TAG Heuer, a Swiss luxury watch brand known for its sporty yet elegant design, has fans all over the world. We'll explain how to troubleshoot and care for your TAG Heuer automatic watch to ensure it lasts a long time.
Understanding watches and their movements
TAG Heuer began as Edouard Heuer Watchmakers, founded by watchmaker Edouard Heuer in Saint-Imier, Switzerland in 1860.
Throughout its long history, TAG Heuer has focused on developing sports watches such as stopwatches and chronographs. Because it places importance on multifunctionality, it produces many sturdy mechanical watches.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of how to maintain a Tag Heuer watch, which is a watch that will last a lifetime, it is important to first gain a deeper understanding of how it works.
Battery-powered and mechanical
Let's explain the two drive methods for running a watch.
The most common type of modern clock is the "battery-powered" type, also known as quartz. This type of clock is powered by a consumable battery and uses the power of a crystal (quartz) to control the time.
In contrast, the type commonly seen in luxury men's watches is "mechanical," which is powered by the force of a wound mainspring unwinding to move the watch.
Mechanical watches can be further divided into two main categories: "manual winding," in which the mainspring is wound by turning the crown, and "automatic winding," in which the mainspring is wound by the movement of the wrist when worn.
Tag Heuer mainly produces mechanical automatic watches
The drive system used by TAG Heuer is primarily "mechanical automatic winding," for the following reasons:
Compared to automatic and quartz movements, hand-wound mechanical watches are the most traditional type of movement, and their construction is extremely simple compared to the latter two types, which require a rotor and battery.
On the other hand, the sporty design and functionality expected of Tag Heuer require robustness and high vibration resistance to withstand active movement.
If the thinner, more elegant hand-wound watches are considered "still," then the design pursued by TAG Heuer, which focuses on automatic watches, can be said to be "dynamic." It is precisely because their design approaches are polar opposites that TAG Heuer distances itself from hand-wound watches.
Accuracy of mechanical watches
Let's explain the mechanical mechanism in more detail. When the mainspring is wound by turning the crown, it unwinds and exerts a force that tries to return to its original position. This force is adjusted by the escapement and regulator to make the time tick at the correct intervals.
Since it does not use batteries and is powered only by the physical action of mechanical parts, it is inevitable that there will be larger errors compared to battery-powered devices.
In the world of watches, there is an extremely high level of testing standard known as the "chronometer standard," which requires that a watch pass this standard to lose within four seconds or gain within six seconds per day.
Common causes of problems and how to deal with them
Mechanical systems, which generate power through the individual operation and coordination of precisely assembled parts, can sometimes experience problems.
To avoid panicking if something unusual happens to your precious watch, make sure you understand the causes and how to deal with it.
The clock stops immediately
A common problem with automatic mechanical watches is a lack of driving force, which is mainly caused by the mainspring not being fully wound.
The built-in rotor rotates when the wearer swings their arm, and this movement is used to wind the mainspring, so the watch itself must be moving in order to keep running.
If you don't move your arm much or you don't take your watch off often, the drive power will be insufficient, and in such an environment, the mechanical watch will stop working quickly.
How to wind the crown
If there is a lack of driving force, you will need to wind the crown to generate power.
Automatic movements generally have a power reserve of 38 to 50 hours, after which the watch will stop.
To reactivate it, manually wind the movement by turning the crown 30 to 40 times, which will build up enough power to keep the reserve function running properly.
On the other hand, a manually wound mechanical watch needs to be wound up periodically by turning the crown.
However, care must be taken not to apply excessive force to the crown as this may damage the movement.
Date discrepancy
Some watches have a calendar function built into the dial, which is an essential feature even for TAG Heuer, which specializes in sports watches.
In rare cases, the date may not change after midnight, or may advance just after noon. In these cases, you will need to adjust the settings using the crown, which is linked to the calendar function.
One thing to be careful of is adjusting the date on an automatic watch that has a "time period when calendar adjustment is prohibited." In this case, you should refrain from adjusting the date between 8 PM and 4 AM.
During this time, the gears of the time display and calendar face are engaged, and the watch is changing the date by itself. Attempting to change the date during this time could result in damage, such as chipping of the gears.
