Pallera: Watch Timegrapher

Rest a mechanical watch against your phone and find out how accurate it really is. Pallera turns your phone into a timegrapher. It listens to the escapement through the microphone and reports the three numbers a watchmaker's timing machine gives you: rate in seconds per day, beat error in milliseconds, and balance amplitude in degrees. Then it goes further than a timing machine can, checking your watch's accuracy against an atomic clock over hours and days. Named for the pallet fork, the part of the escapement that makes the tick it listens to. MEASURE • Rate, beat error and amplitude, live as you measure • Beat rate found automatically, from 18,000 to 36,000 bph • Listens through several filters at once and uses whichever hears your watch most clearly • The classic timegrapher trace, so an uneven escapement shows at a glance • A contact meter that tells you whether the microphone is really hearing the watch • Lift angles for more than 3,000 movements from over 100 makers, including ETA, Sellita, Seiko, Miyota, Orient, Rolex, Omega, Sea-Gull and Vostok, so amplitude is worked out from the right figure KNOW HOW MUCH TO TRUST IT Every reading carries a margin of error that is measured, not claimed: the app checks independent stretches of the recording against each other and reports how much they disagree. When the room is too noisy or the contact too poor, it says so instead of inventing a number. When amplitude can't be resolved, it is withheld, and the app tells you why. Every reading is explained in plain words: what it means, and whether anything is worth doing about it. TRACK WATCH ACCURACY OVER DAYS A one-minute reading describes one position and one state of wind. To know how accurate your watch really is, check its drift: • Set it by the atomic clock on screen, or tap along with the second hand to record exactly where it started • Check it later by tapping as the second hand passes a mark, or by photographing the dial • Reminders at 6, 12 and 24 hours, or check whenever you like • Drift turned into seconds per day, sharper the longer you leave it SEE HOW YOUR WATCH BEHAVES • Rate over time, from readings and drift checks together, so a service or a magnetised movement shows up in the history • Rate by position, with the positional delta a watchmaker judges by • Rate against amplitude: how the watch changes as the mainspring runs down • Wind logging with an estimated power reserve, and a warning before it stops KEEP THE COLLECTION • Wear tracking and rotation insights: what you actually wear, and what is waiting in the drawer • Photos, purchase details, serial numbers, warranty dates and service history • A home screen widget for the watch on your wrist • Quartz watches too: no amplitude or beat error, just accuracy against the clock • Backups you control, in a file you keep, plus a spreadsheet export of every reading FREE, AND PAID Measuring is free, always: every reading, with its amplitude, beat error and margin of error. So is exporting your collection. One payment unlocks the rest: full reading history, the charts, records, rotation, the widget and unlimited watches. No subscription. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No account, no servers, no analytics, no ads. Your watches and readings stay on your phone. The microphone is used to measure, the camera only for photos and photo checks, and the internet only to ask a public time server what time it is. Recordings of your watch are not kept unless you switch that on yourself. WHAT IT IS NOT A watch accuracy tool for owners and enthusiasts, not a substitute for a watchmaker's timing machine or a service. It cannot diagnose a fault. Readings depend on your phone's microphone and on how the watch rests against it.

New: a guided positional test. Measure your watch in each position in one sitting and get a report you can share (Pallera Pro). New: overnight advice. Say how the watch was kept between drift checks and Pallera works out the best way to rest it at night (Pallera Pro). Beat error now matches the figure a timing machine shows, half the old one. Saved readings are updated to match. Fixed: watch photos from the camera and gallery, and winds now show straight away.