Timegrapher vs Phone Apps - How do the Apps Perform?

Thank you Mark Kantner for this brilliant video idea! Tonight we are putting phone app timegraphers to the test - how do they compare to the real deal?
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[@AvgJoeWatchReviews]

Found this video very interesting and informative. I’m surprised at how accurate the 2 apps were. Nice investigative journalism my friend.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Thank you! Yeah - I was totally shocked. They performed really well!

[@bobelaviador]

I own an Invicta 29179 and according with the Watch Accuracy Meter It came form the factory with 2.5 ms beat error and I could correct it close to 0; and the accuracy as well close to 0 sec/dat dial down. Now the watch goes with a delta of 10 seconds (-5, +5)

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Oh cool! Great job regulating it! 🍸🍸

[@robertdeland3390]

I have the watch accuracy meter. I found that the watch has different accuracy for crown up, crown down , face up, or face down. This means the lifestyle of my watch arm is important. Most people only check face up position.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Yep! I've seen that also. 🍸🍸

[@ROKuberski]

Me too. I would like to find an app that will measure amplitude on an android phone. @@KillingTimeWithNorman

[@gillbates999]

On the first app (which I just got an hour ago and used to my great satisfaction) you swipe the blue line left or right to center it between the arrows at the bottom. "center pattern" - get it? Doesn't change the readings at all, but looks nicer. Also, I just put the watch next to the bottom of the phone where the microphone opening is, not on top of the phone.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Oh! Cool - I'll have to give that app another go! Thank you!

[@jb-hw9if]

I use watchcheck, the first non microphone app you used. It works slightly different than you displayed. The deviation you saw was the deviation from GPS time. Your first time check is a reference. Thereafter further time checks measure the accuracy from that reference. You need to save the time checks. The rate of accuracy is displayed on the next screen that you didn't show. It's better to do time checks say over a day and continue for a week or so because the human reaction to the second hand at twelve could be half a second or so out. Half a second over 1 minute is a decent percentage whereas over a day it's much less. This app is great actually because it measures accuracy of the watch on wrist not just dial up.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Thank you for this information! I'll have to spend more time with these non-mic apps and do a follow up! Do you use those due to poor mic performance, or do you simply prefer them? Thanks again!

[@jb-hw9if]

@@KillingTimeWithNormanI do prefer the non mic Watchcheck because I think it's the most representative of real daily accuracy. If I test a watch I'll wear it every day for a week or so and test perhaps 3 times a day, morning, noon and night. The morning reading is interesting as it tells you the impact of 8 hours in the dial up position - I have watches that gain slightly while dial up and some that slow, only by several seconds. But once on the wrist they settle again, hence the average rate over a week or so becomes pretty accurate. As watch collectors, within a week's test, there are occasional hours here and there where we might want a watch change but still, keep the watch you're testing wound and subject to lots of wrist time.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

@@jb-hw9if Cool! That makes perfect sense. Well thought out!

[@LaFritePerreGoat]

Got a timegrapher to check second hand watch "health" I ordered online before the return back period ended. Ultra valuable tool for this purpose well worth the cost. Apps doesn't show you the amplitude wich is the main info you need. Apps are pretty useful if you only have some seikos out of warranty or cheap under 100€ vintage watches you want to regulate yourself.

[@LaFritePerreGoat]

I like the app atomic clock and watch accuracy tool. I thinks that the name, to record time over more days to check regulation on wrist. It is more practical to me as you don't have to wait for the full minutes but can record time every 5 seconds or so. Better than the first one you showed that I used at the beginning

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Good point, yeah.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Oh! I'll have to check that one out

[@rafalsokolowski3550]

The first app which is Watch accuracy meter does show the amplitude. Go to options - detection algorithm - experimental - set lift angle. The amplitude window will appear on the main screen.

