zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: I just purchased a 3523.30 .\
: How is the hour set on the 24 hour hand.
: When I attempt to set it, both the hour and
: minute hands move as well as the 24 hour.
: Anyone know what I am doing wrong?
: Thanks

I'm not too good with the model numbers, but I'm going to assume that you have a Seamaster GMT, like my own. The winding crown has four positions, 0- crown screwed in, 1-crown unscrewed (winding), 2-crown pulled out to the first position (hour hand setting), 3-crown fully pulled out (all hand setting). This scheme seems to apply to most GMT-style mechanical watches, including the Omega and Rolex GMT styles. First, pull the crown fully out (all hands move in unison) and adjust the 24-hour hand (ignore the hour hand). Next, push the crown in to the middle position and adjust the hour hand; These watches have 12-hour hands that adjust independantly of the other three hands in crisp one-hour jumps (it's pretty freaky to watch, actually). This facilitates easy adjustments from time zone to time zone, in one-hour increments, without messing up the synchronization of the minute and second hand (or the 24-hour base time zone hand). Incidentally, this is also the preferred way to advance the date, since the date complication is keyed to the 12-hour hand.