After 4 years of ownership and daily use of chronograph, I can tell this mechanism is a charm. Still a magic for everyone to see the hands flying back. Sad that yours did not survived much. Thought I have to point it out, you not once used the pushers in the intended sequence. It is very likely that you jammed this each by doing this. Yeah it should withstand any combination of pushing, but still the way you played around with it was just not made any sense. It is mechanical: don’t shift without clutching… stop the counter properly before reset,and don’t push both pushers at the same time. 5 minutes with the manual goes a long way. Here I see a lot of comments about resetting hands on quartz chronos. This is a different movement, with different functions, and different usage. I am sad that someone was stopped from buying based on this. :(
Wow, i don't understand why people like these watches with vk63 movements. Its a flyback thats cool but you're only seeing the second hand move and maybe the 60 minutes if you even have it going that long, ill never buy another watch with that 24 hour dial at 3, its literally pointless when you're actually looking for functionality, find something with a split second, 1/10 second counter at 3 and tell me you don't like it more. Id rather see that little hand spinning like crazy whem i start it over the the second hand returning home in a way that will eventually come lose from the torque. Thats why most companies don't use that function because its too much for the hamd. But good luck
Pull out the crown to the second click position.2)Press the button B for two seconds and release the button.3)Push the crown back to the normal position.4)The small second hand will move at two-second interval for 10 seconds as a demonstration.(not applicable to VK64)*If the crown is operated within these 10 seconds, the two-second interval movement will not be activated.(not applicable to VK64)*It is not necessary to set the chronograph hands after the battery is exchanged. If the chronograph hand positions areincorrect, following below procedure all the chronograph hands will be reset to "0" position
This is such a good video. People need to be aware of these movements going into these microbrands. Just watched another video with another watch owner having a VK movement fail. He also mentioned he's had over 5 meca quartz watches and theyve all had issues in the long term. Staying away from meca quartz!!!
The dial at the 3 o'clock is supposed to be a 24hr, but you can't set it independently so it's really only telling you am/pm and that's only if you align it with the midnight setting. Hence it's useless as a gmt. That would be my biggest knock against this movement - built for looks over function.
I think 90 percent of watches (about 99 percent of mainstream) uses this particular dial as a AM/PM or 24 hr dial and not a GMT. Not sure why watch buyers expect a gmt function on these dials on non-gmt watches.
@@olaf2046 fair enough but a dial to help you figure out of it's am or pm is just unnecessary imo. I think it's fair for buyers to expect dials that serve a valid function but to each their own. Shout out to Westchester btw
Nobody uses the tachymeter. I have never used the chronograph on any of my watches other than to check whether it's still working or not. That might be the case with 99.99% buyers.
Surely, this cannot be that widespread of a problem. There are so many of these movements being used I think the problem would be a lot more well known. Did they fix the issue?
on the plus side, this movement goes into a lot of (often very high-end) watches without issues, so it's probably worth the risk to a lot of people however: many chronographs let you adjust arbitrary seconds, and this isn't one of them. you can reset if your watch doesn't know it hasn't returned to zero, but that's it. and you're supposed to replace the stopwatch hand with a new one if you want to re-fit it, because the hand is pushed on extra tight to cope with the torque of snapping back to zero. which might be the cause of the misalignment in the first place. it wouldn't surprise me if some people fitting the hands in the factory remove and refit them if they don't get the alignment right, making them very slightly loose an option worth trying, if you can't source a new hand, might be removing and refitting the old hand with the appropriate grade of loctite
Seeing this a year late! Sorry to hear it's broken. I have quite a few watches with VK63 and VK64 movements that operate perfectly for years now. Btw, resetting the VK63 or VK64 chronograph while it's running will break it. Read the manual before using any chronograph watch. Maybe there's a Chronographs for Dummies book you can find. 😉
Super helpful video. Hope that the Watch Gods reward you with a new watch that runs perfectly everyday and every time! (I had the same problem and you made me feel better about the issue by maki the video.)
I KNEW IT! I bought an AVI-8 watch with this same movement. The chronograph failed the same day I got it. The second hand of the chronograph jams after second 15.I returned the watch and got a replacement, and it had exactly the same malfunction. It was not bad luck, it's that this movement is terribly made.
Thank you for this review. I almost purchased a micro brand watch from Sweden. Beautiful looking but it has the VK63 movement. I probably won’t purchase it now.
Good review. I have the same movement, and ran into the same problem, and you are correct: the only way to temporarily fix it is to remove and reinstall the hand. The problem is, if the hand worked loose once, it will keep doing it. These movements are cheap junk, unfortunately.