[@samiransar387]

The watch accuracy meter app: you need to click and drag the blue line to the center while it's going to get a more accurate readout

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Oh! Good to know. Thank you! 🍸🍸

[@khairimat-ls9gq]

thanks for sharing bro👍

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Absolutely anytime! 🍸🍸

[@IlluminatingWatches]

Not been the timegrapher rabbit hole yet… it seems I’m die a trip. Interested in looking more into “chronometers” as a class of watch after looking at the citizen glorious models

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Ooo! Nice, that'll be a fun deep dive!

[@bongkem2723]

very useful video bro, i always wonder how the app fair against a timegrapher, now i know it's good enough, thanks a lo!

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Thank you! 🍸🍸

[@strannostrannovasrr]

Hey, thanks Norman. I downloaded watch accuracy meter. It's not bad at all.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Yeah! Cool!

[@doranmaxwell1755]

I don't ever use my smart phone. Everyone tells me about the cool 'apps' mostly nothing Icouldn't live without... but last week we needed to check a level. My son used his phone. Now this timegraphers app? Gotta have it.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Cool!

[@peha524]

Get a tripod.......I've being seasick.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Hey now, I'm just helping you get your sealegs. Watch it a few more times and you're ready to hit the ocean blue! 🍸🍸

[@buildyourownclone]

I paid for an app on the iPhone. It didn't work with either the internal mic or my really nice Apogee mic.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Nooo! That sucks. Is it a pain to get refunded for bad apps in the Apple Store? Sorry bout that :/

[@thenotanclan]

Perhaps Norman you could use such an app to regulate your own timings - this way it could prevent this ‘late at night’ watch insomnia - personally I would love to hear ‘it is early in the morning and I am Norman’ at the start of your videos

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

LOL "We put Norman on a timegrapher, definitely needs a service, keeps running super late."

[@z1522]

Your comment regarding quartz watches at 11:00 confused me, re: "they're so inaccurate," referring to the software or quartz watches? LOL, I have a$4.99 generic small clock insert that has maintained +/- 5 seconds, over 3 MONTHS, versus automatics one is lucky to adjust within 5 seconds a week. The inherent weaknesses of the best mechanical watches make them vastly less accurate and consistent than cheap quartz, and the only real rationalization for choosing one is the cachet and appreciation for the jewelry, and centuries of refinement behind one.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Oh I was talking about the accuracy of the apps, cuz they rely on you hitting the button at an exact second etc - so human error is a factor.

[@owenlaprath4135]

Regarding mech watches: Environmentally, every battery not used is a good battery! So far my new automatic Invicta Pro Diver is actually pretty good and ran within a second in 24 hrs :) I really like not having to buy any more batteries, and as long as we have radio or internet, a weekly set is enough. This is also my little fantasy survival TEOTWAWKI watch, for a world without batteries, but a need for occasional navigation and coordination tasks in need of a reasonably accurate time-piece. Of course, if TEOTWAWKI happens, being next to a military base, we are all pretty crisped anyway, so never mind .... but it is a nice new toy for an old man, who grew up with the first generations of quartz watches :)

[@doranmaxwell1755]

How would they do on Accutron tuning fork watches? Accutrons are pretty noisy lol

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

I'll put mine on there, I also tried a quartz piece for kicks. Because it's listening for ticks from a balance wheel, I think anything else will confuse it. But putting the SpaceView on it sounds fun! Thanks for that suggestion! 🍸🍸

[@chriskammerer221]

Are you not concerned about magnetizing the hairspring, putting it on your phone like that? Maybe that's an overhyped precaution, to keep your watch away from electronics.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Oh that's a great call out! I don't usually use these apps, didn't notice any ill effects after this vid. But definitely something to bear in mind. Thank you!

[@VIProfessor]

I don't set the watch on the microphone, but a few inches away. Seems to work just as well.

[@irfanf6403]

The only reason i dont use this app..

[@obesetuna3164]

Careful Norman. Such a device could induce watch paranoia. Too hi tech for the likes of me.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Run away! Run away!! For the most part I use the "seems to be" method of accuracy checking. Seems to be running well. Sweet.

