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There is an old thread here that shows a YouTube vid of how to remove the EtaChron stud from the stud support, which I think is a bad idea, as there is too much downwards pressure on the stud support when using tweezers. It can be done that way, but isn't ideal, especially when working on a clone movement where the stud support isn't as strong as an ETA movement. I put a lesson together for my class at https://efhc.org.uk/wordpress/index.php/centre-facilities/ to show how to do it without risking damage to the stud support and how to save over £60 making your own tools to perform this task (That's another lesson on hardening & tempering, if anyone is interested) Here's the PowerPoint presentation. The video's within the presentation are marked in the top left hand corner of the slide 'Video' Enjoy... Lesson 7. EtaChron adjustment & regulation.pptx

I always refer P G tips as monkey tea, all due to those lovely adverts with the chimps. My favourite is the removeles and the piano. For those that don't know what I'm talking about look at this.

I like mine with ten sugars but I don't stir it because I don't like it sweet.

Finally found one. these things are the coolest holder since microwave popcorn. It came with a couple duplicate sets of jaws, in the 2nd pic. if anybody needs or wants them shoot me a message. See what we can do.

Thought I'd share another triumph, for me anyway. I'm still new to this game and don't have a dedicated work space and only functional tools. Picked up this 1970's "30" jewelled automatic wonder just before Christmas. It wasn't without issues. In it's past someone had poured a load of oil into it (smelt a bit on opening) and it took a while to clean it all by hand, soaking this and pegging that. I was lucky enough to find parts which proved invaluable and educational. I even plucked up courage and practised removal and lubricating shock jewels which was a first for me, still have a healthy respect of them though Replaced the double toothed hour wheel, missing three teeth. Date wheel, ruined by the old oil. Rotor as the brass bushing was too worn, and it sounded like a bag of spanners, now it's gloriously silent. It then turned into a labour of love as I even had a go at the hands. After much deliberation I applied lume by way of my own improvement, they were originally painted white but the oil had affected these to the point the paint had dissolved. It's now my favourite watch, it's been running really well for over a month now and keeping great time, so I must have done something right. Anyway I thought I'd share it, as perhaps what can be achieved at the dining table with determination.

I am an avid tea drinker. I find it incredibly comforting and relaxing and it is something I especially look forward to at times. I have become a big fan of PG Tips Gold and Yorkshire Gold, which I find to be fairly good teas that I can readily get in bags when I feel lazy, which is much of the time lately. A favorite has been to make them double or even tripe strength and then add some heavy cream but still leave it is bit on the dark side. Cream in second of course, and I know this is a subject so some controversy. I have been keto or "fat adapted" (vs carb-adapted) for over three years now so never sugar for me. Sometimes I will add some spices, especially during the cold weather and I keep a selection of cinnamon, cardamom, clove, start anise, and vanilla bean in my office. In the afternoons I often like some milky oolong or sencha green. Usually I am drinking out of a 12oz Bodum double wall clear glass mug, but enjoy using the good tea-ware at times as well. In the summer, lots of iced black tea. I don't know if that is something that is done in Britain at all. I was serving as a chaplain at our local wilderness summer camp and took the international counselors our for lunch and one of the Brits was puzzled by the whole idea of "iced tea". He ended up trying it but not taking to it at all. Then there was the whole "chips vs crisps" confusion with the waiter over what he wanted alongside his hamburger. Anyway, what are you favorites? What are your habits or traditions and where do they come from? I know there are a lot of opinions about such things and I would enjoy hearing them. My office "tea station"

