When NOT To Change The DATE on a Watch (and how to do it properly)

Don't know when not to change the date on a watch? Here is how to do it properly, and some problems you might run into (or damages) if you do it at the wrong time.
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In this video, you'll learn:
When not to change the date + why changing the date at the wrong time is bad for your watch movement
How to know if your watch shows AM or PM + when to change the date on a watch
What’s the best time to change the date on an automatic watch?
How to set the date if it's currently between 9 PM and 3 AM
How it works with instantaneous date change mechanisms
Why your watch doesn't change at midnight + how to set it so it actually does
What to do if the date won’t change on your watch or the date wheel is stuck

[@EvilSSP]

Wow so I've been doing this wrong my whole life. My Hamilton must be pretty resilient because I've done this wrong so many times and haven't broke the movement yet.

[@iganpparamarta8813]

Thank you. Never knew this until I bought a Seiko presage. This video is beyond helpful. You just saved my watch.

[@vinteng825]

I thought I literally would have to wait between 5AM until 7PM before I can change the time. Haha.

[@Petmalumomalupet]

Me too

[@FancyCP30]

Change the time first and then change the date. No problem.

[@jo-oy4vj]

Same lmao

[@ayellowfinger132]

Ah... I've been doing that for a year now. I'm smart

[@James011]

😂😂 I was busy waiting

[@mrscollinsstorytime6014]

Fabulous video! Very clear and I finally got the date on my watch right without damaging it. Thank you!!!

[@omnivector45]

you have got to be out of your mind! How about a video w/o music, w/o such an incredible amount if unnecessary babbling!! How about instructions in a military type way! FFS! Is everyone in the watch community so.....drawn out, loving to hear their own GD voice? Tell me how to operate the MF'r and then shut F up!! I cant find an intelligent instructional video anywhere!!

[@zeroexct]

Thank you! I was doing it wrong, I bought my first mechanical watch and the dealer lady said I should put the hour and minute hand at 11 or close to 12 mark before changing the day and date. This cleared up a lot of things. Thank you!

[@davidmichienzi101]

Thank you Sir, I made the mistake once and my watch runs fine but will not change the date at the wrong time ⌚👍

[@chenlu79]

Great video! I've seen so many videos that only tells you _not_ to change date between 21:00-03:00 but never explains why. Thank you sir 👍

[@jjk4891]

Oh so it's not a horrible thing to change the time when it's between 9pm and 3am, just the date. I get it now haha. For some reason I always thought it is bad to change ANYTHING when it is between 9pm and 3am. Thanks for clearing it out with many examples!

[@TimedSquare]

Noooo time is okay! 😉👍

[@leonardo3689]

Same for me, I thought that I would break my watch by changing time when the hour hand was in that unsafe area, now I see that it's only the date 😂

[@141sharon270]

Dickhead lol🤣

[@coke8077]

well to change the time a lot of the time you’ll have to change the date before you change the time because you should NEVER move the time or date backwards. That will for certain destroy the movement.

[@AlessandroGenTLe]

It is if you go backward. The date/day wheels are supposed to move only in one direction, if you are at 3am and you move the time backward to 10pm "of the previous day" you seriously risk to damage the movement.

[@LHyoutube]

This is such an important detail that I'm surprised it isn't included in most watch manuals by default! 😲

[@thechinadesk]

Amen to that. They really ought to include an information leaflet warning users not to make this mistake.

[@PrithwishMandal1337]

They make money off repairs

[@marcosm3392]

They do. It’s just no one reads the manual lol.

[@LHyoutube]

@@marcosm3392 - It's never been in any watch manual I've seen. Perhaps it is only in those for more expensive watches?

[@alex_stp]

@@LHyoutube it’s written in manual for my Seiko SRPE57. The watch is not expensive at all. But manual doesn't say that you can adjust the time to the safe zone and only then set the day/date. It simply says that don’t change day/date from 9 pm to 4 am and that’s it.

[@KevAlberta]

Once I changed the date on my Hamilton at 8:30pm (says not to change between 9pm and 2am). the action felt normal but the next day I was surprised to see the date still on the same number. I fast forwarded the hours to go through a full day and it changed over. Happy to find out I didn’t break my first watch lol

[@aleontecristian9260]

Wait...Even if you screw it up, if you just go over 24 hours, you fix it????

[@KevAlberta]

@@aleontecristian9260 no, I got lucky

[@aleontecristian9260]

@@KevAlberta is the watch still ok?

[@julienxie1110]

Just bought my first watch and I think that I changed the date at the danger hour .. what's the risk ...

[@drp.wolfgang]

​@@julienxie1110 If a watch broke just by changing the date during the "forbidden hours" that would mean the watch and it's mechanism is shit. No modern good watch is going to be demaged by doing this.

