I managed to set my Komandirskie to +3 sec/d without any app or timegrapher, just pushing the lever slightly and waiting 24h. To be fair, Vostoks seem to be particularly easy to regulate, some other watches just have insanely stiff levers and you always overshoot it.
The timegrapher presets the lift angle to 52 degrees. You'll need to manually change it to 42 degrees for the Vostok 24XX calibres to get the correct amplitude reading.
@@UnburdenedByWhatHasBeen very cheap caviar! Lol! I like them because they are easy to sell and easy to regulate and modify. Rich history and in house made.
@@UnburdenedByWhatHasBeen I have an order arriving tomorrow that I placed 23 December. True I paid extra for UPS, you need a large order to make it worthwhile. I always need bracelets, straps, movements, parts,ect so it's easy for me. One watch isn't worth paying extra but most of the time my order is in the $500 range.
@@jimmyschiel3863 hell, that aint too bad. Im on the east coast of the US. The last order i put in was about 5 months ago and it took about 3 months for delivery.
Wow tedious and time consuming is an understatement. I've been meticulously trying to regulate my Vostok with my radio controlled watch which I know is absolutely spot on. 2 days of knocking that regulator in the tiniest of increments and the best I could get it was -4 seconds per day. I'm like you though I prefer my watches to be running fast rather than slow so a tap back to the plus position and it's out by an estimated +20 seconds a day .. Aaaaaargh I've now just nudged the lever back a fraction and put the back on. Whatever it works out now I shall have to put up with. Edit: it's now + 3 seconds a day .. yay 👍
This assessment is spot on: It can be incredibly tedious and frustrating. Also, without proper magnification - at the very least - a loupe or magnifying glass - you can kiss your chance of success goodbye. Also, there's not just one beat rate when you measure it: every position, every different angle of the watch resting will change the beat rate a bit; different levels of winding also (of course,) and it's no simple formula either (e.g. 20% when fully wound, then decreasing; it can be wacky, all over the place.) So, finding a 'happy medium' that works for your own wearing habits and then accepting that it won't get any better and that you better not put the watch down at a crazy angle; that's part of the process too. There are decent enough timegrapher apps if one does not want to splurge on an actual timegrapher apparatus. I like 'Watch Accuracy Meter' on Android. It's simple, very plain looking, but delivers solid, clean, quick, easy to read results
The timegrapher will onlygive a screenshot of what the watch is doing at that exact moment in time and the operation of any mechanical watch will even out over the course of a day of wearing.
Its funny but with my Vostok's both Amphibia and Komandirskie, I have regulated by dint of recording gain or loss over say 12-24 hours then nudging the regulator in the appropriate direction and all of my Vostok's run extremely well with my 2409 and 2209 Amphibia's losing very little over a week. My other Soviet brands can be finicky, my Chaika stadium is now running slow, my NOS Raketa based gold Sekonda tv runs fast and slow and my Slava tank automatic got knocked or kicked around like a football with both stud and regulator akimbo. I haven't bought a Weishi, I found on ebay a £40 timegrapher that uses the same six point azimuth microphone as the Weishi but not on the multidirectional stand and hoping this will do the job. Its funny too is I can hear when a Vostok is out of sync, it adopts a ringing behind the tick.
That sounds interesting. Can you share a link of the cheap timegrapher please? I find the biggest problems with Russian movements is positional variation, they're not tightly regulated in more than the 3 most common positions which means if you're a right wrist wearer or your daily activities vary a lot it can be very difficult to get it to even out. Your method of regulation is perfectly good for most people and their own watches when you have the time to check daily or over the course of say 12 hourly intervals but a timegrapher really helps. I keep meaning to put together a video explaining and demonstrating the uses of a timegrapher as they're very versatile pieces of equipment.
The free app I used to get my 2209 Bochka to 0 seconds a day! is "watch accuracy meter" for android. Vostoks being quiet watches your cell phone needs a good microphone. My Kommandirskie GMT Runs at +4. My method is to wear the watch and over a week see the gain or loss in seconds, device by seven and then regulate by that amount. Twenty seconds on the regulator can turn into zero seconds a week wearing the watch in ones daily life.