I kinda prefer chronographs that don't swing the big chrono hand back to the 12:00 position very quickly. Kinda makes me uneasy seeing that hand flick. I have a Citizen Eco-Drive CA-0125-07E and a Swiss Military Hanowa chronograph and pressing the reset button on both of them makes the second hand go back slowly. I kinda like the sweeping movement instead of that flick. Must be easier on that hand too, in terms of stress. Anyway, I love these chronos but they're pretty much toys for me. If I really wanted to time anything I'd probably use a digital Casio with a sub-second counter. But hey, a nice Omega is still much classier.
I search for "Barbour waxed jacket review" I get you. I search for "Mecaquartz review", I get you. Why do I have the feeling I haven't seen the last of you?!
i dont have scond hand missed alignmen issued with seiko vk73, but its stop working every 4 days then i must pull the crown to start the watch again .. is it normal ?
The subdial at the 3 o'clock position is an AM/PM indicator. 0-12 = AM, 12-24 = PM. My 2007 Breitling SuperOcean blue dial ref# A17360 gains 0-2 seconds a day. How does your Omega Chronograph run?
Man, I loved the real-time failure in this review... but it was tough to hear your sigh of disappointment. I wonder if this is a common problem with these VK movements?
PDF file for VK64 at TMI Seiko shows touching in "AC" hole to what they're call the "Switch Spring" with conductive tweezers. The illustration seems confusing as the "Switch Spring" looks to be in the "PUSH" hole. I'm making a logical guess here, as the outer surface that they show the tweezers touching to, doesn't look like any sort of "Switch Spring".
Plenty of vids on how to fix this using the buttons. This movement is in my Duxot Accelero DX-2028. Found another video on UA-cam after watching your total misinformation presented here, allowing me to adjust mine.
I bought in Nov 2019 a Junghans 1972 Quartz that uses this movement.. and it has that same problem! Can't believe my luck. Has anyone found a fix that really works besides opening the watch and manually position the hands?
I. Polendo Hey I. I’ve only heard you have to replace the VK63 movement module. At around $35 for a module it is the cheapest option. Most honest shops would charge around $50 to $100 to install it too.
@@olaf2046 Thanks for the info. This watch is under a 2 year warranty. That means I would have to leave it with the AD and forget about it for 2 months minimum. Or else buy the movement and install it with my watch guy here in a couple of hours. I should have known better and test drive it at the AD before buying.
Hey did you ever find a way to get the hand realligned without having to open it up and replace the hands? I am looking at getting a chinese chrono that uses this movement..would rather not have to deal with that headache down the road if avoidable.
I was told that the entire VK63 movement needed to be replaced. Which is not as bad or expensive as it sounds. A VK63 movement is easy to by anywhere and will cost around $30 to $40 and most watch shops will charge 1 hour labour to swap out the movement with a reseal and water pressure test which cost around $20 to $50.
@@olaf2046 Ah that isn't so bad..though the watch I was considering costs $65 so it would probably end up being something I just live with. I decided to pass on the piece. It was a daytona style watch. I think I'll save up and buy myself a orient diver, they have some incredibly specced and machined stuff for their price point
- local watchmakers don't have spareparts, send it back to Japan to repair. - local watchmakers would like to charge more than the watch price brand new, no sane watch owner would spend that money to get it repaired, unless that particular watch has strong sentimental value.
@@johnbr59 no I returned it to the seller. Even in NYC alot of expert watchmakers would not have touched this SEIKO movement for some odd reason. I was told it was cheaper to replace the entire watch than repair the movement
@@johnbr59 hey John. Not necessarily. But the Meca Quartz movement that seiko uses in this watch is said to be cheaper to replace than to repair. Still it is a great movement that is currently used on lots of the micro brand start up watch companies incorporating Meca quartz chronograph into fashion style watches
It is a 60 minute Chronograph. So after 60 minutes it stops itself. You would have to restart it each time. The good thing is the chronograph is mechanical and runs off the main time 'power' so no extra power is sapped from the battery for the chronograph compared to a fully quartz powered chronograph which taps all chronograph power from the quartz battery. This is why Meca-Quartz are superior in certain ways to BOTH mechanical/automatic and quartz watches.
@@olaf2046 A solar powered mecha quartz should be the death of the mechanical watch,. I can't wait. Why fuss with a mechanical if you can get 30 years of battery free, maintenance free reliability? Just makes sense from a practically stand point.
