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I still have my very first watch, a Scooby Doo watch about 30 years old and it hasn't worked for the last 25 or so it's just been living in various drawers for a long time. I finally plucked up the courage to try and get it going again after my recent successes, after all I couldn't make it any worse anyway! Obviously it's a very basic movement in there, no jewels and the dial has bend tabs on it so I'm pretty sure it was never intended to be serviced. There are no bridges, just one plate holding everything in place, it was pretty tricky to line everything back up. The ratchet wheel was held on by a copper coloured clip and there's a very odd keyless works in there, everything was a bit alien to me! A good clean and he runs again! Finished, very happy. As soon as it started ticking it brought back memories. I remember looking at it in bed with the torch light on a Christmas morning waiting until 5.00am because that's the earliest my brother and I could get up to open our presents!

Hi Rogart, here is a link that shows how the Incabloc system works and also shows how the spring is located in the mount. http://www.watches-lexic.ch/pages/eng/tec/exp3.htm

just put the watch away and go back to it a later stage, work on something else. thats the best advice i got and have a habit of NOT sticking to it... leave it and your get it next time!

I have to disagree with the idea that Timex watches were never meant to be serviced. In fact Timex published servicing manuals (including lubrication requirements) for many, if not all of their calibres (see here for downloads: http://timex.digidep.net/manuals/ They also supplied many service parts/spares including complete balance and hairspring assemblies, individual wheels, stems, pin pallets, main springs, etc; I know this because I have a number of NOS Timex spares and "service kits" in my stock, picked up from estate sales of watchmakers working in the 60's through to the 80's. So very much not designed to be thrown away. What is true is that the standard Timex servicing procedures were kept simple, with as little disassembly as possible. It was usually necessary to remove the balance and hairspring assembly from the movement to be cleaned separately, but this was normally possible without separating the plates, and the rest of the movement went into the cleaner without dismantling it. Lubrication was also kept simple. The mainsprings had a factory applied dry lubricant that was not affected by cleaning solutions so no need to worry about oiling it. Pivots generally required only one grade of oil throughout the watch, including the "V-Conic" balance pivots which are amazingly robust, and I believe the only other lubrication specified was a grease for things like the keyless works. I have an enormous admiration for Timex movements because despite being incredibly cheaply made, they seem to be almost indestructible. The number of examples I have picked up for pennies, which have not been serviced in 50 years or more (since they left the factory), have been generally abused (dents and dings in the cases that testify to a whack that would have instantly destroyed any standard non-shock protected jewelled movement, and a fair few of the shock resistant ones too), and they still run, albeit a bit sluggishly before a service...... And then 15 minutes of taking apart, a good thorough cleaning cycle through the Elma, and back together with a drop of oil, and they're running like new. There are not many marvels of Swiss engineering at 10 or 100 times the price that can do that. And they keep quite acceptable time into the bargain. I think their only real weak spot was the rotor bearings on the automatics as these are often worn to rattling, but they do usually still work. Next time you get a Timex, don't treat it like other watches. Just take off the hands and dial, and the balance, then clean the rest as a unit. Keep it really simple because that's the way they were designed to serviced.

It's my favourite polish Rogart, I mentioned it in my post above. Thanks for putting up the picture! :)

Good job steve!

At last, I think I've got one running decently. https://vimeo.com/118975995 This is the one which I did the full cleaning and oiling on. I took out the pallet fork and installed one from another movement and it worked. I'm not sure why, I looked closely at the pivots and jewels on both and could see no difference. Maybe I just didn't have or seated in the jewels correctly before. When i assembled it before, I hadn't removed the anti shock on the balance cock and i think the jewel still had old dried oil in it. It seems to run stronger after i addressed this. The first time I tried to replace the anti shock spring it took over an hour and ended with me going to make a tool for the job. Now that I have the tool it takes only a minute or two. So there is some progress being made here at least! Thanks to all who offered advice and encouragement.

The problem with the amp in that video, and several other piezo pre-amps that I've found, is that they go out of there way to ensure that there is good bass response (which you do not get when connecting a piezo directly to a traditional amplifier). Unfortunately, that is exactly what we don't want for a watch timing microphone preamplifier. Most of the useful information lies between 300Hz and 1kHz. So, my pre-amp has both high-pass (~220Hz) and low-pass (~12kHz) filtering, which makes it great for watch timing, and lousy as a guitar pickup. Regarding packaging, do you think there would be much of a market for the software with the amp but without the holder? My current thinking is that the software, when installed, will have all features available for 60 days. After that most of the advanced features (e.g. long term tests) will be disabled unless you purchase. If you buy the software with the hardware, then of course, you get all the features without having to make an additional purchase. So, if you're really cheap, you can build your own mic and amp, and use the limited version of the software forever (but it will remind you every time you start it that you can update to the "pro" version). If you're a serious amateur or professional watchmaker but like building stuff, you can build your own hardware, make sure it's working with the free/evaluation version of software, and then pay for the "pro" version. Or, if you want turnkey, you can just buy the whole bundle, which I think I can reasonably price above the cost of an entry level Chinese watch timer, since mine does far more.