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Received these watch spring winders today from Larry Foord (Canada) this morning, sold as mint and they really are. In perfect condition and sent as a small parcel so NO import duty Approx $100 inc. postage.

Here is a video I really enjoyed recently. I am so tempted to get one of those winders even though I rarely work on clocks these days.

In that case - I was worried for nothing, I can't wait to give it a try.

i thought it was something else when I first looked. :unsure:

I've only had one kinetic watch (a Seiko Arctura chrono), and had no trouble in keeping it running when it was off the wrist. When it did run down, it took a few hours to get it back to an even tick - rather than the 2-second jump that the second hand makes when it's underpowered - but apart from that it ran more or less continuously on a day's worth of normal wrist time.. It always seemed odd to me to save battery costs by buying a kinetic - and then use an electrically powered winder to keep it going! In the end I sold it as the chrono function was faulty, and got a solar powered Seiko instead. I much prefer solar power.

Very Nice! Been on a Bulova kick as of late. Now here is an image to tie this to beer :beerhat: : Sorry, Dan

Couldn't have gone far??....problem is if they do and they did they might not for much longer!!

A nice grip

As promised in another post here is the little ladies Bulova Longchamp that I recently serviced. It's a 5.75''' x 6.75''' INT cal.1980 movement which according to Ranfft is also a Durowe 1980 or an AS 1977-5. 17 jewells and a 21600 train. It's my sister-in-law's watch and it came to me because it kept stopping. On the Timegrapher things did not look good; averaging 6 minutes a day slow with a Max Delta of 6 minutes and 20 seconds between positions (yes - minutes!!), average amplitude of 140 degrees, and a beat error of about 4.0ms. About as bad as it gets and still running!! Dial and hands off there doesn't seem to be anything damaged so hopefully this is just a COA and maybe a replacement mainspring. Mainspring let down now I can start the strip down. Balance, pallet fork, barrel bridge, and barrel now out. End and side shake on the train wheels is fine but the train is a bit sticky which does suggest gummy oil. Train bridge off revealing the train wheels in all their glory. The stripped out main plate, train side. Dial side, set lever bridge removed showing the layout of the keyless works. Main plate now fully stripped. And balance reinstalled for cleaning minus jewels. Every thing nice and shiny out of the cleaning machine. The mainspring looks absolutely fine; not set, and laying nice and flat on the bench with no distortion, so I will re-use it rather than replace. Notice the balance pivot jewels and end stones are different sizes. This is something that I always check when disassembling as the differences are not always as obvious as this and if you get the wrong ones in the wrong places it can cause all sorts of fun and games. Mainspring in the winder ready to install. Balance jewels oiled and reinstalled. This is when I check the free swinging of the balance and that the hairspring is sitting flat, with concentric coils, and not fouling anything. On movements that do not have adjustable stud carriers I also eyeball the impulse pin through the banking pins at this point and make any obvious adjustments to beat. I don't expect to get it spot on at this stage but it's nice to start off reasonably close, and you never know your luck. This one is adjustable though. The train wheels back in. Train bridge installed, barrel bridge reassembled and reinstalled. Everything spinning nice and free with some healthy recoil on just a couple of clicks of power on the ratchet wheel. Train pivots now oiled. Pallet fork back in and checked for lock and draw before oiling the pallet stones. Balance reinstalled and starts running straight off. I love this moment, it gets me every time. Keyless works back together and lubed. And onto the Timegrapher for some tweaking. Not a bad result considering the starting point and nothing has been replaced. Finally re-cased and ready to go home. The resulting stats at full wind plus about 6 hours; Position Rate Amplitude Beat Error Dial Up +4s/d 282 degrees 0.0ms Dial Down +3s/d 270 degrees 0.0ms Pendant Up -13s/d 242 degrees 0.1ms Pendant Down +5s/d 227 degrees 0.2ms Pendant Left -19s/d 237 degrees 0.3ms Pendant Right -2s/d 248 degrees 0.3ms Power reserve of >42 hours. I could possibly get the rate and amplitude more consistent with a bit of hairspring tweaking but given the size of this little baby and the (very high in my case) risk of making things worse rather than better I have decided to leave well alone. I know my limitations and when to quit while the going is good. If it were my watch then I may have been tempted. On the wrist (which is what actually matters) it is running close enough to spot on as to not be able to distinguish any error at all after a week of wear so I am happy with the end result. Sorry about the somewhat dodgy point of focus on some of the pics, I hope that it doesn't detract too much. Will try harder next time :-)

Al Takatsch is a knowledgeable guy & has many interesting videos on youtube. :) This is the first time I've checked in on the forum for a while & it's nice to see a clock corner, I think clocks & watches, big & small are all part of the fascinating world of horology. Thank you. :)