Hi, I've been to the "Opportunity Shops" and purchased some battery wall clocks at a ridiculously low price. $3 for two clocks. I dismantled both and apart from the Clock Hands there was no metal. ALL plastic. I probed the running movement (iow, the movement mechanism was running without hands) and found exactly the same time 30.8 uSecs as before (slow).
I shall have to do a further test on a 4060 ic to see if my scope is out or whether I am loading the cct with my probe (tek p6109 12pF). I agree that 12pF is significant, but I would have thought that if I measured at the output of the emitter of the amplifier, I would be isolated enough to allow an accurate time measurement.
NB, I KNOW that the Xtal must run at its resonant frequency (especially 32.768 Khz, as they are used in hundreds of millions of kitchen wall clocks). So this is only an academic problem trying to understand where the error is. ( I am leaning toward my test equipment or my application of the test equipment) .