Friday, November 11, 2011

What does "adjusted", "unadjusted" and "regulated" mean?

An "unadjusted" movement is a movement where no attempt has been made to ensure that the daily error rate in several orientations (positions) have been minimized or optimized across the positions. An "adjusted" movement, therefore, has had some extra care in ensuring that the variance in accuracy between several orientations is minimized.
Watches are typically adjusted to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 positions. Traditionally, they are ordered as follows:

1. Dial Up
2. Crown Down
3. Dial Down
4. Crown Left
5. Crown Up
6. Crown Right
For example, a watch adjusted to two positions include positions 1 & 2 from the above list (i.e. face up and crown down). Similarly, a watch adjusted for 4 positions has been adjusted in positions 1-4, and so on. Watches can also be adjusted for isochronism (i.e. constant time across varying states of wind) and temperature. Some manufacturers (Franck Muller, and Patek Phillipe) adjusts to 8 positions (the above six plus two half-way orientations); though this is a bit over-the-top, but that takes a lot of works to achieve that position accuracy.

All Rolex Chornometers are adjusted to Five Positions! refer to above Picture.
A "regulated" movement is a when the overall rate of the entire movement (either adjusted or not) is brought into correct absolute timing. Unlike adjustment, this is a simple tweak, which moves the daily rates of all of the positions up or down without intentionally changing the relative rates in positions.


HK snob

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