Hello everyone, my name is Andrei (it’s easier to just call me Andrew) from Transylvania, Romania. I joined the forums as I intend to try out watchmaking as a hobby. I’ve been collecting vintage pieces for a while now but this whole thing with watchmaking started after I “kind of” repaired my mother’s old watch to celebrate a recent family event. So the long story short is that my mum bought herself a watch sometimes in the 1970s communist Romania. This was the only watch she ever bought herself and was quite an important expenditure. Being single at a time when the pronatalist policy of Nicolae Ceaușescu was in full effect in the country, she did not benefit of many of the social policies implemented by the communist regime (for example, she had to pay for her flat) and had to also take care of some of her family members. Everything was ok until she broke it by running it over with a baby stroller when I was 1 or 2 years old. Transition period in Romania hit many working class families hard and wrist watches were the least of their concerns. Even today they consider it a dubious way to spend your hard earned money as one may never know when the economy will take a turn for the worse. As I was collecting time pieces, I offered her to pick whichever she linked but she insisted that she liked best the one that broke several decades ago, and could unfortunately not be repaired (according to one watchmaker at the time). So after a trip to my grandparents’ house, there it was, all broken and messed up, a quartz Orex (Romanian producer) from the 1970s. Now, I know that this might sound awful to some of you, the case and crystal could be restored, but I could not find a replacement movement anywhere. Being pressed for time, I just retrofitted a modern movement in there, meaning I had to also replace the watch hands with some that fit and I had laying around. Good news is that I can undo „the butchering” when I find the right movement. Even better, my mum really did not seem to care about these small matters (for her), what mattered was the gesture and that she enjoys the watch greatly. So, back to collecting. I guess I collect both watches and, when possible, the stories that accompany them. So no outstanding pieces from a horological point of view but simple, affordable pieces worn by “run of the mill” working class people from Eastern Europe. Since these watches have no particularly complicated movements, I figured I should be able to eventually service them myself, if it turns out I will have enough patience and skill. For that I plan to start the watch repair course. In the meantime, I will mostly have questions regarding the tools I need to start with in this hobby. Thanks to whoever read this wall of text and I’m looking forward to meet you all. Ps. apologies for any grammatical errors as I am not a native speaker.

Got this off Amazon. Manual zoom and great resolution.

If you work on older American watches something like this or similar to this will show up for key winding and setting. On the backside will be a square for setting and the pin goes through exactly like what you have here. Unfortunately it doesn't always protrude beyond the cannon pinion. Unlike these watches where it sixth out beyond which is usually a clue that it has to be driven out.

This is the old style with a pin that goes all the way through the center wheel. The canon pinion is a tight fit, and the clutch action is the pin slipping in the wheel arbor. Is the center wheel jeweled on the bridge? If so, remove the bridge, and support the wheel in a staking set, and give a sharp tap on the protruding bit out of the canon pinion. If you try it with the bridge on you'll break the jewel. If it's not jeweled you can do the same thing but with the bridge in place. This is a holdover from key set watches, where the pin would have a square on it bridge side. If the bridge is jeweled invariably the head of the pin will pass through the jewel for safe removal. On non jeweled pieces the pin head may be larger than the hole in the bridge so you have to knock it out with the bridge in place.

I, like most people have been working from home since last March. I was talking to a colleague the other day (remotely) saying how I've got bored of it all now and can't wait to get back into the office. His reply was that over the winter months he's been putting a shot of brandy in his morning tea and if he has to drive to work again that will have to stop.

Once I removed the movement case ring it became obvious when I pulled out the stem to its furthest position. The hidden lever appeared almost like a puzzle box. The big lever btw is for the quickset day even though there is no pusher for it on the case. This set up is contrary to all my experiences with Swiss watches where you push the lever before pulling the stem. JohnR725 was right.

Mike the length of the spring does not alter the speed of the clock with these movements if it is running too fast it is the strength of the spring is wrong.

Some here at 8:13. A few more at 6:31

This comes in handy when hard to find https://www.jewelerssupplies.com/Speedi-Fit-Watch-Case-Filler.html

Yes it is normal with replacements. You can either make the hole bigger with a broach, or buy a new set of hands that fit this movement.

Here's an update! After many hours of fiddling and frustration I discovered that the reverser spring was slightly warped, this was preventing the hammer from functioning properly. I replaced the part and now it's running!

Neither of those even looked at that lever looking thing in the top rhs corner.

I'm attaching an image Snipped from yours. There are two places the first light blue circle that's where the release pin would typically be. Which I'm assuming is not what it is but that's where it would be if it existed. Then the light pink area nothing is there exactly what the image shows? Except sometimes on Seiko watches and this resembles a Seiko watch the release only becomes visible when the Watch is pulled in to setting.

I've had some PG tips and it was very good. On the coffee kick, as above I've "done the tour" drip, french press, moka pot, lever espresso, pump espresso, cowboy, new Orleans style (chicory), etc. Standard now is moka pot to start the day, pump (e61) the rest of the morning, lunch, then mate, then a "train beer" for the way home. I love seeing 20, 30, 50, 60, 70 something dudes in suits cracking a beer in the train. You're not driving so, hey?

