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I haven't worn my Bulova Precisionist for, probably, over a couple of years. It's been sat in a case, along with others of my collection, ticking gently away. Anyway, I thought I'd get it on the wrist today - what with the clocks going back an hour this weekend. I took it out of the case and checked the time against the atomic clock - it was exactly, to the second, one hour fast. In other words, though not changed to compensate for changes in BST and back over two years or so, it had otherwise kept completely accurate time. The second hand is sweeping as smoothly as you would expect from a Precisionist. I think that's pretty good, and also a tribute to the Bulova brand. This is one of a very few quartz watches that I own and, I have to say, it's a beauty.

This just shows how crazy horology can get. As if people can afford such watches.

Danh, cheers for the info mate, I have no idea wars going on with my posts they don't seem to be posting in the order I'm writing them anyway, as for this fob watch, ive managed to get it running well, had it running dial up for 16 hours and it was 8 mins slow, now had it in the vertical position for 12 hours and it was 2 mins slow, so I made a small adjustment to the regulated and now it's approx +/-3 mins depending on position, im happy with that result. As for beat error it's down to 2.6ms done via my eye and adjusting the collet, as I don't know the lift angle im working a bit blind on the timegrapher

Great. Thanks for the tips. Working very nice now? Adjusted the cam screw for the hammer a little and now the pusher isn't that stiff. And the chronograph hand reset as it should every time. Thanks Geo.

One of my Timex's. From 1971, a Viscount Calendar

The insane thing is that they're mainly impossible to tell the time with.

Roger, ideally it should be replaced if it has a nick in it, but smoothing and polishing would be worth a go first. I would first remove the nick by rubbing the part with 600 grit wet or dry abrasive paper. If possible have the paper on a perfectly flat surface and rub the hammer on it making sure you keep the exact profile. If it can't be done this way wrap a piece of the abrasive paper around a small lollipop stick or similar, then polish the part with it. When the nick is removed, change to 1200 grit paper until it starts to shine. Next use the bare stick with a little solvol autosol polish and burnish the part. It should now have a very high shine and should be finished off with solvol applied to a cloth and rubbed until it's a mirror finish. I prefer doing these types of polishing jobs by hand, as there's is less chance of going too far and ruining the piece as could happen using a Dremel or bench mounted buff.

What cleaning method did you first use? clockboy mentioned coca-cola that should work another is cider. Again brasso I would think is best, a lightly brushing and then rinse. Sounds like instructions from a dentist.

Maybe this one's more to your liking good buddy .....

Hi Armand, Unless you have swapped any parts out from a different movement there are really only 2 possible causes for the excessive rate, one is the hair spring, and the other is the main spring. If too powerful a main spring has been installed then over-banking can occur. This is when the amplitude of the balance wheel is so great that the impulse pin impacts against the outside of the pallet fork at the extreme ends of its oscillation and bounces back with greater energy as a result. This will result in an indecipherable timegrapher trace and can often lead to an increase in rate. Probably the easiest way to diagnose this is simply to listen to the watch. Over-banking is often referred to as "galloping" and if you listen to a watch that is doing this it is clear why; the regular ticking sound is replaced by a galloping horse sound. Another test to see if the main spring is too strong is to let the power down completely so that the balance stops and then just put on enough winds to start it going again and no more. If you get an acceptable rate with just the minimum of power then try increasing the level of wind incrementally, observing the behaviour of the balance at each stage. If the main spring is too powerful then at some point before you reach full wind the over-banking will start and the trace will go snow storm again and the rate will probably go through the roof. I'm not sure that this is your problem though because in your original post you mentioned that it was fine to start with before going haywire. If it was a main spring issue I would have expected it to be a problem from the start. The other possible cause is of course the hair spring. If anything happens that effectively shortens the hair spring then the rate will increase. This can be down to contaminated coils sticking together, magnetised coils sticking together, the outer coil getting hitched up on the regulator arm, an out of flat or out of parallel hair spring making contact with the under side of the cock or the top of the balance wheel, etc. In my experience this is the most likely cause by far, which is why I suggested it to start with. Have you tried demagnetising the watch? With the watch running observe as much of the hair spring as possible to check that no part of it is touching anywhere it shouldn't as it breaths. There are two other possible causes that could result in mad high rates. One is that with a screwed balance, screws have been removed from the balance rim and not replaced resulting in the balance being too light. This would give you an increase rate but you should still get a timegrapher picture. As the 2872 doesn't have a screwed balance you can discount this as an explanation. The other is that the 2872 is the 28000bph twin of the 2873 which runs at 21600bph. If some 2872 train wheels had been swapped for 2873 train wheels then you would also get a crazy high rate. However, you would still get a t/g picture and the rate error wouldn't show on the trace, in fact the trace would look normal but the hands would move too fast. Again, the problem would be there from the start. I'm pretty certain that you issues lie with the hair spring / balance wheel. Marc

Have a look at the hair spring with a loupe. With that level of gain the odds are that you have a couple of coils sticking together, either due to magnetism or oil residue. Alternatively make sure that the hair spring isn't hitched up on anything and that it isn't touching anything that it shouldn't.

