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Watch Rate The number of seconds a watch, or any timepiece, gains or loses per day or week. The rate of a typical quartz watch might be a gain of 3 seconds every 10 days. The size of the rate is not so important, but it must be constant if the watch is to be useful for navigation. There is some evidence that quartz watches are temperature dependent, and it is assumed that for best accuracy they will be worn so your body serves as a heat sink to normalize the temperature. Also they can depend on battery voltage, so check the battery life specs and be sure to change batteries before they run down. A watch with constant rate is called a chronometer. Most quartz watches can be adjusted to minimize the rate, but the cost when done by a jeweler is comparable to the watch cost. See Watch Error and Chronometer Log. See also our article and videos on finding watch rate. See: sextant sight, standard time, time zone, universal time, watch error, watch rate, watch time, zone description, and zone time. See also: Time Keeping in Navigation and Weather.

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