@JP JP That's really down to personal preference though. I like chunky watch cases. I hated the fad in the 80's of ultra thin lightweight quartz watches. I like to feel a watch on my wrist. There's no reason why reliability would differ at all. The only real difference is an auto winding mechanism which have been around for years in various formats with no evidence of reliability issues.
The basic 2414A movement is the same pretty much except the automatic works is fitted to the 2415/6's etc. Vostok made their movements highly modular with common part sharing in things like balance assy, mainspring, keyless works, hands fitment with the only real difference in models being that the 2209 and 2234 movements had different sized second hands and the 2234 from the 70s is a hacking movement. Vostok's you can change mainspring and second hand shaft extremely easy too, I mean the mainspring is a case of knocking out the mainspring bridge screws after taking off the mainspring driven wheel, gently prise up the bridge without removing it, tip out the old mainspring, tweezer in new mainspring, close bridge down and do up, replace mainspring pinion wheel and close it all up and job done.
@@davidmaddison2628 That's unacceptably excessive. I don't know the claimed figures but typically unregulated movements are somewhere in the region of -10 to +20 spd. That's not to say they'll deviate that much but that it can fall within that and be deemed acceptable. It's unusual to get one out more than 10spd either side. A minute a day might suggest a magnetised hairspring so my first suggestion would be to demagnetise. Though I've never encountered it, I've heard people say that some postal system scanners are strongly magnetic and can magnetise watches going through the system.
Thank you for the video. A question about the winding. Do you ever needed to wind it manually although you have wearing the during the daytime? Because my vostok obviously have an self winding issue, if I leave on the desk for a night on the third night it stops ( after full hand winding on day 0)
Automatic winding efficiency does depend somewhat on how active you are during the day. If you're at a desk for example it won't be enough to wind fully. Likewise taking off the watch at night means it won't be getting wound. Manually winding isn't a problem and when first wearing it after it's been laid unused. Putting are least 20 winds on before wearing is recommended and 40 to 50 should wind fully, automatics have a slipping spring so you can't wind it too tightly and break it but you don't want to manually wind excessively when it's fully wound as the spring constantly slipping will wear the barrel edge.
Vostok power reserve is about 35ish hours so third night it stops is about right on a manual wind but if you are wearing during the day I would suspect your automatic works isn't winding correctly which is a common problem with the auto Vostok's and really down to dirt and grime at factory on the little translating plastic wheels causing reluctance on the rotor to wind freely. Very easy to clean these wheels by taking off the automatic works, taking 'em out and giving a good clean in some warm water and a gentle going with a toothbrush, then dry thoroughly, refit with a tiny dab of oil on the axle and teeth and should work perfectly from that point with a very free rotor.
I managed to set my Komandirskie to +3 sec/d without any app or timegrapher, just pushing the lever slightly and waiting 24h. To be fair, Vostoks seem to be particularly easy to regulate, some other watches just have insanely stiff levers and you always overshoot it.
The timegrapher presets the lift angle to 52 degrees. You'll need to manually change it to 42 degrees for the Vostok 24XX calibres to get the correct amplitude reading.
Covered several times in the comments, thanks.
Very helpful advice. Восток Амфибия is quite possibly my favorite watches of all time.
You have caviar taste man.
@@UnburdenedByWhatHasBeen very cheap caviar! Lol! I like them because they are easy to sell and easy to regulate and modify. Rich history and in house made.
@@jimmyschiel3863 i agree. Just wish shipping from russia wasn't such a pain in the butt.
@@UnburdenedByWhatHasBeen I have an order arriving tomorrow that I placed 23 December. True I paid extra for UPS, you need a large order to make it worthwhile. I always need bracelets, straps, movements, parts,ect so it's easy for me. One watch isn't worth paying extra but most of the time my order is in the $500 range.
