When the flag drops the game is over. The second hand is immaterial. Digital clocks are starting to take over from the old analogue ones, and obviously this isn't an issue with them.
Using my new clock?
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yes i agree i sonofpearl digital is where its at.I had a analog clock too and i had problems w/it one side always seemed to move faster or slower than the other no matter how i calibrated it but since i got a digital no problems only downside is u need to buy batteries every once in a while but thats not bad well worth it.
The flag is indeed the authoritative signal. Yours being a quartz clock should be virtually 100% accurate. I have 2 wind up analogs, and am convinced that analogs require less thought to tell about how much time remains. There have been studies with aircraft instruments and they seem to confirm this. Processing "if the minute hand is nearly vertical, I have only seconds left" is not distracting. The digital display is more mentally distracting to process the information. However, digital displays relay exactly how much time you have left, and also indicate an exact "zero", essentially your question. My question is, "How do you know your flag is late?" You would have to set your minute hands at exactly the same distances from the points the flag drops, a near impossibility with analog, no problem with digital. The second hand has nothing to do with the starting point.
My trick for getting a wind-up analog correct is to have both sides equally wound and fiddle with each side until they match a quartz wall clock. It is amazing how much they speed up when fully wound (gaining several minutes per hour) and lose time while unwinding. My guess is sniperghost's problems were because he compared one side fully wound to the other side nearly unwound. They are actually amazingly consistent and repeatable at each point of winding, and I managed to get both sides perfect to within 2 seconds per hour when wound 8 half turns. I wind 8 half turns before each major game.
yep, if the flag falls, it's game over. This is particularly sickening if you're stupid enough to make this happen during your opponent's turn by trying to see how much time you have left and accidentally jolting it... 
Escapest_Pawn wrote:
"How do you know your flag is late?"
For a G30 setting I start/stop each side until the second hand is on the 12 (null position). I then set the clock to 5:30 and begin the game. For testing purpses I have been setting the clock to 5:55 so I don't have to wait 30 minutes. If the minute hand for each side is set in the middle of the tick mark, the left flag usually falls about 15 - 17 seconds before the second hand reaches the 12, and the right flag falls about 2 - 4 seconds after. If I move the left minute hand more to the outside of the tick mark I can get the flag to drop a little closer to the 12.
xsoldier,
Thank you for the personal response. Your routine is not traditionally done, even in important matches. But your doing so might be a good idea if they designed analog electronic clocks (like yours) differently, and perhaps better. With traditional analog chess clocks the second hand is largely irrelevant and goes unnoticed (except perhaps to see how long your opponent is taking per move or with a silent clock, to confirm it's running), but instead of a flag, an analog clock could be made that counts (or counts down) the number of times the second hand passes the 12. Such would have the aforementioned advantages of the analog face with quartz movement and digital "flag drop" accuracy.
Being among the cheaper people from an affluent country, I have long thought of gluing two $3 quartz alarm clocks together with a Radio Shack switch. Yours is obviously a much more professional version of such. But I think it could be improved. It could also have a digital 5 second delay. Who's ambitious?
Hello everyone. I have been playing chess casually since childhood and now would like to start playing more than one or two games a year. I just purchased this chess set from chesscentral.com:
http://www.ChessCentral.com/Complete-Large-Chess-Tournament-Set-p/tou-1001.htm
The set came with this clock:
http://www.chesscentral.com/chess-clock-p/2098540.htm
I started playing 30 minute games with my friends but I noticed that sometimes the flag drops 15 seconds early or 5 seconds late, it varies. I have read that once the flag drops the game is over, but it makes more sense to me to use the flag in combination with the second hand. If the flag drops early is it acceptable to wait until the second hand hits the 12 before calling it? Thanks in advance for any help.
Respectfully
John