It was offline for just couple of hours.

Yes its been offline most of the day, but all O.K now.

I grew up in the Deep South USA, so black tea was a daily beverage either hot or iced, sugar optional but culturally many/most take it sickeningly sweet. Usually just Lipton or Tetley. My wife is half Argentine half English, so I drink a lot of mate*, and also a mix of bargain bin black tea and "tea shop" black. My father in law (English) lives nearby, and gets a custom mix from the shop. Never mention English Breakfast in his house hahaha. We pretty much stick to his blend at home when not drinking the cheap stuff, loose leaves in the pot, pour through a strainer in the cup. No sugar, wife takes a little milk sometimes. *if you don't know mate, it looks pretty gross in pics, but is awesome. Luckily it's surprisingly easy to find here in Switzerland.

The biggest thing would be solvents and cleaning solutions. I'd recommend keeping that stuff away from pregnant women and babies. That said, when my daughter was still a bun in the oven I had my workshop at home, which was a very large loft space. You could definitely smell the solutions when I ran a watch through the machine; wife said it must go. Talked to her mom, an MD specialist in workplace health risks, she said it was no problem so whew I got to keep working. But this was about 150 sq.m. open space with high ceilings and good ventilation. I used to deliver to a small workshop, maybe 40m, with 4 watchmakers cleaning stuff in benzine jars at the bench all day, it reeked and I was glad to leave each time. As my mother in law said, it's about concentration and time. My daughter (now 14) was worried when she got a whiff of acetone one day. I told her her body actually produces the stuff. If she stuck her nose in the jar for 20 minutes that's bad. Drink a shot of it and we're at the hospital. "I know I know dad, it's all about the dose".

I was wrong I just imagined the tool in my head, here is the post I talked about: Before you try to correct the HS watch Marc's videos as how to correct hairsprings. There are at least two videos about it. And watch this too: I am struggling with hairsprings, but I managed to correct 2 of them so far! ? You have a better chance if they are bigger and stronger.

My career has spanned several startups and nearly as many industries and areas of expertise. Previous business ventures have had varying degrees of success and failure, and more often than not failure boils down to one or more partners dropping a ball in a big way. Similarly, I've had to answer to investors and big money types, and while it's nice to have the funds, I'd prefer to not have to answer to them either if I can avoid it (also, I get to keep all the money I make, so that's better too). For the past two and a half years, I've been working on a new technology that is lightyears ahead of everything else on the market. At the most simplified level, it beats the best competition by a factor of 20, and that ignores the vast majority what makes my tech superior. On top of that, the prototype cost is on par with or less than the off the shelf cost of the status quo, AND it's tiny in comparison in an application where size matters (less than 1% by volume, rough guess). When I initially had the idea, I was talking to the CFO of a major equipment supplier in the industry, and he told me on the spot that if I could solve the problem they were interested; I've done that, and so much more. I've still got a long way to go, but I just pushed the last commit before I'm ready to move to beta. I'm sure I'll find all manner of shortcomings between my simulations and real life, but that's to be expected. Next is installation and beta. Then do the patent dance. Then extended beta (find some willing testers). Then I call up that CFO, and we have a chat. If he falls through, there are many more that would happily take his place. It's not a huge market, but with a shop of one, it doesn't take much to make a meaningful dent. For now, I just scored a major win. At least in this project, and possibly in life if it goes in the right direction longer term. Normally, today would be a day that the team would call it early, crack some beers, order pizza, and have a big celebration of some sort. There's a pandemic, and I'm a shop of one, and the baby is asleep, and my wife is in a Zoom meeting, so... I cracked a beer and I'm sharing my success with you all. Cheers!

I'm not a car guy really, but I do like my Lotus Esprit S4. Sorry for the sidetrack.

