Patek Philippe

I was so excited yesterday (June 30) because I brought my new 5146 home. (Pics will be posted shortly.) Being June 30, I was excited to watch the date change, going from 30 to 31 to 1, and then from Jun to Jul, and also from Tu to We.

Well, what happened was this:
First of all, I noticed the changes starting to occur around 10:30, which I thought was a little early (??)
Then:

1) 30 changed to 31 and then to 1 perfectly.

 2) Tu changed to We but then moved to THursday and has stayed there.

3) And Jun stayed at Jun, and didn't move to Jul.

I am hoping that the watch is simply out of sync. But I am also concerned that there is something wrong with the date change mechanism. I haven't touched anything. I am planning to leave it "as is" and see what happens tonight at midnight.  

Since this is my first annual calendar,  please bear with me, but should I be concerned?  Maybe it is nothing and is common if the watch isn't set properly from the beginning. 

Not being an expert, I would like to know if some of you have experienced such strange date changes (no changes) and how you dealt with them and what you suggest. 
I am thinking I should contact Patek and check, but I wanted to hear some opinions first. Thanks for any input.

Ron

Hi Ron I have in the past had a similar problem, you could as you suggest wait until midnight and see what happens.

But you could also try the above suggestion.

Using the pushers to advance the watches date/day & month back to a couple of days before June the 30th, then manually wind on the watch and see what happens on the approach to the change on the 30th.

It maybe that because the watch is so new that it may have stuck slightly and by manually moving all the working parts does free them up. 

But please remember that when using the pushers to advance the  day,date & month that you set the time to about 6am so that you don't cause any conflict with the watches natural changes, which is usually between 6pm - 2am.

Do not worry about the start of the date change on short months, its quite normal.

For example on the 28th Feb the dates start to change from about 7.10 pm.

I hope that this helps you somewhat. Let us know how you get on?

I just received my 5146 on Monday. In my case the date and day changed perfectly, but unfortunately it apparently is still June, P.P. time. I'm going to manually advance the month, and keep my fingers crossed that it heals itself.

In keeping an eye on the watch to see what it does around midnight tonight, I noticed it has "died". Oh, my heart stopped like the watch!! The time got stuck around 11:20, and it just isn't tick tick ticking. There is more than half of the power reserve left. 

Earlier this evening, I did call the dealer to mention that I think there could be a problem. Now, rather than play around with it myself, I am going to take it back and see what will be the next step.

And thanks for the replies, guys. And pdavid2001,  I hope your new 5146 will heal on its own.

Ron

 

 

My brand new 5960 did the same thing back in April.  I brought it back to my AD who "re-synched" it.  Now, all dates changed perfectly from Tue 30 Jun to Wed 1 Jul.  

If you're unable to have your AD help you "re-synch" the gears, then follow you owner's manual to the "T" on how to properly set it.  When the watch is just past 06:00, using the exact sequence as described in the owner's manual, set the watch to Mon 27 Apr. Then manually advance it to Fri 1 May.  If this doesn't work, you've got a problem.  Have your AD send it back to Patek.

I own a 5036 whose date never worked properly even after it was properly synched.  It's problems were nearly duplicate to your 5140.  Back it went to Geneve for 16 weeks ... Patek fixed it.

I'm sorry to tell you, but in my experience, unless it's a synch issue, these issues don't "fix themselves."

Ron,

I had the same issue with the month not changing when I first got my 5396r two years ago.  I believe LouC (who responded to your post on Timezone) is correct - the setting sequence does matter.

In fact, LouC's post on Timezone of Sept. 1, 2006 solved my issue - the month needs to be set first.  This is not what is stated in the owner's manual (at least not for the 5396R) - but was confirmed for me by Patek NY.  Patek NY basically advised me to set from "biggest" (month) to smallest (day of week).  When I set month, date, day, in that order, the month changes properly.  However, if I change the date, then the month, the month does not change as it should.

I don't know what to say about the issue of the watch stopping - hopefully that is not a bigger problem.

Best of luck - the 5146 is a fantastic looking watch.  

Not to be too thick about this, in order to correct the synch issue I should set the month, day and then date to say June/Sunday/28, while the watch is at the 6a.m. time setting, then slooooowly advance the hands clockwise to the proper month/day/date (today's setting)? Will that do the synching?
Thanks so much for the help.

Phil

Phil - I would set your watch with the pusher in this order:  June/28/Sunday (at 6am).  (If it is already shows June, I would first cycle it around once back to June.)  Then I would just let it run and see what happens when the 30th changes to the 1st.  This is what worked with my 5396.  I think you could test it by moving the hands manually, put I did not do that. 

The key seems to be setting the month first.  If I followed the owner's manual, the month was set after the date, and I would have the problem of the month not changing.

Hopefully this will work for you too.  Let us know!

Andrew: I did as you suggested in terms of setting the month first, to the June/28/Sunday setting, while the watch was at 6a.m. I then slowly advanced the hands. VIOLA! The month advanced as it was supposed to. I now assume and hope that things are properly synched going forward.

Thank you all very much for the help. What an incredible resource!

Phil - glad to hear the setting sequence worked and your watch is running properly.  I think you will still be happy when you wake up on August 1.  Enjoy your great watch!

I am bringing the watch back today. But since it stopped at around 11:20, the time when it should be going through the date/day changes, I am more concerned that it might be more than a "sync" problem.  I will let you know.

Hopefully your date issue has been resolved.

Ron, I hope that your AD is able to resolve your problems very quickly. Please keep us updated.

Thanks Andrew for posting the correct order of change, as I couldn't remember it.

This morning, I brought it to the dealer, wrapping it up. And would you believe? Just like the tooth ache that goes away the minute you walk in the dentist's office, the watch was running again.  I was so thrilled to see it ticking away!  I guess the motion from carrying it around was enough to get the power it needed (although it stopped at around mid-point on the PR). I left the watch at the dealer, explaining that the day/date setting could be out of sync.

The dealer called me this evening. After I left, he confirmed with Patek service and was told to set the month, date and then day, in that order. Also, Patek said never set the date on 30 or 31. If you do, the month won't change. (I think he messed up by first setting the date this past Tuesday, which happened to be the 30th.) They then suggested he manually enter 2 dates and watch what happens. He put in April 30 Thu and then Jun 30 Tu. Both times he said the watch did exactly as it was supposed to do. He did not turn the hands manually, but kept an eye on the watch to see if it would do it on its own.

He said that it has continued to run smoothly since this morning and that power reserve is now just a little to the left of middle. He will keep an eye on it tomorrow too, and if it seems to be OK and keeping good time, I can go pick it up tomorrow night. 

Without looking at the watch, Patek has no idea why the day moved from Tuesday to Thursday, or why the watch stopped. But they assumed it could be because the whole thing was way out of sync from the beginning and couldn't handle the changes without constant power coming from me wearing it, although the PR was around halfway when the watch stopped. Not sure if I buy this, but I have my fingers crossed, and hopefully I don't have a dud.

Waiting to see what happens.

Ron

 

 

 

First of all, thanks for the comments, suggestions and concern. The watch has run perfectly for the last two days at the dealers, so I went and picked it up tonight. It's now on my wrist right and ticking away and building up power, after it ran great on the stored up power these past days. I hope this whole issue was nothing more the problem of the complications not being set in the precise order needed from the begining.

Ron

 

 

 

 

You will wake up and smile.