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About a week back I picked up this Sturmanskie after following @Endeavor and @GeorgeClarkson through the service of their Soviet chronographs. The seller stated the watch dated from 1988 and included the original receipt and box. Unfortunately, I cannot read Cyrillic so I was forced to take the seller at his word; regardless of it's origin though, the watch is a beautiful specimen and I'm happy to have it. Unfortunately I was unable to remove the caseback until today. I took Roland's advice and used a jeweler's hammer and a sharp razor to work my way around the caseback slowly creating enough of a gap for a case knife to exploit. It was a nerve-wracking experience! In the end, the caseback came away with no damage to the watch. I'm always very anxious to gaze upon a new chronograph movement- it's certainly geeky but I'm not afraid to admit it. It looks like I'm not the first to open this case though. Many screws have marks on them indicating they've been removed at some point in the past and replaced. I believed this movement to be 31659, but alas, there is no hacking mechanism that I can see. Over all the movement is in good shape and appears complete. It will need a proper cleaning before it's ready to wear and I'll be sure to post about it when I have the chance.

So it's been a few months since I posted here...but I've been regularly checking in. Hi Mark and Geo! So as a few of you know, I have a hobby of building watches. The one thing I hated was relying on some of the very few companies that actually print dials. Here is the USA there are only a handful that do this type of work! I was lucky enough to find an antique dial printing machine on eBay. It was just a vessel to move the dial from printing plate to paint application. I found a willing company to "Fill in the Blanks!" I won't name them here because I don't want to seem like I'm Selling this company! Anyway, they were a very big help when it came to me having questions. The sales, engineering and billing staff were first rate! They helped me pick the proper printing pads, helping me design and then produce my printing plates and then help me choose the proper ink and also recommended how to prepare the inks, pads and thinners to get the best results! So, here I am....First try at printing a dial.... I designed the dial myself using a free online software. The dial is printed in 3 stages. The first step was printing the hour chapter. Then, the second step was to print the sub seconds chapter. Lastly, I printed the name of the manufacturer that I will be using for this build. This was more of a proof of concept to me...Now, I can't wait to try new designs and styles! And, Now I have more control of what I build! That's very important to me...Cheers!

Do your jars have baffles in them? Each jar in my L & R cleaner has a baffle in the bottom which creates a bit of turbulence in the cleaner as the basket spins. These baffles, along with reverse cycle, help clean around all the parts. @jguitron is correct that water contamination will cause problems. I'm pretty sure Zenith cleaning solution and water are immiscible. Also, if your cleaning fluid hasn't been changed for a while then you'll also see a film build-up on the parts.

Welcome, Gav. Enjoy the forum

Welcome to this friendly forum. You will find plenty here to amuse you about watches of all sorts from the type of tools that are used how to clean a watch, the names of the parts, we even have a clock section.

I'm doing my first steps in dynamic poising these days and for me this page was very helpful to understand the what and why: http://adjustingvintagewatches.com/category/dynamic-posiing/

@sstakoff ; No, I did not as I don't have any tool for doing so. The balance is of simple design, no adjustments. If you have any smart idea's to check the poise of a balance with simple tools, I would be delighted to hear ...... ! According to the seller, the movement ran fine on his timegrapher before shipping and I can't see any obvious deformations to the balance wheel, staff or bend pivots.......

Welcome, Gav! I have a grandson named Gavin... great name. Lots of good information and friendly, helpful people here in this forum. Stroll around a bit and don't be afraid to ask questions! Shirley

Hello All; Thank you very much for your suggestions I stripped and cleaned the balance assembly, pallet fork and escape wheel. The highest magnification I have is a Sternkreuz 10x loupe. I couldn't find anything wrong with the pivots, the escape teeth, pallet-jewels nor the balance hair-spring, roller-jewel or pivots. Installed all the three components (this time no oil on the pallet jewels) and the result was better, but still signs of the above pattern. Changed out the balance wheel and hair-spring for a brand new set and the results hugely improved. This morning I stripped it all again, cleaned and oiled where required and the results are as below; Dial Down; Dial up; Crown Down; Crown Up; It shows some "wave" pattern in CU / CD which could come from the drive. Some "off-Line" dots could be W.O.S. interference or originate from the watch? The Amplitude isn't the highest, but the watch hasn't run a lot since the complete service. The beat-error seems pretty consistent in all four positions. Had another close look at the "old" balance with my 10x, but can not see anything wrong with the staff-pivots. The hairspring seems nice concentric and the roller jewel seems fine too However, it is clear that a big part of the problem was somewhere in the balance and @StuartBaker104 may well be right in his observation (even though I didn't spot it). I also noticed that both hair-springs, new and "old", don't / didn't run freely between the regulator pins and a change in daily-rate causes a slight shift in the beat-error ......... that's something to be sorted later. First, I will let the movement run for at least 48hrs and see whether the amplitude is on the rise and after that start to do perhaps some hair-spring fine-tuning..... thereafter the re-assembling of the chronograph parts. Anyways, despite no obvious fault was observed, things start to look a whole lot healthier ........ Thanks for your help

Welcome aboard

for the case back, did you try this one? I bought one for a very stubborn case back and it worked.

Hi Shirley. You are so kind, but I think I have now got to the bottom of this. Firstly I've now opened a cousins account, something they said on the phone that I would not be able to do as I'm not a business. Secondly, I've been downloading the incabloc data sheet for AS. It should actually have been Standard. So I can now see that I need a 770.03 [emoji3]. I'm happy! Kind regards to all. Deggsy Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tricky to get your head round - but worked a treat thank you once more Stuart

I thought I'd better upload a photo of the camera USB port wiring.

This project has got to the stage where I am getting glad it is over. Anyway, crown made, parts sprayed with clear laquer, acrylic fitted and strap fitted. A few other problems I had to deal with to get the watch keeping regular time. The watch now keeps good time and I will regularly wear it and see what snags come up (which I am sure they will !!)

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!

Good morning all. I'm a retired fiber optics engineer with 35 years in my profession. I own a single fine watch by MUHLE GLASHUTTE, CITY AUTOMATIC XIII containing a Muhle modified ETA 2824-2. It's time for maintenance so I inquired into the current fees for such work. I was expecting to have to pay for the services of skilled professionals but was not expecting to pay 25% of the price of a new watch. As you might have guessed I'm in the habit of working with items considerably smaller than watch parts so taking apart a watch doesn't scare me, but obviously I want to do it properly. If anyone can point me toward the best instructions including required tools and lubricants I would be most grateful. I'm not worried about damaging this watch because after I'm gone this watch will be lost to history. I have two high tech sons who will go no where near any kind of watch unless it was made of precious metals that could be sold. Thank You

Hello everyone, Thanks Mark for your welcome to WRT. I have just joined the Forum after watching Mark's wonderful videos on You Tube. I am a complete novice at the moment. However I have managed to cure a few minor faults on watches I have accumulated over the years, for example date change and keyless problems. I hope to progress to a full service in the near future. I don't really have a watch collection as such. I do have a 1960's Omega Seamaster Auto which I like and is still working perfectly, but not serviced by me, as yet. In the meantime I think I will have to treat myself to a new bench light. Has anybody got any suggestions please for a good value light. Regards, Richard