@@jimmyschiel3863 hell, that aint too bad. Im on the east coast of the US. The last order i put in was about 5 months ago and it took about 3 months for delivery.
Wow tedious and time consuming is an understatement. I've been meticulously trying to regulate my Vostok with my radio controlled watch which I know is absolutely spot on. 2 days of knocking that regulator in the tiniest of increments and the best I could get it was -4 seconds per day. I'm like you though I prefer my watches to be running fast rather than slow so a tap back to the plus position and it's out by an estimated +20 seconds a day .. Aaaaaargh I've now just nudged the lever back a fraction and put the back on. Whatever it works out now I shall have to put up with. Edit: it's now + 3 seconds a day .. yay 👍
This assessment is spot on: It can be incredibly tedious and frustrating. Also, without proper magnification - at the very least - a loupe or magnifying glass - you can kiss your chance of success goodbye. Also, there's not just one beat rate when you measure it: every position, every different angle of the watch resting will change the beat rate a bit; different levels of winding also (of course,) and it's no simple formula either (e.g. 20% when fully wound, then decreasing; it can be wacky, all over the place.)
So, finding a 'happy medium' that works for your own wearing habits and then accepting that it won't get any better and that you better not put the watch down at a crazy angle; that's part of the process too.
There are decent enough timegrapher apps if one does not want to splurge on an actual timegrapher apparatus. I like 'Watch Accuracy Meter' on Android. It's simple, very plain looking, but delivers solid, clean, quick, easy to read results
Please have a video on adjusting beat error
I plan to do a very in depth video on the timegrapher and what it can do and will try to include details on beat error adjustment.
I used the Clock Tuner app with my Galaxy Note 9 (cost arounfäd 5USD). With my Amphibia lying next to its microphone, the readings were working!
That app does work but the downfall of the apps is the microphone sensitivity. You have to have no extraneous noise with them.
@@spidiq8 Yes, you need a quiet place
I use a Stereo microscope rather than a loupe I find it easier it does have a camera attachment which is also handy.
Thank you very much for sharing this 👍
Luckily most of my Vostoks are under 10sec/day.
Great info, great video. Thanks
Really enjoyable video (I have a Vostok which runs slightly fast). By the way...your voice sounds familiar :-) Thanks again, Dominic
I was surprised at how sensitive it was --- to the point where seeing the thing move made a difference of 30 seconds on the day or more.
The timegrapher will onlygive a screenshot of what the watch is doing at that exact moment in time and the operation of any mechanical watch will even out over the course of a day of wearing.
La on a Vostoc is 42 dgr.
Shouldn't the lift angle be set to 42? the 343 amplitude is very high.
It is and yes you're probably correct, I didn't check the L.A. of this movement and the timegrapher defaults to a pre set.
@@spidiq8 I have the same timegrapher and a few Vostok's. I enjoyed your video :)
@@gmax666 Thank you for the info of the lift angle and glad you enjoyed the video.
Its funny but with my Vostok's both Amphibia and Komandirskie, I have regulated by dint of recording gain or loss over say 12-24 hours then nudging the regulator in the appropriate direction and all of my Vostok's run extremely well with my 2409 and 2209 Amphibia's losing very little over a week. My other Soviet brands can be finicky, my Chaika stadium is now running slow, my NOS Raketa based gold Sekonda tv runs fast and slow and my Slava tank automatic got knocked or kicked around like a football with both stud and regulator akimbo. I haven't bought a Weishi, I found on ebay a £40 timegrapher that uses the same six point azimuth microphone as the Weishi but not on the multidirectional stand and hoping this will do the job. Its funny too is I can hear when a Vostok is out of sync, it adopts a ringing behind the tick.
That sounds interesting. Can you share a link of the cheap timegrapher please?
I find the biggest problems with Russian movements is positional variation, they're not tightly regulated in more than the 3 most common positions which means if you're a right wrist wearer or your daily activities vary a lot it can be very difficult to get it to even out.