@@olaf2046 Not quite, as it has a separate stepper motor for the 1/5 second hand in the center that internally turns 180 degrees every 0,2 seconds. How else would you divide the 1-step-per-second main stepper motor by five to obtain the /5 second stepping ?! See ua-cam.com/video/pbllQ5vhPXI/v-deo.htmlsi=aPLwWu76nImr67uN&t=445 for disassembly and inner parts. Plus: in the tech specs Seiko talks of 3 years of battery operation if you use the chronogrph function for 60 minutes each day - so seemingly using the chronograph function DOES deplete the battery extra.
Wish i had seen your video before. I have a corgeut speedmaster and it's been a nightmare and nothing else but trouble. Guess what's inside ? the vk63 ! this movement should no longer exist period. i have the video of my story with it here : ua-cam.com/video/oLXkuO_s3sI/v-deo.html i put the link of your video in my description Olaf so the people can come and watch your video. Again thank you for this video, the people need to know they have to avoid this movement. Cheers bro.
After 4 years of ownership and daily use of chronograph, I can tell this mechanism is a charm. Still a magic for everyone to see the hands flying back. Sad that yours did not survived much. Thought I have to point it out, you not once used the pushers in the intended sequence. It is very likely that you jammed this each by doing this. Yeah it should withstand any combination of pushing, but still the way you played around with it was just not made any sense. It is mechanical: don’t shift without clutching… stop the counter properly before reset,and don’t push both pushers at the same time. 5 minutes with the manual goes a long way. Here I see a lot of comments about resetting hands on quartz chronos. This is a different movement, with different functions, and different usage. I am sad that someone was stopped from buying based on this. :(
Wow, i don't understand why people like these watches with vk63 movements. Its a flyback thats cool but you're only seeing the second hand move and maybe the 60 minutes if you even have it going that long, ill never buy another watch with that 24 hour dial at 3, its literally pointless when you're actually looking for functionality, find something with a split second, 1/10 second counter at 3 and tell me you don't like it more. Id rather see that little hand spinning like crazy whem i start it over the the second hand returning home in a way that will eventually come lose from the torque. Thats why most companies don't use that function because its too much for the hamd. But good luck
Is yours still working?
Pull out the crown to the second click position.2)Press the button B for two seconds and release the button.3)Push the crown back to the normal position.4)The small second hand will move at two-second interval for 10 seconds as a demonstration.(not applicable to VK64)*If the crown is operated within these 10 seconds, the two-second interval movement will not be activated.(not applicable to VK64)*It is not necessary to set the chronograph hands after the battery is exchanged. If the chronograph hand positions areincorrect, following below procedure all the chronograph hands will be reset to "0" position
Yes, I've heard of this. I wonder if it would have fixed his problem.
Have that worked for any one?
Ive tried this and see the 2 seconds interval. But how to set the stopwatch to 12? Mine still at 59 position
I have tried the process many times but my watch is not resetting to 0
I love my mecaquartz watches! I have six and have never had a problem with any!!
This is such a good video. People need to be aware of these movements going into these microbrands. Just watched another video with another watch owner having a VK movement fail. He also mentioned he's had over 5 meca quartz watches and theyve all had issues in the long term. Staying away from meca quartz!!!
Could you provide a link to that video
Thank you friend, you're great, you help me a lot to make the hand reset back to zero with my mecha-quartz watch ,save my money ...
You made me buy a barbour years ago. And here i am back on the hunt for a meca quartz. Good taste buddy! Regards from Germany
The dial at the 3 o'clock is supposed to be a 24hr, but you can't set it independently so it's really only telling you am/pm and that's only if you align it with the midnight setting. Hence it's useless as a gmt. That would be my biggest knock against this movement - built for looks over function.
I think 90 percent of watches (about 99 percent of mainstream) uses this particular dial as a AM/PM or 24 hr dial and not a GMT. Not sure why watch buyers expect a gmt function on these dials on non-gmt watches.
@@olaf2046 fair enough but a dial to help you figure out of it's am or pm is just unnecessary imo. I think it's fair for buyers to expect dials that serve a valid function but to each their own. Shout out to Westchester btw
Nobody uses the tachymeter. I have never used the chronograph on any of my watches other than to check whether it's still working or not. That might be the case with 99.99% buyers.
@@ebin2868 the watch is the chronograph. Do you mean you don't use the tachymeter?
@@stockton350 I meant the stopwatch function and tachymeter.
