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What does "adjusted" vs. "unadjusted" vs. "regulated" mean?

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An "unadjusted" movement is a movement where no attempt has been made to ensure that the daily error rate in several orientations (positions) have been minimized across the positions. An "adjusted" movement, therefore, has had some extra care in ensuring that the variance in accuracy between several orientations is minimized.

Watches are typically adjusted to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 positions. Traditionally, they are ordered as follows:

Dial Up

Crown Down

Dial Down

Crown Left

Crown Up

Crown Right

For example, a watch adjusted to two positions include positions 1 & 2 from the above list (i.e. face up and crown down). Similarly, a watch adjusted for 4 positions has been adjusted in positions 1-4, and so on. Watches can also be adjusted for isochronism (i.e. constant time across varying states of wind) and temperature.

A "regulated" movement is a when the overall rate of the entire movement (either adjusted or not) is brought into correct absolute timing. Unlike adjustment, this is a simple tweak, which moves the daily rates of all of the positions up or down without intentionally changing the relative rates in positions.

(used with permission of TimeZone)