Duuuuude. Made my wife test the crystals on my watches, to remove my biased cause i know what they are. Told her to group them by how they feel on her forehead. She nailed it, 100%, and clumped them by acrylic, hardlex and sapphire without any problem.
Not a hack but one of the best bits of watch advice I have ever gotten is from you. Once you mentioned that a considerable number of people return watches to you that have been dropped and expect a refund, which is, of course, ridiculous. But you mentioned that most of the drops occurred in the bathroom on tile. Since then I have made it a habit to put on or take my watch off over something soft or at least over the bathroom counter so that the fall would be a matter of inches rather than feet. Thanks, Mark.
That's very good advice. I was lucky just a few weeks ago, taking off a watch with one those fkm straps with a stud to go through the hole instead of the usual buckle and the watch literally sprang off my wrist heading for the stone kitchen floor. Luckily I caught it on top of my foot! Old rugby skills in action. Lol. Since then, I always do it in a safer place!
I ordered a European release Alpinist that was running super fast out of the box. I checked on time grapher, wound up, anything I could think of. I ended up sending back to the Netherlands. When they got it, it was running almost perfect and they couldn't duplicate what I had reported. Very frustrating but it may have indeed been a stuck balance spring that jarred loose on it's way back across the Atlantic.
Thanks Mark - I have a watch containing an NH36A movement which was running with excellent accuracy - just a few seconds fast per day. All of a sudden (yesterday) it was behaving very erratically. I remembered this hack video, gave it a few whacks against the heel of my hand and voila! It's working great again. Thank you!!!
The super fast running thump hack worked. My beloved SPB207 was running 3-5/day seconds fast for its first few weeks. I put it down while I was cooking and cleaning up. After I put it on, I noticed it was 3 hours fast. At first how fast didn’t logically register. My best guess was the 4R / 6R assembly line lube issue that Spencer Klein noticed. I thought no way I did something to magnetize it that quick or that much. Dreading a NJ service center job, I was pondering options. Then this hack video showed up. Tried the thump truck and voila…running exactly like before. Thanks Marc
Marc, the dental floss hack is brilliant. I have a Breitling I need to try it on. Problem is we have only used those placker things for so long, I need to go buy some old school floss. Thanks!
Really good tips. In my experience a magnetised watch will run X8 fast normal accuracy. Everytime I demag a watch it will return it to normal, and that slapping the watch in the palm seems a really good first step which will not trouble shock absorption protection, so a really good thing to try first..
Thanks Marc, these tips are so helpful, I've used the walking springpin and the sapphire crystal quite a few times thanks to your watch and learn, thanks again
Mark! You are amazing! I was just about to ask you the best way to set a non hacking watch. Also the guys I just bought my SKX009J said a similar thing about slapping the watch and I was wondering, what you thought! You are very special in your engineering background that you really understand stuff, and amazingly if you don’t you can figure it out! It’s amazing how one more broad technical field can can shed light on the more specific field of watches! Thanks so much for teaching your knowledge! And answering my questions before I had a chance to ask😊
I have that exact problem on Prospex Monster so knocking ain't work haha, anyway I get it to the service centre and Seiko agrees to re-calibrate my whole calibre (or change I'm not sure, they didn't say much in details receipt but I still do keep all of the evidence) and now it works normally
I just tried the trick with the dental floss (bezel on Steinhart 39mm diver too hard to turn) and it worked! I was skeptical, but it really helped. Thank you very much.
The dental floss one was new to me, thanks. The "Seiko Slap" technique was taught me by a watch seller in Singapore many years ago. I've used it on SKX watches several times. It works!!
Just tried the dental floss around the screw down crown, which for around 6 months or so has been very rough feeling/tight on my Citizen and it is now silky smooth, so worked a treat! Thank you😊
Thank you for the tip about the back hacking. I had inadvertantly found this out and didnt know if it was bad or not, I appreciate your educated input on it not being the end of the world. I am very very serious about getting my seconds hand exact so I found myself doing it with my Laco Aachen 42.
I just bought a Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch straight from Omega. It is certified +0-+5, usually running 8-12 plus seconds per day though. Should I be slapping it 😆
Marc, Thanks for this Watch & Learn! I'll have to try the dental floss hack. I have one Seiko that often "grinds" when closing down the crown. Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year!
Thoroughly enjoyed this video Marc! Learned about the sapphire test from an earlier video of yours. And through trial and error I figured out the SKX hacking "hack", as well as the micro adjustment on clasp. Great tips for sure! Now I may try the palm slap on my Hamilton khaki which runs a few minutes fast a day. 🤞 Appreciate the educational videos you've put out over the years, and I enjoy all my Islanders! ISL 54 is on wrist weekly. Haply new year
That toothpick trick is priceless Marc! So is the saphire temp trick. I was just now using my diamond tester and here I could have just held the watch to my head! How well are the Bumblebees selling? I'm thinking about getting one before they sell out
Mark, I just got a used Seiko SNXJ89. I would like to replace the crystal but it's so hard to find the exact one! It's 21mm x 1.5 hardlex. Any idea where I can source this? Is this size universal to Seiko 5? Thanks!
On the 5th hack, I always try to do that with microadjustments, but sometimes there is simply not enough room to make it work. This happens because the spring bar is fitted very tightly into the outer housing. When you move it up a notch on one side, it is simply too long to move up on the other. This makes things very difficult, and you have to completely remove the spring bar, and try to get it into the holes you want all at once. It's a real pain. But I do love your suggestions here.
The grip tape trick is remarkable. Toothpicks invariably break, allowing the spring bar to Apollo 11 when they do so. I found a PVC stick and sharpened it sandpaper. Much bettererer.
I work in the Minnesota wilderness and im thinking getting bug spray in the bezel of my Seiko 1st gen Monster and now it won't move. Its a twenty two year old watch so i dont wanna take it in and spend money on it. Any ideas?
Thanks Mark for helping me with the seiko turtle bracelet pins and tubes. The shop I bought it didn't know how to do it so thank very much I wanna buy a long island watch you made (please check out cestrian 300m diver sapphire screw down crown and British made I recommend it .from Karl from Wales uk 🇬🇧
Mark I saw an update from you a little while ago about meeting some of the tax on UK purchases but as I was trying to buy an Islander watch on your site nothing along those lines came up. Have you discontinued that arrangement? Thank you G
