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.

[@davidmichienzi101]

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

[@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!!

[@iganpparamarta8813]

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

[@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!

[@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

[@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?

[@juanluismoreno9888]

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 :)

[@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!

[@camtron1967]

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

[@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 ;)

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@olireid7577]

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

[@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!

[@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.

[@dalegreerkentucky]

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

[@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.

[@OBYourThirst]

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.

[@randsp3c709]

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

[@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.

[@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 👍

[@andremanning245]

The explanation and instructions were very thorough.

[@_B_K_]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@susanmiller2890]

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

[@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!

[@BlueshellGamer]

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

[@ashwinukey227]

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

[@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.

[@filipmac5577]

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

[@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.

[@yasserbasheer364]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@yaseenal-rubaie357]

The best videos ever about setting an automatic watch thanks alot

[@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 😅

[@frankdesantis8078]

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

[@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. 😅

[@PBHorrorGaming]

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

[@agentbrandt]

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

[@roycedayton5364]

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

[@eyeheartsushi2212]

Great video, Alessandro!

[@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

[@OscarRPalma]

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

[@Sir.YeetusIII]

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

[@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.

[@nelsonc6173]

I'm late to the party but this was so helpful!!! Thank you!!!

[@PukaHeadMan]

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

[@pfvmnt]

Liked your way of taking style and face expressions

[@TimedSquare]

🤪 thank you!

[@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

[@odawgbrazy14]

so you just go to 11:55 PM then see if you're at 12 or 24 hours by seeing if date changes when you pass 12 then go to 5 am then use quick set for the right date (number no date)? accidentally did that on my citizen nighthawk blue angels edition once but all that appears to have happened was the next day it hadn't advanced to the proper day... I think it's non in instantaneous and doesn't happen at exact midnight too please corroborate if you're informed on any of these since my manual for the bj 7008 just says don't set between 9 pm and 1 am or date may not change on following day. I'm worried i may have damaged my precious, and if this is nothing to worry about because of alternate timezone subdial or the eco drive, that'd b great because being a travel watch i bet I'll change date at all kinds of wacky hours. love your channel Slenderman would love if you responded because I am new to watch collecting and don't want to mess up in the future.

[@jithinsingh3764]

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

[@Papi_Doc]

I have a Seiko sarb033 and skx013 that I've utterly abused for years. They must be pretty solid cuz they still work like new.

[@tomjamesmabini4722]

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

[@erjoldeda8285]

Why the day changes after at 3 am some like that

[@infinity7164]

Me too hapend To me

[@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.

[@bradfoust50]

yeah I should of watched this video before setting the date on my first automatic. Watch is working fine but I may have put a bit of wear on it.

[@aleontecristian9260]

Hi!!Is it all ok???!?

[@robdibenedetto4883]

Thank you very much sir. I was turning the clockwise I thought I broke the movement😬

[@ricardogomes1103]

Thanks so much! Your explanation was very clear.

[@TakahashiAmy_]

I have seiko snk809 and i thought i can change anything before winding it. So we just have to know its 5 am to change everything well... thank you

[@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.

[@edvardschock9739]

That is such a clear explanation.

[@lukejodoin3449]

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

[@VegasMilgauss]

Three handers for the win!

[@ndk2k4]

on Seiko and Orient watches, wait till the second hand is at 12 o'clock before pulling the crown out.

[@Samurai9901]

Unaware of this at first I've been lucky to not change the date from 9pm to 3am

[@eb4913]

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

[@duckkfat4993]

What about a battery operated quartz watch ?

[@TimedSquare]

It's pretty much the same mechanism. Don't set the date between 9PM and 3AM.

[@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.

[@daskrak6979]

Excellent video, thank you!

[@drpeemac]

Thanks for teaching...

[@sekolahonlineteknikotomotif]

Holy shit, the there's no such information when I bought the orient watch! Anyway thanks a lot for this info!

[@MsFishingdog]

Great video .Thanks

[@arthurbailey6516]

very very good . thank you for that video.

[@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 ?

[@DanielWillen]

Suppose you have the watch hand set at "six".. It wouldn't matter if the movement was AM or PM right, would just set the date to day before and wind the time?

[@aizenemmaiaht.mendoza8010]

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

[@chandanshet4537]

Most needed video I loved it ❤

[@spooksy1982]

Right - can you change the time on your watch between those times? Daylight savings kicks in here tonight so i rolled my time back by an hour (not the date) so it read 11pm instead for midnight….

[@davidgaylen5961]

I have a watch with sub dials. When it reached 12midnight The Date and 24hours dial changed except the the Day of Week. I noticed the day of week changed at 3am or 4am. 🥴 Why is that so. . Haist. .

[@monty1957]

nicely explained brother. thanks

[@jacobdonnarhiantalleyanput8186]

Today is. 23rd. Wednesday. 2022. Maybe the day was changex?. ❤. Anyway good luck in all of your exams and have fun!. Nothing I wouldn't do!. Or. Nothing you wouldn't do!. ❤.

[@gabrielpetcu5502]

im new in automatics...i just did it at midnight with my 4r36 seiko...

[@siimad2988]

Shit. Shit shit shit. I just changed the time at 10:15pm. Shit. It was pretty early? Hopefully no damage? The time slot looks a little offput... Shit. This watch is new as well, hopefully it's fine??? Does warranty cover this?

[@babylonreviews9827]

Some say that is better to set the date from the first option of the crown and never from the second...is that correct?

[@rishav2808]

Amazing video | great observations

[@iluvcheez2xx]

Very helpful, thank you for this video! What if you accidentally changed the date between the “danger zone” not by the quick change setting but by forwarding the time from say 10 pm to 1 am? Does that damage the mechanism? Thanks again.

[@omarghetti]

that's how the watch works. he even does what you said in the video

[@SuperExadidas]

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

[@NaturalMentalHealthTreatments]

Just bought an automatic Meistersinger Day Date and the instructions say to just avoid resetting between 2400 and 0200; any comments?

[@inglando]

I thought I could change the date, as long as the hour hand is not between 9 and 3. Didn't know it had to be at 5 or if there's any difference by doing it at 5 am or 5 pm. Please clear this out for me

[@SpartanA31xx]

How would you know if you’ve done any damage? If the date changes at midnight correctly still does that mean it’s still working properly?

[@peteri3815]

I just did it by accident and now my time adjust in the opposite direction. counterclockwise moves the hands forward. what just happened and can i fix it myself?