That's the measuring scope. The table is on ball bearing slides with zero play or backlash, the micrometers that move the table read out in 0.001mm. There are several objectives but I always use 50x, the eyepiece has cross hairs and concentric circles making it easy to line things up. For a balance or other wheel, I hold it in a tiny vice (it's about 1.5 inches long, with 15mm jaws) so that the staff/arbor is horizontal. Line it up with the X axis- the table rotates- , zero on one end, then take all the measurements. For a staff I take all the measurements with the balance still on, which means I get everything except the rivet height, which I get after cutting the staff out measuring the balance thickness. A really nice thing about taking all the length measurements like this is you have one start point, so you don't stack up errors which can make a real difference in the total length. Same is true with the vertical mic, but you will have two start points. As long as you know the total length you want it's just a matter of averaging out any discrepancies. These can range in price from a few hundred bucks to quite a few thousand. In North America a couple of brands that are little known but very high quality are Unitron and Opto-Metric. Opto-Metric was mainly an importer of Leitz and other brands but sometimes a scope will get listed on Ebay as simply Opto-Metric. That's when you can get a real steal on one. Most of the big microscope makers made them, Nikon, Leitz, Olympus, pretty sure Canon, then Mitutoyo and some other measuring tool makers as well. I use mine every single day, I love it. It also gets used a lot to check pallet stones prior to moving and after moving them, so that I know for sure how much they moved.

I'm allergic to both (what most people consider badly allergic to dogs, and super seriously allergic to cats), but have always had dogs until just over a year ago. My last dog I got in college, and he died two weeks after my daughter was born. He was old and blind (no eyes). Sweetest, friendliest dog ever. Did not discriminate; everyone was a friend and worthy of being ran into softly (his version of a hug). My wife's office is dog friendly (or was when people went there), and he was very much a favorite. Even other dog owners and emphatically non-dog people told her he was their favorite office dog. There was a painting of him on the wall, and they named a software library after him at the company. Flowers were delivered when he died, and we live in the mountains... deliveries don't happen here. He was always very quiet and chill. The most vigorous he'd get for attention involved him sauntering up, putting his chin on my leg, and wagging his tail gently. He would have been a great watchmaking buddy save for the husky half of him shedding everywhere. Still, I'd happily clean those little black hairs out of every movement if he were still here. Best dog I ever had. A young photo when he still had eyes and could see.

I took this idea from "canthus" Using a 4-40 tap, I put threads in the nail clippers. Then I printed a knurled knob to attach to a 4-40 screw. I used a knurled threaded insert is the "tightener" adjacent to the clippers. Seems to operate as expected. If I do this again, I will use finer threads (did not have a finer tap on hand). canthus tool post

If find one of these on ebay "Mastercraft" they work with most watches see pics to see how it works. PS I use this winder 95% of the time.

As a retired medical radiation physicist, I would be very wary of radium as it's half life is 1600 years (as opposed to tritium which is 12 years), which means it's strength won't diminish in our lifetimes for sure. So, I personally would not wear a radium dial watch 24/7 as it is close to the skin, constantly exposing with alpha, beta, and high energy gamma rays (so sticking radium hands in a typical lead box doesn't really do much), and the radiation level varies from watch to watch. Granted, it's probably small, but is cumulative over time and increases significantly the closer it gets to you. And, as has been previously pointed out, inhalation or ingestion of radium particles is especially bad as now the radium is up close to internal organs like the lungs. Also, proper disposal of radium is tricky as it's effect never diminishes. Companies that dispose of radioactive material as a business have state licenses that they must adhere to; watchmakers? I doubt it. https://www.livescience.com/39623-facts-about-radium.html#:~:text=Radium emits alpha particles (two,according to New World Encyclopedia.

Found this very useful Seiko data base site. It also has a link to some of the tech sheets. https://retroseiko.co.uk/seiko-serial-database.htm

It might be nice if you gave us a picture looking straight down at the chronograph with as much detail as you can. One of the minor problems with the chronographs are and it's mentioned in the manual not all screws are screws. Some of the screws are for adjusting things and if you rotate them without knowing what you're doing that would be bad.

There has been some discussion in the past regarding the possibility of glueing dial feet. No really good glue was reported. However, my dentist suggested the use of 3M dental cement. She uses it for pemanent gluing of crowns etc. The strongest for metal cementing is 3M ESPE RELYX UNICEM 2. It is expensive but available on eBay with some limitations according to country. Here is an example of a test on a scrap dial. 6 mintes working time and after setting at room temperature for one hour I was able to lift, with the dial foot held by pliers, a 500g weight placed on the dial. Good enough as an alternative emergency repair when soldering could harm the dial finish.

Years ago I would use what were called dial spots. Little spots you pealed off and stuck them on the movement. You could remove the dial with no trouble at all.