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Received my practise watch the other day, a Mumbai special from Ebay, the watch looks pretty decent clean shiny and at first glance could well be described as new. The dial is an obvious repaint but does look quite decent, a working mechanical watch, swiss movement with a new band for around $16 delivered - I have no complaints. A quick wind and away it went, I don't have a dedicated timing machine but I do have TG and Watchoscope on my laptop, a quick test showed a rate of about +75 seconds/day, a beat error of approx 2.5ms the amplitude varied from 140 to 190 deg (not sure why). This is about what I expected so no surprises here. Came back to it after diner and found it had stopped, checking the winder it felt as it was still fairly well wound, I gave it a few more turns and away it went, after taking off the back I let down the main spring and found it had been just about fully wound. I gave it few turns and it came to life only to stop after a few minutes, I found it needed to be almost fully wound to keep going, no matter, it is a practise watch and will be a challenge for me to see if I can (a) strip clean and reassemble without screwing it up and (b) find the cause of it needing to be fully wound to continue running. Had some trouble getting the movement out of the case, the plastic spacer holding the movement central came out with no problems but releasing the winding stem I found it could not be removed as the tube it passed through was too small to allow it through, as I never intend to wear this and my primary concern is working on the movement I decided to pull the tube from the case so I could free the stem, a few moments with long nosed pliers had the stem and tube out - it was tight though and reasonably thick, I had a good hold on it and did not crush it. Although it is possible to strip a movement without the stem in place every thing I have seen/read says put the stem back once the movement is out of the case. With the movement out I gave the case a bit of a look and the plastic crystal just fell out in my hands when I tried to wipe a finger print from the inside. I had hoped the band would be real leather - maybe it is I can't tell, it does have FRACOMINA embossed on it - this is the name of an online fashion store. If I decide to reassemble it to a fully working watch I'll have to either source a new tube or make one - looks pretty small but do-able.The movement is now sitting on my home brew holder and hopefully I'll have time later today to do my first strip and reassemble.

Hi, I am from Sinagpore. Was into watch collecting but took up a watch repair course a few months ago. Have been practicing with some old watches. And I hope to learn from all the experts here.

if it fits and works use it. vin

Hi szbalogh, Thanks, but it actually isn't... (I wish it was, would have made my life easier [emoji3]) Citizen must have picked up on the idea as their design resembles this much older Shock Resist design. If you scroll up in the post you will find more info on the device. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Serviced similar movement recently (ST 96N), also from India My procedure is like this. Put the gears in their hole jewels in the mainplate. Place the bridge over them and add the screws and turn them half way in. Just to hold the bridge so that it wont fall off but it is moving freely up and down. Then hold the movement by hand (finger coats) and look at it from the edge from the balance direction with the loupe. Hold it to a good light. Now You can see what arbor is not upright. Usually i am using brass tweezers, thin toothpick (sometimes to thick) or thin brass wire in a pin vice to align the gears. The bridge usually will simply fall in his place if everything is aligned .... in case of some good movements. If it is not falling in place then i am just keeping my finger over it (dont push, just hold there), then align the gears, check them that both pivots are in their holes (push on the center wheel to check if they are spinning properly), now You can push on the bridge until it is in place. Have not broken one pivot yet.

Welcome to this friendly forum plenty of guys here to advise and also share their experiences. Enjoy

Welcome to this friendly forum. Lots of good info here for you to get stuck into.

You could try here, they make one offs. http://johndunnengineering.co.uk/

welcome to this great forum....if you don't ask, you will not learn...Enjoy

Some pics - I know forum members like pics. Still have not managed to get the bridge on, main concern is breaking the pivots. I put the bridge back without any of the gears just to gauge the amount of pressure needed to seat it - not much, I did notice though it needs to be put on squarely, then assembled with only the two larger gears, took about 20 seconds, I noticed that the jewels are opaque and I can see the pivots moving around through the jewels. It is the circled gear that is causing me headaches. Not about to give up though. A pic also of the stem with the remains of the tube next to it.

Welcome onboard! The more u practices the better u will be.

Personally I think I'd rather have this than having a hairspring all tangled up. So an interesting book is "Bench practices for watch and clockmakers" by Henry B Fried Has a nice section on what to do with hair Springs that don't quite look right. I would suggest though practicing on a practice hairspring first. But if you lack of practice spring you could try just be careful not to pull too much. So a couple images out of the book.