Leaderboard

I will reconstruct a hairspring as close to how yours is and film it today later when i get a few minutes :)

I started taking my watch apart in the kitchen, because that's where I'd started unpacking my package of tools . Then it got late and so I moved to my bedroom. In bed. How many of you take watches apart in bed? I don't recommend it. Then I moved to my desk, which was somewhat cluttered. At this point I noticed that I had no hour wheel! It hadn't got knocked or jumped away—I'd never even seen it! I had no recollection of it at all, and it wasn't on any of my photos :( I considered the possibility that there had never been an hour wheel, but discarded that hypothesis pretty quickly. How can one loose an hour wheel? They're enormous! (compared to the sub millimeter screws anyway). I didn't even know where to look :( Anyway, it was at this point that I decided I really needed to tidy up my desk. And floor. The whole flat, in fact. Eventually, I remembered that there had been a suspicious sound at the beginning when I'd turned the movement over. I'd looked down and saw the little golden dial washer (?). I remember being suspicious of its capability of making just that sort of impact noise... not suspicious enough though. A quick search with a bright torch turned up the little bugger, hiding innocently enough under the desk. :) Life can go on again. Camera quality seems to be getting worse and worse. Now I need to disassemble my **BLEEP** phone too :(

I guess so. After a couple of revolutions my automatics seem to revolt spontaneously.

Hi Guys, I was able to take some more pictures for you all. Hope they are what was asked for earlier. I am not 100% sure, but I think that the winding gear (reverser) is bad or gummed up. I have cleaned it twice and once in my ultrasonic cleaner. The technical sheets that I have say to only oil the top and bottom under the metal disc. I find that strange since the reversers in the 55X and others can be disassembled and you are supposed to oil the little satellite wheels. When I put the freshly clean wheel on the satellite pinion and attach the bridge, the other winding wheels or rotor do not move. When I apply a little amount of 9010 to the spaces indicated, the winding wheels will move every time I wind and the rotor will occasionally spin when mounted. This reminds me of the eta reverser wheels when they are bad, unclean, or not oiled properly. I really don't want to order a new one since the cheapest I can find is $70US. I imagine that this is the culprit since the jewel is so badly scored. I feel like the winding gear (reverser) is spinning every time the crown is turned, causing it to ride up and hit the jewel. Just a guess though. It seems like it should be held stationary and spin on itself when manually winding. Anyway, here are some pics for you guys. Some are with the scope and some are with the DSLR. Thanks!!!!

The video is uploaded - hope it's helpful :) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vSOnpUocYq0z8oiYFk0zQ

I hope they are OK.

It's always the way, isn't it... Dentists have false teeth... Opticians wear specs... Doctors smoke... Watchmakers... :D

Great pics. Probable: The old oil dries and mixed with dust and metal particles it forms a sort of paste and causes the damage to the jewel. Goes to show how regular service (clean the old oil away and re-lubricate) is essential. Too many owners have the opinion that "if it's not broken don't fix it" and this is the result. :)

Yep - thats definitely a problem! Its hard to explain and better shown but in order to resolve this, it's going to require some very gentle manipulation. This won't be easy to explain.. but I will try. In your picture at 10 oclock the coils are pretty much touching. 90ºs to the left of this point (about 8oclock on the picture) on the outer coil is where you will make your adjustment. You will need two pairs of fine tweezers. The first to hold the spring steady at the 90º position and these will be in your left hand and the other to push the spring gently outwards with your right hand. Very very gently because you do not want to kink the spring or twist it. Don't grip the spring with your right tweezers when you push away - just push it with your tweezer tips whilst continuing to grip with your left tweezers. Now you can do this with the spring still on the balance wheel but it's even easier with it off the wheel. And thats the basics - you then work your way around until the coils are even sometimes pulling the spring in and sometimes pushing it out - always gripping with your left tweezers and working it with your right.. The stud is also, obviously, in the wrong position and this is a slightly different process to resolve. First get the coils even and then put a pic to show us and I will advise the next stage. I really do need to do some videos on this stuff.