I have been asked on a number of different occasions by several T-Touch owners to fix their watch for them. Oddly enough, on many of these occasions I have found that the clients’ watches weren’t in any particular need of a watchmaker’s careful attention at all. They had just gotten a little disoriented - literally. The number one such complaint is that the compass feature no longer points in a straight line. Second to the compass being out of alignment, is that the digital and analog time no longer match up. Luckily, both are symptoms of the same problem and, fortunately for the customer, the problem is one that is easily remedied. So easy, in fact, that the client could do it themselves.

What causes the problem?

The most common reason that the hands on Tissot’s T-Touch can become de-synchronized from the rest of the functions of the watch is because the watch has been exposed to a magnetic field (for more on magnetism and watches, check out J.Peter’s post here). Unlike most quartz watches, the hands of the T-Touch are driven by two independent, bi-directional, motors, which each consist of a mobile permanent-magnet and two small electromagnets to control the direction of motion of the permanent-magnet. Without getting into too much detail about the physics at work, when these tiny motors are exposed to an external magnetic field they move. This, in turn, causes the hands to move. The microprocessor that controls the positioning of the hands, however, isn’t able to register when this involuntary change happens and still considers the hands to be in the same relative position that they were originally programmed to be in. So, when the microprocessor tells the hands to point North, or to show the correct time, or any other function, where it believes the hands to be pointing is no longer correct.

How to fix the problem yourself

To re-calibrate the hands:

1. Press the center pusher and then tap the center of the touch sensitive glass until the digital display reads either 24h/cm or 12h/ft (or any combination between the two).
2. Next, press and hold the center pusher in until the the digital display reads SYNCHRO.
3. When the display reads SYNCHRO, the watch is now ready to receive new information about where the hands are pointed. The next step, then, is to align both of the hands at precisely 12 o’clock, which is where the microprocessor expects them to be pointed when in SYNCHRO mode.
4. To advance the minute hand, press the pusher that is located at 2 o’clock.
5. To advance the hour hand, use the 4 o’clock pusher.
6. If you accidentally pass the 12 o’clock marker for either hand, you will have to move the hand completely around the dial again until you get it right.
7. Once both hands are aligned at 12 o’clock, press the center pusher to register the new settings.

That’s it! Your T-Touch should now be properly synchronized.

Video demonstration and more information

For a video demonstration and even more information on syncing (or de-syncing) your T-Touch, check out the T-Touch synchronization page at AllianceHorlogère.com.