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  1. Hi guys … I had promised that I would make a « custom decal dial tutorial » on another thread there So here we are … There are many variations of decal dials, the best IMHO being the « negative gilt » dials which gives the best results. The process I’m showing today is aabout how to make a dial with black printings on a one color background. I had a cheap quartz diver waiting in my drawers so I’ll make a Heuer diver hommage based on the 980.016 model (quartz one too). DAY 01 : It’s 4:30 AM (I’m an early bird) and I have 2 hours to kill before a business trip to Paris (I’m French) so I decide I have time enough to begin. The first part of the process is to prepare the dial plate : - stripped it, removing all the lumes bars and dots - soaked the dial for some minutes in acetone to remove the paint - filled the tiny holes where the bars and dots go with cyanolite glue - sand everything flat I sand with 800 and don’t try to get a smooth surface as I want the paint to adhere perfectly to thedial plate. Here is the result … Then I want to spray paint. I make a tube with some painter’s tape, from a « curve » with it and place it on a plastic bottle cap. I want it curved so that I can stick the dial on it without any risk of bstructing the center hole or the date window of the dial plate. So I stick the sanded dial plate on the tape tube. As you can guess from the pic below … that’s not the first time a make an orange dial. Then I place the bottle cap and dial plate on a paper sheet and spray paint in orange. I use street art spray paint as it is « water resistant ». As you can see on the next pic, I don’t try to get a smooth surface, or even to perfectly cover the dial plate at first. I will let this coat dry, sand it with 2000 grade, then spray 1 or 2 coats until I get a perfectly smooth orange dial plate, ready for receiving a decal. So I place the bottle cap and dial under a shooter glass and will let it dry for about 24 hours before sanding and spraying the second paint coat. The 24 hours drying time is really important (though it could depend on the paint you use). The paint I use looks perfectly dry after about 5 hours but if you spray the second coat without waiting enough, that coat won’t perfectly adhere to the first and you could get a granular surface like an orange peel. And here is the dial waiting under the shooter glass. On the right is a « negative gilt » dial (third and last matte varnish coat) On the background there are two Raketa 2609 movements from the 70ies, quietly (really loudly to be honest) ticking for test after I‘ve recently serviced them. Now it’s 5:45 AM so I will have a and go to the train station. I’ll sand the dial plate this evening and spray the second paint coat tomorrow morning. Then sand it in the evening and spray the third coat (if needed) the day after. DAY 02 - DAY 03 : So here's what you get after the first paint coat … doesn't look really good but no matter as there's still some work to do to get a better result. And here's what you get after 3 coats of paint, each one sanded with 2000 grade, to get a perfect finish, flat and smooth. Now the dial plate is eady to receive the decal. DAY 03 : I won’t explain anything about Photoshop and Illustrator here … I’ll only explain how I print my decals. One thing really important, from my own experience, is the definition of the design. I’ve tried several, from 1200ppp to 6000pp and the best results I’ve got on printing decal sheets were with a 4000ppp definition. So all my dial designs are done in 4000ppp. The result is really BIG files … for example an A6 template with 12 dial desings ready to print is about 800Mo. As that dial is black printing only I open it with Photoshop and let the softwre (so ont the printer) deal with the printing quality. My printer is an old Epson Picturemate with a 1200 maximum definition. As the good quality decal sheets are not cheap and as I’m a « skinflint» I often print on A7 sheets … 6 dial designs on one sheet. When printed you should let it dry for about 4 hours then spray 2 really thin coats of matte varnish, letting each coat dry for at least 12 hours (24 hours is better). DAY 04 - DAY 05 : 2 days of speed-hiking with my wife so I didn’t worked on that tuto. You can check on the net what speed-hiking is, but to summarize it’s hiking as fast as you can with really light backpacks, trying not to run (or only short runs). On a good day you can walk 5 to 6 miles/hour … when trained you can walk up to 6,5 miles/hour … and while I trained for my first 62 miles ultra I achieved to walk (no running) up to 6,85 miles/hour (11 km/heure). DAY 06 : Today is Monday 6:00 AM. It’s been 5 days since I begun that tutorial and … my legs ache and all my body is painful (see Day 04 - Day 05) The dial plate is ready and the decal sheet too. You can see that the decal sheet looks matte now. That is because I have sprayed 2 coats of matte varnish on it, to protect the inkjet ink while I’ll soak the decal in water. Of course if you print with a laser you won’t have to spray varnish as the laser inks are (almost) water resistant. First thing to do is to chose the best item on the decal sheet and cut it round. Then you are ready to go. On the next pic you can see all you need now : - dial plate … fixed on a foam board using the dial feets - decal dial … nicely cut round - tweezers - thin and smooth brush (mine’s a watercolor brush) - some « micro set » … or just vhite wine vinegar (it helps the decal to set on the dial plate) - cold water Now you put the decal in cold water and while it soaks you brush some micro-set (or white vinegar) on the dial plate. Then you put the decal on the dial plate. Here you can see why I prefer using clear decal sheets on coloured dial plates … because it’s much easier to « perfectly » positionate the decal, using the central hole and the date-window. When you’re happy with the position of your decal you use a paper tissue to absorb the excess of water. Do that carefully as you don’t want to move the decal on the plate. And here we are … everything worked fine while absorbing the water and the decal position is OK. I’ll let it dry for about 12 hours before I cut the central hole and the date window, before I proceed to the varnish finish. Still Day 06 but 7:00 PM The decal has dried for about 13 hours so now I can proceed on cutting the decal sheet That's what I do then I : - fix it back on the foam board - apply some « micro set » around the center hole, the date-window and the outer diameter - gently press with a paper tissue so that the decal is perfectly applied (no more «air bubbles) And I let dry for 3 hours more Evening … 10:00 PM Now the decal is « perfectly » applied and dried and ready for the finish Last pic for today is after spraying the first coat of glossy varnish I will let it dry for 12 hours, sand it with 2000 grade paper and apply the 2nd coat. DAY 07 : 20:00 AM … only 1 pic today just after finely sanding with 2000 grade the 2nd varnish coat I applied yesterday DAY 08 : Yesterday evening I applied the 3rd and final varnish coat after finelt sanding and cleaning And today I can show you the final result … and say I'm pretty happy That dial is so glossy it’not easy to get a good pic, even on close-up. May I say that me hpone is nit the best at shooting pics (just like me) and the actual dial is much much better that it looks on the pictures below. I hope that you liked that tutorial and that it could be helpfull to members who want to try to build their own watch dials. I’ll try to make better pics with a real camera and a better lens … next week of the week after, after luming the dial together with the hands. Then I will still have to get a case and rework it so that it could be a 980,016 lookalike. Some of you may wonder how much time did I spend to make that dial. It took 8 days to achieve the all process but I spent only 1 hour the first day then only from 15mnm to 5mn the days after. So, apart from the design work on Illustrator and Photoshop (which took me hours), I would say that the whole process is about 2 to 3 hours. I must say that it's not my first try at dial making and I've trained for 2 years now. So if you want to try you should consider spending a few more hours but it's really worth the time spent as at the end you get your unique DIY dial.
    24 points
  2. Hi, I teach watchmaking to complete beginners at Epping Forest Horology Centre, close to Epping and this is one of the lessons on the BFG 866. I wanted to show my class a classic pin pallet (Roskopf) movement and how to service it, as many watchmakers won't touch these watches as they hold no monetary value. Turn the setting lever screw 1 to 1 and a half turns to release the winding stem A piece of watch paper or small plastic jiffy bag to protect the dial, whilst removing the hands The driving pinion is part of the friction fitted minute wheel on top of the barrel. This work in a similar way to a friction fitted canon pinion to set the watch hands Remove the keyless work: setting lever, held in place by the setting lever screw, screwed from the other side of the mainplate, then the yoke, which sits on top of the clutch (castle) and also the winding pinion. I have three other lessons on this movement that cover bringing the watch 'into beat' as well as taking apart the friction fitted minute wheel from the barrel, lubricating and staking back on to achieve the correct friction setting and finally how to remove the centre seconds wheel safely and refit using a staking set. Many people leave the friction fitted minute wheel on top of the barrel, not realising the amount of old grease that can't be cleaned out from it, as well as not removing the wheel of the centre seconds arbor and again not cleaning out the pipe which has old grease inside. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial? More to come....