[@fduyilemi]

Thanks for the tip! I have just broken my date mechanism before watching your video. Good enough it is just one watch. I will be so courteous inorder not to break my other ones. Thanks a lot!

[@susanmiller2890]

WOW! Finally a video that easily shows how to get the date set accurately. I'm bookmarking this video for future reference.

[@sardaar_sanveer_singh]

Thank you sir, it is so informative video, I was doing wrong date change around 2 pm (according to watch 2am) past 2 days, then searched net about the issue and got the best guidance.

[@141sharon270]

I only needed to know which way to turn day or date and saw it right at the beginning, but had to see the video right through because it was very interesting and the guy explained everything clearly. Many thanks for the tutorial on setting date, day, and time.

[@civanlfc4358]

Very informative video Alessandro, thank you! Life saver ;)

[@camtron1967]

This was very helpful. The date kept changing at noon and I didn’t know why but now it’s fixed

[@arjunnarang16]

Great video! Very helpful Thank you :) you explained very clearly with various different watches and different scenarios. As someone new to watches it was an absolute life saver.

[@xrpwatts2116]

Everyone should watch your tutorial. It helped me out immensely. Now I'm less likely to screw up my watches.

[@timhadzisavas3692]

Gee… thx so very much for this. I’ve finally decided to dump my smartwatch and go back to an analog time piece. You saved me a lot of time in showing me this neat trick. Thx again

[@ianjeromelim7566]

Great video. I was afraid that I couldn't set my watch to 11pm as the day/date was changing as I thought it would damage the watch but u cleared my mind of doubts. Thank you!

[@crystalthomas2767]

This video was so helpful I finally set my watch and I understood everything thank you for explaining in such detailed words

[@7itese840]

So for short, first set the time to 5 am/pm, then set the date (day) to the previous day, then set the hands to the correct time and the correct date (day).

[@brokenedits10]

What if the watch goes to 31 in a 30 day Month? For example its 1 Oct and watch shows 31 September

[@7itese840]

@@brokenedits10 When setting the date to the precious day (step 2), set 29 if current day is 30, and set 31 if current day is 1. If you are already wearing it (it's running), just advance one day between 5am/pm and 7am/pm, and not worry about changing time.

[@viliancvetanov3910]

@@7itese840 So in that case on the 1 you can set only the date between 5am and 7pm, without changing the time, because it is already in the safe time zone?

[@coprolandia]

Thanks for the really helpful video! But you shouldn't say "Don't change the date between 9pm and 3am", but rather "when your watch's time is set anywhere between 9pm and 3am". Those are different things. The way you put it, I'm afraid it's misleading. It all gets cleared out when you watch the whole video, though. Cheers!

[@Lloyd1913]

Thank you, I needed this

[@HeyhitmeBAM]

Lol

[@afroditta6950]

I bet you drink shampoo if it doesn’t come with a huge warning label :)

[@wrcz]

true, might be useful for sub-80 IQ people

[@0Rafikki0]

Thank you for making this video! I wasn’t able to find the answer by googling, but your video came up and answered exactly.

[@Orlando_Brown]

Oh my goodness I'm saving this video!!!!!! I almost returned my orient that's coming tomorrow and your video helped me out soooo much thank you.

[@dalegreerkentucky]

Completely hosed an expensive watch doing this the wrong way. Had to go in for factory service.

[@sysakPL]

Cool just broke my 3 months old automatic Seiko, as this wasn't mentioned in the manual and the watch was a gift so i never had a chance to speak to the sales person about the typical do's and don'ts

[@liquidfoops]

Same bro I just fucked my lorus watch by doing it aswell

[@andremanning245]

The explanation and instructions were very thorough.

[@suratjamtangan]

Crystal clear explanation , thanks a million

[@shahrukhimam4899]

Fantastic explanation with multiple watches and combinations. I started thinking my new Casio watch is screwed up but with this enlightenment I'm seeing the unseen face of the world. 👏 Can't thank you enough!

[@mr.hecker1723]

Thank you so much for your help love from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳

[@randsp3c709]

Thanks man I've heard this before just couldn't remember when to safely set very informative

[@accendo1979]

Thank you, you explained it well. I changed the date on my watch manually, I was freaking out thinking I should not of done that, luckily it was set in the late morning. Thank you for this neat work around.

[@_B_K_]

Between 8pm and 4am on Orient Kamasu, per its manual.

[@drp.wolfgang]

I have had many mechanical and automatic swiss watches during my life, I have changed the date and the time during the "forbidden hours" countless times and all of those watches still after years work completely fine. It's not only me, plenty of watch collectors I know have done that as well, never had an issue. If your watch breaks while going backwards with the watch hands or you set the date during "forbidden time" it means you have a shitty quality watch.