I ordered a Pepsi sea urchin and my father gave me this. I’ll take a free watch any day but I still am waiting for that mechanical beauty toncome
Surely, this cannot be that widespread of a problem. There are so many of these movements being used I think the problem would be a lot more well known. Did they fix the issue?
on the plus side, this movement goes into a lot of (often very high-end) watches without issues, so it's probably worth the risk to a lot of people
however: many chronographs let you adjust arbitrary seconds, and this isn't one of them. you can reset if your watch doesn't know it hasn't returned to zero, but that's it. and you're supposed to replace the stopwatch hand with a new one if you want to re-fit it, because the hand is pushed on extra tight to cope with the torque of snapping back to zero. which might be the cause of the misalignment in the first place. it wouldn't surprise me if some people fitting the hands in the factory remove and refit them if they don't get the alignment right, making them very slightly loose
an option worth trying, if you can't source a new hand, might be removing and refitting the old hand with the appropriate grade of loctite
Seeing this a year late! Sorry to hear it's broken. I have quite a few watches with VK63 and VK64 movements that operate perfectly for years now. Btw, resetting the VK63 or VK64 chronograph while it's running will break it. Read the manual before using any chronograph watch. Maybe there's a Chronographs for Dummies book you can find. 😉
I am reading the instructions manual and its clearly written that YOU CAN push the reset while its running without damages.
Super helpful video. Hope that the Watch Gods reward you with a new watch that runs perfectly everyday and every time! (I had the same problem and you made me feel better about the issue by maki the video.)
Check out the pagani design moonwatch v3 with new white dial. You will love it. Perfect mix of your watches.
I KNEW IT! I bought an AVI-8 watch with this same movement. The chronograph failed the same day I got it.
The second hand of the chronograph jams after second 15.I returned the watch and got a replacement, and it had exactly the same malfunction. It was not bad luck, it's that this movement is terribly made.
Thank you for this review. I almost purchased a micro brand watch from Sweden. Beautiful looking but it has the VK63 movement. I probably won’t purchase it now.
Good review. I have the same movement, and ran into the same problem, and you are correct: the only way to temporarily fix it is to remove and reinstall the hand. The problem is, if the hand worked loose once, it will keep doing it. These movements are cheap junk, unfortunately.
how could a loose hand be the fault of the movement!!!!
I kinda prefer chronographs that don't swing the big chrono hand back to the 12:00 position very quickly. Kinda makes me uneasy seeing that hand flick. I have a Citizen Eco-Drive CA-0125-07E and a Swiss Military Hanowa chronograph and pressing the reset button on both of them makes the second hand go back slowly. I kinda like the sweeping movement instead of that flick. Must be easier on that hand too, in terms of stress.
Anyway, I love these chronos but they're pretty much toys for me. If I really wanted to time anything I'd probably use a digital Casio with a sub-second counter. But hey, a nice Omega is still much classier.
I search for "Barbour waxed jacket review" I get you. I search for "Mecaquartz review", I get you. Why do I have the feeling I haven't seen the last of you?!
Do you like science, cars and DIY stuff? lol! Hey Trev!
@@olaf2046 science, yes. DIY not yet. We'll wait and see how things go once I finally decide to get the Bedale or the Beaufort!
Can so many owners be wrong? Just like anything else mechanical it has a small chance of going bad.
Great review anyways, do you know Victorinox INOX diving watches? Now they have automatic INOX, how do you think about it? I am confused
Did you try a battery change reset? Shorting the battery is how to restart the movement after battery change.
i dont have scond hand missed alignmen issued with seiko vk73, but its stop working every 4 days then i must pull the crown to start the watch again ..
is it normal ?
Glad he knows what really is a fly back.
Hi Jean. I’m glad I know too. That makes two of us. Lol
The subdial at the 3 o'clock position is an AM/PM indicator. 0-12 = AM, 12-24 = PM.
My 2007 Breitling SuperOcean blue dial ref# A17360 gains 0-2 seconds a day. How does your Omega Chronograph run?
Just start the watch from the mis-aligned position and stop it at the 12 o' clock mark. It will then look aligned.
Would it be possible to shake the watch around a bit more ? Into focus out of focus........ lol
I have one for 12yrs and so far I have no problem.
I'm envious Elgne because it is such a great watch that I wanted to keep mine for 12 years plus.
Man, I loved the real-time failure in this review... but it was tough to hear your sigh of disappointment. I wonder if this is a common problem with these VK movements?
I was told it was but the fix is just to replace the movement module which I was also told is cheap and easy to obtain.
The VK 64 does have resetting function... worked for me
PDF file for VK64 at TMI Seiko shows touching in "AC" hole to what they're call the "Switch Spring" with conductive tweezers. The illustration seems confusing as the "Switch Spring" looks to be in the "PUSH" hole. I'm making a logical guess here, as the outer surface that they show the tweezers touching to, doesn't look like any sort of "Switch Spring".
