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After a rather long pause I finally got round to putting it all back together again. I do respect your advice O.H. but in the end I did re silver the dial & frame: The movement was dipped in Priory clock cleaner & polished as reqd. Reassembly went without any major incident: Hands cleaned & re blued, new leather pads fitted to strikers, case cleaned with Priory polish reviver. Before & after: Apart from cleaning off the crud on the gongs these were left as is, along with the side & back fabric & mesh grills. Going like a train, gongs & bongs all happy. All in all an enjoyable one, but I am still waiting for the pendulum (which has been found apparently) & none the wiser to identification.

Hello and welcome, your best bet in starting out is get hold of a few pocket watches (not fusee's) and just keep taking them apart and putting them back, don't matter if they don't work, get to know the names of the parts, they won't be automatics but you will learn a lot, there just like a watch but much bigger, what you have is a very expensive watch and is classed as a high grade watch movement, its a hell of a step jumping in on something like an Omega, its like jumping in water and swimming but you haven't learned to swim. There's loads of advice on here about the sort of tools you will need as well.

Hi everyone! I´ve read all what you´ve been talking about here and still have to read the other thread about oiling and lubricating, I really thank you for your help! I´ve learned a lot with this reading!

Hmmm I can understand your frustration, but we all have to start somewhere. In my early efforts at repair I asked lots of questions, both directly and of google. Without the many, many forum posts on the web, I would never have been able to do many of the things I do now. Lots of these posts were not written for me, but I have learned much from them. I use professionals for some jobs and do others myself. I don't see that I'm depriving anyone of a living as most of the watches I repair myself would not be economically viable to have repaired, but I get satisfaction from solving the puzzles I encounter. So what about the DIY-er? It's where I started, but because of the information available I stuck with it, and now I have a new hobby, which I really enjoy. I guess it's a question of whether to give people a chance. I'm prepared to do that in almost everything I do. Sometimes, just sometimes, the reward is someone who just needed an opportunity to find a new career or direction in life...

My response was really written with larger quantities in mind. I realized the 20mL size you are asking about is a very small amount. You might want to consider buying One Dip 2oz or 8oz bottles. I would still use a wide mouthed glass jar and to place the balance with hairspring inside and then drip the solution onto it. J

YEs exactly. I pour some into a small glass jar of about 100ml capacity and keep it tight covered. The solution does have a rapid evaporation rate, but if you cover tightly, it will prevent it from drying up too quickly and you can reuse it. JC

You don't have to remove the hairspring from the balance wheel/balance cock assembly...you can simply place entire assembly into the hairspring cleaning solution. J

A warm welcome to the forum Hilts. Your background, including the juvenile overhaul of a Stanley hand drill, is almost identical to mine. The advice you've received already is very sound, I too would stress that you do not make a 562 movement your first victim. Here is a link to a topic relating to a 561 movement I serviced a while ago. This will give you a good idea of the complexity you will have to contend with.

Hello Hilts and welcome I would agree with @clockboy find yourself a couple of cheap working automatic movements first. Strip them and rebuild them to a running state. Don't rush into such a nice movement because its there. Take your time and get to grips with your tools first handling parts with tweezers takes a while to master.

Welcome Hilts, Unless you have some experience with servicing watches I would first attempt a less prestigious and valuable watch before the Omega. It can go terribly wrong very easily. Enjoy the forum.

I've heard good things about this Arbe lamp and I was set to buy one, but I got laid off on New Year's eve. So I used some scrap plywood to make an arm for a light I built a while back. It has 6 strips of 36 SMD 5630 leds each. The arm is a bit ugly, but I'll try and pretty it up a bit. I got a chance to use it for the first time today. For the money, it meets my needs nicely.

You have to combine a couple of different methods, but basically line everything up reasonably well, gently lower the bridge (baring in mind it wont be lined up), place the bridge screws in if possible, but tighten them only so far as the bridge will be kept vaguely in place, Then you can combine gently wiggling of the bridge (which i do with a cot covered finger) manipulating of the wheels with pegwood (at which time you'll want to let up on any downward pressure on the bridge), and with great care, patience and perhaps a good eye -- to see which wheel is off two degrees in what direction -- you can usually line it up so that everything will slip into place. tightening the bridge screws gradually as you go, checking for problems, once you think you have it, continue to finish tightening the screws but do keep checking for problems, see if the gear train runs properly, if it doesn't you might make matters worse by screwing the bridge down firmly. That's the approach that works for me anyway, others might have better things to say.