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Just got back from going to the Patek Phillippe "The Art of Watches" exhibition at Grand Central in New York. It was AWESOME!!! Not only did they showcase all of their best watches through the years, including ones owned by superstars like Joe Dimaggio and Duke Ellington, but they let you watch the actual artists and watchmakers at work... I watched a guy cut a gear out using a lathe made in 1910... apparently this is how Patek STILL makes the majority of their mechanical movements... I thought all that would be automated by now, but nope... you can talk to the watchmakers too. They also showed off all of their most complicated movements, and let you see the way repeaters and moon phases and everything fit together. Stunning. The exhibit ends tomorrow, so I realize this is late notice, but if you are in the Tri-State area and can get into Grand Central I say go to this, you will not be disappointed... though expect a wait to get in!!! I couldn't believe it, but we had to wait on a line for 30 minutes just to get in! I had no idea that mechanical watches had such a big fan base. I thought I'd be one of the only ones there, but it was packed. Well worth the wait though. http://www.patek.com/en/communication/news/the-art-of-watches-grand-exhibition-new-york-2017

Is a S-14 Seiko crystal tool No need until now, but good to have. Love the label saying "If glass cannot be removed, apply additional force scale by scale"

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Haha! The teeth on my Chinese one were really sharp and I had to deburr them, but it works fine

The leather strap on my Hamilton X-Wind chronometer is giving up the ghost and starting to crack around the catch holes - they're double holes for a two-toothed buckle - so I've bought myself a new one. The watch, even second-hand, was quite expensive, so I decided to buy the right strap, with the Hamilton name on the buckle. They're also not easy to come by - certainly not in the UK - and suppliers are usually in Germany, Italy or Spain. Oddly enough, not Switzerland. So I got mine from Spain. Cost? £120 plus p&p. I think I'll have it framed...

Putting a tension ring crystal on with a claw tool is almost impossible. You need a press. A die that press a little from the outside of the round part of the crystal to make the it bend a little inwards. If the crystal is 31,0 mm and you have a good set of caliper i think a 31,0 would be fine but maybe you should order a 31,1 to. Just to have an option if it doesn't work. Been there done that as they say.

I don't know of a resource that gives good details of the standard Sternkreuz crystal dimensions. Even their own catalogue is pretty thin on information for standard crystals http://www.sternkreuz.de/accordion/assets/Sternkreuz_Gesamtkatalog G22.pdf As above, ATC looks like it should be fine. Your new crystal will come with a ring, but you may find reusing the old one helpful if the new one doesn't look or fit right. Some crystals come with a split ring so you can file a little away at the join if it won't quite fit in the case. You should choose a crystal 0.1mm bigger than the hole in the case. The old one is unlikely to have shrunk due to the tension ring, so this should be a good guide.

The standard ATC should be fine. I found it best not to go more than one size up from the case measurement, and fit it with a case press. The crystal tool didn't work at all. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Here's a pic from Amazon - not quite like mine but very similar. Just add packing & postage costs... (It's my birthday present, by the way). Same as the post above but in black.

Yea the crown should be all the way pulled and that's where a button/lever should be. It's possible that you managed to pull the movement away from the movement and the dial pushed against the hands and, therefore, 2 fell off.

I don't recall seeing the caliber under the balance, nor under the dial when I was cleaning it but I'll take another look when I return to it. I'll investigate the guitar string spring method anyway. Just done a Cousins order and I hate buying small items when the P&P costs a multiple of the item in question so I usually wait until I need several things. This is just one of many watches that are under way and I have numerous unresolved issues with all of them. It's a good way to learn - and I'm really lucky that I have literally hundreds to play with. I've had a modicum of success in the relatively short time I've been trying to learn how to service them and turned a few into salable items - which sold. My biggest success so far was a Minerva WW2 Wehrmacht issued watch which fetched close to £300 - not bad for something rescued from a bag of "junk". Of course there have been casualties too... Many thanks for the sage advice offered here. Roy

I'm assuming the high E string. They're cheap. Buy one and go into the click spring business.

^^ What Stuart said. Push it out (if it has a removable case back) and look for a tension ring inside the crystal which pops out. If so, replace with Sternkreuz ATC at one size larger (0.1 or 0.2mm) than the measured diameter. You can sometimes re-fit with a case back press (sometimes called a crystal press, but not the type which forces crystals to become concave like a Robur).

It definitely comes out the front, it looks like it *might* have a rension ring inside, but can't see that clearly from the picture. Give it a good push from the inside with your thumb and it will pop out.

I bought my Chinese one from redrooster on ebay and it has been fine if not I would have sent it back the Begeon one I have is good but the jaws do not open up wide enough for pocket watches so is limited in use to me.

This page will be useful to you it as a chart listing the different sizes so you can compare makers Bergeon are listed along with many others, http://www.lathes.co.uk/collets/

The springs are usually quite bendable. The selection I bought only has straight springs. I just tried bending one around a screwdriver blade, and made a usable round spring.

I bought one of these Chinese clones and it was useless. The teeth weren't sharp enough to grasp the acrylic. I tried to sharpen them but the metal was too soft. I ended up buying a second hand Bergeon

I bought an assortment of click springs off the bay after several pinged off in to oblivion. If you do a search for "Assorted Round Watch Click Springs" , you can get an assortment of 100 for £3.20

Practice makes perfect and a friends watch is not the best thing to practice on so for this watch I would say dont even try Roger there has been a thread on this forum before about pivot drilling do a search for it. Hardened steel can be cut with carbide pivot drills. The English lever you have will either have a push fit or screw in pallet shaft if its push fit you could try and turn up a new one on the lathe a screw fit one would be very difficult to make but not impossible.

Hi JDR That's an excellent solution! I know a guitarist I can hit up for one - saving yet a few more pennies. Thanks. Roy

Hi guys, I've had this Felca Automatic for a while and its been a bit sluggish so I thought its high time it a service. One area I wanted to fix was the date change was not 'snappy' and it seemed that the corrector was not fully home after midnight as the date would not centre in its window unless you have it a sharp tap. Turned out the date wheel is a bit worn so the problem remains. Date wheels for the 2452 are available but for the date at 'six' not so much. Here's some pics. Its hard to see in the pic below but it reads 41 jewels on the rotor! A sure sign of the sixties....rockets! A bit plain but the date at 6 gives it some character. Final shot.. an original Felca crown..for those who care about these things. Basically a typical ETA watch, well designed and produced. One thing I did was to tighten up the clearance of the rotor. This is a plain bearing design which screws from underneath. The screw forms one bearing surface and the rotor the other. By reducing the height of the post on the rotor you effectively close/tighten up the bearing surface thereby removing play. You can only do this a few times ..sooner or later the rotor will hit the bridges. If you're trying this..remove small amounts at a time. Too much and the bearing will be tight. Anilv

Rotor could have been swapped out. I didn't count the jewels but 25 sounds right. Anilv

I used a guitar string, E, and made a click spring. Worked really well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Post a photo of the watch. It could be an armoured tension ring crystal.

The crystal is almost always a pressure tight fit. If it's glued it's probably is the wrong size. Someone has put a to small crystal in. Give us a picture tomorrow.

It's an AS - about 23.8 mm (10.5'''?). That spring looks like what's required. I'll have to dig through the scrap pile and see if I have one somewhere. Many thanks for the suggestion - I was having difficulty imagining it - not sure that I've seen a similar example. Roy