Leaderboard

Having visited Bergeon In Switzerland A extremely long while ago my impression was there were more of a distributor of tools than a manufacturer themselves.. So personally I suspect some stuff is made exclusively for them and other stuff they purchase which is why it looks identical to what everyone else is selling. It would be impossible for them the manufacture everything they sell.

Having equipped myself with a couple of Canon 70D bodies and lenses, I tested out using my old Pentax Super Takumar 52mm lens with x1, x2 & 3x converter rings for macro photography of watch faces and movements. The lens, plus x2 converter, seems very good indeed, but the problem has been finding the right height for accurate focussing as the tolerance is quite tight. Anyway, I spotted a £44 copy stand on eBay the other day and bought it (brand new) from a computer/electronics firm in Kent. It came this morning and, for the price, is very good, robust and well made. Picture enclosed. Watch pics to follow!

Thanks a lot jdm. A very interesting read. The more I see and read about Bergeon the more I'm convinced that it's all just " Emperors new clothes " I'm just not convinced about them as of magnificent makers of tools. Just clever marketing and peoples gullibility My opinion and no disrespect to those who swear by them.

Here you go Mike http://www.ofrei.com/page252.html

Thanks Bob - always good to get feedback. One of the problems of focus with a manual lens is that the viewfinder view isn't always possible. So I'm using the "screen view" - i.e. the touch sensitive screen on the Canon which folds round to act as a monitor. And because the lens is manual, the autofocus doesn't function, meaning that the focus ring has to be adjusted quite delicately and accurately. I also forgot to turn off image stabilisation - which is always turned off when using a tripod or stand! I set the shutter drive to a 2 seconds timer to lessen any camera shake when taking the pic. The camera mode is set to "Aperture Priority", which means that the lens speed is automatically adjusted. I set the ISO to 200 as I wanted as little "noise" (grain") as possible within the light tolerance (I used f11 to give some depth of field). No artificial light here - just daylight from a window by the table. I might invest in a good LED source or two. And down the path of yet more kit we inevitably dribble... :D

Just a quick post on some preliminary results. Picture 1 is of the face of my Elgin "Father Time" RR pocket watch - 52mm Super Takumar lens with a x2 converter ring. This was done hastily and the focus isn't quite sharp - my fault, not the lens! Picture 2 is part of the movement - Super Takumar 52mm lens with x3 converter. Shot in raw and processed with LightRoom.

Thanks for posting this Will, it's just what I've been looking for. It's always better to have something recommended!

Savings above exposed are the way to go. I don't understand how Bergeon can still fool technical people that takes apart and analyze things for a living. This is 2015 and the internet became popular 20 yrs ago. BTW even this spring bar tool is made by someone else. Bob Frei has a long story about it on his website.

This leads me on to a question I've wondered about - do Bergeon actually make anything? I've seen a fair few tools, old as well as new, that are clearly made by someone else and have Bergeon branding put on them. I'm not just meaning the inexpensively made (but not sold!) Chinese tools but European made tools as well. It seems like a good business to me if you simply buy everything in, brand it, inflate the price and sell it. Stephen

That's because Bergeon uses cheapo Chinese measuring gauges. :)

For the most part all of the eta quartz watches should be similar for lubrication. So you could have used a 955 manual for lubrication guide. So their recommendation for the gear train is Moebius 9014 or Moebius 9034. Moebius 9014 oil is a mixture of 70% Moebius 9010 and 30% Moebius 9030 which causes it to have a lower viscosity than standard 9010. So basically Viscosity of 9010 is either 120 or 150 depending upon your reference. In Moebius own publications they actually have different numbers. Then the 9014 is 98 and 9034 is 58. Basically they're looking for a low viscosity synthetic oil. What's interesting is they're not recommending Moebius 9000 With the viscosity of 100 which is specifically recommended for quartz watches.

nice followup on this

Sorry Mickey. As George says, I will be back in the fold soon. I hope you are keeping well :) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to the forum Eco, and thank you for the link! Cheers, Bob

Another nice resource for good used Seiko parts: http://www.speedtimerkollektion.com/ Best regards Enviado desde mi SM-N910C mediante Tapatalk

i have that exact same watch. mine has a bent dial - it seems someone thought that the dial had to be pryed off, not realizing that there are dial screws. otherwise it is in perfect shape. as for hands, i would just buy another parts watch that has hands that you like. that is what i commonly do. all of the seiko hands are interchangeable - well, except for the quartz watches. they won't interchange with the autos. once you know what crystal it is, you can buy it yourself and have a go at replacing it.

So my first reaction was the same as everybody else mainspring winder. The handle is interesting in that as pointed out you can only wind a really tiny mainspring with it. So a clue is the name of the company Eterna found in early automatic wristwatches. So as a guess the purpose of this tool is for winding in the slipping spring or 'bridle' Which on the early automatic watches was a separate spring. On the modern watches it's attached and you don't need a tool like this anymore. John