    21 points
  3. Intro A while back I successfully made my first attempt refitting and adjusting pallet stones using shellac. It was something I had dreaded doing (it seemed difficult) but in the end it wasn’t that difficult at all. Having gathered experience from a few years of handling tiny watch parts using tweezers and having developed some left-hand dexterity as well (I’m right handed) probably helped. Anyway, I thought I’d share the experience with anyone who would be interested and hopefully there’ll be some other WR-talker, now or in the future, who’ll find it useful. If you’re new to this topic you might find this page and this video on the watch repair channel a good start. As I didn't want to risk ruining my Gaston tool I melted and prepared the small pieces of shellac on a chisel tool (my improvisation) that I happened to have in my tool box. However, the chisel tool had a very tough plastic y surface but I was able to burn it away to expose the bare metal with my alcohol lamp before melting and forming small pieces of shellac on it. However, the pieces of shellac needed were much smaller than what they looked like to me in the video. My way of making even smaller pieces was simply to poke the small pieces that I had made with tweezers once they had cooled and were hard. Setting and adjusting the pallet stones was easier than I thought it would be. I didn't realize the fork slots for the stones pinch the pallet stones (Vostok calibre 2414) and actually keep them in place before the shellac is applied. So, I could replace the pallet stones and then check and adjust the locking depth to the escape wheel teeth before applying the shellac. A bit fiddly yes, and you do need to develop some dexterity with tweezers before you try this but not to the point that you break a sweat. Anyway, thank god for my stereo microscope! Anyway, it was my first attempt, and as is common when you try something for the first time, I made a mistake. Despite very consciously applying what I felt was a little too little shellac it still flooded the stones and a large portion of the fork when it melted. Also, I applied too much heat so that the shellac started boiling creating bubbles. So, I decided to start all over. Fortunately, the “industrial isopropanol” (so called on eBay) that I have is very efficient so no problem removing the shellac from the stones and the fork. The second time around I only used a minuscule amount of shellac. Also, I heated the Gaston tool holding the fork in short turns, just so that the shellac would fully melt without staring to boil. Much better! The following is what I would suggest based on my first experience: Basically, follow the video I linked to above. In the video, Mark pokes and scrapes the fork and the stones with tweezers to get rid of old shellac. I tried that, but it wasn’t very efficient. Instead I would let the pallets soak in industrial isopropanol for about 10 minutes and then use a paintbrush to brush them clean. The shellac dissolves completely in the isopropanol and the stones can then be easily removed and further brushed if required. To insert or slide a stone back into the fork slot I found holding the fork by the end of the slot (opposite side of where the pallet stone is inserted) with tweezers (left hand) was giving me the most control. I placed the pivot of the fork (guard pin up, of course) in a small hole in my staking block while inserting/sliding the stones with another pair of tweezers (right hand) into the slots. After having applied the shellac Mark suggests re-heating the shellac to adjust the stones. I was worried that it might result in a mess if I tried it, so I decided to do the adjusting before applying the shellac as shown in this video. The slots for the stones pinch the stones pretty well so if you're careful while you're testing the lock to the escape wheel teeth this method works well and won't dislocate the stones. However, to make sure, double check the positions (depth and angle) of the stones before applying the shellac. Now, the tiny piece of shellac should be placed on the rear section were the stone meets the fork. Mark is clear about this in his video but for some reason it completely passed me by when I made my first attempt. In my second attempt I followed Mark's instruction, but the piece of shellac, being very asymmetrical in shape, was difficult to place in the right spot. However, after warming the pallets to the point that it had only softened the shellac a bit, I discovered, to my surprise, that I could manipulate the shellac into the perfect spot with the tip of my tweezers, without the shellac sticking to the tweezers. Of course, as I've come to realize, every repairer must find his or her own way, but hopefully you'll find my "discoveries" useful. Above is a picture of the result. It's not perfect but still worked very well. The amount of shellac on the entry stone is a bit too little, and there is a < 1 degree tilt on the exit stone (which, of course, can’t be seen in the picture).
    17 points
  4. You may have noticed a few changes - I have removed the Gallery section and the CMS pages app from the site as it costs too much to 'rent' those modules with comparatively very little use by members - it just did not make sense to keep them going. I apologise if this inconveniences or annoys anybody but I think it is better to keep the core of this website to be a discussion forum. The WRT website is costing me a lot of money per month to run and I am making a few changes to help with that - there is a little income from eBay affiliate ads but not enough to cover the cost of hosting and some help from Patrons and for this we are very grateful. The site has over 30GB in uploaded media now!!! And the notification emails generated is quite high too - I have to use a separate company to handle this so that the site doesn't get email black-listed. One of these services suddenly and without notice stopped our service a few months ago and it was a few days before anybody even noticed (password reset emails were no longer working). I did manage to find a new email provider and things have been running smoothly ever since. Getting back to the uploaded media, as mentioned it's over 30GB and this covers images in topics going back several years. I do back this up every night and I backup the site database every hour in order to protect the content should we ever have a disaster I have a Synology NAS here in the office which has a full backup on and I also keep a backup offsite on a cloud service. I have also decided to use Amazon Cloudfront to host all the uploaded media. I am in the process of migrating this content over and you may notice broken images for a very short period during the migration. But ultimately this will maintain and even improve performance of the site. Anyway, all being said, this is a fantastic community and I am fully committed to continuing with it's administration, keeping our little corner of the net alive - Just a little update to let you know what's happening -
    16 points
  5. Just made a program to download all issues I could find of the AWCI Horological Times to my OneDrive. I hope I didn't do anything illegal, but I'd be happy to remove the files in case I did. Enjoy! https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnVrKJ9agkNWkfFk72cqE5ISkNJ78A?e=mYbidJ
    15 points
  6. It is my impression that ETA's calibre 2892-A2 is usually found in more expensive watches and in luxury watches where oftentimes the movement has been modified. Mechanically, I don't think the 2892-A2 is superior to ETA’s classic 2824-2. Both movements have the same diameter (11 ½´´´ Ø 25.60 mm), the same frequency (28’800 A/h), and the same date complication. The decisive difference is the thickness where the 2892-A2 is one-millimetre thinner (3.6mm). That, combined with being a reliable and well-functioning movement, has made it popular for additional complications and alterations such as moon phase, power reserve display, co-axial escapement, chronograph modules from Dubois Depraz, and so on. The Swiss Sellita Calibre SW300-1 is, as far as I understand, an excellent clone of the 2892-A2. There is also a Chinese clone, the Seagull Calibre ST1812 (reviewed by @Markin the video “Chinese eta 2892-A2 Clone - Service and Review - Seagull ST1812”), and possibly others. Mark has made a playlist of videos that excellently demonstrate how to service the ETA 2892-A2 movement. The playlist is named: "Omega 2500 Co-Axial Stripdown and Service (ETA 2892-A2)" I recommend Mark’s playlist for several reasons. Among other things, he shows how to mount the barrel bridge safely and how to hold the minute train bridge with your tweezers to easily get it into place on the main plate (which I found a bit fiddly). In addition, he shows and compares the parts that are all too easy to mix up. One thing that is not shown in Mark's service video is that the Incabloc setting (chaton and cap jewel) for the balance and the main plate have different diameters. The main plate Incabloc setting diameter is smaller than that of the balance. The reason this is not shown in the video is probably that Mark removes, cleans, and lubricates the Incabloc settings one at a time after he reassembles the balance, so he wouldn’t notice. Anyway, don't mix up the two sets! Something that I appreciate about Mark's videos in general and that sets him apart from basically all other watch repairers on YouTube is that he doesn't continuously babble in his videos but mainly talks to make clarifications. I enjoy those segments of silence where I can just focus on the work being done. When I started my service, I decided to follow Mark's disassembly which worked perfectly. But for the assembly, I made up my mind to follow ETA's technical documentation to the letter. It turned out to be a mistake. In ETA's documentation, the assembly of the movement begins with the keyless works, then the train of wheels and then the barrel bridge. The crucial problem with this arrangement is that it is physically impossible to mount the barrel bridge if the train of wheels is already mounted. It is also very fiddly and difficult to baste the end of the winding stem into the winding pinion hole because