zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: This is from the Onwers Guide to Fine Watches on this forum:

: Q. When I set my watch, is it okay to roll the time
: backwards?

: A. As a general practice, no for mechanical watches, yes with some
: limitations for quartz watches. For some watches with mechanical
: movements, this is a bad idea for several reasons. First, the
: mechanisms are usually designed around moving forward, so some
: cannot take the stress of reversing properly. Second, after a
: mechanical watch settles in, reversing the watch against the
: pattern of wear may cause unnecessary additional wear.

: Both mechanical and quartz watches with dates and other
: complications handled by mechanical parts can be harmed by
: rolling the time backwards--especially near midnight.

: Despite that, many modern watches can be reversed with no problem.
: But it is best to check with the manufacturer to be sure. The
: one general rule is that if your mechanical watch's second hand
: does not stop when you put the watch in time setting mode, then
: you should definitely not turn the hands backwards.

: The types of watches where it never matters to turn the time
: backwards are quartz watches where neither the date window nor
: the hands are moved directly by the crown. Two examples are the
: Breitling Aerospace and Omega Seamaster Multifunction. On both
: of these, the date appears on a digital display and the hands
: are moved forward or backwards electronically by commands issued
: by rotating the crown.

Hi, thanks for replying!
I had seen this entry on the owners guide, however, the instruction booklet with my watch states under calibre 1861. Pull the crown out to position 2, move the crown backwards or forwards to set the time! This seems to be in conflict with what most people know about manual wind watches. Having only ever owned automatics and of course quartz, I wasn't aware that it would be a problem. Certainly the salesman didnt tell me anything about it either when demonstrating its functions and operation in some detail! I am concerned that I may have damaged the watch by not being properly informed at point of sale or in the instruction booklet! The watch is performing perfectly, so I'm assuming that if I'd damaged it in anyway it would have started playing up by now. The salesman in the shop when I called them today, stated that the reversing hand issue was new to him and that yes you shouldn't set the time by moving the hands backwards, but that most modern watches wouldn't be damaged by doing so. I also called omega uk today and their engineer said that the watch should always bet set by moving forward but it would be unlikely to damage the movement!
Can I therefore take the instruction manual as canon?
Yours confusedly,

Joseph.