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Accurist Automatic Shockmaster, 9ct case, 1960's Certina Bullseye Incabloc, Manual wind, sub second, 1960's Ingersoll Auto Calendar, GP with GP Bracelet, 70's/80's Tissot 1853 GP Quartz, 1990's? Cyma, 9ct case, manual wind, dated 1960 Baume & Mercier Hampton, SS Quartz, rose gold dial, sub second at 6pm, 2011 on Baume & Mercier Riviera, SS Quartz, white dial 2011 on Rado Jubile, Ceramic bracelet, 4 diamond black dial, 2000 onward Tissot 18ct Gold Run Sapphire, Quartz, 2002 dated Birch & Gaydon Land and Water Trench Watch, Cushion Case, Ref 3110972, 1935-1938 Zenith Stellina, cal 120, ref 4752357, SS case Gold hour arrows, 1955-59 Longines Flagship, Square case automatic, SS, cal 7678, 1970-79 Visible 9ct cushion case, movement signed Visible, manual wind, 1930's Unsigned 9ct cushion case, white porcelain dial, Red 12, Roman numerals, dates to 1924 Rolex Datejust 1603 SS from 1973 Waltham Maxim, mesh bracelet, SS, manual wind, 1956 Roamer Red Sea auto, SS, 1960-69 Longines 1172.1, GP, yellow gold dial, manual wind, 1980-89 Buren Lux, solid silver, full hunter pocket watch, manual wind, 1903 Raymond Weil Tradition, SS, Quartz, 2011 on Raymond Weil Tango, GP case and GP bracelet, Quartz, 2011 on Schwob 9ct ladies manual wind cocktail watch, 1950's? Jaquet Droz 9ct manual wind, 1950's Longines 9ct, gold dial, manual wind, 1957 Omega seamaster cosmic 2000 automatic, 1980's Seiko Solar Chronograph, Quartz, white face, solar powered. 2011 on Carvel, solid silver case, manual wind, modern, for parts. I haven't counted the watches I've bought for my beloved wifey with the expensive tastes. These include JLC, B&M and Rado. This is the first time I've sat and really thought about how many watches I actually have. So pleased my wife doesn't know the half of it. There are another couple lying around somewhere. They'll turn up. I'll put up some pictures once I get around to organising these in some sort of order. Anyhoo, that's where it stands at present. I hope there are one or two that elicit a response or two. Cheers Frankie

For hand motor I have a basic level Proxxon that's seen hourly daily use for 16 years, still running strong. Dremel doesn't hold a candle to it (owned those too). The boutique watchmaker Christophe Claret issues each watchmaker in his employ with a Proxxon, they're 10x cheaper than the real hand motors and they just work. A high end hand motor can cost from 1.5k to almost sky the limit. A bench polishing machine is a very different animal and there are plenty of YT vids of serious case restorers showing how they build back up a case with laser or brazing and then bring it back to original shape. Back in the day you'd lean in and get "everything shiny". Now most vintage watch owners opt out of case polishing . But on your own watch, a combination of perhaps filing and abrasive paper finishing with a hand motor polish can look very good.

A 1970s Swiss Orion from the 404 club adorns my wrist today. Sadly not a Glashütte Orion, but if one of those comes up within the 404 club budget, I'm sure I'll let you all know.

If you happen to have a UV flashlight, they can help, too. The little buggers will glow when they are hit with UV. Helped me several times.

I understand that at the beginning the watch ran but did it badly. After disassembling and reassembling the end stones it doesn‘t run at all anymore. Did you know that the endstones have a flat and a domed side? The flat side is inwards. If the domed side happens to point to the pivot the balance has not enough end play and binds.

Cool t -shirt and very true. Such a shame about Mike 's condition, he's a lovely genuine guy. The first YouTube repairer i watched when I started. Bless him and hopes he makes a full recovery. Completely off topic here Kalanag but I just thought I'd grab your attention while you are buzzing around. Do you have any experience with plating watches ? Ah ha and Gert just the man I would like to speak to. Good morning matey, howw youu doin ?