the hole for the winding stem in the main plate is both open and tapered and therefore does not hold the winding stem. Mark takes a considerably more hands-on approach. He begins the assembly with the barrel bridge. He then mounts the keyless works whose constituent parts (the winding stem, the winding pinion, and the sliding pinion) are supported by the underside of the barrel bridge, making it considerably easier to get the keyless works in place. After I revised my strategy, this service walkthrough now follows Mark’s approach. It surprises me, but it seems like no watchmaker has proofread ETA's technical documentation. Alternatively, ETA follows an established practice and expects those using the documentation to understand that the assembly order in the document is not significant. I am also somewhat sceptical of ETA's recommendations regarding lubrication. Where we traditionally use grease, for example in the keyless works, ETA chooses mainly oil (HP-1300). I guess that ETA treats all parts of the movement with epilame (Fixodrop) and that oil may then be a better alternative. For better or for worse, my service walkthrough follows ETA's lubrication recommendations. As usual, I would like to remind those of you with no previous experience in watch servicing that this service walkthrough should not be seen as a tutorial on how to service a watch movement. A lot of tools, consumables, training and know-how are required to succeed. Fortunately, there are several excellent resources and watchmaking schools online. When looking through the pictures you’ll see that a few screws and plates are either marred or have pits and grooves in them. None of this is my doing but is either the result of rust (that I removed) or the doings of a less scrupulous repairer than myself. Finally, someone may ask, “Why to bother to do a service walkthrough with pictures when there is such an excellent video?" The main answer to the question is that I find it interesting and fun, and I see it as a complement to Mark's service video. Using this walkthrough, you can quickly scroll through the pictures to read what the different parts are called and where and in what order they should go, what the screws to be used look like, and to read ETA's lubrication recommendations. So, I hope you’ll find this ETA 2892-A2 service walkthrough useful, now or in the future. *** ETA Calibre 2892-A2 Disassembly *** ' *** ETA Calibre 2892-A2 Assembly ***
    15 points
  7. Valjoux / ETA 7751 Triple calendar moon-phase; This gold-plated Berney-Blondeau S.A. with an ETA 7751 belonged to a German gentleman who received it new on his 60th birthday in 1995. Through the years he kept the original box, the warranty card as well as the 1995 price-list and the dealer’s business card. He has worn the watch only on social accessions and the watch spent most of its time stored in a "Panzerschrank". According to the original price-list, the 1995 purchase price was 1450 CHF. As you can see, the watch held up pretty well, only a few small scratches in the front- and rear mineral-glass crystal and on the top of the lugs some of the gold-plating has worn through. The watch ran, all function did work. It had never been serviced nor opened Disclaimer; This walk-through is written in the way I do it. That's not to say it's the most correct way of doing things but as they say: there are many ways to Rome, all leading to the same result. Neither do I, as a hobbyist, have fancy horological equipment such as a cleaning machine or a "sterile" & "dust-free" room and therefor the end result will not be "Rolex"-standards. All I can say is that I'm always give it my best shot and I will mention problems encountered or were I went wrong, so you don't have to Without any further ado, let's dig into this beautiful & complicated watch ...... First make sure that you downloaded the latest ETA 7751 "Technical Communication". Throughout this walk-through I'll use the same parts reference numbers as used in the "Technical Communication". Below the currently latest September 2021 version; 7751 manual.pdf Before having done anything to the watch, I tested all the functions for proper working and took the timegrapher readings to see if there was anything which needed special attention. These readings can later be compared with the readings after the service. Dial-Up; Dial-Down; Crown-Right; Crown-Down; Crown-Left; Crown-Up; From the readings, it's clear to see that the watch needed a proper service. The back-lid, just like the front-crystals found on pocket-watches, required a knife-type case-opener. Checked out the oscillating weight ball-bearing, it had next to no play and therefor good for another round. Removed the oscillating weight (48). Removed the two casing-screws and clamps, pulled the stem and flipped the case over onto a soft pillow. With the watch-case removed, the winding stem re-inserted and the movement was placed in a proper 7750 (or family) movement-holder. To me, working on these movements a proper movement-holder is paramount. During the disassembly of the movement I encountered some problems and without this holder I most likely would have made scratches or worse..... Pulling the 8x hands; they all came off without any problems. All the hands safely nicely stored in a small plastic container. The same counts for the dial, after the removal directly stored in a plastic container with on both sides of the dial a soft lining. Removal of the Day & Month indicator disk (78) and the Moon phase indicator (79) The keen observer may have noticed that there are no screws next to the movement holder, for example the two screws holding the Day & Month indicator respectively. When working on complicated movements or movements which I'm not familiar with, I took on the habit, when possible, to replace the screws in the same hole as they came from. For sure, it's more work, but some movements do have multiple types/sizes screws and it will become a big puzzle if you store them in the same container / basket. Replacing the screws works (most of the time) very well for me, but in some cases the replaced screws shoulder-out deeper than as they would have done when holding the part above. The protruding screw may touch parts below or when replacing bridges, prevent the bridge from not seating fully "level". To me, replacing the screws thoughtfully is far simpler than facing a huge sorting puzzle later. Removal of the combined maintaining plate (76) and the Month star driving wheel (77). The three tiny screws holding the maintaining plate (76) were extremely tight. I couldn't loosen them with my standard (new) screwdriver bits so I had to grind the screwdriver bit to match the exact the same shape as the screw-grooves. Only then, with "force", they came loose and I was glad for having a proper movement-support! One slip of the screwdriver, with the force that was required, could / would have easily made a deep score in the plate or worse ........ Removal of the Day jumper spring (71), Day & Month jumper (70), Day jumper (72) and the Moon phase yoke (73) plus an early warning ! With those parts out of the way, the Moon phase platform (75) had to come off. Assuming that the with the arrow highlighted screw was one of the screws holding the platform down, I turned the screw only to discover that it was the moon-phase corrector eccentric ....... Oops !! The setting of the eccentric has to be checked at the end anyway, but now I know for sure that it's set wrongly. Removal of the Moon phase jumper (69), Corrector maintaining small plate (66) and the Moon phase jumper spring (67). Still in the picture the Date & Month jumper (74) which should have been removed before this picture was taken. The original stem was replaced by a longer stem to adjust the Calendar driving wheel (61) which was holding the Date-star (63) down. Removal of the Date-star (63, shown in the previous picture) together with the Date-corrector (65) and the corrector maintaining small plate (66). Removal of the calendar platform (62). Slowly back to familiar ground; a standard ETA 7750 starts to appear ... Removal of the Hour wheel 24hrs H1 (59), the Calendar driving wheel (61), the Hour-wheel (60), the Day corrector (58) and the Day corrector spring (57). The removal of the Hammer-spring (56), Set hour-hammer operating lever (53 & 54), Hour counter lock (55), Hour counting wheel (52), Minute-wheel (51) and the free Cannon pinion (50). Pulling of the Driving pinion (49) has to be done carefully; either with a pair of hand-levers or two small screw-drivers. The upwards force on either side of the pinion has to the equal or you may break the pinion of the great wheel (16) (a previous experience has taught me so !! ) Flip the movement over and from here on I'm using a Bergeon 4040 movement holder. First the removal of the Hammer-spring (45). When removing this spring I had up till now difficulties avoiding making a small mark in the Automatic device bridge (44). It was our WRT-member "Nickelsilver" who tipped me off using a piece of Scott tape over the edge of the bridge. This worked very well and for the first time I was able to remove the hammer without leaving a mark! Thanks Nickelsilver! The hammer-spring (45) and the Clutch-spring (47) removed. Remove the Auto device bridge (44). Removal of the Reversing wheel; (43), Reduction wheel (41), the Clutch (40), Oscillating pinion (39), the Hammer (42), Chronograph wheel (37), Minute-counting wheel (38), Minute-counting jumper (46), the Lock (33), the Operating-lever (36) and the Minute counting driving wheel (19). Removal of the Chronograph bridge (34), the Friction spring (32) and the Operating lever spring (35). After the removal of the Ratchet wheel driving wheel (33) it's time to release any residual power in the main-spring. This can be done by holding the crown, lift the Click-spring (20) and slowly release the tension by letting the crown slip through your fingers. Removal of the Chronograph cam (29), Cam jumper (28), Detent (30), Ratchet wheel (23), Crown wheel core (22) and Crown wheel (21). Removal of the Balance Assembly (26+27), Pallet bridge (25) and Pallet fork (24). Removal of the Barrel bridge (18). Removal of the power-train; the Great wheel (16), Third wheel (15), Second wheel (14), Escape wheel (13), the Movement barrel (12) and the Stop lever (17). Flip the movement over for disassembling the keyless works. Removal of the Setting lever jumper (11) together with the Intermediate setting wheel (10), the Time setting gear (9), Rocking bar (8), Yoke (6), Setting lever (5), Winding stem (4), Winding pinion (2), Sliding pinion (3) and the Yoke spring (7). All the parts safely stored in a compartmentalized box with lid, ready for cleaning & demagnetizing. Regarding the "wear & tear" of all the watch-parts; it was clear to see that the watch hadn't seen a lot of use. The Oscillating weight ball-bearing (48) was good, reversing wheel (43) looked good etc. However, I decided to change out the main-spring. This type of barrel has a lid which cannot be "pushed" open. To open the lid, I place a sharp knife in the groove between the barrel and the lid and while pressing down on the knife roll the barrel, in my case on a "soft" leather underground to avoid doing any damage. This widens the groove into a small gap and with the smallest screwdriver one can pry, going around the barrel, the lid off. When done carefully you won't leave any marks. Barrel & Arbor cleaned, braking-grease applied ready for the new spring. Apart from a few (see "technical communication" !) the parts were soaked for 24hrs in Zippo lighter fluid and pegged; all the sprockets, pivots and jewels. Thereafter all the parts were checked for magnetism. Instead of using the unreliable compass method, I'm using an App called "Lepsi" on my iPhone. This App doesn't tell you how much magnetism there is, it only indicates whether there is any. The distance of the object above the screen, by which magnetism is detected, gives you some indication of the strength of the magnetic field, but nothing more. For me, when magnetism is detected, that's enough reason to "Zap" that part on my no-nonsense self-build demagnetizer. Of course, in reality the demagnetizer is not placed anywhere near my iPhone or the other watch-parts / metal-objects like here on the photo. Also, it may be a good idea to take your watch off during the "zapping” operations! Quite a few parts, particularly in the calendar works, were magnetized. With the main-plate anti-shock Chaton cleaned, pegged, cap-stone oiled and re-installed in the main-plate (1), the assembly of the 7751 can begin. Escape wheel (13), Second-wheel (14), Third-wheel (15), Main-spring barrel (12), Great-wheel (16) and Stop-lever (17). Installation of the barrel-bridge (18) (by a 7750 the wheel-train the and barrel-bridge are combined in one bridge). Make sure that all the wheels turn fine before tightening the screws; check, check and double check. Again, if you using the re-installed screws method, some screws may protrude the bridge. (I took the "warning picture" below a little later, so don't look at any additional installed parts) All the Lubrications as per the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication". These two re-installed screws do protrude the Barrel bridge (18). The one on the left will touch the Great-wheel (16) and the one to the right may just touch the main-spring barrel (12). Back them out far enough so they don't cause any trouble. The installation of the Crown-wheel (21), Crown-wheel core (22) and the Ratchet-wheel (23). With the movement turned over, installation of the keyless works; Sliding-pinion (3), Winding pinion (2), Winding-stem (4), Setting-lever (5), Yoke-spring (7), Rocking-bar (8), Yoke (6) and placing of the Time setting gear (9) before placing the Intermediate setting wheel (10) and Setting lever jumper (11) as a "combination". Keyless work completed. Check for proper working! Installed the pallet-fork (24) and the complete balance assembly (26 & 27). Cleaned, pegged the balance Chaton and oiled the cap-stone. Before going any further with the assembling, I tested the power-train and escapement for any irregularities. On the timegrapher the readings were looking a whole lot better than initially. Instead of picturing each position, here are the readings; DU & DD both 292-294 degrees, 0 ms and 0 s/d. CU: 244, 0.1, -14 s/d CR: 249, 0.2, -16 s/d CD: 252, 0.1, -6s/d CL: 262, 0.0, -5 s/d Even though I adjusted the Etachron as good as I could, that's to say centring the hairspring between the two regulator pins and thereafter reducing the regulator pins gap to the point that the hairspring could still, but just "breath", the positional deviation with max. 16 seconds is slightly higher than I was hoping for. Then again, it's not a chronometer grade and each position produced straight lines, so I think that with some daily-rate adjustments the watch will run just fine. Once satisfied with the running of the power-train and the escapement, the assembly of the chronograph can start. Cam jumper (28), Chronograph cam (29), Detent (30), Minute counter driving wheel 30 minutes (19), Lock (33), Operating lever spring (35) and the Operating lever (36). As said; lubrication as per "Technical Communication" and test the proper function of the start/stop and reset levers. Placement of the Ratchet wheel driving wheel (31) and the Friction spring chronograph wheel (32). Install the chronograph bridge (34); don't forget the lubricate the Reversing wheel jewel on the bottom of the chronograph bridge before placement. Also pay attention to the reset-lever, it has to be pushed in so the bridge can sit level & flush. Check the working of the Ratchet driving wheel (31) and the reset lever before tightening the bridge screws. The placement of a well lubricated Reduction wheel (41), Minute counter jumper (46), Oscillation pinion (39, biggest sprocket down), seconds recording Chronograph wheel (37), Minute counting wheel (38), the Clutch (40), make sure that the oscillation pinion pivot is engaged), Reversing wheel (43) and finally the Hammer (42) before the Automatic device bridge (44). Before installing the Automatic device bridge (44), lubricate the jewel for the seconds recording Chronograph wheel underneath the bridge. The installation of the Automatic device bridge can be very tricky. It's very easy to touch the Clutch (40) and the pivot of the Oscillation pinion comes out. Before inserting or tightening the bridge screws, double-check the placing and working of every component!! Once the bridge is installed and with the relevant lubrication done, before mounting the hammer-spring (45) and the Clutch-spring (47), all the functions of the chronograph can be checked & tested; the engagement of the oscillation pinion, the smooth running of the seconds recording chronograph wheel, the advancing of the minute counting wheel, the start/stop- and reset-levers etc. Next is the installment of the Hammer-spring (45) and Clutch-spring (47). To prevent scratches on the Automatic device bridge (44), as per brilliant idea of WRT member "Nickelsilver", a piece of Scotts tape was taped over the edge of the bridge. With the installment of those two springs, the assembly of the chronograph is completed Movement flipped over and placed in the 775x movement holder. Installment of a well lubricated Driving pinion (49), The Cannon-pinion (50), the Minute wheel (51), Hour counting wheel (52), Set hour operating lever (53+54), Hour counter lock (55) the Hammer spring (56), the Day corrector spring (57) and the Day corrector (58). The build-up, up till the Day corrector spring (57) and the Day corrector (58), was identical as to a standard 7750. The Hour wheel 24hrs (59) drops over the Second wheel (14) pivot. Attention: Sadly, no picture but when installing the Hour wheel (60) over the Cannon pinion, one has to lift the Minute wheel (51) slightly and to make sure that the hour wheel teeth do engage in the small minute wheel sprocket. Once they engage, both wheels can be lowered in place. Finally, before installing the Calendar platform (62) the Calendar driving wheel (61) with the "day finger" pointing as shown. From here on I pulled the winding stem to stop the running of the movement and thereby avoiding the advancement / altering of the positions of the wheels. The installation of the Calendar platform (62) can be a bit tricky. It's all too easy to dislodge the hour lever (53) and the Hammer spring (56). Make sure that the platform sits flush with the Main plate (1) before tightening the 3x screws. Place the Day star (63) as shown in both above pictures. Placing of Date + Month jumper (70), the Day + Month jumper (74) (Both jumpers are identical), Day jumper (72), Moon phase yoke (73), Day jumper spring (71), Date corrector (65), Corrector maintaining small plate (66), Moon phase corrector (68), Moon phase jumper (69) and Moon phase jumper spring (67). Installation of the Moon phase platform (75), the Combined maintaining plate (76) (Be aware that the top of the Combined maintaining plate slides in the gap of the Day Star) and the placing of the Month star driving wheel (77). Placing the Month & Day indicator disk (78) and the Moon phase indicator (79). Adjusting the Phase corrector eccentric (64) wasn't that hard as I feared. By adjusting the eccentric one determines the "depth" of the Date corrector (65), shown by the blue arrows. Set too high and the top-sprocket of the Date corrector (65) won't even touch the Moon phase corrector (68). Set too deep the top-sprocket of the Date corrector will jam the Moon phase corrector (68) into the Moon phase indicator. The "depth" has to set such that the sprocket of the Date corrector (65) pushes the Moon phase corrector (68) just far enough so that it will just advance the Moon phase indicator by one click before the top Date corrector (65) sprocket releases the Moon phase corrector (68). There is clear information about the Moon phase corrector "depth" setting in the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication". With all parts installed and tested as far as possible, the dial goes back on. Before re-installing the hands, I re-lumed the minute & hour hand with new high-class LumiNova. Both hands now re-lumed and drying before the installation. Placing the long Date indicator hand required a bigger size hand-pusher which I didn't have. The idea was born to cut a tweezer protector-cap from the top until the required size was obtained. Stuck to protector cap onto the handle of a diamond file for more stability / pushing-power. It worked like a treat Turn the date quick-set until the month indicator disk changes month, that will be the first (1) day of the new month. The rest of the hands (8! in total) to be set at 24:00 midnight when the day indicator disk changes. Detailed instructions about the "shift tolerances" are described in the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication". All the hands installed and correctly set on the month / day / date and moon phase. The 18th of January 2022 had a full moon. The German gentleman received the watch when he turned 60 in 1995, now I'll continue with his watch as from my (65th ) birthday in January 2022 I'm still awaiting new crystals and once the case has been restored, I'll add the final picture of the fully restored/serviced watch. I really enjoyed working on this watch and even though I sometimes feel that contributing to this current WRT-forum has sadly become a bit of wasted time, I do hope that my write-up, perhaps found via Google or some other search machine, will be of some use to somebody, at some point in time Endeavor, Denmark
