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I guess the manufacturing world has succeeded in messing with our minds. in our dental industry, things like liquid mercury and gold alloy have expiration dates. C'mon .... Really? Mercury is an element and gold is stable. So how do they expire? Previously a batch number or lot number was sufficient. Manufacturers became greedy and started putting expiration dates on everything. Making consumers feel guilty or unsafe using expired products, resulting in perfectly good stuff getting thrown away. I think some common sense is needed. Although they say honey found in an Egyptian pyramid is still good, I wouldn't want to try 3000 year old honey. But I would certainly use expired lubricants. (Ahem... not the personal type, of course. )

I've had to work on one of these beastly things before. I'm going to try to include a picture of where I recall applying pressure to release the stem (now included on a following post). On most mechanical watches, the set lever is the only thing holding the stem in. And it does that by resting in a groove in the stem. If you keep in mind that you must loosen the set lever's grip in that stem-groove somehow, then it becomes a matter of how to do that. Some mechanical watches have a screw which goes through the set lever and by loosening the screw, you loosen the lever. This watch movement, though, has a set lever that works like a see-saw. You push down on one side, the other side (the finger-in-the-groove side) comes up. The idea is to get the set lever out of the stem groove - carefully. Oh! And before pulling the stem, on this kind I have found it to be slightly easier to pull the stem when it is pushed in, in its "winding mode". Not all watches are like that. You learn these things as you go. But like I mentioned, go slowly and carefully with this one. Some of the parts are fragile and others are ill-fitting.

Agreed, best example from the food industry I saw was for a stated 200,000 year old Himalayan salt with a 3 month expiration date

Possibly only of interest to musicians (or complete watch geeks) is this Seiko. I saw this video yesterday and when I looked for it again (to post) I see that Seiko also has some promotional video material. The video does a good job of showing off the metronome functions (even if the guy doing the video doesn't seem to be particularly musical). I may need to get one for the sheer novelty!

Lol...I have another bench in the garage already...I have run out of room!! Seriously, one of the machines will probably be bartered if I get it running. Much of my satisfaction will be in the process of refurbishing.

Welcome. I have a Cricket story... My father was a watchmaker and I inherited all of his tools, watch bench, and boxes of old watches. This stuff lay dormant for many years until about two years ago, I decided to return to watchmaking (he taught me as a young boy). Digging through the box of watches one day, I discovered a Cricket. It had no crystal and the dial was in terrible shape, but it had the hands and a good balance...no rust. So, it was one of my earliest projects. I did have the dial refinished--I am wearing it now!! Since then I have acquired and restored several Crickets. I love them...but I can only wear one at a time, so I wear my first one. I think there is another Cricket enthusiast on this forum...maybe two. You have come to the right place...we can help you in your journey. Have fun!!!

But I bought a couple of cheap scrap movements just to get used to working in the micro environment. I have an andonstar microscope some cheapo fleabay screwdrivers and some brass tweezers... and an air blower. So my point is, I couldnt afford the oils as they are dearer than unicorn shit, and so used 3 in 1 and car grease for the heavier uses, and to my amazement the Cauny Anti magnetic I used this crap on actually runs and keeps really good time, I didnt mess wiht the barrel or the spring as I have no spring winders... So I know this is sacreligious and I do not recomend dousing your rolex in 3 in 1 but I was amazed at how a running watch like this, but running extemely poorly could be brought around so much by a dismantling, dunking in degreasant parts cleaner for engine parts and then just oiled and greased with whatever was to hand... Something similar to this

I think Khaled is trying to say that the second hand stops and even moves backward for a bit when the winding stem is turned backwards when setting the time.

Ok, another attempt at 3D printing in ABS plastic. Did more work and design to keep it from warping off the build plate. There was still a tiny bit of warping, but overall ended up much flatter. Also used a brass threaded insert melted in the side for the setscrew. Overall, the results seem very good. I'll have to run it thru a few cycles to see how the ABS holds up in my solutions. I'm using the Non-ammoniated Zenith solution followed by distilled water then 99% IPA. The basket still works best in 1 of the 3 orientations. I was thinking of designing a 3D printed basket to remove that variable as well.

Really good clear explanation for beginners of part integration, engagement and accurate instructions of how to disengage them

Thanks for the info! I'll go ahead and give it a try with an actual balance needing a new hairspring. Here is the vibrating setup without the phone:

That's come up very nice. Did you need to treat the wood frame with anything to nourish it? Only sometimes you find cracks because the wood has dried out, caused by central heating. Never put clocks near central heating radiators.

Sounds like a plan. Hopefully I can get it done this year. So many projects...so little time!

Stem release is easy and intuitive: https://youtu.be/6itxXyS4DPU

Yep. 2189 is the silver one. 2189G is the gold plated one. I found a better picture, so I removed the one I posted so as not to mislead.

I found it at Ali Express as „Hangzhou 2189“ for about 30 bucks And here is a stem release guide: https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/technical-guide-on-hangzhou-movement.4755221/

Mines now on its way to the test stand shortly

Jim, I am just north of you in Homosassa and I drove 10 hours to get home to prepare for IAN. Glad it missed us (feel sympathy for the hard hit areas). I enjoyed reading about your mods. Can you show us an after picture?

Hello AcmeSix I hope you made it through Ian without damage. Ian here in Tampa turned out to be not that big a deal just some intense winds and rain, just the norm, but I will tell you when they first predicted Hurricane Ian was going to directly hit Tampa I was shi*ing bricks!. Looking at the total devastation south of us I feel so lucky to have dodged the bullet. Welcome to Watch Repair Talk I came here just like you to find out more about the Janta, I have only been here for a little more than a month myself I usually hang out at WUS in the Russian watch section. I started posting on this topic on page 5 so look there for what I did to my machine, best regards AcmeSix, James.

If that is all it went for there must have been a lot wrong with it.

Please, whatever you do, don’t let lack of funds stop you from getting into this hobby. As long as these pieces are for your own use, you pretty much have Carte Blanche to use whatever you can afford. In fact, yours is the best approach; as you learn you get what you need. We’ve all fallen in the trap of putting together an impressive list of “essentials” and that list becomes expensive quick - with the risk that half the stuff ends up not being used. So no hanging here, you do what you can justify and grow from there!

Agreed 1000% I think it all started with food manufacturers. Granted certain food can certainly go bad but most dated products say: "Best by <some date>" If the oils were natural vegetable oils I suspect they could go rancid at some point but I believe Moebius has taken a page from food companies hoping that by putting a date on their 9010 we'll worry. What would be better would be something suggesting that "out of date" oils may not perform as long as "fresh" oils. It's highly unlikely that: a) I'll ever use all 2ml (or 5ml) of what I have now of various oils or that b) I'll ever actually undertake servicing a watch for pay where I would in fact be slightly concerned.

Jim, Where in Florida? I hope not in IAN's path. I am in Homosassa and have received my Pearl Supreme and was wondering what mods you did to improve the wiring? Thanks

You realize that if he does that it will likely come with another cleaning machine, lathe and a fully stocked cabinet of crystals...

I actually just messed with mine today. Cut an allen key to fit it more easily. Key was 2.35mm/0.0925in on the flats. It made it hold the shaft much tighter.

welcome to the forum enjoy.

Correct.

Weekend project of upgrading the cheap baskets. I found that sometimes parts could slide under the dividers. Got this STA-Brite kit from Amazon. Comes with some flux and wire. Just slide a drop of Stay-Clean across the line you want to solder on. Dab some solder on the end of the iron and then brush it across the line. Flux is supposed to help the solder flow over stainless. Rinse baskets afterwards to wash away acidic flux. Seems to work great.

Your photos are stunning - especially the one of balance cocks and the one of the hairsprings. I don't know whether you put effort into composing those photos but it sure looks like you did.

I meant to add I am an electrical engineer.