Leaderboard

Hello again. Just to let you guys know that as a collector of Helvetia watches I reached out to bjd1020 with an offer to buy this watch for restoration. I received it a couple of months ago and have been slowly getting it back to it's original condition. I received the crown I needed today and here is the result: And with it's 13 away serial number brother I found while looking for parts for this one. Thanks. Carl.

I think it matters not how big or small your work place or how clean and tidy you are as long as you enjoy what you are doing and gain a lot of pleasure from doing it. enjoy.

Guys Here is a pic of my newest watch a Vintage Waltham Mechanical. Love the old stuff.

This, is one of my favorites. I clearly remember when I first saw it: I used to work on Long Island and come back to Connecticut each weekend. I saw it on a billboard north of the city, on 95. The new Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean. I wasn’t crazy about the name, but coming off the Pierce Brosnan bond watch this was (and is!) stellar. Note I liked the blue bond watch before the turn of the century, and I had a white faced GMT during that era (because I saw so many blue ones). I miss that watch sometimes but legibility wasn’t the best actually. Fast forward a couple years and I’m at the maul with a couple good friends and I decide to pop into an Omega jeweler there. They had a pre owned all black 45.5mm planet ocean on the bracelet. I wanted the “big” one, and still enjoy it, but I think a 42mm version would be even more perfect. I had a rubber strap put on because it just plain looks better that way. The Orange version shown on that billboard looked awesome at the time, but I thought it would fall out of fashion in time, and it has, as far as I’m concerned. Mine is the first generation. Aluminum bezel inset and painted numerals. The omega logo is applied, like the vintage dials. I appreciate that detail. The newer ceramic bezels and applied numerals are arguably better, but not to me. This has been back to Omega once in the ten or more years I’ve owned it. NJ service center did a fantastic job, and only replaced what I authorized. Light touch up on the case and it’s been perfect ever since.

This is a site that is a fascinating showcase into one mans obsession with Skeleton clock collecting. http://www.my-time-machines.net/index.htm The following video is a clock he commissioned to his own design imagine servicing this:

does it for me every time!!!!!!???

Hi jon, True no high value pieces but some of its vintage pieces are rare, collectable and sought after, for the complications put on bfg866 base. They are increasingly getting hard to find. I collected and have a few calender pointers by patrius brand, wish I had collected some with other rare complications, there were so many different types of them. Following your lesson with much interest. Regards joe

thanks to all.i remember now i had a similar watch previously which was not a problem but i wanted to make sure so i will put on some penetrating oil and then see.will get back to you with the result and thanks again.B.

I think if you look at the MIDO 1117PC1 at COUSINSUK you will find when you search for it you will get the base movement is actually beeing an AS 1673. So in the AS 1673 tech sheet you will find the parts you looking for like the Part 1417 which AS calls "Ratchet wheel with intermittent drive". Just to check it is the one I took a look in MATSYS too. CaseCaliber BestFit FactoryNumber Description AS 1673 AUT/4290 1417/AS 1656 LOWER RATCHET WHEEL DISC 05/08/97 RC AS 1673 AUT/4290 7/MIDO 1117P LOWER RATCHET WHEEL DISC 05/08/97 RC MID 1117P AUT/4290 1417/AS 1656 LOWER RATCHET WHEEL DISC 05/08/97 RC MID 1117P AUT/4290 7/MIDO 1117P LOWER RATCHET WHEEL DISC 05/08/97 RC MID 1117PC AUT/4290 1417/AS 1656 LOWER RATCHET WHEEL DISC 05/08/97 RC MID 1117PC AUT/4290 7/MIDO 1117P LOWER RATCHET WHEEL DISC 05/08/97 RC So to have a complete winding system you need to ensure you have the parts 1417, 1423, 1480. You find the tech sheet for the AS 1673 at COUSINE too.

