I've recently bought a new Royal Oak Chronograph. I've noticed that when I unscrew and pull the crown to either first or second position, the small second hand does not stop. This makes it difficult to set exact time. Is this normal? A quick response will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, Greg,

without getting into the history or technical reasons behind hacking and not hacking designs, the ROC does not hack.

If I want to set the time "exactly" to the second, I wait till the second hand is at 12 and set it accordingly.

I have found that stopping the second hand at 15, 30, or 45 and setting the minute hand accordingly (1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 between minutes) works just as well and doesn't require waiting (potentially) up to a minute for the second hand to return to 12.

Was that quick enough?



TM

"A Purist does not believe in gilt by association. Respect, AND disdain, have to be earned..."

Thank you, Thomas. It was very quick. However, I still have a question. In your response you state that you wait until second hand is on 12 and stop the watch at that point. How do you stop it? When I pull the crown into position 1 (date) or position 2 (hands) it doesn't stop. Should it?

I was in such a hurry to reply, my answer was internally inconsistent and WRONG!



DOH! Sorry.

The movement does not hack, so trying to "time" the second hand exactly is very difficult.

I don't remember if this works on the xx85 movement movement in the ROC (I'll have to check, but you can try it yourself) - after pulling the crown out to time setting position apply a VERY SLIGHT backpressure to the crown - not enough to turn the hands backwards but enough to slow down the seconds hand and ultimately bring it to a stop; it will likely start again as soon as you let off the backpressure so you have to "hold it" until the time signal catches up to the seconds hand position.

Release and it will start running and hopefully be synched to the time signal. Then set the minute hand accordingly.

Sorry about the goof up, I was distracted by giving a "quick response."



Let me know how it works for you.

TM

"A Purist does not believe in gilt by association. Respect, AND disdain, have to be earned..."

It worked, thank you. If you don't mind, just one more question. My watch has a five digit number preceeding by a letter G engraved on back. Is this related to the manufacturing date? If not, does it mean anything? And what about another four digit number just above it? Thank you very much.

Hi, Greg,

Glad it worked, my pleasure.

The case number, in your case Gxxxx denotes the sequential order in which the case was produced. This can be used to get an approximation of when the watch was made, but not exactly. The numbers are made in sequential order, but cases thus produced are not necessarily assembled and completed in the same sequential order.

Your watch was probably produced sometime in the last few years.

The four digit number is the "number" of your watch in that particular configuration - ROC, chronograph, metal.

Hey, show us some pictures!



Cheers,

TM

"A Purist does not believe in gilt by association. Respect, AND disdain, have to be earned..."

Thank you for your help! I've attached a few pictures. Unfortunately, I couldn't get too much detail on the dial, so I'll try to hunt down a more powerful camera and post a sharper pic.