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Made a click spring by hand. And made a video with all the issues I also had. Not a machinist but getting better. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I purchased a bag of shellac flakes off eBay and cannot get them to melt. Instead, they just get a little soft and sticky but won’t form a string when pulled from the pallet warmer. Applying more heat just makes them crisp up. I’ve seen several of Mark’s videos in which he heats up shellac and it melts nicely but I’m not getting the same results. Is it possible that I’ve got a bad batch of flakes or is it something else that could be causing this? Would it be better to use a shellac stick instead of flakes?

Thanks watchweepole. I’ve looked for that video but no luck. If you have a link, it would be much appreciated my friend Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Today it's the Benrus Citation electronic watch. I recently pulled this apart to clean it. It had a very tall battery in it and the hatch wasn't sealing so moisture was getting in and everything was beginning to stall. Next strap I buy, will be a replacement for this ugly thing.

Hi all, Excuse my poor English My name is Marcos and I'm form Spain. I'm almost 44 years old. I discovered the watch world recently watching Mark Lovick videos in youtube and loved it. I decided to take his lessons ( I'm in level 3 now). I also started too buy watch tools and some watches for training. It is a new hobby for me and I'm enjoying and learning a lot. Kind regards, Marcos Lemos

Yes, they are different - the 563 has a quickset date. That spare part looks like one of these... http://www.urdelar.se/Omega 563-1568, Correcting yoke Updated version of the 563 parts list here https://www.cousinsuk.com/PDF/categories/370_Omega 563 NewLR.pdf See here for details on where it goes

Well that question got me googling... There is a lot of discussion about this on the ”interweb”, but mostly in relation to woodworking and nail polish! Shellac is a natural product, subjected to various purification processes prior to sale which have changed significantly over the years, so firstly, the shellac we buy today is likely to be much purer and more consistent than in the past. Shellac flakes sold for making wood finishes definitely deteriorate with age. After a period of time the can no longer be dissolved in alcohol. I haven’t found out exactly why, but moisture, heat and light are all cited as causes. So, keeping your flakes in a sealed dark container would be a good thing. Shellac in stick form will have a lower surface area for a given volume and therefore certainly less susceptible to moisture. Once mixed with alcohol, shellac will start to react chemically, (search for esterification if you want to know more), and evaporation of the alcohol doesn’t get you back to where you started. This is why pre-mixed shellac varnishes have a short shelf life. Shellac is chemically similar to acrylic, and hence made of long polymer chains. I’ve read conflicting information about whether these will cross-link in ultraviolet light (the process that causes unbreakable watch crystals to go yellow and brittle). However, I would expect it to behave in a similar way - again, this is a non reversible reaction. All of this may go some way to explain why some people reprt there is no problem with cleaning pallets in alcohol and others saying it softens the shellac. I’m now into this deep enough to need a good chemist to get me back out. Any volunteers?

Good for you. Lucky you didn't bend or break that pivot.

Work on those reflections!

That almost looks as if it is designed to launch itself into space the moment you look at it.

Likewise. Much as I like Seiko I honestly think Orient do it better.

Personally, I'd avoid the Chinese copy. Go second-hand Swiss. In all likelihood the Swiss tool will have superior build quality, tolerances, and material.

She is..

Check the last pages of this thread.

Has the pallets got end shake when its bridge is screwed down?

So, I picked up my Omega Hummer yesterday and I'm driving it around town today. I love this thing. I'm not sure I'll be able to resist the temptation to make it my daily! Needs a proper fitting strap as this one is under sized, and I despise crocodile!

Today wearing my Orient Day Date with blue dial. Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Today, it's my Orient triple star king diver.

I love orient watches. They never cross the line into tastelessness.

I will consdier them in 30 - 40 years when they become "Vintage"

Or £229 if you buy it from the Timex UK site (but it is currently out of stock). A bit of a cheek charging more in the UK than Canada, but then again we should be used to that. Most US items arrived with a pound per dollar price in the UK.