Hello forum! Aside from my new member introduction, I've not been able to contribute much of anything yet to the website. I've recently gotten bit by the watch repair bug and am waiting on some tools to arrive that will allow me to get started on my journey. I've been consuming a lot of instructional videos, and thus far have watched and re-watched levels 1-3 of Marks courses on his website. While I'm waiting for various things to come in (mostly lubricants and a couple of odds & ends), my timegrapher arrived in the mail. I put a few of my current watches on it and let them run in for a while, and found that all but one seem to be running pretty well. Oddly enough, my newest watch that I bought on a whim about 6 months ago, a Seiko SRPE37K1 'King Samurai' didn't look so great when I put it on the timegrapher. It has a 4R36 movement and I double checked the lift angle online to make sure I was setting the machine correctly. I bought this watch brand new (I know I paid retail, and thus overpaid!), and you would think that it would run pretty well. I rotate my watches and probably only wear this one once a week, so I'm usually setting the time and date as part of my morning routine. I never noticed that it wasn't keeping very good time, as it was always on point on any given day. Here is the results of the initial reading: It wasn't any better in any other position. While I could certainly return the watch to the dealer and have it looked at for free, this is something that I'm trying to teach myself how to do so I took it as an opportunity to tackle my first project. After a bit of work (they make it look so quick and easy online) I was able to get the beat error adjusted to zero. I then set off to get the rate corrected. The pic below shows the watch showing a really good readout after I got it dialed in (in the face down position), but obviously it would change somewhat when tested in other positions. I tried my best to find a happy medium between face up, face down, and crown forward positions. Sadly I forgot to take a photo when I completed this task, but I got the beat error to between 0 and 0.3 between all three positions, and the rate from -4s/d to +9s/d between the three positions. I think I did pretty well considering I didn't accidentally stab the hairspring or otherwise damage the watch during this work. A question for the more experienced people on here, I understand that this is a 4R36 and not a high-end movement, but do you think that a 240 amplitude is acceptable? I would think for a recently purchased new watch that it would be higher. I also understand that even though I purchased this brand new, it may not necessarily mean that the watch is in perfect working order. I suppose that if the consensus is that the amplitude is low, this watch would be a good candidate for me to service. I have a few movements recently purchased off eBay, and a couple of non-runner Seiko's that I picked up locally very cheap that I am going to be using for my first full rebuilds. Thanks all!

Now then me ducks. Postie popped these through my door this morning. A very nice art deco Bulova in great condition. And the two next to it a Voken ? and a Yunghans tv style case watch both in working condition are part of a 7 joblot that totalled £17.23, so on target for both being 404s very easily. Actually the other 5 weren't too bad either all quartz one with a fully lumed dial and all but one of them still ticking. The Voken is the one thats intriguing me. An auto with hand wind and hacking. Lots of plastic parts but in great condition, notice the shock jewel ( wierd spring ) and the plastic spacer surrounding the jewel. And then the regulator arms on the bottom of the balance under the spring

Continuing to work through the cheap vintage watches I got from taobao. Next under the microscope, I present the Golden Rooster. I call it differently because apparently I am a 9 year old boy. Basically it is the same movement as the previous ZTZA movement. This just calls it differently the 7120 movement? Another difference here is that there is 2 extra jewels, so instead of 17 it is 19. Feels the same to me. This one does feel like everything feels a better fit and the power train bridge did fell into all the pivots at first go. (Score!) Again a manual movement. I am feel like I gaining more confidence in taking it apart and cleaning and putting things back together. There was only 1 heart attack, when the incabloc spring refused to go back into the slot. A coffee and a cigarette after, was able to coax it back into place. Side note, since getting the stereo microscope really helps. Being able to see if you are holding on to small bits with your tweezers actually seems to help. Who knew? The golden rooster is from sometime in the 70s or 80s and from Shanghai watch factory. One annoying thing about these 3 watches are they are 19mm lug width. They are ok, but replacement watch bands costing more than the watch itself means that I have to use the ones that are supplied. Which is fine, but sometimes you want options. I humbly present the Golden Rooster, put back together.

It may be to do with autism and all round Neurofunkiness, but I hate seeing tatty cases and dials. i get it that most folk seem to like the effect of age showing as it adds character and gives a feeling of having had a life, but if its mine, it gets the shiny. Just one of my many quirks, but I like to see it as its was made and intended to be. I understand that sometimes gold is used for more than aesthetic reasons, but its a very lustrous material and I think its lustre should be celebrated and not covered up by years of sweaty fingerprints and sebum. Tarnished or dirty gold just "gies me the wullies". Frankie I've had a Parkside wired one since Moses was a lad. The actual tool is connected to a plug in power supply by a three pronged micro plug, pretty weird set up, but I've had it for years and still works flawlessly. Wifey can always tell when I've been polishing something as the inside of the shed looks like its been roughcasted. One thing I don't like about the von haus is the collets, i'd rather have a jacobs chuck type holder. As far as I'm aware they are readily available. I do have a special birthday on Saturday, so..... One thing that I really do like is the extension cable. It lets you keep everything else out of the way and lets you concentrate on the job in hand. Quite a bit of thought went into that cheap orange lump of very useful plastic. Frankie

I don't think 240 is too low for a Seiko. They tend not to have high amplitudes. If the timekeeping (especially on the wrist) is OK then it probably doesn't need attention. Especially for a first time servicing a watch. You may find that after servicing, if you are not experienced, that the amplitude will be even lower It takes practice to learn how to correctly oil pivots, etc, and excess or not enough oil will certainly affect amplitude. Good luck with your new journey!

