What is watch hacking?
Watch enthusiasts often talk about movements, especially the mechanism of mechanical timepieces. If you are interested in mechanical watches, chances are you have heard about the terms winding and automatic movement. How about hacking?
Hacking is not a jargon with watch geeks, but for others, it may sound new and confusing. To understand its concept, let us define what is watch hacking first.
WATCH HACKING DEFINED
With mechanical watches, adjusting the time is a standard feature. However, not all watches allow you to hack the seconds as well. So, if you got a watch that can stop the second hand, it is perfect.
Technically, hacking is when you set a watch’s second hand together with its hour and minute hands at will. It is also known as a hack or stop-seconds function.
It was in the 20th century when this function was developed to help in the synchronization of watches.
HOW DO YOU HACK A MOVEMENT?
This is done when you pull out the crown to the time-setting position. By pulling the crown, it causes the brake or a lever in the movement to touch the balance wheel. As a result, the movement will ultimately come into a halt.
The hacking technique allows you to set the watch’s time easily using another watch as a reference. After setting the correct time, push the crown back into its original position to resume movement.
DOES HACKING AFFECT THE TIMEKEEPING PROPERTY OF A WATCH?
The answer is no. Hacking does not affect at all its timekeeping element since it merely detaches the hands of the watch temporarily to allow time setting.
I HAVE A NON-HACKING WATCH. IS IT LESS ACCURATE?
No. Never. Watches with non-hacking movement is not considered less accurate than those with the seconds halt function.
WHAT IS A ‘BACK PRESSURE’ TECHNIQUE?
‘Back pressure’ or the process of hacking a non-hack watch, is a technique that lets you slow down and stop the movement so you can sync the time.
This method requires keen attention to avoid damaging your timepiece. Make sure that the mainspring is not overwound before doing this technique.
So, this sums up watch hacking. Hoping this guide helps you in understanding watch hacking better than before.
Are you looking for a watch that can hack? Check out Grayton’s best automatic watches.
