Leaderboard

The sole purpose of this forum is to help, and educate the community in watch repair, but at the same time, to build a great friendly community too, sharing likeminded advice, tips, reviews on tools, equipment, be it photos, links, videos, news articles, headlines, and pretty much anything else that fits into our community. My day job is working on watches, and I don't see these great forums being a threat to my livelihood.

I suppose it's better the movements are used for something that gives pleasure rather than put in the bin. At least folk are then appreciating the beauty of the movements that are otherwise hidden in cases when they were functional. Now where did I put my cuff links?

I'm new to this forum as well as the hobby so I probably have no room to talk on this topic, but I'll throw my 2 cents out anyway. I think you walk a fine line when you dissuade people from getting into the hobby. I myself probably fell into the category you speak of just a few months ago. I had inherited a watch and check about getting it serviced and realized how much it would cost for a piece that was purely just sentimental with no real value at all. So I decided instead maybe I could do something about it. Not that I ever thought it would be easy, I just figured it would just be one more reason it would be sentimental. So I hopped online and just started reading, and maybe that's where I deviate from the group that you are talking about because I chose to watch hours worth of mark's videos, as well as other videos. And read through forums and even got a beginners watchmaking/repair book which I have slowly been working through. I didn't jump in and ask for the easy solution. However had I done that, I probably still would have been headed down the same path I am now buying up cheap movements on eBay to practice on, slowly working up to more complicated movements for myself. But had I been welcomed with a "this isn't for everyone, go see a professional" I definitely wouldn't have stuck around. I do understand the frustration to some extent because I see similar stuff on Reddit communities that I participate heavily in and it can get frustrating at times. But I have learned that it's sometime a better idea to win someone into your hobby rather than push them out just because they lack certain etiquette. Especially for an art like watch making/repairing that seems to have a smaller and smaller community of hobbyists. Hopefully this was coherent, typed it up on my phone so please forgive me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had one of those from santa. Lovin' it, but without a £250k tool budget, 5 years off work and a patience transplant, I won't be building my own watch from scratch. However, it's a great thing to dip in and out of and learn something new every time... enjoy!

The leds are pre-mounted on an aluminum strip and that is inserted into a channel with fins that I guess is a heat sink of sort. Here's a pic from the seller's site.

Ashima, I have never at any time seen this level of elitist arrogance come from Mark Lovick (the forum administrator) or any of the moderators. No comment like yours was ever mentioned in any of his excellent watch repair videos or in any post written by him or the moderators. The stated purpose of this forum and the YouTube watch repair videos was to create a platform to share watch repair knowledge with others. To my knowledge it was never stated that the reason for the existence of this forum was to provide a platform to demean the skill level of other members in order for a small group, who consider themselves to be the chosen few, to sell their services. I used to belong to another forum that was destroyed by two members who considered themselves to be God's gift to horology. I sincerely hope that this sort of situation does not happen here. david

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.

I'm sure I will be inspired, confused, dazzled and just generally humbled by the contents of this, but I'm looking forward to every page!

Ok, I'll see if I have anything for you... it may take me a little bit.

See below a couple of docs which help choosing the correct size & style. KIF shock springs.pdf KIF_Bulova.pdf

Here some sellers pictures of my newly acquired "baby". It's a 1992 Poljot "Sport" with a SU 3133 movement. It's made just before the disintegration of the Soviet Union and still has "Made in USSR" printed on the dial. Shortly after the disintegration, the print was changed to "Made in Russia". It should be posted today ............ Needless to say, I can't wait !!

Very impressive work George; hats off It also cleaned up very nicely! Surely, by judging the pictures, you must have a bucket full of this Baltic sea sand ....... I've heard it's a collectors item I get a good idea what's in store for me BTW; I bought the early 1992 Poljot 3133 "Sport", marked on the dial with "Made in the USSR". After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, only briefly after my model, the dials were marked with "Made in Russia" ......... I just couldn't resist ........ sorry ......

Hmmm - White dial, new hands, replace the crown with a suitable generic, new glass, and clean the case and pushers as best you can. See how it looks, might be OK! If not, you can then spend the money on a NOS case, and you'll only be out a glass and crown, which aren't a lot of money and may be useful elsewhere.

And.... the third movement has been cleaned... and will be, without the parts that I need to use for the Admiral Watch, put back together. At the moment I am checking all the parts, one by one, to asses their status. I already saw that a couple of parts do show some rust, unfortunately. As per the Admiral: the operating lever of this third movement is in perfect condition, and I already put it in place, and the movement is finally complete. The watch itself has also received the stem and crown of the third spare watch, yet the crown is chromed so I will have to check out if I find a proper, gold plated crown IF I want to keep the case and dial of the Admiral This leads me to another dilemma (the first one being sorted): what should I do with this case? the pushers are a bit pitted in their gold plating, the crown, as I said, is missing, the glass is completely scratched, but still allows the dial to be easily read. The problem is actually the dial, without the 11 hour marker, and the broken chronograph second hand. It will be extremely hard to find a good looking watch with broken movement to get the complete case from. It would be much easier to just buy a NOS case, chromed, off eBay, for some 60€. Then fit the white dial and source proper hands, which are easier to find. I haven't also tested the movement of the Admiral for accuracy. But I noticed it runs a bit fast. This is though due to the unregulated balance wheel, probably. So what are your thoughts?

Good day Rogart, I might have that KIF trior.....gotta head to the facility today, but will check later. J

Agree with Geo 100%. We all start from somewhere & friendly help is the successful format for this forum.

