Leaderboard

Pin gauge sets are still made, just not specifically for watchmakers any more. The most common sets you will find will be with larger sizes that a machinist would find useful. If you want to see what a watchmaker's set looked like, search for - Watchmakers Swartchild's Cylindrical Metric Jewel Gauge No. 51836 This set was sold for measuring jewel holes, but you can get an idea of what they look like, and the larger sizes are certainly useful for screw holes.

Hi Johnnie, I love this movement.. when you get it working you'll see that it winds super smooth and it's pretty accurate too! Does the balance swing freely? Could be it had a 'jolt' and the impulse pin came out of the fork. If this was the case the balance would stop on one side like it hit a brick wall. Its a simple enough movement. I usually keep the barrels separate. I seem to remember one being slightly different but its been a while since I worked on one. Anyway, even if they're identical its good practice to re-install them where they came from as they would have worn together. One peculiarity on this movement is how FL fixed the end of the hairspring, it is screwed to the underside of the balance bridge. To adjust the beat you have to remove the balance + bridge, loosen the holding screw (enough so there's still a bit of friction), install balance + bridge, set the beat-rate by moving the visible end of the hairspring end (you can just see a metal piece with a hole below the bridge above the balance). Remove the balance+bridge, tighten the screw fixing the hairspring end. reassemble. The beauty of this arrangement is that it will not move if the watch is dropped. Anilv

I want that "Harry Potter" screwdriver that removes screws without touching them!

Dial down, dial up; back to dial down and a final with crown down usually does the job. Congratulations...Your watch is running very well. J

Also make sure you have put the spring in the barrel the correct way so it will engage with the hook on the arbor. It's an easy mistake to put it in the wrong way, something I have been guilty of doing in the past........

Turn the arbour with either strong tweezers or a pin vice.

Well, if you want to know the size of a hole, the easy way to do it is with a pin gauge. They come in a set, little cylinders of known size, You see which one goes in the hole, and that is your size. For the screws, as @rogart63 says, measure with a caliper. Vintage pin gauge sets made for watchmaking show up on the bay every once in a while. When I'm sorting an unidentified set of something, I just start dividing into big/little, or short/long, or something like that, and keep dividing until each size is in its own little group. If I then want to know an actual size I will compare against a known example. If I want to know thread pitch, for example, I might hold a screw up to a tap to see if the threads are similar. Not hard, just tedious. I have to be in the right mood to tackle some of my junk piles :-)

Hi all, I find the people on this forum are really helpful and knowledgeable and every question I have asked has been answered within 24hrs. I always try and reply to everyone and I hope I haven't missed anyone and if I have missed anyone, thank you. Johnnie

The only thing to remember if living in the UK and bidding on items from non EU countries is:- 1. Any item over £15 you will be required to pay V.A.T. excluding postage. 2. Any item over £130 something pounds will will be required to pay import duties on and postage is calculated into the duty paid. Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

I recently worked on a Seiko diver and got it water resistant up to 6 bar. It was probably better than that but that is as far as my water tester goes. New seals & new pipe (if required) and a smidgen of grease inside the tube, silicone the case back thread and use a decent case back tool to tighten and they are just fine.