Dropped the watch by accident

If it functions fine, then no worries. I understand how you feel. Just check it as you use it if things are not right have it serviced

Usually falls like that affect the escapement especially the staff which can get bent. If it works and runs fine you should be OK.

This watch has quite a thick and hard crystal so I think that prevented any damage to the watch. It was only a three feet drop so the shock might not have been too much to cause damage. It seems to be running good.

Been there done that.Ive dropped every Panerai I own on the tile floor in my home

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watchdaddy1 said:

Been there done that.Ive dropped every Panerai I own on the tile floor in my home

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I guess that they are built to be able to withstand a certain amount of accidental abuse, without causing damage to the watch.

Oh mine are all damaged because of this

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watchdaddy1 said:

Oh mine are all damaged because of this

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Thankfully mine didn't seem to sustain any damage

peter912 said:

Well my watch fell out of my hand and landed on its crystal , on a hard surfaced floor. I figure the distance of the fall to be around three feet. The watch is an automatic, I don't know if it makes any difference if it is quartz or automatic with regards to damage from a fall. It makes a difference, if for no other reason than the mass of the autoweight. If the rotor friction surface is ball bearing or metal/metal, then you may not have damaged it. If it is jeweled, then cracked jewels are common (eg. Rolex). As luck would have it this is also my most expensive watch as well.

The watch is still running . Do you think that it sustained any damage from the fall ? The only way to know for sure involves evaluation...which may or may not involve complete disassembly and inspection. I like to take care of my possessions so I was quite upset over this. The watch was in my one hand and in the other hand was the cushion from my watch winder. I was expanding it a bit to keep it from slipping out because the watch was hitting the case as it was turning around.

p.s. I hope that I put this topic in the right forum ?

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If it is timing accurately, does not have a jeweled autowind system, is generating amplitudes consistent with movement specs, and balance is visually running true, then any damage is possibly only cosmetic. If you're losing sleep over it, get its operational condition assessed.

1 meter drop test and vibration test (transport & delivery synchronization) are part of the quality assurance procedures in one of the companies I worked before although the products are not watches but it still have many moving parts & mechanism. 1 meter is not very high to damage the internal working parts.

nickson said:

[...]1 meter is not very high to damage the internal working parts.

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The problem with watches isn't so much the number of moving parts as the scale of them. They tend to have (relatively) massive parts like the balance wheel and auto rotor mounted on very small pivots because of the friction requirements.

Balance pivots on a typical wrist watch are on the order of a few thousandths of an inch (say, a tenth of a mm or so) in diameter, yet the balance wheel is one of the heaviest wheels in there. Without shock protection, a 1 meter drop is easily enough to break pivots. Even with it, there's a real risk of damage.

The sort of damaged caused will tend to show up quite quickly by the watch either stopping or varying quite noticably in its timekeeping. But, as BG says, the only way to be 100% sure is to have it examined.

Joe Horner said:

The problem with watches isn't so much the number of moving parts as the scale of them. They tend to have (relatively) massive parts like the balance wheel and auto rotor mounted on very small pivots because of the friction requirements.

Balance pivots on a typical wrist watch are on the order of a few thousandths of an inch (say, a tenth of a mm or so) in diameter, yet the balance wheel is one of the heaviest wheels in there. Without shock protection, a 1 meter drop is easily enough to break pivots. Even with it, there's a real risk of damage.

The sort of damaged caused will tend to show up quite quickly by the watch either stopping or varying quite noticably in its timekeeping. But, as BG says, the only way to be 100% sure is to have it examined.

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So far it is keeping accurate time. Maybe it helped that it fell face down on its crystal, maybe that helped to absorb the shock because the crystal is quite hard and thick ?

It's not so much that the crystal absorbs the shock, more that face-down or back-down is the safest way to drop a watch if you're really determined to. All the shock is taken end-on by the pivots in that case, which is their strongest direction - think trying to crush" a metal rod (end-on) rather than bending it (side-on).

It's also the direction that the balance shock protection is most effective in because the shock protection springs will allow the load to be taken almost immediately onto the shoulders of the staff, which are maybe 10 - 15 times thicker than the pivots, without any bending force first.

Finally, the rotor is relatively flexible in that direction, so is likely to bounce against the top plate (which will stop it moving) rather than relying on its pivot / bearing to absorb all the force.

peter912: if it is running within specs and is otherwise not due a PM, then there should be nothing to lose sleep over. If performance changes...get it evaluated.