[@doranmaxwell1755]

here is one for your amusement. So I get the app and all goes well... Dig through all the mechanical watches and dig out an Orioda? 17 jewels... Swiss... probly 70's or earlier since it says incabloc on the dial.. Wyler probly made everyone do that into the 70's LOL.... Big SS beat up watch that runs ran? fine. Apparently the app has ears like mine cause it could not hear through the heavy cases of my Seamaster or my Zodiac dive. So.. the Orioda. it is in the -10 sec a day range but the beat error is like 6.0 or some such... so I ever soooo carefully adjust it till it is about 0.7 but now. the seconds per day error is like 600 or so.. Ok I'll just carefully and with patience that I am normally completely devoid of... 'adjust' one problem.. if I move the advance retard arm...it take the beat adjustment arm with it. I can move the beat arm independently but not the reverse. and of course now the thing has a beat error of '9.9' which is for certain as high as it will red I got to move the advance arm a bit.. then go back and move the beat arm back to where it was as best as I can tell. By moving on one way and the other the other way I have gotten to about 1.0 on the beat error and maybe 40 seconds slow. I know I can fine tune that but I am done for the day..

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

That sounds exactly like the fun I've had with a dirt cheap mechanical I got from India... except I adjusted it so far it made the balance wheel just stop altogether. So far it's running again, but at over +200sec. And pretty sure unless I do a full servicing, that's as good as I can get it. lol Adventures!

[@Carlos-nq7up]

I used the first watch app and noticed that with 2 or 3 of my watches, two vertical lines shot up from the bottom. Anybody know what two lines instead of one line means?

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Hmm I wonder if that would indicate a beat error.

[@owenlaprath4135]

The farther the lines are apart, the bigger the beat error. You get one line for each lobe of the beat, i.e. one for "tiks" and one for "toks". If they merge, your beat error is zero!

[@owenlaprath4135]

You get one line each for each lobe of the beat, so a line for all "tiks" and another for all "toks". The further they are apart, the worse the beat error. If they merge, you have zero error.

[@b.b.b81]

Bei mir funktioniert das nicht. Habe ständig unterschiedliche Werte 😂. Aber vielleicht ligt es an der russischen Uhr 😂

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Timegraphers are fairly reasonable, I'd go with an actual machine vs the apps. But yeah.

[@petersneddon1579]

Quietist video ever by a mile.

[@user-yf5xp3pv7o]

What’s the name of the apps

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

I give the names in the video, at least for Android, I'm not sure what their Apple equivalents would be :/ Thanks! 🍸🍸

[@Spurdospaerde692]

You seem to misunderstand the whole point of those time logging apps. One, or two in quick succession, data points are completely meaningless. You're supposed to make a log over a day or a week or so to find out how much a watch deviates from standard time in actual use. It was kind of baffling when you noted that an app correctly said that the time on your watch currently was some 3 s ahead of standard time, and seemed to think that this had anything to do with the 5 spd rate deviation number shown by the timegraphers... Maybe I'm fooled by by your video editing, but I'm more surprised that you got any results at all from any of the timegrapher apps, than that most of them had problems or "didn't work", since in the video it seems like you were actually TALKING while doing the measurements! As opposed to a dedicated timegrapher device with a contact microphone, your phone's built in mic picks up all ambient sound. You need to be in a quiet room, STFU, not touch anything, and even breathe as quietly as possible! It also helps to have the mic opening in your phone actually touching the watch, preferably the same part of the watch in all measured positions. You also did the measurement with the Weishi timegrapher in dial up position. With the phone, you had the watch leaning and angled. Even if the measurements had been performed correctly, the results wouldn't be comparable to those from the Weishi due to the watch not being in the same position. BTW, of these apps I have tried "Watch Accuracy Meter", and there is a setting for running the measurement continuously instead of stopping after 1 minute.

[@KillingTimeWithNorman]

Thank you for the feedback, critique, and corrections!