calendar

[Watchhound]

The Seiko 8F32 line is one which seemed attractive to me, and as soon as I found several models on the shopping site (big A shall we say), I started acquiring a few models, but only after I watched Mark's tutorial on setting them. That was so helpful and entertaining, and satisfying to do that procedure myself - unlike the unfortunate cases of owners who placed themselves at the mercy of uninformed repair people. I only regret not buying more of them before they seemed to disappear from the "common" market, and only seem available on the "bay" or from other far-away sellers. 

The issue I have is that the three models I have do not keep time as per the claimed 20 s/y rate of accuracy. They seemed to run rather fast, maybe 1 or 2 seconds per week. The instructions do say to wear them about 12 hours per day, but I thought these would perform better than that, given that I have examples of quartz movements by Ronda and Miyota which seem to be like having "WWV on your wrist."  So that brings me to the question I would like to get an answer to:

First, I had found a piece of a technical document, obviously meant for service technicians or the like, which provided a procedure for regulating the 8F32 to +/- 0.056 s/d, in steps of 0.008 s/d.  This is accomplished by pulling the crown out two clicks, pushing it in just one click, waiting 5 seconds, then pulling it back out to the last click again. The calendar wheel then steps to the current regulation setting, which should be "8" on a movement as normally found, which represents "0" or a neutral setting. The 8 shows for three seconds, then the watch moves the date wheel to position 1 for three seconds, then 2 for another pause, and up the ladder to a maximum of 15, waiting for you at any time to push the crown back in to lock in your desired adjustment. These positions represent, according to the document, +0.056 s/d at position 1, +0.048 s/d at position 2, and so on, moving by 0.008 s/d until reaching -0.056 s/d at position 15. 

The question is firstly, where did this document go, as I cannot for the life of me pull it up again, seemingly having disappeared from the internet!  And secondly, as even position 15 seems unable to slow my movements down appreciably, do these movements simply age-out and become inaccurate after 10 or 15 years or so, to the point that no "regulation" will bring them back in line? 

If this post belongs in one devoted to quartz movements, please redirect me there, but I consider it a little adventure in problem-solving and the quenching of a burning curiosity. Thanks to anyone who can offer some insight - regards, Glenn (Watchhound)

[jdm]

4 hours ago, Watchhound said:

The question is firstly, where did this document go, as I cannot for the life of me pull it up again, seemingly having disappeared from the internet!

Maybe you're referring to some '3rd party' document, of which there can be many, they do nothing but tell in more and different words what the service manual explains, here attached.

4F32A_8F32A_33A_35A.pdf

 

Or you can watch the excellent video by our Host Mark Lovick to the same effect.

 

4 hours ago, Watchhound said:

do these movements simply age-out and become inaccurate after 10 or 15 years or so

Not just that mov.t but all quartz watches may suffer of crystal aging which eventually slows them down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator#Aging

[Watchhound]

Thank you, JDM, for your quick and detailed reply. I still don't see what I was referring to in the manual or Mark's video, as this is a sort of hidden feature of the movement, and it really does work, I am hoping someone will try it and verify it. I really do appreciate your link to quartz movements, and hope that this aging effect will help the 8F32s I have to finally slow down. I am really impressed at the helpfulness and friendliness of you and your fellow members. Thanks again

[jdm]

On 3/24/2022 at 12:34 PM, Watchhound said:

I still don't see what I was referring to in the manual or Mark's video, as this is a sort of hidden feature of the movement, and it really does work,

I'm sorry, I had read with brain disconnected and didn't understood what you were talking about. I never seen that mentioned anywhere, tried it on my watch (I use it almost every day) and it behaves exactly as you described. I will apply a correction the next time that it deviates too much. Then  I briefly searched the Internet and the only references I found was that at some point Seiko wanted GPB95 to 'restore accuracy' on one of these watches, presumably applying this procedure. Looks like a well kept secret, thank you very much for sharing it here.

[LittleWatchShop]

Fascinating acting feature. I like it.

I am surprised that nobody designed a system using an RF link to calibrate the watch. Probably did, but before Bluetooth and smart phones it was cost prohibitive. The popular solution was to calibrate off of WWV in the US. Seiko approach is a brilliant compromise. Nowadays, if we want to know the precise time we use our smart phone...and we Re still late to meetings.

[Watchhound]

Yes, right?! Appreciate the validation, it is just a curiosity but I can't help noticing how timepieces run, since time standards are so available to us, also maybe it is a touch of OCD, since we are not talking about moon landings, but merely our day-to-day lives. Thanks again for your replies.