I went shopping for a new Smith over the weekend.

I looked at a new Smith 66 and a few different 686s. All new. One of the 686 is even the 3-5-7 version with different grips and unfluted cylinder.

Out of 3 that I handled I could lightly thumb the hammer back and the hammer would lock up before the cylinder would. Now the cylinder didnt like much movement at all to lock up. If going any faster than a snails pace it seemed to lock up fine however.

I happened to ask if they had anymore in storage and he pulled me one more 686 that finally locked up like I thought it should which I left with.

Just surprising to handle so many new smiths that seemed a little light on lock up.

To a revolver guy, that is “out of time.”

On most any revolver, if you can slowly cock the hammer until it locks and you can move the cylinder and hear the click as it locks....it's out of time.
On the older and newest Colt's, when the trigger is pulled the cylinder will be pushed to full lock as long as the action isn't totally trashed.
S&W may or may not due to the different design.

Yes, that’s out of time. Not severely from the sound of it, but it won’t get better from use. Disappointing what makes it out the door sometimes.

That sounds out of time to me.  Shouldn’t have to rely on inertia for the cylinder to align.

I've heard two different tests described for Smith and Wessons.  

1) In both single and double action, slowly pull the trigger or hammer back, while the cylinder drags on your thumb. If it locks up prior to or during hammer time, it is in time.

2) pull the trigger or cock the hammer with force. If it is locked, it is in time.

I go with number 1, which is more conservative. I figure my main application for the revolver I had that failed test 1 was deer hunting, where I would cock the revolver really slowly to not make noise. This is all based on a massive purse swinging thread from the Smith and Wesson forums 15 years ago.

Pulling the trigger or cocking the hammer with force will give a false indication of timing.
When operated with force, inertia will force the cylinder to rotate all the way.

The correct reading is when the trigger is pulled or hammer cocked slowly with a light finger drag on the cylinder to prevent inertial movement.
Getting a valid indication is very difficult when pulling the trigger because it's hard to pull the trigger slowly without going all the way as the  hammer releases.
Best test is slowly cocking the hammer because it's easier to control.

You should try the test in double action also. The hammer doesn't go back quite as far on double action as on single action. So if your timing is just on the edge, it might lock up before the sear catches in single action, but not quite before the double-action sear releases.

Ideally, one should practice their double action trigger pull enough that they can slooowly pull through it, count the clicks and stage it right before releasing.

The hand is responsible to bring the cylinder to lock up and the hand is mounted on the trigger, making it irrelevant if the test is done in single action or double action.