    15 points
  8. Hi guys, I wrote this lesson for my second students to understand the theoretical aspects of the Swiss lever escapement in conjunction with the practical application of end-shake and setting jewels using a jewelling tool. Both Seitz and Horia-type jewelling tools were used. Although I talk about measurements using the settings on the side of the jewelling tools, it is more about what 'feels' right, especailly when gauging the end-shake of a particular component, such as the balance, pallet and escape wheel. Ideally, you wouldn't start by adjusting the end shake of the balance to suit your needs, but if the IncaBloc setting has been replaced or the Inca setting has been moved to replace the shockproof spring, then it is important to set the end-shake correctly. This presentation also looks at how to set the correct end-shake of the pallet in relation to the balance safety roller as well as other critical measurements, including the height of the escape wheel teeth hitting the impulse face of the pallet fork in both dial-up and dial down positions. The escape wheel and pallet have to have the exact same end-shake as each other for this reason. Unfortunately, the slides that contain videos can't be played as I converted the PowerPoint into PDF. I have used some diagrams from a WOSTEP handout on this subject, to show the vital measurement of the escapement in relation to the balance safety roller, so all credit goes to the author of that hand-out, which has been posted several times on this forum. All the students that set all the jewels after removing them and the balance end-shake to its optimum got a watch movement working with much improved amplitude than when they started. All ten jewels in the wheel train were removed as well as both IncaBloc settings. Another lesson was created just about the balance setting and disassembly and assembly of the EtaChron balance system which included removing a replacing that Inca setting. I haven't included that lesson. Not every aspect of this work is within the presentation, as it would be very long otherwise. I talk a lot and explain more as the lesson proceeds. This lesson was held over six to seven hours. If anyone is interested in learning more on this subject, please message me. Lesson 16. Balance endshake & Incabloc adjustment.pdf Lesson 16. Balance endshake & Incabloc adjustment.pdf
    14 points
  9. Introduction This service walkthrough is not a tutorial on how to service a watch movement. I made it for myself because I think it's fun and because it will make it easier the next time I service a Vostok 2431. I also think it feels nice to be able to share this walkthrough considering all the valuable information that many very talented members on WRT freely share. Many, many thanks! There is a lot to learn when servicing a watch movement that is not covered in this walkthrough. Therefore, I recommend, for example, watchfix.com, learnwatchmaking.com, or timezonewatchschool.com. I feel like I got the most bang for my buck at watchfix.com (I'm not sponsored in any way) but I've also had a lot of fun and benefited from the other online schools. Links to photos on my OneDrive Vostok calibre 2431 disassembly walkthrough. Please sort the images by name in ascending order. Vostok calibre 2431 assembly walkthrough. Please sort the images by name in ascending order. Curiosities I think it was in 2014 or possibly 2015 that I bought my Sturmanskie Open Space. I had just discovered that there were watches where the hour hand only rotates one revolution per day and at that time I knew absolutely nothing about watch movements, service and repair. The idea that the hour hand of a watch only rotates one revolution per day seemed not only completely logical but also different and fascinating. The earth rotates one revolution around its axis per day, so it should be obvious that the hour hands of our watches do so too. The fact that the letters on the watch were also Cyrillic did not make the whole thing any less exciting. I just couldn’t resist it and I’m happy I didn’t! Vostok claims that their movements only need a service every 10 years, and I think that's true because the tolerances are pretty rough and therefore large amounts of dirt are needed to stop a Russian movement or even cause it to run badly. It has been said that the amount of dirt required to stop a Vostok movement is enough to stop a hundred Patek Philippe movements However, the price for this endurance is a movement that doesn't come close to the precision offered by high-quality Swiss and Japanese movements, but it's still quite easy to get these Russian movements to run accurately as long as they're worn and used consistently. About the movement Russian watch brands such as Vostok, Raketa, and Poljot, to name a few, are known for using their in-house movements, but not this Sturmanskie which is instead powered by a Vostok calibre 2431, which is a 24-hour movement. However, it is not a true 24-hour movement. That is, the movement is not originally designed as a 24-hour movement. Instead, Vostok has modified the movement in its calibre 2416B so that the hour hand only rotates one revolution per day. Calibre 2431 is otherwise identical to Vostok automatic calibres 2416B and 2415. The motion work(/dial train) in Vostok 2431 The way that Vostok modified the movement so that the hour hand only rotates one revolution per day is by modifying a) the minute wheel, b) the bearing for the minute wheel in the main plate, and c), adding an intermediate date indicator wheel. The minute wheel has been modified so that it has two pinions that lie on top of each other. The lower pinion drives what I call the first intermediate date indicator wheel while the upper pinion drives the hour wheel and has been adjusted so that the hour wheel only rotates one revolution per day. The number of teeth on the hour wheel itself may have also been adapted, but this is not something that I have investigated. Normally the minute wheel is mounted on a regular metal post on the main plate, but in this case, Vostok has replaced the post with a beefy, jewelled bearing. I assume that this has been necessary to get the minute wheel, with its two pinions on top of each other, to rotate sufficiently smoothly and stably. The added first intermediate date indicator wheel drives the second intermediate date indicator wheel which is part of Vostok's regular (non-modified) calendar complication. And this is what it looks like with the hour wheel mounted. Cleaning I have found that it is all too easy to underestimate the importance of cleanliness when servicing a movement, perhaps because the parts are microscopic and therefore it takes time to get used to thinking microscopically, even though I have been doing this now for five years. Cleaning of pinions and pivots A type of watch movement part that is particularly important but also difficult to get completely clean is pinions, but @nickelsilver advised me quite recently that in its pre-cleaning you can dip and rub the pinions in pith wood that you have impregnated with an effective degreasing agent, for example, Horosolv. I've done it several times now and it works amazingly well. Speaking of pinions, independent American watchmaker Josh Shapiro mentioned in a podcast that he considered pinions to be the most difficult part of a watch movement to make perfectly. Whether it's true or not I don't know but I think it's likely. To get the pivots clinically clean, I have also started using EVEFLEX, but you have to be careful because the material has an abrasive effect. It is important to choose the right polisher and to be careful. I have summarized my experiences with EVEFLEX in this post and I mention it because EVEFLEX is easy and quick to work with and gives me very good results. End-shake If there's one thing I've learned this time around, it is that a Russian movement cannot be converted to a Swiss movement because the tolerances in Russian movements are generally much coarser. Experimentally, I adjusted the end-shake to 2/100mm on everything from the pallet fork to the centre wheel, with the result that the amplitude and rate became extremely erratic. I created a thread about this: "Can end-shake and or side-shake ever be too small?" As you will see if you follow the thread, once again @nickelsilver, @Shane, and @JohnR725came to my rescue. Many thanks! My recommendation is to let the end-shake be slightly wider on Russian movements. After I increased the end-shake to approx. 