I can see nothing wrong with this method providing you adopt suitable safety equipment such as that below. Do not expect the spring to be any good though after and I would recommend obtaining and fitting a new spring. Should you try the method without the shown PPE below then prior to spring removal also get a quote to redecorate the room you are in as there is a great possibility that you may splash some red pigment on near wall coverings and furnishings.

I agree completely, this case back design is typical of a lot of USSR era Vostoks. The ring unscrews, and is often full of gunk, so a little penetrating oil will help to loosen that up. Once the oil has dissolved some of the organic (DNA?) material you should be able to spin the ring with a bit of pegwood. A screwdriver will almost certainly slip and mar the case. Some case back openers will adjust to fit the ring, and you do have to turn the ring, there is no point in attacking anything else as the ring is key to the whole shebang. Take care when re-fitting as it is possible to cross thread the thing if you are not careful, and then your troubles really start. See Mark's Vostok Amphibia/Komandirskie video ->

Its got quite a bit of verdigris and muck around the ring you could try putting some penetrating release spray on a cotton bud and rubbing around the ring to see if it free's it up.

Bench top case back opener effectively helps do the job, no wonder Rolex calls its version openall. The ring unscrews open.

Hi The loose ring with the slots in unscrews and the flat back cover is removed. check that its not a left hand thread.

Could be a press-on back made to look like a screw-on. I have had one like that before.

thanks Jon will redo everything and start again but i will shove to the back of the queue and try and actually enjoy working on a watch again! but i will return to it as i have plenty of time to kill with whats going on.B.

I really dislike the generic “clamp”movement holders. I have the “good” Burgeon one- I forget the number, and it works ok. But the legs always seem to be in the wrong place or putting pressure on something I really don’t want pressure on. I have 1570 and 30/3135 holders and they’re great. Easy to handle and a center support for pressing hands etc. Knowing I’d be assembling the 565, I wanted a good holder (although it does sort of fit the 3135 holder). It is two sided- either side of the main plate can be supported. And the dimensions are different. I’m not totally happy with the center support but it’s better than nothing. I’ll make something better later. Pictures:

Some of you may have noticed last week, I was struggling with a major update for this forum software. I was getting a lot of errors in the back-end and it was making it very difficult to manage. I rarely do this, but I opened up a support ticket with the developers (Invision) and at first they put the blame on third party plugins, something I knew was complete BS, but I went through the process and eventually we got bumped up to 1st level support after quite a bit of whinging from yours truly. 1st level support immediately saw that it was a bug on their end and we had to wait until today, a minor update has been released by them and I am happy to say that the issue is resolved. What does this mean for the forum - well not a lot but the backend is running more smoothly with no errors. EMOJIS What this does change though is the way this site handles emojis - you know - ? ? etc etc. and mobile users (me included) will particularly appreciate this. Before, this website could not handle mobile standard emojis as keyed into the keyboard of a phone or tablet (or even the emojis in, say, a macbook touch bar). These style emojis are now pretty much standard, but the forum would throw up an error if you tried to post with a standard emoji. I'm happy to say that the database this forum runs on has now been updated to support standard emojis and the old emoticons have now been disabled in their favour. Going forward this will reduce errors when you are posting on mobile devices and any keyboard that is emoji enabled. So - old 'Emoticons' are gone - Emojis have replaced them. And another first world problem is sorted ???

Well I would definitely start with Moebius 9010 (for train wheels and balance endstones) and 9020 (for train wheels) if you are working on Pocket Watches. Moebius 9415 is a must for Pallet/Escape wheel teeth. A quality silicon grease. Moebius D5 is essential (barrel arbor, motion work). Molycote DX or Moebius 9501 grease for keyless work. Moebius 9501 or 9504 for high friction (e.g. Cannon pinion, Setting lever spring and anything at high friction). Moebius 8200 grease for mainspring. Moebius 8217 for barrel wall (automatic watches) It's a lot but at a minimum get 9010, 9415, D5 and 8200 I hope this helps. Recommended Lubricants for Getting Started.pdf Moebius_Oil_Chart.pdf