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Happy new year to all. Thank you guys for making this forum so interesting and friendly. 2017 is going to be a good year

The balance wheel covers an aprox 270 deg arc, but the amplitude is half of that!

Guys, best wishes and Happy Horology for 2017!

Guys, I've merged the Omega and Titus post to the correct "Watch of Today" section. The Titus part of the thread has developed into information that should be posted in the "Watch Repair, Help and Advice" section. Unfortunately I can't shift the individual posts, so if help and advice is required in future, please start a new thread relating in the correct section. I am not trying to be heavy handed here, it's just to help folk who are looking for information and won't think of looking in "Watch of Today" for it. Thanks, Geo!

Happy New Year and Gott Nytt År to our Swedish friends. My dad always said that if you say Got New Door is sounds like Happy New Year in Swedish. I always learn a lot here. Sometimes I don't understand the answers but it's always interesting. Dave

All the very best G, and also all the best for 2017 everyone!

Happy New Year Folks - Looking forward to more great content from you all, great community, great forum

Happy new year to all. Wishing everyone success in their pursuits in 2017, horological or otherwise.

I got this Seiko 6139-6002 for pennies on the dollar albeit it was not working, in poor physical condition and with missing and damaged parts. I used after-market parts to “restore” this watch to a portion of its lost glory. This will go down as one of my favorite repair and restoration projects.

Railroad pocket watch versions were more accurate than previously mentioned. There development was as a result of a train crash where a pocket watch stopped for 4 minute's and restarted without anyone noticing which lead to a collision and many people lost their lives. I suspect a watch of this type used in the industry of its intended purpose was regulated with particular attention to 1 position, probably crown up and placed in the drivers cab, in a fixed position. Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

threads in the plate. im gonna open a thread to discuss that. save your comments til then. this one might go on a while.

So before I go to work today I write myself a note to look for 1560s and 1570s at work. It's conceivable we have one in for repair if not sooner or later they'll show up. There's also a tiny possibility we might have spare parts. Timing machines are not just used for regulating the watch. The graphical display will let you see things that can't be seen with your eyes or ears or anything else. At one time for hobbyists they were very expensive but now because the Chinese there very cheap so anyone working on watches that really should be on their list of things to buy. So for instance if your balance wheel is oscillating at its correct frequency the timing machine would show us that. Then we can make the assumption that this a problem with the gear train. Then even though you can't time on the Chinese machine 10 minutes per hour it was still show us that things look dramatically bad and we would know it's a balance wheel/hairspring problem.

So looking at what you've written thinking no no no then feeling really really really stupid. This of course is why I got a timing machine at least one of the reasons. Timing machines also helps you diagnose things that can't be seen on the graphical display there really a must have and now affordable very affordable thanks to the Chinese. So you look at my image were seeing the balance swing from one extreme to the other and amplitude is one half of that. So the video was still helpful without a timing machine we see that the complete oscillation is roughly 270 and you're running one half 135 that which is very very bad. So what is a good amplitude? Before we get the numbers as amplitude decreases everything bad in the watch gets magnified. So as you go falling in amplitude positional errors increase the effect of the escapement in a bad way increases Or simplistically timing flies out the window. Then for numbers we have issues in that whose numbers you want to look at? Some watch companies will tell you when the watches fully serviced it should have amplitude between certain degrees but a modern Rolex for instance is going to time differently than antique American pocket watch. Then companies like Omega publish the minimum amplitude at the end of 24 hours. Then some timing machine companies in their documentations will have recommendations but it all depends on the watch. Rolex watches will typically go at least 48 hours so at 24 hours that's only 50% of the power reserve you going to get a different amplitude than we are with a pocket watch. Omega while listing minimums for most their various watches also has a chart for their antique watches. They listed by size and they never made or at least are not acknowledging of making a pocket watch this size. So the minimum they have is 180° unless it's a tiny ladies watch that can go 160°. Rolex 200° minimum for all their watches with a maximum for two of them at 280 otherwise 300°. Then Witschi has a couple PDFs on timing mechanical watches found below and they have recommendations. I've attached an image out of the first PDF below. Then as a reminder timing in one position dial up or dial down isn't always the best as usually gives you the best amplitude. So it always helps to put in at least one pendant position. http://www.witschi.com/assets/files/sheets/Witschi Training Course.pdf http://www.witschi.com/assets/files/sheets/Test and measuring technology mechanical watches.pdf

The ASUS Eee netbooks are doing also well (running WinXP on 2GB, change HD to SSD); no large battery needed

Do you have a dome stake which is drilled all the way through? If so then you can turn the wheel upside down and rivet upside down.

unless you have a spare dial, don't. 90% of the time you make it worse and I'm speaking from experience of trying the so called different methods found on the forums (lemon juice, vinegar, dish soap, dish washer) and yes, I had roasted dials to test each method on. none delivered what they promised. either buy a new dial, get it refinished or soak up that patina which only comes with age.