4/100 mm, the amplitude and rate returned to typical, i.e., still somewhat irregular but perfectly normal for a Russian movement. Side-shake In this video, Kalle Slaap from Chronoglide shows an amazingly simple and effective way to determine if the side shake is correct. Since there was a crack in the third wheel jewel in the train wheel bridge, I replaced it, and when I then used Kalle Slaap's method, I could clearly see the 3rd wheel pivot jumping back and forth in the jewel hole. So, I replaced the jewel with a hole that was 1/100mm smaller and the visual difference, just changing it by 1/100 mm, was nothing less than dramatic. I am incredibly happy that I got to learn this simple and exceptionally clear method. Many thanks to Kalle Slaap at Chronoglide! Vostok reverser wheels If you Google “Vostok reverser wheels”, there is a lot of whining going on. I don't think there are any major problems with Vostok's reverser wheels, but they are unfortunately easy to damage during service or modification of the movement, and I think that is the real reason for the whining. Next to Seiko watches, Vostok watches are immensely popular to modify in terms of dials and hands, and in addition, many people want to fix the seconds hand that sometimes stutters on these movements. The latter is done by bending the second-hand pinion spring illustrated in this thread. To make these modifications, the oscillating weight/rotor must be removed and when it is to be screwed back on, it is easy for the rotor pinion to end up on top of the teeth of the reverser wheels. If you tighten the rotor screw in that position, even just a little, the reverser wheels will inevitably be damaged. The result is that the automatic winding stops working or only works intermittently. An easy way to check if the reverser wheels are working as they should is to manually rotate the oscillating weight alternately about 20 degrees in both directions with a piece of peg wood while looking at the 1st reduction wheel which is large and easy to see. If the 1st reduction wheel continuously rotates in the same direction (counterclockwise, if I remember correctly), no matter which way you rotate the oscillating weight, you can be sure that the reverser wheels are working as they should. If, on the other hand, the 1st reduction wheel rotates alternately in both directions when you rotate the oscillating weight alternately, then you can be sure that the reverser wheels are damaged and need to be replaced. Servicing the automatic mainspring I find it difficult to service the mainspring on automatic movements. It is, in my opinion, a construction that leaves room for improvement and that is why I generally prefer manually wound movements. If the mainspring in an automatic movement slips too soon, it reduces the amplitude and the power reserve, and if the mainspring slips too late, there is the risk of re-banking and that the movement runs much too fast when you are physically active, especially when you take a brisk walk swinging your arms, and the oscillating weight rotates constantly. The effect is like continuously turning the crown of a manual movement with high pressure when the mainspring is already fully wound. Not good! What I learned this time anyway, long story short is that you can be quite generous with braking grease on the rim on the inside of the mainspring barrel. Even if some of the braking grease ends up where it really shouldn't be, I don't think it will destroy or affect anything negatively. Also, and again from Kalle Slaap at Chronoglide, I learned that you should press at the end of the spring at the bridle when it is mounted in a spacer, and you are about to push it into the mainspring barrel. In this way, the rest of the spring automatically follows down into the mainspring barrel. You can see it in this clip. Very smooth, especially in combination with my highly rated Master Craft mainspring winder which I wrote about in this post. Lubrication of cap jewels For a long time, I have had trouble getting the oil to stay in the centre of the cap jewels and not flow out after I oiled them and installed them, despite treating them with epilame (Fixodrop). I think it's because (and now I'm going by gut feeling) that I previously always installed the shock assembly in the main plate before installing the balance and that I didn't treat the jewel housing (chaton) with epilame. After several failures in servicing this movement, I decided to treat both the cap jewels and jewel housings with epilame and mount the shock assembly after having replaced the balance. It did the trick and also made fitting the three-legged anti-shock spring much easier. My theory is that the balance staff pivots stabilize the oil in the centre of the cap jewels when the jewel housing (chaton) is dropped into place, and better hold the jewel housing in place, which will otherwise slide around while installing the three-legged anti-shock springs. Have I just written the longest post in the history of WRT? Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!
    14 points
  10. We made a balance tack in school, but aside from that time I haven't really used it. A much handier tool is this one which was a standard tool made in watchmaking schools here. The "tack" is a threaded pin which can be placed in one of several holes (usually 2 or 3 sizes of tapers on several pins). Choosing an appropriate pin and hole location, the balance isn't hanging as it sits on the table, so no risk to the hairspring. The overarm presses down on the rim, which is supported from the inside by the little "V" so that work can easily be done on screws (it's a non-screw balance in the pic but you can see how it works). Access is also easy and safe for moving hairspring collets to adjust beat. Bergeon made a similar tool at one time but it hasn't been available for some time. If mine ever disappeared I would stop work until I had made a new one, it's that handy.
    14 points
  11. Well I would definitely start with Moebius 9010 (for train wheels and balance endstones) and 9020 (for train wheels) if you are working on Pocket Watches. Moebius 9415 is a must for Pallet/Escape wheel teeth. A quality silicon grease. Moebius D5 is essential (barrel arbor, motion work). Molycote DX or Moebius 9501 grease for keyless work. Moebius 9501 or 9504 for high friction (e.g. Cannon pinion, Setting lever spring and anything at high friction). Moebius 8200 grease for mainspring. Moebius 8217 for barrel wall (automatic watches) It's a lot but at a minimum get 9010, 9415, D5 and 8200 I hope this helps. Recommended Lubricants for Getting Started.pdf Moebius_Oil_Chart.pdf
    14 points
  12. Hi guys, I joined this forum a few years ago now and have enjoyed reading the posts and offering help where I can, as well as learning things I didn't know. Although I am a professional watchmaker and watchmaking tutor: https://www.jonthewatch.co.uk/ I still learn a lot from you guys on subjects and watch movements I haven't come across before. I especially enjoyed a post this week by @eccentric59with his walkthrough of an ETA movement that had a plastic fork and escape wheel, which I haven't worked on before. All watchmakers, including professional watchmakers, are always learning something new. It would be incredibly arrogant to say 'I know it all'. Even WOSTEP-trained watchmakers with many years under their belts are always learning something new, even from those relatively new to the art of horology. I trained a watchmaker from Christopher Ward Watches recently and hopefully will be writing them a service manual this year for their in-house movement, the SH21 because they want the expertise I have to be able to train their guys how to service it, which I feel quite honoured about, as I am not WOSTEP-trained. I know I'm rambling a bit, but the point I'm trying to make is that we can all learn from each other no matter where we are on our horological journey, be it professionals, seasoned enthusiasts, or the weekend fettler. I would like to share something with you which is a word of warning, that some of you may not be aware of. This isn't a character assassination or a resentment I have, it's just a fact that might help some of you. Cousins UK: https://www.cousinsuk.com/ ONLY sell to what they call 'Trade Buyers' it is stated in their Terms & Conditions; that means that you need to be a professional watchmaker in the trade to have any real binding contract with them. They are happy to take your money as many are not in the trade, but if what you buy is defective, damaged, missing, or you want to return it to Cousins for whatever reason, you don't have a legal leg to stand on and you may not see your money again. So if you are planning to buy an item that is quite pricey keep this fact in mind if that item is not working properly or stops working a few weeks or months later, then you won't get any redress. Companies such as HS Walsh and Gleave and Co. sell a lot of what Cousins sells for a very similar price and sometimes cheaper, but at least you will have a chance to contact them and make a claim. I buy from Cousins from time to time, but wouldn't buy an expensive tool or item for this reason. Mainly watch crystals, gaskets, batteries, and the odd mainspring. I mainly buy from Gleave and Co in Clerkenwell, London, as they have the expertise to be able to help you on the phone and they are also a small family-run material house that I have trust in and would prefer to put my money their way. Gleave and Co. have integrity. Their website is getting better and sometimes what they have isn't listed on the website, but a phone call (8.30 am to 10.30 am) or WhatsApp message (anytime) will sort that out. Expensive equipment, such as Elma watch cleaning machines, or Bergeon case back removal tools 5700, etc. can be bought from HS Walsh or even cheaper from a German Company called Beco Technic: https://www.beco-technic.com/en/ You have to set up an account with them, but even with shipping and VAT thrown in, it will end up cheaper than buying from a British company. You get a 10 to 15% discount on their prices once you register with them. I was a consultant for watchmakers in Essex who saved about £25000 buying through Bec Technic. I can only tell you my experience and some may have had a good experience with Cousins getting a refund. It took me once over six months to get a refund for a £40 quartz movement that was delivered to the wrong address in an order that was several hundred pounds and after spending about £5000 with them, as I was the buyer of a watchmaking college. Only when I threatened to buy from elsewhere that they refunded me/the college for the missing movement. I hope this helps some of you in some way, as there are more material houses out there other than Cousins.
