# Accuracy



## teadazed (Nov 19, 2013)

What sort of accuracy do people get from their various Vostoks, Poljots, Seagulls etc?

My current Amphibia is a little erratic but always within a minute a day so perfectly wearable. I've got a 3133 and another Amphibia on the way though so I'm curious as to what to expect and whether my current watch is just an example in need of a looking at or entirely normal.


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## PC-Magician (Apr 29, 2013)

I would say about 40 seconds per day would be acceptable,but I usually regulate all my Soviet Watches and achieve around 15 to 20 seconds a day.

Hope that helps, no doubt you will get further responses from some of our experts.


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

It varies enormously, especially on the older stuff. A new Vostok Amphibia should be within 30 secs/day. As Jon says above, 15 to 20 secs day is easily achievable.

I'd recommend you have a look for a cheap Chinese Timegrapher on eBay for about Â£120. Best watch toy I've ever bought!


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## Jeremy Fisher (Jan 28, 2012)

My seagull watch, with a st19 inside, has been as accurate as any of my swiss watches. Hard to tell exactly as it doesn't hack but it been constantly gaining 1/2 a minute a week, so 4-5 secs a day I would say.

Can't say the same about vostoks, my Komandarskie was gaining about 2 minutes a week and about the same for other Russian watches I have had.

I wouldn't compare Seagulls to Russian watches. Seagulls are made to much higher standards, and cost a lot more, than the vast majority of Russian watches, most of the movements do almost as well as the swiss movements they are based on and their higher end watches are as good as their Swiss counterparts.

That said, the 3133 (as long as you don't get a dud) should be much more accurate than the vast majority of Russian movements.


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

I wouldn't say Seagulls are made to a much higher standard and cost much more than Russian movements. Seagull automatic movements are freely available on Cousins and cost peanuts. There are plenty of comparisons of Chinese movements and the Swiss movements they've copied on the internet and most of the time they don't fare well.

There are quite a few very good quality Russian movements out there, such as Precision Vostoks, Raketa and Poljot. I think to group them all in one category is quite unfair.

Maybe you've had a few duds? Any Russian watch I've owned that hasn't been in need of service has easily been regulated to within 20 secs/day and often to within 5 secs/day with a bit of effort.


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## PC-Magician (Apr 29, 2013)

Lampoc said:


> I wouldn't say Seagulls are made to a much higher standard and cost much more than Russian movements. Seagull automatic movements are freely available on Cousins and cost peanuts. There are plenty of comparisons of Chinese movements and the Swiss movements they've copied on the internet and most of the time they don't fare well.
> 
> There are quite a few very good quality Russian movements out there, such as Precision Vostoks, Raketa and Poljot. I think to group them all in one category is quite unfair.
> 
> Maybe you've had a few duds? Any Russian watch I've owned that hasn't been in need of service has easily been regulated to within 20 secs/day and often to within 5 secs/day with a bit of effort.


I agree fully with this comment.


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## Jeremy Fisher (Jan 28, 2012)

There are indeed some very good Russian movements out there, but the standard fare such as majority of Vostok's "classic" Komandarskies and Amphibias are still made to the Soviet mass-production standards of quantity over quality.

Raketa is an exception to the rule as the brand has been revived as a higher end brand at great cost. Poljot 3133s are also vastly superior movements designed to a higher standard and originally intended for the air force. Most Russian watches are housed with movements that haven't changed one bit in terms of both engineering or manufacturing for over 30 years.

Seagull movements are by-and-large inferior to their swiss counterparts, I am not disputing this. They show less attention to detail, often use inferior parts (such as cheaper, novidiac style shock absorbers for most of the cheap autos) and have poor quality control. In terms of real world performance, they aren't that much worse than the swiss originals. Even with cheap brands like parnis and alpha who use seagull movements, they have for me always stayed under 10 s/d out of the box. Most seagull movements also suffer because they come unoiled and many watchmakers don't bother oiling them.

The actual seagull-branded watches I have owned have all performed as well as their swiss counterparts. The st2130 I had was just as accurate as my 2824-2 and my st19 powered chrono is more accurate than my Oris.


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## miroman (Dec 12, 2011)

There are Seagull movements inside Seagull watches, and I can assure they are very well built, fully maintained, nice finished, and precise timed.










There are also Seagull movements inside OEM manufacturers watches, which are matter of luck if they are as mentioned above. Some are good, some not so.

One of the Seagull movements - ST16 - is good enough to be copied and sold as swiss made (Claro CL888)

I don't agree that Seagulls are "inferior to their swiss counterparts", of course in the same price range. Shanghai - maybe, Seagull - definitely no, Beijing - even better. I mean only the movements inside genuine branded Chinese watches.


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## Jeremy Fisher (Jan 28, 2012)

miroman said:


> I don't agree that Seagulls are "inferior to their swiss counterparts", of course in the same price range. Shanghai - maybe, Seagull - definitely no, Beijing - even better. I mean only the movements inside genuine branded Chinese watches.


You maybe right overall at price-point, i.e. a Â£200 swiss movement vs a Â£200 Chinese movement, but if you compare a Chinese movement with the swiss calibre it's based on, generally I find that they aren't quite at the same level.

In terms of technology/engineering, they are just as good as the originals. But quality control and attention to detail are quite poor in Chinese movements in general. If you look at various comparisons under the microscope (so to speak) of Chinese calibres with their swiss counterparts online, these become clear. From my personal experience there are often clear indications of lack of quality control; I once found a hair floating inside a brand new watch (which was disgusting and a pain to get out).

This is a very good example of what I mean:

http://watchguy.co.uk/comparison-sea-gull-st2130-eta-2824-2-peacock-sl3000/


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