[@vincentzhu1970]

The gears are worn out now, open the back case and see it for yourself

[@Will_b83]

You really like Japanese automatics. Nothing wrong with that I have a few myself. But I have a real fondness of my Tags and Livs.

[@frankdesantis8078]

Thanks, so much more necessary information than the Citizen manual.

[@yaseenal-rubaie357]

The best videos ever about setting an automatic watch thanks alot

[@filipmac5577]

I made the mistake of not following this rule when I bought my Seiko, but thankfully my watch still functions correctly. 😮

[@roycedayton5364]

Thank you best explanation on setting watches - absolutely fantastic Thank you again 😁

[@Siju2235]

My date changes at night, but day changes after a few hours. Is it okay, or i need to set the day when the date changes at midnight. Please advise Sir

[@jithinsingh3764]

The saviour. Thank you so much bro!!!!

[@jakobpalmer2956]

Very informative video, thank you..just getting into automatics and I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing but yeah didn't want to screw up a expensive Omega I have coming.

[@ashwinukey227]

At first, I thought my new watch is broken, u saved my time to revisit the store, Big Thanks 🙏

[@Media4Everyday]

Hes right about damaging the movement, I took the S off for seiko by not doing this right and the hour hand was rubbing against the seiko logo and it was peeling.. it sucks because it's a new watch but oh well

[@wolf2525]

How can I fix m rolex submariner that the date changes exactly at 00:00? Right now it changes like 6min after midnight. And I did the mistake as well but I learned now when not to change the date...thank you.

[@Criccrazeworld]

I was literally going to return my new Alba watch to the store since I was unable to adjust the date.thanks!!!!

[@nikolamma]

I changed the date during 9pm -3am will it be damaged

[@maxiringo2802]

When to adjust time & date after travelling between towns in 12 hours time zone disparity then? What should i refer to? The initial time zone or the destination? Thanks

[@yasserbasheer364]

Omg you are a life saver. I thought that my watch is broken, Thank youuuu :)

[@lemonke9644]

Please help me!! So if your date wheel in at the 6:00 position is it still safe to change the date when the hands are at the bottom

[@babekazimi]

Hi sir. Can you say me am i write or not? İ watched to Orient ray watch part there , which is the "brother" of my Orient Kamasu, and i did same thing in video as you. When taking it firstly from box, it showed 9 PM. and the real time was 14:40 (2:40 pm) Knew that it is AM or PM , then i set the time by turning hands clockwise to 2:40 pm at afternoon, and this time is not between 9pm and 4 am( for safety) and finally i changed day and date.

[@user-kw5ck6pn7h]

Thank you very much for your video.

[@drpeemac]

Thanks for teaching...

[@chandanshet4537]

Most needed video I loved it ❤

[@MsFishingdog]

Great video .Thanks

[@agentbrandt]

Thank you veru much! This has helped me big time in setting the date of my Seiko 5. 😊

[@AlessandroGenTLe]

This watch has misaligned hands... With minutes at 12 the hour hand is not centered on the hour marker. Apart that, yes, your are correct. On 2824 one time is enough to damage the movement if you change the date when the date change wheel is engaged.

[@richieb74]

How do you know if you damaged it? Everything seems to be working. But I was too close to 9 and tried changing the date and I could feel it. So I stopped. But now I’m worried I damaged something

[@aizenemmaiaht.mendoza8010]

Thank you so much for this video, God Bless! ❤

[@eyeheartsushi2212]

Great video, Alessandro!

[@daskrak6979]

Excellent video, thank you!

[@SuperExadidas]

Thanks for a great demo. Btw, may l know the model name and number of your Orient watch?

[@MrBarrystuart]

So, if I understand correctly, I can in fact change the time (anytime night or day) - but do not adjust the date wheel during 9 pm - 3 am ? Is that essentially correct ?

[@surfeitan]

Hey, should I wind the watch before setting starting to set the date and time. And if the time that what to set it to is between 9 and 3, then I should put the date one day before. Or always when setting the time.

[@atifghafoor6258]

Just got my first automatic watch a seiko 5 is there any way for the watch to now what month it is will the watch show 31 even if there is only 28 or 30 days in the month?

[@tokiedayuji6018]

do you have to manually adjust the date for every alternate month?

[@degenerateWA]

Every watch is different (sometimes the clutch engages at different times for the date change). But as a general rule of thumb i ALWAYS set the time to 6 o clock before I do the quick adjust on the date.

[@JadeGeminiM390]

Thought I broke my SW200 changed the date at 9:15pm. Felt like it was smushy and not a solid click. So I moved it past 12 it didn’t changed 😱 So I advanced it another 24 hours and it engaged the clutch and snapped the dat at 12 midnight. So I stopped at 12 noon and went through 30 clicks to check them all and all seems well. But long story short, make sure not to do it after 9 as the man said. 😅

[@edvardschock9739]

That is such a clear explanation.