I also bought a small bottle to clean the hairsprings on Hamilton Electric watch balances . The balance also has a coil attached that i wouldn't want to submerge in any cleaning solution , so I use a glass eyedropper to place the solution only on the hairspring and use a delicate ladies cosmetic brush to clean the spring and my blower to dry it. I'll repeat a few times . Seems to work , just use a light touch .

This is one of these threads that if discussed across a table would take a different path. It is not always easy to put across your exact feelings in a manner that you want, and as such it misconceptions and irritation can result. Ishima has asked me to lock this thread and I agree. The last thing that he or any of us wanted, is this to turn into one of these runaway vociferous threads. The thread is now locked!

I looked up the 345 movement on the Ranfft website and found it to be quite interesting with a few unusual details... First off bring the optional Ruby bearings for the rotor , and not mentioned in jewel count. Next is what is described as the dial side ratchet crown mechanism with rocker bar. As far as the case markings , I will venture a guess that the same case was used for the different calibers in this same series family . I have a Longines 5 Star Admiral that uses the same case for the 508 , 505 , 503 , and maybe others . The differences in the calibers may be that some are day , day / date , different jewel count , etc. It could have also been a transitional period between the calibers . As I said , just a guess and hopefully Longines or someone else can shed some light on the subject . A Very nice looking watch you have there . You can't go wrong with a Longines.

David That is a very good one !....lol

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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...

Sorry to hear you lost your job, Don. Great creativity there though with your lamp, impressive use of wood, and LEDS.

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.

I have said that before and I'll say it again. I could cite hundreds of forum threads and scam stories like this. I wish that people that sells items of some value would read the Internet before starting selling on ebay with PayPal. And I'm also a bit disheartened that (as in this case) people still confuses Ebay and PayPal, which are co-operating but separate companies, Ebay does not handle money, only PayPal does, and PayPal always have the last decision, unless you want to take them to court of course. If you can't take the risk, the item is valuable, etc, do not sell on Ebay and only use non-reversible methods of payments. Even if you set a NO RETURNS policy, PayPal will accept a dispute for non conforming item. Even if you film packaging, security seal and ship signed for, if a fraudulent buyer claims no items in box, you will lose the dispute. If the buyer falsely returns the item, you will lose. Even if the buyer looses the dispute, he can still file a chargeback with the C/C, and you will lose. All that while you pay a total of 15% fees for having virtually zero protection as a seller. Go read the fine print if you don't believe me. Remember, the entire concept of C/C issuer/merchant relations is about keeping chargebacks below 1 - 1.5% of the total, and there are to help merchants achieve that. But if you are an individual, low volume seller, all it takes is a single large loss to be done and busted for a long time. By now the scammers have now learned that is far easier to exploit the buyer protection and defraud honest sellers.

I have had a few issues with Paypal over the years but I have never come across "over drafting" I am still not sure what it is. I have had buyers claim that they did not receive the item However because I sent the items by to be "signed for" I won the cases because I had proof of delivery. In this case the buyer claims the item was not as described. Therefore the seller has to either prove to eBay that the item was exactly as described or offer a full re-fund ON RETURN OF THE ITEM. If the seller receives nothing then there should be no re-fund. An important point to be made is trading on eBay still carries the same trading regulations as all other traders in the UK have to abide by. I have seen many times NO RETURNS by sellers and I personally avoid them. Why ? because it raises suspicions about the item being sold and a absolute NO RETURNS is against the UK trading standards act. As I understand it, you can have a returns policy but you can not impose a absolutely NO returns. See below for the UK rules & what return guide policy you can offer your customers. If eBay has a fault is it allows sellers to suggest they can have an absolutely NO RETURNS policy. https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/goods/returns-policies#WhatcanIsayinmyreturnspolicy https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

Nice guys...with you guys trouble shooting I can't wait for the opportunity to bring a broken watch back to life. Anthony

Well I don't get back to work (where the gaskets are) for a couple of days but here's the cousins web page where you can navigate through your choices for these gaskets. https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/red-hard-gaskets Can't really help with the measurement. Whatever the watch, just keep in mind the internal measurement should be tight enough that the red gasket is firm on the case back. (then the rest should be fine, in theory)

To clarify, this watch does not take a regular rubber o-ring, it takes a hard, red plastic ring. that necessarily fills the significant space that was designed between the case and case back.

With all due respect CB I think you have missed the point. If Timex never intended their watches to be serviced then why did they publish service manuals and bulletins, and market service parts kits for most of their calibres? This was the point I was trying to make about servicing in the "Swiss tradition". Timex adopted a different approach not just to construction but also to maintenance. They recognised that nobody was going to spend 10x the purchase price of a new watch on a service so they came up with a simpler and quicker solution. That doesn't mean that they can't or were not intended to be serviced, simply that a different methodology needs to be employed. Like I said, the fact that so many beaten and abused (because they were so cheap) examples can be revived with just a half hour service is testimony to the design philosophy. I believe that the problem with Timex mechanicals lay not with the watches, but with watchmakers refusal to adopt different procedures which they considered to be inferior, regardless of how appropriate the new techniques were for the particular watch.

Maybe i'm going blind but I can't see anything missing. Perhaps an alarm spring? Does the watch back have an alarm sounding board on the inside? (looks like a white ceramic disk). As for the back. You see that orange/red gasket around the inside of the case? That goes on the watch back FIRST before you refit the back. If it is not kinked or damaged then you should get a nice tight fit. Look carefully at that gasket as one side will be very slightly tapered and the other side flat. The flat edge is against the watch back and the slightly tapered edge goes towards the watch case. Hope this helps. :)