Your method of regulation is perfectly good for most people and their own watches when you have the time to check daily or over the course of say 12 hourly intervals but a timegrapher really helps.
I keep meaning to put together a video explaining and demonstrating the uses of a timegrapher as they're very versatile pieces of equipment.
The free app I used to get my 2209 Bochka to 0 seconds a day! is "watch accuracy meter" for android. Vostoks being quiet watches your cell phone needs a good microphone. My Kommandirskie GMT Runs at +4. My method is to wear the watch and over a week see the gain or loss in seconds, device by seven and then regulate by that amount. Twenty seconds on the regulator can turn into zero seconds a week wearing the watch in ones daily life.
My Komandurskie is not automatic
Older models aren't, they're manual wind only, you can see the difference with the thinner casebacks.
@JP JP That's really down to personal preference though. I like chunky watch cases. I hated the fad in the 80's of ultra thin lightweight quartz watches. I like to feel a watch on my wrist.
There's no reason why reliability would differ at all. The only real difference is an auto winding mechanism which have been around for years in various formats with no evidence of reliability issues.
The basic 2414A movement is the same pretty much except the automatic works is fitted to the 2415/6's etc. Vostok made their movements highly modular with common part sharing in things like balance assy, mainspring, keyless works, hands fitment with the only real difference in models being that the 2209 and 2234 movements had different sized second hands and the 2234 from the 70s is a hacking movement. Vostok's you can change mainspring and second hand shaft extremely easy too, I mean the mainspring is a case of knocking out the mainspring bridge screws after taking off the mainspring driven wheel, gently prise up the bridge without removing it, tip out the old mainspring, tweezer in new mainspring, close bridge down and do up, replace mainspring pinion wheel and close it all up and job done.
What is a typical accuracy from the factory?
Do you mean this specific watch or mechanical watches in general?
@@spidiq8 This specific watch. I have a new automatic, non-date Komandirskie and it gains about one minute per day. Thanks.
@@davidmaddison2628 That's unacceptably excessive. I don't know the claimed figures but typically unregulated movements are somewhere in the region of -10 to +20 spd. That's not to say they'll deviate that much but that it can fall within that and be deemed acceptable. It's unusual to get one out more than 10spd either side.
A minute a day might suggest a magnetised hairspring so my first suggestion would be to demagnetise. Though I've never encountered it, I've heard people say that some postal system scanners are strongly magnetic and can magnetise watches going through the system.
@@spidiq8 Thanks for that. How do you suggest I demagnetise the watch?
@@davidmaddison2628 You'll need a demagnetiser to do it, they're cheap on eBay. A small blue plastic box with a button.
Thank you for the video.
A question about the winding. Do you ever needed to wind it manually although you have wearing the during the daytime? Because my vostok obviously have an self winding issue, if I leave on the desk for a night on the third night it stops ( after full hand winding on day 0)
Automatic winding efficiency does depend somewhat on how active you are during the day. If you're at a desk for example it won't be enough to wind fully. Likewise taking off the watch at night means it won't be getting wound.
Manually winding isn't a problem and when first wearing it after it's been laid unused. Putting are least 20 winds on before wearing is recommended and 40 to 50 should wind fully, automatics have a slipping spring so you can't wind it too tightly and break it but you don't want to manually wind excessively when it's fully wound as the spring constantly slipping will wear the barrel edge.
Thank you! You helped me alot
Vostok power reserve is about 35ish hours so third night it stops is about right on a manual wind but if you are wearing during the day I would suspect your automatic works isn't winding correctly which is a common problem with the auto Vostok's and really down to dirt and grime at factory on the little translating plastic wheels causing reluctance on the rotor to wind freely. Very easy to clean these wheels by taking off the automatic works, taking 'em out and giving a good clean in some warm water and a gentle going with a toothbrush, then dry thoroughly, refit with a tiny dab of oil on the axle and teeth and should work perfectly from that point with a very free rotor.