You too Mark, check your PM please

A first for me. I would have thought that if the arbour is friction fit into the jewel the best option would be to just release the spring from the arbour & un-coil in the normal way and leave the arbour & barrel intact. The other option would be to push the arbour out of the jewel with a staking tool. Someone with experience with this type of barrel might have better alternatives.

when installing these springs ... check to see if it is totally flat, a spring with a slight twist will tend to fly off. parts tray.You will notice this if the spring is lying flat in your For springs made from flat stock, also check if the ends are not 'twisted'.. not so easy to spot ... best bet is to view it from directly above. This applies to all springs. Anil

Quite right! And if we are allowed to mention other specialist forums then as well as Wrist Sushi I'd also have a look at the Seiko and Citizen Watch Forum at thewatchsite.com which is also full of us nerds, oops I mean WIS (although I'm a long way from being able to call myself that!) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"We" are NOT nerds. We prefer to go by WIS [emoji4]

Also Adrian over at VintageTimeAustralia. Postage costs are reasonable even to me in UK.

Happy new year to all ... great forum... great people....

Well, could this be the first watch of today in 2017? Perhaps. It's a rare one. A Titus swissonic Beta. I have to do some more research on this, but my understanding is that the beta model operates at 720 Hz and the Alpha models operate at something like 480 IIRC. This second hand APPEARS to run smoother than my other swissonics, but that is not to be taken to the bank. Like I said, more research. I bought it as a nonrunner, but it worked great as soon as I dropped in a battery. I believe it was listed as a black dial, but it is dark bronze. I have a lanco that is similar. The case needed a LOT of help. It looked like someone pounded nails with it. I'm gonna do a tutorial on refinishing this case. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I've replaced the red gasket in a T-Race, as well as other watches, with cousins' generic red gaskets before, no problems (out of the set, but they can be ordered in packs of 3 in individual sizes) as far as I'm concerned trying to alter the case back is unnecessary and a bad idea, even if it works you'll have poor water resistance. (also keep in mind these don't really 'snap' on as such as press on smoothly) Good work on the dial, I'm always interested to see what can be done. Also to note the comment on the type of caseback, Tissot really like this design of caseback with hard gasket, most of their watches have it, and you find it in omegas and other watches too, it might seem like a cheap out but they're perfectly good for securing the case back and water resistance, they also have the added bonus from the manufacturers point of view of being a little awkward in a way that results in more of them coming back for expensive after sales services.

If you look at the discussion groups with wristwatch collectors you'll notice that they don't believe in changing anything in the watch. Is not even clear whether they would be happy with replacing parts if they were broken I think the purists would be unhappy. So from a collecting point of view they would rather have a tarnished dial than a nice new shiny dial.

Hello Mark and welcome from me as well. Cheers, Vic

Hello everyone and my best wishes for 2017! In an effort to return to the actual topic of the thread from the detour I caused into software/computing I'd like to summarize what has happened over the past couple of days and some good news. At the end, my main problem was the microphone drivers that both my PC as well laptop had. I cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure your drivers are compatible with the software. Realtek was not, while Conexant is. For all those ignorant of computing and electronics like me this is what you need: 1. Contact microphone: the recommended Korg works best, particularly if you shave off the foam cover, as this protects the surface of the instrument or, in this case, the watch from potential scratches, but it muffles the signal significantly. 2. Amplifier: I don't have the means to build my own, but ultimately the $20 amp I got works wonderful and now with everything working I have it running at 75% power, so I have room to go up for those extra quiet watches. I posted the links to the LINEP AMP in a previous post. 3. Adapter for those of you with laptops that use the combo plug for both mic and headphones, also posted in previous post and at the WOS site. 4. Equalizer APO is important to be able to reduce noise and also boost the signal a bit. This is the piece of software that seems to clash with some mic drivers like Realtek. --> you have to change the Device Update Setting into NOT letting windows automatically update with vendor drivers and then in Device Manager uninstall your mic driver. When you reboot you should check and find that you now have the generic Windows audio driver which works fine with Eq APO. --> Run the Configurator (Eq APO) and install it on the mic and reboot. 5. PEACE: this is the graphic interphase for Eq APO where you equalize and boost the signal. The Eq APO Editor didn't work in my system (froze) and so PEACE was super easy to use. If all is working well, you should run WOS on sono mode (looking at the wave form) and boost and equalize the signal with PEACE and you will see the wave signal change live as you change the parameters. Set it up with the least noise as possible but with sufficient volume at the same time. 6. Watch-O-Scope: for me it's become routine to check the sono mode waves every time I check on a watch to make sure it's appropriate and then start the testing. This is a phenomenal software that produces excellent reports on 6 positions as well as long-term testing. With this I hope to close the chapter for those like me struggling to set everything up. I want to thank everyone for your patience and time to walk me through the set up. Feel free to PM me if you get stuck in the above steps. Thanks again and happy timegraphing!

And here are a few shots Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk