I'm sure it varies from one watch to another but how much adjustment can normally be made with a watch's regulator?

Hey Christopher, It does vary. I have seen from personal experience,even with the same brand and size watches,from only around 30 seconds,to several minutes in 24 hours. Walthams seem to me to vary more than others that I have experienced. The higher grade watches seem to vary less,and have less time adjustment with the regulator. But as David pointed out to me once,if all is well with the movement,the regulator should be centered,or very near center.

Chris

There can also be huge variations caused by irregularities in the curve of the hairspring and the tension between that and the regulator pins to keep it simple and cause different rate of advance or retard for same movement of regulator arm. Any changes around the balance area can/will affect the performance of the watch in many ways, often people will start twisting and bending things until they break or a perceived improvement is seen, where possible I zero the regulator and adjust for timing on the balance and hairspring and try to leave it centered for aesthetic purposes mainly If I get the watch correct only very minor adjustments should be necessary to adjust to the individual, of course some watches are so damaged or warn compromises have to be made and will never run like new again without a bunch of expensive and obsolete parts.

The reason I ask the question is I've been under the impression that the regulator is only capable of making minor timing adjustments. I was told the other day, by someone who's knowledge I respect, that deviations of 5 minutes per week or more can usually be corrected by adjusting the regulator. This surprized me. I'm curious what experience our forum members have had.

I had been told many years ago that from center position, you could expect a plus/minus 30 second correction on the scale. It was for fine tuning only.

Like I said, that's what I was told.

Regard! Mark

MY experience is that 12-18 size 15 Jewel and up watches adjust about +/-30 sec a day max (usually) from the center. Lower Jewelled and smaller Pre WWII US-made stuff has a more generous range that can be a few minutes a day.

Note that too extensive adjustments of this type mess up the beat reducing position accuracy of the escapement system. The lesser Kinetics of smaller watches seem to be more tolerant of that (or are just plain not as accurate).