[@zaki44r]

Thank you for the good information👍👍👍🌹

[@zoltan-8233]

If i want to make correction can turning backwards the time when set it on the correct time? Or it is not good

[@gregsolovieff6711]

My wife gave me a Seiko Chronograph Quartz date- only in 2004. I didn’t know about this rule & apparently violated it, cuz date stopped setting itself. Watchmaker sez everything’s working,& I can manually set the date but the automatic date change doesn’t work. Only after recently educating myself about this did I realize my mistake. It has been a great watch except the part of it that I broke! Glad it wasn’t a super high end piece!

[@TimedSquare]

Unfortunately most quartz watches are not serviceable. Your next one will be fine!

[@gregsolovieff6711]

Thanks for the reply Alessandro.

[@lukejodoin3449]

Dude!! Thanks!!!! This video was super helpful!!!!

[@OakenFlunky]

This is brilliant thanks so much for your help, I thought my watch date was broken but no, the time was back to front 😅

[@PBHorrorGaming]

How do you know what month the watch is set to, for the date to be correct ?

[@OscarRPalma]

Amazing explanation, i learn it for my day date tissot. Thanks

[@usman.naseem]

I have TREBOR chronograph watch. Unlike other watches which start changing the date at 10:00pm It start changing the date at 9:00pm. Is it normal? or does it require service. Appreciate your reply

[@tomjamesmabini4722]

Thank you Alessandro! I appreciate you. Really helpful videos! More power to your channel! 👍✨💯

[@PūkaHeadMan]

Thank you very much for the great advice, Alessandro!👍

[@screem_]

Thank you very much. I was dead scared that I just wrecked my new watch, turns out I was trying to change my date at the wrong time.

[@AmitKulkarni-z3r]

One problem I found watching your video was that at times you are changing the time by moving the Crown Clockwise BUT in a few other watches you are doing so by moving the Crown Anti Clockwise You should have stated for which watches the Crown has to be moved Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise

[@eb4913]

Very cool... for novices like me this is awesome info

[@monty1957]

nicely explained brother. thanks

[@sushilbiradar8449]

Hello would you please let me know if I change the hour time every four times a month will it ruin my watch.

[@arthurbailey6516]

very very good . thank you for that video.

[@albert333pool]

Very informative... NEVER knew this... I still think it's odd @ 6:21 why the day hasn't fully changed till Sunday until 4am - why do you think that is? My Seiko SNK807 was doing that and thought it was weird but I see it's normal. Thank you again

[@rishav2808]

Amazing video | great observations

[@MrBasHolland]

Is it still bad when I made this fault once with my new watch?

[@ariajain7393]

Thank you very much for this video. It really helped me understand the way date change works and now I can confidently change the date anytime I want simply by changing the time first in order to avoid the dangerous time window! Just something I wanted to mention, my seiko watch came with a little booklet and there it says before changing the date i should set the date on the previous date. Is that important and if so in which way? Thanks alot again.

[@akiraxlegend]

Can you change the date between 9am - 3pm though?

[@TechCornerBG-h1f]

If I understand right I can change my date from 5 AM or onwards right?

[@VegasMilgauss]

Three handers for the win!

[@merdovski5858]

does the mechanism get damaged permanently?

[@ricardogomes1103]

Thanks so much! Your explanation was very clear.

[@sixaxis222]

Is it possible to fix if I fu***d up my Orient Ray II this way? Expensive?

[@Sir.YeetusIII]

Good to know, i just started to get into watches and no one tells you this lol

[@IKhanNot]

Excellent. Thanks.

[@ndy1211]

Just bought an automatic watch recently, i'm not sure i set the date in the correct time position or not before, but now I'm glad i watch your video so i will do the right thing before messing my new watch. But i have one question, before i watch your video the day on my watch showing the secondary language almost all day long and only showing the primary language between 12-03 AM. But now after i set the day&date properly like you suggested, the day showing the primary language almost all day long and only showing the secondary language between 12-03 AM. Question is... Can i switch it back like before? Or now is the correct condition n i'm not supposed to change it. If can, then how? Thank you in advance

[@TheNotoriousKID]

Next time you set the watch and date, set it in the date in the language you desire, the secondary language will run for a short period, and for the long period, the language u chose will run.

[@dawnrazrblade]

I never knew this! My dad gave me a Sekio baby tuna watch and there was a problem with the day/date, the first stop when I pull the crown out does nothing I can only change the day/date when I pull it to the second stop which also changes the time I can manage to get the day/date right by changing the time back and too from around 9pm to 3am. So it must be broken somewhere but I can still manage to get it right would it be expensive to repair?

[@SachinKumar-go2tr]

Very useful video thanks!