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Overview This is my first attempt at resurrecting a broken mechanical watch. Bought this on ebay for a total cost of $20.00. The seller had acquired it from a retired watchmaker's estate and it was definitely not working. I don't know the exact age, but it's certainly nothing recent. The movement suggests 1960's. It is a man's watch, but is the same size as the ladies automatic my wife has. I'm including the "before" pictures from the ebay listing and a couple of pictures of the watch now that I've got it working. First impression When I first opened the watch, I had no idea what I was looking at. I didn't know what this movement was. I'm not familiar with older movements and especially not manual wind movements. So I began looking around online for info on swiss movements. By sheer luck I came across a page that had a picture of this movement. It's an FHF-96: http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?12&ranfft&0&2uswk&FHF_96 This watch is a front-loader and so I had to get a tool to pull the acrylic crystal before I could do anything else. Once I finally got it open, I began stripping the movement down, carefully taking pictures of everything since I didn't expect to find anything remotely like a how-to on getting it back together again. Repair process All old parts got a bath in my $30 ultrasonic cleaner using distilled water and dish detergent. Rinse in distilled water Dip in alcohol (except balance and pallet) Set out to dry. Balance and pallet got one-dip Crystal got worked over with polywatch, saving it. Case got scrubbed down with toothpaste then rubbed down with nevr-dull Put it all back together, including new parts D5, 9010, 9415 and molykote where appropriate. Put it on the timegrapher and let it sit in various positions for a couple of days Regulate it Profit! Faults found The center wheel was stuck to the mainplate. Would not turn. I got it free and examined it. Corroded. The mainplate itself was okay however. No jewel where the wheel got stuck. The set spring in the keyless works was missing. I suspect that the watchmaker used this as a donor. The crown was also missing. Parts ordered Center wheel set spring mainspring barrel barrel arbor stem Set of 300 crowns from ebay Leather strap Mistakes made When working on the movement, I accidentally screwed the balance in while the staff wasn't seated properly, putting stress on the staff ? ? ? I assumed that I'd ruined the staff, but discovered that the balance still swung freely and didn't wobble. I still think there was damage from this, which I'll get to later on. I put the mainspring in upside down. I'm a newbie, and so I assumed the new mainspring should be inserted into the new barrel the same way I'd seen on all the youtube videos, with the colored side of the shim facing up. Nope. I'd put the spring in backwards, which means that the barrel arbor won't catch. Since I don't have the tools yet to rewind mainsprings, I re-used the existing mainspring Problems encountered I couldn't open up the end stones on the balance or mainplate. I don't yet have the skill to deal with these competently. My novodiac tool is too big. So I couldn't clean or oil these. I've got additional tools on the way, but they are not here yet. The balance will sometimes start beating erratically, causing the watch to gain. I know this from the timegrapher. It tends to start doing this if I tap it good, or shake it. It will, after a while, settle down and beat correctly again. I suspect that this is due to damage to the balance shaft, described above. Or maybe because I couldn't deal with the endstones. I'll have to get these open to find out for sure. Surprises Polywatch works miracles. I thought for sure the crystal was done for, but I bought some polywatch just to see what would happen. I ended up keeping the crystal. It isn't perfect, as can be seen in the photo below, but is definitely usable. Nevr-dull is great for getting brass shiny again. I got a can of this and used it to clean up the corrosion on the case where the gold plating had worn through Status after restoration The watch keeps good time....most of the time. I'm wearing it right now, and when it is not acting up its beat error is 0.1 and it runs between +20 and -35 seconds a day in various positions. The balance may be damaged a little. Not entirely sure yet. I'm not done dealing with the end-stones and I may be able to resolve this yet.

I don’t want to burst your bubble but tooth picks are not the same as peg wood. Birch wood is used for tooth picks, dogwood is used for peg wood. Birch is harder.

Hi! From your video, it appears as if the escape wheel tooth is not locking into the entry stone. The exit stone appears to lock appropriately. Several things to consider. Broken or chipped entry pallet stone. Loose entry pallet stone. Malpositioned entry pallet stone (not making contact with the escape wheel teeth in the locking phase). Entry lever/arm of the pallet fork is bent. Too much endshake in the escape wheel (on the video it appears as if the escape wheel has a significant upwards vertical shift when spinning). I do have some other questions... The movement seems significantly tarnished. Is this an original NH35, or a clone? Did this happen all of a sudden, or was the watch functioning properly beforehand? Did it happen before or after disassembly? In regards to your question about buying a new movement. I would recommend you do, especially considering that the NH35 is a relatively inexpensive movement. Best of luck! Guido

Restoration and service of my grandfather’s watch is complete! ? I completely serviced the movement with new mainsprings, the hands were relumed, the crystal is new, and it has a new strap. It is ready for 50 more years of timekeeping. ? .... with adequate service intervals! IMG_1627.MOV FullSizeRender.mov FullSizeRender.mov

No bubble. If I run into a problem, I’ll update here. But hardness is similar, actually a bit softer, for “birch” which has several varieties. (I picked the high and low hardness variety, since you wouldn’t know what species you’d get) Flowering Dogwood Janka Hardness: 2,150 lbf(9,560 N) Gray Birch Janka Hardness: 760 lbf (3,380 N) Sweet Birch Janka Hardness: 1470 lbf (6,540 N) Soaking in Ronsinol softens the wood further. Primary use is cleaning jewels for me. No one need do what I do. Just sharing.

Is it for holding a roller table for heating?

Not sure. I suggest deionized water and maybe a tiny bit of alcohol. Less is more These glossy dials show every scratch, although Rolex’s insistence on avoiding anti-reflective coating on their flat crystals to enhance “bling” makes it harder to see the scratches...

Can you post some more pictures of this movement. Finishing seems downright horrible, escape wheel is stained, the visible portion of the hairspring is distorted. In fairness now is too late to return it, if your goal is simply to complete the watch I would get another mov.t from a reputable seller and not spend more good money after bad.

Something happened I never though would happen. Our very own clock stopped working.... and I could not remove the hour hand... Little bit of googling... Wickes visit... Then I made a hand puller out of some steel tube... Not precise and would not win any award, but it actually worked as it was made for the purpose. Next time, if I get the chance to spend more time with it, things might even get a little bit more parallel.

I see why you like this watch, a nice classic look, enjoy it in good health. Surely you know, that old balance can be vibrated with a compatable hairspring to produce the right frequency, lots of fun without a vibrating tool though. Regards joe

This is a refurb. I still quite like it. If necessary I would use the parts in it to have my other octagonal one repaired.

I whipped this out today. Mill, lathe and lapping all used to get it where it is now. Spent a few hours to save $17.00 so, it would be better to buy it... oh, well.

Dear watch repairers, I would like to take a moment to celebrate the lives of hairsprings lost; in the shaky tweezers of beginner watch repairers, in the dark bowels of attics and hobby rooms. These hairsprings have become needless victims of mankinds insatiable appetite for high amplitudes and low beat errors. May they rest in eternal peace, with their equally maligned friend; the pivot. Thank you and stay safe, Gaspard de Coligny

I have slain a few of the helpless beasts myself.

Amen to that.