How to Set the Time and Date Without Damaging Your Watch

Setting a watch takes about thirty seconds. Doing it in the wrong order, at the wrong hour, can break a tooth off a wheel inside the date mechanism, and fixing that means opening the case. The rules that prevent it are few, and once you know them they become habit.

The three crown positions

The crown is the small knob on the side of the case. On most watches it has up to three positions, and each pull out clicks into the next one. Position 0 is fully pushed in. Position 1 is the first click out, position 2 the second.

Pull the crown out with a thumbnail under its edge, gently, and feel for the clicks. Do not pull past the last position. With enough force the winding stem can come loose inside the movement, and only a watchmaker can put it back.

On many watches, pulling the crown to the hand-setting position also stops the seconds hand. That makes it easy to set the watch to the second: pull the crown when the seconds hand reaches 12, set the minute hand to the next full minute, and push the crown in as the clock on your phone reaches that minute.

Stone-set crowns are harder to grip than plain ones. Turn them with the pads of your fingers rather than a fingernail dragged across the stones, and never reach for pliers.

Screw-down crowns

Some crowns screw onto a threaded tube in the case to seal it more tightly. If yours will not pull out, check whether it screws down before you pull harder. Turn it toward you, counterclockwise, until it springs out a little. That is position 0, and from there it works like any other crown.

Screwing it back in is where people go wrong:

1. Push the crown fully in and hold it there.
2. Turn it backward a fraction until you feel a faint click. That is the threads lining up.
3. Now turn it clockwise while pressing in lightly. It should spin easily for several turns.
4. Stop at finger-tight. There is no need to crank it.

If the crown binds after half a turn, it is cross-threaded. Back it off and start again. Forcing it damages the tube, and the tube is part of the case.

The date danger zone

On a mechanical watch the date does not jump at midnight in a single instant. Wheels inside the movement start engaging the date ring a few hours before, and the change finishes some time after. On many movements that window runs from roughly 9 pm to 3 am on the hands. Using the quick-set while those parts are engaged pushes one gear against another, which can break a tooth or bend the small lever that advances the date.

Many quartz watches with a date use a similar mechanical date change, so the same habit protects them too. Unless the instructions for a particular watch say otherwise, treat the window as off-limits on any analog watch with a date.

The simple safeguard: before you touch the date, move the hands to about 6:30. Whether the watch takes that as morning or evening, the hands are well clear of the window.

Setting it in the right order

1. If the watch is mechanical and has stopped, get it running first. If it is quartz and has stopped, it probably needs a battery.
2. Pull the crown to the hand-setting position and move the hands to about 6:30.
3. Push the crown to the first position and quick-set the date to yesterday’s date.
4. Pull back out to the hand-setting position and turn the hands forward until the date clicks over. The watch is now at midnight.
5. Keep turning forward to the current time. If it is afternoon or evening, go around past noon to the correct pm time.
6. Push the crown fully in, and screw it down if it screws.

Step 4 is what gets AM and PM right. A dial only shows twelve hours, and the date change is the only clue to which half of the day the watch thinks it is. Set a watch to 3 am when it is really 3 pm and the date will change at lunchtime.

Turning the hands forward is the safer habit in general. Winding them backward through the date window on a mechanical watch asks the date parts to run in reverse, which some movements tolerate and some do not.

Day-date watches

A watch that shows the day of the week as well as the date usually sets the day and the date from the same crown position, by turning the crown one way for the date and the other way for the day. Some day wheels carry two languages, so you will click through a second set of names to reach the one you want. Set both the day and the date to yesterday, then run the hands forward through midnight so both change together, and carry on to the current time. The same 9 pm to 3 am window applies to the day.

Short months and everyday habits

• Months with fewer than 31 days. A simple date display does not know the month. After April, June, September and November it will show 31 when it should show 1, and after February it needs moving on by two or three days. Correct it on the first morning of the new month, when the hands are far from the window.
• Set it away from water. Do it at a table, not over the bathroom sink, and never with wet hands or straight after a shower. Our listings already advise against wearing our watches while swimming or in the rain, and an open crown is the easiest way in for moisture.
• Work over a soft surface. A folded towel under the watch saves the crystal and the stones if it slips out of your hand.
• Do not use the crown as a handle. Pulling the watch on or off by the crown strains the stem.

If you are unsure which type of movement your watch has, Quartz vs Automatic Movements explains how to tell and which of these steps apply. For keeping the crown and case free of grime, see How to Clean an Iced Out Watch. If a mechanical watch suddenly gains minutes a day after you set it, read Is Your Watch Magnetized? Questions about a specific watch from us can go to [email protected].