    13 points
  13. Boy, did I ever get lucky! I went back to a local antique mall (more of a flea market, really) early this morning to buy something I'd seen several days ago. And it was still there! And this time, I had money! A Girard Perregaux Gyromatic. Not running, so they weren't asking much. I bought it and went straight home to my bench. Cleaned, inspected, oiled, regulated, and now it runs quite nicely. Fitted with a nice patent leather strap, and I've been wearing it this evening. I often turn about and sell many of the watches I rescue and repair, but not this one. Not this time. I took a liking to it rather quickly. Addendum: it has a 17j GP 21.19 plated with gold. It's a jem to look at. And a 14k gf case which took a nice polish. The original crystal is not too terrible at all, so I'm thinking of leaving it on.
    13 points
  14. In the "THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!!" category of watch repair, I have this new story to add: I picked up this old, dirty Helbros Invincible at a flea market because I liked the style and wanted to see if I could do anything with it. I got it home and took off the back...and it was like opening Pandora's box! Looking over the Helbros-branded Lorsa P72 movement, I could plainly tell that someone had been allowing a stray screw or metal component to just freely go romping about amongst the wheel train. Damaged wheel teeth, scratches, broken staff, messed up hairspring, a couple cracked jewels, but no sign of a loose screw or part - although!...there were two empty screw holes, one in a bridge and it was missing one of the dial foot screws. So I picked up another Lorsa P72 movement off Ebay that seemed to have everything I'd need (it had rust on the parts near the stem hole, but I was not worried about that). When the donor movement came, I just cleaned everything and rebuilt choosing the best parts of each. Ended up replacing the balance complete, center wheel, third wheel, two jewels, and the missing screws. Miraculously, the other wheels were undamaged; teeth, leaves, and pivots were fine. Once assembled and oiled, I set the stud carrier as close to where it should be as I could get it, and put the regulator dead center. Now, I only have a timegraphing app on my phone (limited funds you know). But the traces looked really good. So I've been wearing it off and on, and keeping it wound. Here's the dumb luck part - I haven't needed to regulate this thing yet! It's been two days, a shade over 48 hours, and it is now about 3 seconds faster over that time period. I need to read the specs on a Lorsa P72, to see if it can do any better but, so far, a gain of only 3 seconds over a 48 hour period doesn't sound terrible. I'm used to antique pocket watches and their eccentricities, so having a watch run this close to dead-on without having to regulate it six ways to Sunday feels a lot like a miracle to me. I'm starting to really adore this wrist watch.
    13 points
  15. Hello all, This build took me 2 months to finish; mostly due to the shipments delay from Europe. But here it is. A watch designed by me. Well at least put together by me. When I decided on this project it was very important to me that I used as many Swiss components as I can. This is just a personal preference. Searching for parts I found a NOS dial that at one time were used by Ollech & Wajs. I got super excited since they were used for vintage Unitas 6497s. The movement I planned to use. Speaking of which, I took a Unitas out of an old pocket watch from the early 60s. I found the perfect case for my project in Germany. As you can read on the case, it was a swiss made case also made for the Unitas. When I placed the dial on to the movement, it did not fit exactly into the case. I literally had to grind the edges using 600 grit paper until I shed enough around the edges to finally fit the movement flush. The hands finally arrived today. I chose these German made hands aviator hands as they were open blade hands. I wanted something that would allow the black of the dial come through. The Orange added a wonderful contrast. I think it all works. A watch that looks like I paid thousands for.
    13 points
  16. Thought it may be worth to share; I received a pretty beaten up, none-running 1890-1900 cylinder-escapement pocket-watch. It had all sorts of problems, a list too long to go into details. Among those problems was a bend/broken minute hand. It inevitably broke off when trying to straighten it. The center-hole diameter of the minute-hand was 0.5mm and the length was 15mm. The hour-hand had a hole diameter of 2.0mm and the length was 10mm. Searching the internet to find an identical set proofed futile. The watch is a heirloom so originality was a priority. The hands turned out the be made of bronze, a copper-tin alloy. Therefor it made sense to attempt soldering but the part that had to be soldered had a thickness of only 0.3mm. Both parts had to be fixed in place with a sort of clamp capable to fixing both parts, being heat resistant and "none-sticking". A soldering iron, even with the smallest tip, would be far too big for the job and to avoid touching the parts, I choose to use a hot-air gun used in electronics for soldering SMD-components to a circuit-board. A few test were made which tin to use and at which temperatures. 300 degrees C with tin used in electronics seemed to work fast and made the tin to flow nicely. I used a soldering flux-paste. The clamp consisted of two metal rails, slightly diverting from each other to give many clamping options, bolted on a plate of gypsum. Pulling over a #1000 grid sand paper, I made two 45 degrees chamfered edges on either end of both parts; The two parts were clamped in; Applied some soldering flux, heated it all up to 300 deg.C and applied a tiny bit of tin. Once cooled down, I removed some excess tin with a small diamond file. Here a picture of the back side of the minute-hand; And here the front; the tin didn't flow further away from the soldered joint or around the edges Most likely not the strongest repair in the world, but when not touched it should be strong enough to do the job. On the picture the hand color looks black, but that's due to the lighting. In reality the hand hasn't lost any of its shiny patina at the front ...... Anyway, I thought to share this repair as one of the many different possibilities
    13 points
  17. First of all my apologies for not having documented the disassembling, but the watch arrived in a terrible condition and I stripped it down right away to get rid of all that dirt. If you have worked on some watches yet and think about entering the chronograph world with a 7734 let me give you 3 advices: Do it! The 7734 is a solid construction and not too complicated. Take your time and watch all the 6 parts of Mark's Venus 175-service on youtube. Of course the Venus is a column wheel system, but the basic movement is very similar and also on the chrono layer you can learn a lot especially about lubrication: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI3T-IR3AgM Download the 7734 service manual. A lot of information here: https://strela-watch.de/valjoux-7734-7733-7736-technical-documentation/ Here we go. Some 8200 for the barrel and the new mainspring goes in (got it from cousins - what I'm gonna do after Brexit? ). The complete barrel. Some D5 for the arbor. Putting in the wheels and the bridges. Lubrication: 9010 for the escape wheel and the second wheel, D5 for all others. The keyless works. 9501 for the stem and the gears. D5 for the wheels and the lever axis, 9501 for the contact points of levers and springs. The click spring. D5 for the click and the crown wheel, 9501 for the contact point of click and its spring. Finally the ratchet wheel goes in. The pallets go back in, no lubrication for the pivots. Lubricating the balance jewels with 9010. The balance back in. The escape wheel and the pallets got epilame so I let run the movement with dry pallets for some minutes. After that 941 for the pallets (work from the dial side through the window). Now I start with the chronograph. First the bridge and the spring for the levers go in. Fly back lever goes in with some D5. Operating lever, again D5 for the axis. A little bit tricky, you must upline the integrated spring with the upper lever first (9501 for the contact area). The second pictures shows the final layering. The sliding gear goes in, D5 for the lever axis, no lubrication for the wheel! At this point I forgot to put in the minute recorder runner (no lubrication). You should install it here, later its going to be more difficult. The blocking lever (D5) returns. Some 9501 for the contact area to the sliding gear. The blocking lever spring. Be very careful, this one isn't just a flyer, its a damned Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. The friction spring (gets a drop of 9010). The chronograph runner and its bridge (9010 for the long pivot and the jewel in the bridge). The minute recorder jumper, no lubrication. The hammer. D5 for the axis, 9010 for the lever ends that hit the hearts, 9501 for the contact areas to the sliding gear, fly back lever, operating lever, jumper. The hammer cam jumper. Before installing the clutch give 9010 to the pivots of the coupling wheel. D5 to the lever axis. The spring. 9501 for the contact point. Finally line up the driving wheel with the coupling wheel and the chrono layer is complete again! The dial side. Some 9501 and the cannon pinion goes in. Hour wheel with D5. The dial rest with its 3 screws. The date indicator. The date indicator driving wheel with some D5. The jumper with D5 to its axis. As there was no lubrication described in the manual between disc/jumper or disc/wheel and the parts looked well polished I didn’t lubricate. It works - let’s see how long. The guard with 2 screws. Finally the spring. The dial comes back and is secured with its 2 screws from the side. While disassembling I put the little hands into seperate trays to prevent mixing them up. Now I turned the crown in the setting position exactly to the point when the date switches and put on the hour hand to 12. Positioning the chrono-hand exactly on zero was that tricky that I forgot to take a pic. New springs and gaskets for the pushers. Unfortunatly I’m not good in restoring cases. So just refreshing the brushing a bit and some cape cod work. The movement back in the case and secured with 2 screws. A new gasket for the caseback and here we are. Thank you for watching.