You can restrict searches by author. Do not enter @ in there.

Very interesting problem with this clock. It was running without dial and hands and then when I installed the hands, it quit. I took them off and it ran...put them on and it quit. I removed the movement and inspected everything very carefully. Some play in the great wheel, but nothing serious IMHO. I think I have figured it out. The alarm snail sits on the hour arbor and presses up to the plate. The hour wheel also attaches to the same arbor, but the alarm snail blocks the hand so that it can only push on so far. This leaves almost no distance between the plane of the hour hand and the ledge of the minute arbor, so when the hand is mounted with a washer, the pressure from the washer against the minute hand rubs against the hour hand and that is the friction that is stopping the clock. The solution that seems to be working is I put the washer on BEFORE I put the minute hand on. The washer is concave away from the hour hand and is enough to avoid any contact...thus no friction. These drawings are intended to support the language above.

The dial looks a little washed out in that first picture, but actually its not. Its all entirely original, apart from the new blue strap with red stitching, which I think matches rather well. There is a little bit of fading of the dial finish below the indices, which you can see better in this picture. There is a plastic movement spacer inside that has shrunk, so the movement has a slight rattle, but I may address that with a 3D printed replacement spacer if I get a little time to design and print it. There are also a couple of marks on the plating, but over all it looks not bad and runs fine for a forty year old watch.

Eyup matey. I use a cheap cordless dremmel type tool by the make name of parkside, supposedly German from a supermarket here in the Uk called Lidl. They also sold a bench mounted jig to hold it so it has the use of hand held and bench mounted. Variable speed and even though it is battery run it does last for hours between charges. It takes different sized collets that hold all manner of accessories, the 25mm felf buffing wheels are perfect for polishing cases. Both the tool and jig came to £20 . Vonhaus gear is ok. I have a big cordless stapler which is great for tacking plywood and a slotting tool for joining worktops also not bad.

I didn't know this! To be honest I was just glad my eyes were good enough to see thing thing at all Once I have both stones back in place, I'll try and make sure this is sorted so we can cross that off the list of potential issues. Thanks! I'll check this issue out as well. As below, I'm pretty sure the stones have gone to live with someone else because they're not here! I may be ressurecting this thread in a few days Lol "I'll fix my own watch, how hard could it be?" The stone may turn up in due course, but for the sake of my sanity crawling around on the floor I'm going to order a set too. I'll keep looking. The ones I can't find are both one end stone, but also the holed jewel with the metal setting it is attached to. On cousins the part lists includes Inca 122.11 - Endstone which seems pretty self explanatory. Another option is Inca 111.09 - Jewel Hole, is this the holed jewel in a metal setting? These seem to come in packs of 5. There are also upper and lower blocks which presumably come with jewels but seems over the top to pay for all the metal surround and springs which I haven't managed to lose yet. Thanks everyone for the support so far it's hugely appreciated.

Placed an order Sunday, Cousins shipped Monday morning by UPS. Expecting delivery here in the Caribbean on Friday.

I never paid that close attention to be honest. I get multiple deliveries daily, and unless it takes much longer than expected or is holding something up, it doesn't stand out. Watches are third tier priority lately, so shipping is never the hold up so much as just finding time to work on them in the first place. The Cousins shipments arrive in a reasonable enough time to not ping the radar. I initially expected a long shipping time, and was surprised that it wasn't long. I'm afraid I can't be much more specific than that.

LOL, snorting cap jewels...another high. In my short modern span of watchmaking (getting close to two years now), I have not lost a cap jewel. They have gone flying on multiple occasions. However, I found that using a super bright large wide beam flashlight is extremely helpful in finding these things...even on carpet.

I use sturdy tweezers to adjust it. Bear in mind it should otherwise never need to be adjusted from factory to be honest, only when you replace the hair spring. If it's over adjusted too far then it'll pinch the hair spring and twist it, you don't want that.

Tweezers are just fine. It's not the regulator. Something else is jammed badly.

I think this happens because the service centers look for profit and labor reduction foremost. The typical Omega owner that brings them his watch(es) has no problem in paying for a barrel complete on top of the already high service cost. I would be just half-curious about the official prices of an Omega mainspring, and barrel complete. On Seiko 7S/4R and their SII counterparts the barrel is easily one half of a complete new mov.t! At the link below all the differences summarized and explained in a single document by myself. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRN2UULQKTfKmhRStZhDdIOIQrqd6sPB-g6x2SKyQQjOvTBjG_7TQXQhAT4f1WqAX5QAPkIimi-3jqd/pubhtml

The boot is usually riveted in place. Somewhere in one of my books I've seen a picture of how to replace the pin but I'm reasonably sure that the latest project. Of course the easy way to figure out that is you look at the other side and see if the pin is just a street tapered pin or whether it has a base to it. The classic problem of watch repair try to fix it to make it perfect or leave it the way it Is. Right now If you're really careful you should be able to straighten the pin.

