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Can't stop wearing it !

One thing I ask when repairing/servicing a watch is I ask the customer how they wear the watch. I ask this so when regulating the watch I can get the positional error in favour of how the watch is going to be worn. i.e my wife wears her watch with the crown facing away from her wrist, some take their watch off at night so for approx 7 hours it runs dial up. Another question I ask is how well the watch was keeping time before it stopped etc. If I am told it runs a bit fast I explain that I should be able to improve this BUT mechanical watches will lose or gain over time it is just impossible to achieve perfect timing.

Sometimes you may miss something the first time round, most recent one I had was a hairspring that was slightly bent. Coils were touching at one point, I demagnetised and cleaned it and it was running fine but the owner came back the next weekend with it running fast. Had to tweak the spring a bit. The most important part is to identify issues from the start, looking at each and every component as you go about dismantling. Just because you found one problem doesn't mean there are others. Anil

I was lucky enough to win on the bay a Zodiac 70/72 automatic at a reasonable price. I knew the hairspring was shot but wasn't expecting what I found. On receiving the watch and opening the bag I thought I know that smell "OIL" Looks ok dial needs a bit of a clean but the case is in good Nick. The back shows hardly any wear so a good polish should sort that out. So I open it up and once again the over powering smell of 3 in 1 hits me like a slap to the face. The stud holder has come off but luckily is in tact. I start to strip down the movement. Out of the case and case ring removed. Dial looks ok hopefully dust a light wash in soapy water will get rid of the oil and remove alot of the spotting. Dial removed and my first glimpse of oil. Flip it over and take a closer look it the movement the hair springs a mess and the balance is wobbling like a 16 year old on a night out. Rotor off. Reversing wheels a bit of staining and more oil. Auto wind wheels and balance removed now like a fool I forgot to take a photo of the spaghetti mess of the hairspring and the staff had a broken bottom pivot. I decide to drop John at obsolete watch parts an e-mail and luckily he has a complete balance at a very reasonable price and further more if I post the movement to him when I've cleaned it as we are unsure whether its the correct one for the movement as according to J boreal the base caliber was a AS 1649 he will try it before I buy bit now that's service for you . Look at the oil its dripping in the stuff. crown and ratchet wheels Now the barrel on this caliber is a sealed unit and has wrote on it very faintly do not open. But I'm not worried about it being oiled it has enough oil on it to last forever. Look at all that oil its been dipped I'm sure. Barrel out. Train bridge off. That side is stripped just alot of oil and a bit of staining. Dial side more oil date ring a bit stained. Oily That's It stripped down and ready for the ultrasonic. The cleaning went well and the assembly was just a reverse of the strip down. I then sent the movement of tho John and he fitted the balance and returned it all within 2 days the man's a star. On reassembly and leaving to run after I had adjusted it on the timing machine I noticed the hands were only moving 5 minutes in the hour. This was the culprit a slipping clutch wheel on the offset cannon pinion. Luckily Rogart69 heard my call for help and directed me in the right direction as to how to tighten it many thanks to him. So here it is running nice and looking good.

Just re-assembled my first watch to where it started running. Nothing to really to see here. I'm just super excited.

Today I've been wearing my latest restoration a nice Zodiac 70/72 auto I'm hoping to post a strip down of this in the near future.

Got a tips for replacing and pressing in jewels on the cheap? Use a micrometer to press them in? Got this tips from a Swedish forum member?

That's because its quiet nice indeed.

That,s one loverly watch. Really nice indeed

Thank you for positive comments. Glass is on, all the zircona was glued onto silver setting strips with Araldite Crystal Clear. There is plenty of things not right which I would do differently, but I suppose that is the problem when no prototype to try things out first. Anyway, I learnt a lot doing this project, and I know some of the areas that need to be improved

Looking forward to your blog! One recommendation, start with something that works so you know when you are done and if it still works that you are doing it right. Then, try to repair the ones that don't work! Just MHO. Cheers, Bob

Found this nice little staking tool at a "buy out". Needed a good sprucing up but after some "spit and polish" turned out nice. Received a some amount of abuse in the form of well...I don't know how to put it...it seems one of its owners got carried away with a hammer and ruined a few stakes. Replaced of them, polished up the rest and refinished the wood holder. I believe this was a National. As you can see it's missing the pedestal. My instructor tells me watchmakers often removed it as it was awkward to work with. When I have the time and resources I'll turn a new one.

Snap mine has the pedestal still and since I took the pic I've re-polished the base. I've used it a few times since I purchased it and it works very well.

Hi Roger, Check this link out: https://meridian-height.smugmug.com/Other/KD-STAKING-TOOLS-and-how-to/i-5RrN6Wn Every so often a hard copy shows up for sale. There's also a guy on eBay that made a really good quality, searchable pdf. I bought one from him.