I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice. I still like the Timex though, and even though you can pay less for similar (or even better) specs, Vostok Amphibia for instance, I don't think the price is too bad.

Another way of looking at it is building it yourself, the ultimate microbrand. Cheapest Miyota movement at Cousins £36 (inc vat) Cheapest diver style case on eBay £26 with no claim to water resistance Dial & hand set £15 Decent leather strap £10 Total £87, you have to assemble it yourself which means that you have to buy some tools as well, and you have no effective warranties, particularly if the case leaks and destroys the movement, dial and hands. This Timex works out at £170, has a 100m water resistance rating, and will have the manufacturers warranty and no need for any tools. I don't think that's too bad. What microbrands are you referring to?

Welcome Loren I am an electronics engineer and soon to retire. In the same way you describe I too find mechanical watch and clock movements fascinating so I decided to study and learn the art of service and repair. Recently I watched a YOUTUBE video with the eminent George Daniels presiding over a meeting of the AWCI (American Watch and Clock makers Institute), where George explains in detail the creation of his co-axial escapement. Well worth a watch. He has a pleasing manner with humorous overtones. My favorite quote is where he describes the job in life of the battery of a quartz watch movement is to commit suicide at the first opportunity. You can clearly tell he is not a fan of quartz movements. Hope you enjoy the video. Here is the link to the video. His voice is gruff, I think he may have had a sore throat.

Hi Dreggsie Mark who is the site administrator, and who produces some excellent instructional videos has one on the very subject so I suggest you find it out and have a look. A picture or in this case is worth a thousand words. It will be worth your time.

I couldn't resist another poke at that YouTube vid. in the comments section, with a link back here to today's fixer upper. I often wonder what happened to all of the tooling from the Dundee plant. I suspect they crated it off to Taiwan.

I wouldn't repair them. Always sent them back to Dundee Scotland.

You may have noticed a few changes - I have removed the Gallery section and the CMS pages app from the site as it costs too much to 'rent' those modules with comparatively very little use by members - it just did not make sense to keep them going. I apologise if this inconveniences or annoys anybody but I think it is better to keep the core of this website to be a discussion forum. The WRT website is costing me a lot of money per month to run and I am making a few changes to help with that - there is a little income from eBay affiliate ads but not enough to cover the cost of hosting and some help from Patrons and for this we are very grateful. The site has over 30GB in uploaded media now!!! And the notification emails generated is quite high too - I have to use a separate company to handle this so that the site doesn't get email black-listed. One of these services suddenly and without notice stopped our service a few months ago and it was a few days before anybody even noticed (password reset emails were no longer working). I did manage to find a new email provider and things have been running smoothly ever since. Getting back to the uploaded media, as mentioned it's over 30GB and this covers images in topics going back several years. I do back this up every night and I backup the site database every hour in order to protect the content should we ever have a disaster I have a Synology NAS here in the office which has a full backup on and I also keep a backup offsite on a cloud service. I have also decided to use Amazon Cloudfront to host all the uploaded media. I am in the process of migrating this content over and you may notice broken images for a very short period during the migration. But ultimately this will maintain and even improve performance of the site. Anyway, all being said, this is a fantastic community and I am fully committed to continuing with it's administration, keeping our little corner of the net alive - Just a little update to let you know what's happening -

Thank you Mark. I love this site and helping out. It keeps me sane.

For future reference there is a significant amount of parts interchangeability between the 1686 and the 1187/94. I think they are the same movement actually with a different train bridge and balance cock.

Here are two new links. I bought both so they are mine. https://www.mediafire.com/file/mz809lm3bms8zk3/bestfit_part1.pdf/file https://www.mediafire.com/file/eqbhdor949r0ilp/bestfit_part2.pdf/file You will need this pasword to open each volume. tickandtock Sorry I didn't know zippy was now full of crap. If you have adblocker you might need to disable it for mediafire. These are safe I have tested them.