I wouldn't count on finding a good replacement for these, and much less on having an easy job of replacing them without breaking something that is whole at the present time. I would try first to gently straighten the pin with some wide tip tweezers. And then with the watch running, observe if and where it touches and correct it so that it moves evenly in between.

I'd use a 10.0 or a 9.5. You usually want to be at least one size smaller than your barrel diameter. Zero's designs allow for ANY size of housing. It can be a little tricky to figure out the steps, but once you do, you can print any size. I am NOT trying to push my stuff, I am just trying to offer solutions. If you don't have 3D printer: I am selling these on eBay, I can print any custom size you may need: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125428348675

Yes absolutely true but to be fair for £30 it’s a good watch. My friend is very happy my payment by the way is a few beers.

It should be a bit smaller than that to allow easy transfert. However no perfectly matching set of housing and arbor exist to be ready purchased. I recommend not to take apart Seiko barrels, because there is no benefit to gain in doing that.

Another useful site for Seiko parts and donor movements is https://speedtimerkollektion.com I have used them many times a bit slow with delivery thou.

Eyups all. Here we have not quite a 404 but a very very reasonably priced utter beauty. These things and their successor wristwatch counterparts are my absolute favourites. I recently posted here not my grail watch but something very close to it. A Dirty Dozen, ok nothing so rare that its difficult to come by but definitely limited numbers available and also quite well sought after. My searching has now thown up another mil spec watch. This is a Frenca G.S.T.P pocket watch. For anyone wonderering a General Service Trade Pattern watch, some ideas suggest Time piece but i prefer Trade Pattern. I'm not entirely sure which version is correct maybe someone can elaborate on this. Inside is a Buser 105 calibe, this baby is pretty big at 19 lignes. I took a punt as the dial looked suspect poor. But i got in real close and figured it was the crystal. Hardly a soul touched it on ebay, obviously nobody looked as close as me. It arrived today and sure enough the dial isn't half bad at all just a crazed and cracked crystal . Opened the back up and the movement is just as clean and perfect. Overcoil hairspring in perfect condition, jeez you could springboard dive off this thing its that solid. I so love military watches. Well-built, robust , reliable, practical, everlasting quality units ( bit like myself ). I should have been a soldier, i have appreciation of everything a good soldier stands for. Discipline, regimental, honour, justice the love for his country and where he originates from, fitness, action, courage, and especially camaraderie. The idea that i have your back and you have mine no matter what happens. I have mates like this, and there is nothing that i wouldnt do for them or they for me. Sorry got side tracked there. Here is my latest beautiful watch. I'm just dying to start researching its history.

When you're learning watch repair you really should keep a journal of everything you do. Like a before and after with the timing machine condition of the watch when you received it. Had need to go back and look the CF oh yes it was doing that before kind of thing. You need to get a brush and make sure your brush off everything on the back before you open the back. If that was a quartz watch should be having stopping issues because quartz watches don't like stuff falling into them. I doubt that's causing your problem oh and then of course there is the casing issue it's a Seiko in the case that can always be interesting I bet you get a different signal perhaps it out of the case. If you do try to time the movement out of the case make sure you do it dial up that way you can see the hands you can see the dial it less likely for bad things to happen. Typically way timing a watch you time it dial down but typically would not want to have a dial on

Ok, so lathe seems to be in great shape. I was thinking about buying a cross slide - https://www.ebay.com/itm/304526277611 seems like a good fit. I have been trying to see what the width of the bed is to see if the cross slide would fit. (I'm not sure if bed is the right naming btw, not sure exactly what that is called) As it turns out, the lathe came with a lot of extra tools. I can recognize the staking, jacot tool and the bow mill, but I do not know about the rest... I also suspect the lathe may be a 6.5mm and not 8mm (judging by what info I can find online), but I honestly don't care - I got a great deal and I think this will make for a pretty nice restoration.

I had to go dig my Seiko out. I'm moving firewood today so I think it will be the watch of tomorrow.

Due to just practicing you might not have oiled the capstone before putting it into the setting? That makes a huge difference because the capillar forces hold the cap stone in the setting!

The glue holding the end of the hairspring into the prongs of the hair spring stud has been dissolved. You can try gluing it back with shellack or epoxy.

I suspect Bergeon is using the same material used for drawing boards, called Vyco (made by a company named Alvin). Difference being it's cheaper. :)