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I have a love of bumper automatics, and have a few from different manufacturers in my collection. The Holy Grail that has eluded me for a long time is the Le Coultre Futurematic. This has now been put right by my latest acquisition from Germany. This Futurematic has a complicated, but very well made calibre 497 movement and is keeping excellent time, about +3 seconds a day on the wrist. It also produced a nice clean graph with no beat error on my Timegrapher. I will service it sometime in the future and post an article about it. The only thing I have done to it is re-finish the original crystal and give the slightly worn gold finish a light polish and fit a new strap. I'll do a proper job later when I service it. Unusual features are:- The watch has no visible crown, it is hidden on the back of the case in the form of a flat serrated button. To set the watch, slide the button towards the middle of the watch then rotate it to set the time. There is a built in hacking lever so it is possible to set the time to the exact second. The watch cannot be wound by the button, just set the time give the watch a couple of shakes and wear it. Manual type mainspring that has no facility to let it slip when fully wound like other automatic watches. When fully wound, a latch comes into play and locks the bumper rotor preventing it from moving. When the spring unwinds slightly, the latch releases and allows the rotor to swing again. The good thing about this system is the rotor only moves when required and cuts down on bearing wear. Another strange feature of the spring setup is it is pre-tensioned with one and half turns of preload when run down. This ensures an immediate start up as soon as the rotor moves, negating the need to give the watch a good shake before wearing it. There is a power reserve indicator at the three o’clock position on the dial that rotates clockwise when winding. When fully wound, the indicator just touches the bottom of the gold quadrant, and when run down, the hand is in the vertical position at the beginning of the red quadrant. Power reserve is 27 hours. Just as an aside, when re-casing the movement the matt black dial was a sod to clean properly. After using the puffer I noticed that there were still some tiny specks on the surface. They are easily removed with the lightest touch of the Jewel Picker Upper! I hope you found this interesting.

Tissot 2403 Service Walkthrough What is it with me and small movements?! I seem to attract them in absurd numbers. Oh well, here's another one to push my Zeiss optics to the limit, a Tissot 2403. My brother's father-in-law found this at the local rubbish tip, thrown away and unloved :( Upon initial inspection the condition looked dirty but not marked up, Canon Pinion felt good when setting the hands, and it seemed to wind smoothly. But alas it wasn't running at all. So to the bench I go, and de-case this little gem of a find. It removes like many ladies fashion watches, with the movement cradled in the Caseback. I removed it from the Caseback, and it looked remarkably clean. So I gave it a close inspection to see if there was something obvious that was stopping the movement. First thing that stood out, and is common on these types of movements, is the lack of a Crown Seal. As you can see there is a lot of contamination along the Stem, including nylon fibres ... perhaps from the sleeve of a sweater. I continued to look and found more of these fibres near the Balance. Continuing my inspection it was obvious that this watch was in desperate need of a complete service. Note the condition of the jewels. But besides a strip and clean, I couldn't see anything else wrong with it. No rust, nothing bent or broken; just some contamination stopping it from running. It's sad to see we live in such a throw away society today, 50 or 60 years ago this would have never been discarded on a tip. Ok, time to bring this watch back to life. First step as always, release the tension from the Mainspring, and remove the Balance and Pallets. Now the Balance and Pallet Fork safe, we can remove the Keyless Work. Start by removing the Hour Wheel, then the Setting Lever Spring. Then remove the Yoke and Setting Lever. Be sure to secure the Yoke Spring with Pegwood and note is orientation. Then remove the Minute Wheel and Setting Wheel. Then pull the Stem, and remove the Sliding Pinion and Winding Pinion. Flip it over and remove the Ratchet Wheel and Crown Wheel. Then you can remove the Mainspring and Train Bridges. As you can see, even if this watch was running, it would have not been giving accurate time. All the jewel holes are filthy! Here is a reference shot of the train on the 2403. Now, if you had good eyes you might have seen it. The object that stopped this watch from running. You guessed it ... a nylon fibre has found it's way into the wheels of the train, and gotten jammed between the Intermediate and Third Wheel. So know the mystery is solved, it's just a simple matter of cleaning and re-assembly. To Be Continued ......

I have been doing some repair work for a local jewelry store and Monday I took the owner a Zodiac Seawolf that I had restored for him and he had a pile of watches that someone had brought in and offered to sell him. He didn't want them but thought of me and asked me if I wanted to make an offer. Evidently a former watchmakers wife is selling off his estate. I thought I might get some to sell and possibly keep a couple. Almost all of them need cleaning but all of them do work. I wasn't sure about the accutrons when I made my offer but I have now found that they do run. I offered $250.00 and they said ok. The picture of the 214 was not included in the deal but the owner of the seawolf asked if I also wanted that one for 250.00. Since it is 14kt gold I said ok pretty quick. In the other picture there is a Zodiac and Hamilton tank, Bulova snorkel, Longines automatic, Tissot seastar (1 piece case), Waltham divers and a Hamilton that is puzzling me as to what it is. There may be another or so in there but I just got them and can't remember. Anyway hope you all enjoy the pictures.

That's a beauty, Geo! I sure like the movement, very unique. You're a lucky man.

Really unusual watch movement. Your enjoy this one Geo.

Thanks for the comments, folks. In the end I just used very fine steel wool and elbow grease. The movement was drowned in oil and caked grease, but really only needed cleaning - all the pivots were, remarkably, fine! Almost all back together - not too worried about the staining The clock - unusually elegant for a Vienna regulator, I think. Poor thing has had a hard life. Here's a quick youtube movie of the striking mechanism in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72og4a_EL_0

Great looking movement from the photo the hairspring looks strange? is it just the angle? Just wondering I have not serviced that particular JL movement yet Sincerely, Jim

You'll do it Roger!

The pictures a bit fuzzy Roger, but remove the magic finger and pinion that it drives by removing the large bridge on top of the movement. Now get a good fitting screwdriver and turn the barrel slightly to release the click. Hold the click out of engagement with a piece of pegwood then let the screwdriver rotate while controlling it with your fingers until there is no tension left in the spring.

Nice catch Geo, both technically and aesthetically that one ticks (and tocks!!!) all of the boxes.

That's an amazing watch - love it! A gorgeous dial and a very interesting movement - what more could an addict want...

Very nice watch !!! what a gorgeous dial !

Thanks, have now contacted the link.

The clean sticky end on the tool looks like the same silicone they put on Lint Brush Rollers. I'll pick one up at the dollar store and see how it works Thanks for the idea Al T

Hi Lawson, Just took my medication....Here is the recipe: Visa with CousinUK! :)