I used to belong to another forum that initially was a platform for a free exchange of ideas. Unfortunately the forum was hijacked by two horological know-it-all's who were legends in their own minds. If somebody would post an article that had information they never thought of, they would post a response stating that "they were doing it incorrectly" or "they gave incorrect information". Often their post would start out with the phrase "DON'T YOU EVER". The owner of the forum was so impressed with their credentials that he made both of them moderators. Unfortunately for that forum the impressive credentials these two had did not manifest into evidence of either of them having any real horological knowledge. Neither of them ever posted anything of great value to the rest of us who wanted to learn. The forum members who did contribute ended up either leaving or no longer passed tips and discoveries on to the other members. From what I have seen so far, this forum is set up in a much nicer member friendly way. I am glad to have found it and hope it continues to remain that way. david

I have over the years refinished a few Speedmaster MkII cases for friends. They are fun to work on as they are,usually quite beat up och the surfaces have been polished a few times to many. Last week a friend of mine told me that there was a 1970 MkII for sale on a Swedish auction site. I was born 1970 so this watch I just had to have! On Sunday when the auction was about to close the website where the auction was held started to act up and I could not log on......... About thirty seconds before it closed the webpage loaded and I was able to submit my offer....then it was down again......did I win or not!!??, I waited for the usual confirmation mail when you have won an object and five minutes later I had mail, -Yesssssss..... The watch arrived On Tuesday and looked like this: Not to bad, but the sunburst was gone and the top surface had......"straight graining" .....I guess the previous owner used a abrasive rotating mop or something! The case was practically free of deeper scratches and dings so a good prospect for a lapping session! The case was stripped and I started with the sides: I do this part in my small Boley lathe with 90mm discs that I have made and a small tiltable table to set the angle. Depending on the geometry of the case you can either slide the case directly on the table or use a adaptor to get the right angle - in this case no adaptor was used. First run on one side done: First disc is 400P so you have to be careful, especially with the start/edge where the case can grip the disc - and you do NOT want this as you will have a case with scratches in places they where not intended to be! After 400P I move up to 1000P and finally a last run with 2000P. This usually gets the surface almost up to mirror finish but,a quick final touch with a mop gives it,that final shine. When the surfaces are flat and when needed polished, it is time to grain the sides and lapp the sunburstpattern on the top. This is done in a small mill I have with a tiltable spindle using a 305mm rotating disc and another home made tiltable table. For this case I use a 120P paper so you really have to take it slow and be sure all the angles are set up correct or the disc will chew material in places you do nor want it to! The result I was not 100% pleased! There where some spots there the graining did not go al the way up to the grained edge around the glass. This was obvious in the pictures and reflections in some angles on the wrist - I relapped to top surface.... Some grease from my fingers on the chamfer in the pictures but the graining is better now! I am waiting for a NOS dial and crown - when they get here I will strip and clean the movement as well.

If you look at this clip )abt. 40s in) you se how the sunbust lapp an Omega case! ;) Nothing magical - you just have to have a sturdy setup and a good fixture to get the angle/s right!

We are all friendly on here and we all like to chip in and help. We don't have arguments here.

Sometimes I am quite happy that I know ba (or not a lot) that I would ever take a firm opinionated stance on. I think this forum is excellent from so many different perspectives not the least being humour. No room for stuffed shirts here, however looking at my current shirt straining against my breakfast I think I shall now vanish from this thread. Cheers, Vic

David, we always strive to ensure that this forum remains open and friendly.

The case is presented to disc at 270deg as close to the edge as possible and at the horizontal center using a tiltable table shown above. The case is rotated in this location using a specialy made holder/chuck and "viola" you have a sunburst pattern! As the length of the case in contact with the disc is so short the brushing will be almost straight, but it will NOT be perfectly straight - that is the reason I want as big a disc as possible! For now I have settled for 305mm as this is the largest dimension I can get pappers for - easy! I'm using standard paper right now but have a set of old cast iron discs that have been used by my grandfather to lapp using glue and a special absrasive mixture he had when lapping diamonds. To use them I firs have to renovate the matching headstock of the lathe he used - but I think it will be woth while as that lathe will be a good base for a more advanced lappingmachine! Here is a video of the principle for getting the pattern: Sunburst lapping a Omega I like to use a much lower rpm setting and use a fixture for the watch case - but thats just me! Here is another machine

Early setup testing with a 240mm disc

Today I made a mistake while shortening a stem, so what to do? I was less than 1mm too short, so after a little thought I packed the crown with the tube I cut off an old seconds hand, I also used a little thread lock and it worked. Pretty sure it compressed the brass tube a little thus forming a very nice tight fit. Hope that makes sense, stock picture of crown shown below.. Just wish I had read the post about sizing stems earlier, I am however looking for a replacement stem but as they are obsolete that will be a long shot. And I think my fix is a pretty good one under the circumstances.