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Hi everyone! Hope you're all keeping well. I'm working on an old Chronosport Chronograph with an Ebauches Bettlach (EB) 8371-67 and broke the lower pusher's rod and leaving the other half still screwed on to the button pusher. I was able to unscrew the upper button albeit with a little resistance perhaps glued by the previous watch repairer. However, for this lower one, the rod just wouldn't budge. I've soaked the button in Acetone in the hopes of melting the glue and it still wouldn't move. Blasted it hot with a hairdryer, touched it with a soldering iron and still no go. As you can see on the photos below, the pusher is flat on one spot due to my holding it with a vise grip, yes, that's right. Vise grip. I was desperate see. Twisting and turning both the rod and button resulted in nothing. I did, however, successfully bent the rod. So, further trying to correct the bend the next day, I ended up snapping the whole thing in two. So, I'm wondering what my options are and if someone can give guidance: Replace the rod. Where to get the replacement rod then how to remove the broken stump? If removing the stump, how and with what? Replace the whole set of pushers, ie the upper and lower buttons. If replacing, will generic parts do and where to acquire them. Any advice or solution given is very much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jesse Chronosport c1970s Pictures of the same button. Note the stump and flattened button. This picture is the other pusher. Disassembled with no issues. Note the melted gasket.

Hi everyone! Hope you're all keeping well. I'm working on an old Chronosport Chronograph with an Ebauches Bettlach (EB) 8371-67 and broke the lower pusher's rod and leaving the other half still screwed on to the button pusher. I was able to unscrew the upper button albeit with a little resistance perhaps glued by the previous watch repairer. However, for this lower one, the rod just wouldn't budge. I've soaked the button in Acetone in the hopes of melting the glue and it still wouldn't move. Blasted it hot with a hairdryer, touched it with a soldering iron and still no go. As you can see on the photos below, the pusher is flat on one spot due to my holding it with a vise grip, yes, that's right. Vise grip. I was desperate see. Twisting and turning both the rod and button resulted in nothing. I did, however, successfully bent the rod. So, further trying to correct the bend the next day, I ended up snapping the whole thing in two. So, I'm wondering what my options are and if someone can give guidance: Replace the rod. Where to get the replacement rod then how to remove the broken stump? If removing the stump, how and with what? Replace the whole set of pushers, ie the upper and lower buttons. If replacing, will generic parts do and where to acquire them. Any advice or solution given is very much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jesse Chronosport c1970s Pictures of the same button. Note the stump and flattened button. This picture is the other pusher. Disassembled with no issues. Note the melted gasket.

Today I fixed up an old vintage watch from the Elba Watch Company; a Swiss firm that used movements made by A. Michel, in this case the caliber 270 (10 1/2 lignes). Not much available information. Bestfit has it listed in their catalog. Some of the web information says that A. Michel combined with A. Schild and FHF to form Ebauches SA. Taking a major hit from the quartz revolution, A. Schild merged with ETA in the late 70s. Too bad! Am learning what a fatal blow that was to all the watch industry. The quartz revolution reminds me of an incident I experienced nearly 40 years ago. I was living in NYC at the time. Quartz watches were big; swallowing the watch market almost as fast as you could think. Something inside me resisted these futuristic baubles, with their digital readouts (though I like the red LED), souped up cases and funky bands, and I conceived the idea of getting an traditional mechanical watch like my dad had. So I started going to jewelry stores in Manhattan to find one--one that I could afford. Mechanical watches could be still be obtained for a high price, way beyond what I could afford. Anyway, I went to store after store (easy to do in Manhattan) and was told that no moderate priced mechanicals were available--why didn't I want a quartz watch which everybody but me wanted? Eventually I found a small shop staffed by an elderly, hunched over old man (probably long gone!). I asked him what he had in mechanical watches. He said why did I want one? I gave him a spiel about craftsmanship, tradition, etc. and he said, to wait while he check in back. After a few minutes he came out with a box and said this was basically the last mechanical watch he had and that I could have it for $150. It turned out to be an Omega. Not knowing much about watches I bought it and still have it to this day. Now I know what a treasure it is. I think he probably sold it at cost or below cost. I suspect, though, Omega wasn't quite as prestigious as it is today. At any rate it was a good deal. Back to my Elba watch. Is there a connection with Napoleon? Who knows. Anybody out there have one or know anything about them? The watch has a nice hinged case that I shined up. You can see that I've used a metal bracelet; not my first choice but something that was laying around. Actually black or brown leather would probably complement the case nicely. The crystal is probably a replacement as it has no scratches to speak of. I stripped the movement down and, cleaned it, and put it back together. Keeping good time so far. Good strong tick, haven't needed to do any adjustment yet. I really like the dial which is almost certainly painted with radium. I'm gonna die! Or at least grow an extra finger! Actually, I took the dial off and put it in an envelope away from my work area until needed, so I'm not really worried about it. The dial could use some cleaning but because I didn't want to disturb the radium or ruin it I just put it as is in the watch. But I'd welcome any advice/tips on how to clean it up. Haven't learned much about cleaning dials and I definitely want to learn more.