Plenty of vids on how to fix this using the buttons. This movement is in my Duxot Accelero DX-2028. Found another video on UA-cam after watching your total misinformation presented here, allowing me to adjust mine.
I bought in Nov 2019 a Junghans 1972 Quartz that uses this movement.. and it has that same problem! Can't believe my luck. Has anyone found a fix that really works besides opening the watch and manually position the hands?
I. Polendo Hey I. I’ve only heard you have to replace the VK63 movement module. At around $35 for a module it is the cheapest option. Most honest shops would charge around $50 to $100 to install it too.
@@olaf2046 Thanks for the info. This watch is under a 2 year warranty. That means I would have to leave it with the AD and forget about it for 2 months minimum. Or else buy the movement and install it with my watch guy here in a couple of hours. I should have known better and test drive it at the AD before buying.
It’s seiko or omega ?
What's wrong with the pusher in your Omega? BTW, what is that model exactly? Is the 9 o'clock 24 hour subdial GMT?
Marcelo Lima check my channel. I have tons of videos on that Omega speedmaster Mark 40.
crazy fella///that is not the way to start stop a chronograph...
Hey did you ever find a way to get the hand realligned without having to open it up and replace the hands? I am looking at getting a chinese chrono that uses this movement..would rather not have to deal with that headache down the road if avoidable.
I was told that the entire VK63 movement needed to be replaced. Which is not as bad or expensive as it sounds. A VK63 movement is easy to by anywhere and will cost around $30 to $40 and most watch shops will charge 1 hour labour to swap out the movement with a reseal and water pressure test which cost around $20 to $50.
@@olaf2046 Ah that isn't so bad..though the watch I was considering costs $65 so it would probably end up being something I just live with.
I decided to pass on the piece. It was a daytona style watch. I think I'll save up and buy myself a orient diver, they have some incredibly specced and machined stuff for their price point
- local watchmakers don't have spareparts, send it back to Japan to repair.
- local watchmakers would like to charge more than the watch price brand new, no sane watch owner would spend that money to get it repaired, unless that particular watch has strong sentimental value.
i just got this watch SSB007 version. hope it holds up okay for me.
JohnB was that the silver and white sideways panda dial in one that was on eBay last week?
@@olaf2046 did you manage to get yours fixed btw? send it in to seiko for servicing?
@@johnbr59 no I returned it to the seller. Even in NYC alot of expert watchmakers would not have touched this SEIKO movement for some odd reason. I was told it was cheaper to replace the entire watch than repair the movement
@@olaf2046 will it happen to every watch with this movement?
@@johnbr59 hey John. Not necessarily. But the Meca Quartz movement that seiko uses in this watch is said to be cheaper to replace than to repair. Still it is a great movement that is currently used on lots of the micro brand start up watch companies incorporating Meca quartz chronograph into fashion style watches
Hey I just bought the Seiko SSB031 . Do you know long I can leave the Chrono Running for ?
It is a 60 minute Chronograph. So after 60 minutes it stops itself. You would have to restart it each time. The good thing is the chronograph is mechanical and runs off the main time 'power' so no extra power is sapped from the battery for the chronograph compared to a fully quartz powered chronograph which taps all chronograph power from the quartz battery. This is why Meca-Quartz are superior in certain ways to BOTH mechanical/automatic and quartz watches.
@@olaf2046 A solar powered mecha quartz should be the death of the mechanical watch,. I can't wait. Why fuss with a mechanical if you can get 30 years of battery free, maintenance free reliability? Just makes sense from a practically stand point.
@@olaf2046 Not quite, as it has a separate stepper motor for the 1/5 second hand in the center that internally turns 180 degrees every 0,2 seconds. How else would you divide the 1-step-per-second main stepper motor by five to obtain the /5 second stepping ?!
See ua-cam.com/video/pbllQ5vhPXI/v-deo.htmlsi=aPLwWu76nImr67uN&t=445 for disassembly and inner parts.
Plus: in the tech specs Seiko talks of 3 years of battery operation if you use the chronogrph function for 60 minutes each day - so seemingly using the chronograph function DOES deplete the battery extra.
I want to see watch moving ,not you!
Ouch😭😭
RTFM first.
Wish i had seen your video before. I have a corgeut speedmaster and it's been a nightmare and nothing else but trouble. Guess what's inside ? the vk63 ! this movement should no longer exist period. i have the video of my story with it here : ua-cam.com/video/oLXkuO_s3sI/v-deo.html i put the link of your video in my description Olaf so the people can come and watch your video. Again thank you for this video, the people need to know they have to avoid this movement. Cheers bro.