    13 points
  18. The clock strikes Christmas 1975 and these two sister were each given a watch which they are, here on a picture, proudly showing off. Their last parent recently passed away and in the parents "jewellery-box" one of the thought long lost watches emerged again. Inside the back-lid was the name S.Kocher stamped, a Swiss company long gone, went begin 1980's during the "Quartz"-crisis under. The watch was in their line of the "Royce"-watches and had an undisturbed Swiss 21.600BHP, 17-jewels AS1726 cheased /non-running movement. I serviced the movement, which now runs with a 0.0ms beat-error and a 270 degrees amplitude (DU & DD), polished the acrylic-crystal and case. It gets presented back to the owner on Christmas 2020, exactly 45 years later, in a nearly as new condition ? I'm sure for her a happy X-mas with some old memories ? For me another fulfilling job done ? Happy X-mas !
    13 points
  19. I would like to share a check list made up by a master watchmaker. I take no credit for it, only think it would be helpful for us hobbyists. Here it is! CHECK LIST I decided to write up what is called a 16 point check that is meant to be a guide to steps required to service a watch this is slightly bias towards a wrist watch but very relevant to pocket watches also: This is a guide and not the definitive answer after going through it a few times add you own additional tests and observations. This is of course for a basic time only non-automatic or any with additional features, I also leave out things like demagnetizing, actual cleaning procedures, a good chunk of common sense needs to be applied also as I say its meant as a good starting point to a correct disciplined procedure, This is version 1 may add or edit/delete later. Check number 1 a Check the winding to see if the mainspring is broken. b Check to see if the setting bridge or sleeve is broken by pulling the stem out and testing the proper snap of stem. A broken setting bridge/sleeve is easily detected c. The balance wheel should be oscillated to see that it is true and the balance pivots should be checked by looking through the upper jewel to see that there is not a flash on the pivot. d. The hairspring should be checked to see that it is not damaged. e Check setting of hands f. The watch should be looked over in every respect, paying particular attention to any rust spots that may appear on any part of the movement. When rust is evident around the stem or setting mechanism, it is most important to remove the dial and hands in order to check this mechanism to see if the rust is very extensive. Check Number 2 a. Examine each part as it is being removed from the movement. b. Check for rust on every part. c. Check every pivot to see that it is not damaged or bent. d. Check the jewels in the watch, to see that there are no cracked jewels. e. Check pallet stones to see that they are not chipped or damaged. f. When removing barrel cap, make sure that it snaps off only after sufficient pressure has been applied to it. g. In the examination of each part, a close check is not made at this time as many of the parts will not be clean enough for that purpose. a much closer check will be made on the parts as each part is handled in the assembly of the watch Check Number 3 a. Upon completion of cleaning and parts removed from the basket into the assembly tray, each part should be checked over with the use of a watchmaker’s loupe special attention should be paid to the jewels, because if there is gum oil still remaining on the jewels, the cleaning job was not done satisfactory . It is also worthwhile at this time to examine the pivots. If the jewels are clean, and the pinion leaves are clean, it is almost certain that the cleaning operation was performed effectively. Check Number 4 a. Examine the condition of the mainspring. b. Check the width, strength and length of the mainspring. c.. If correct, replace mainspring using correct mainspring winding tool, not by hand d. Check the lubrication of the mainspring if required e. Check the fit of the mainspring around barrel arbor. f. check the mainspring end for proper shape to catch in barrel. g. Check the snap of the cap on barrel and replace in correct position h. Check the end shake and side shake of barrel arbor is it also sometime recommended to do this without mainspring fitted to test for free run and end shake i. Check the cleanliness of the barrel and barrel teeth. j. Check the oiling of the barrel arbor after the cap is on. k. Check the condition of the barrel teeth to see if they are bent or worn. Check Number 5 a. Jewel holes must be cleaned with peg wood if necessary. b. Jewels must be checked for chips or cracks. c. Check the train wheel pivots for rust, polish, cuts and straightness. d. Check the pinions for rust’, pits and polish. e. Check the pivots for pitting check that clean pith wood is being used. f. Check plates for tarnish, fingerprints, and polish jewel settings. g. Assemble time train and check end shake and side shake. h. Check wheels for trueness arid upright. i. Lift each wheel with tweezers to check for end shake and to see if each wheel is free enough to fall back to its original position. j. Spin train to see that is spins freely, in dial up, dial down and a vertical position. Check Number 6 a. Replace barrel and barrel bridge and check the oiling of the barrel arbor upper and lower bearing. b. Check oiling of crown wheel. c. Replace ratchet wheel. d. Note: do not oil remainder of movement until after kick-back is checked or cap jewels are present oil those now e. Wind watch slightly to check kick-back and recoil. This check should be made in dial up and dial down positions. If the watch does not have kick¬back, this indicates that the train is not as free as it should be. First, however, before checking into the train itself to determine if there is some frictional error, it would be worthwhile to examine the mainspring around the barrel arbor. Many times the loose fit of the mainspring around the arbor will prevent kick-back from occurring within the train. In such instances, the arbor is simply slipped in the mainspring instead of the train receiving the reversal torque, that normally occurs. If the barrel is found to be satisfactory, then the train. should be checked to see if the trouble can be located. first, the train should be examined carefully to see if each wheel is free, and if no trouble can be found, then it is advisable to remove the train wheels from the watch and replace each wheel in the watch individually and to check the spin of each wheel. If each wheel spins freely, this indicates that the pivots and the jewels are in good condition and that one need not look further for defects or faults in those areas. Next, place two wheels at a time in the watch and check the spin of the wheels. Thus, any error of improper depthing or a badly formed tooth on a wheel or pinion will be detected. It is simply a process of elimination in order to locate the particular trouble, and of course, proper corrective measures must be taken to correct an error when one is found. Check Number 7 a. Oil all the train jewels in the watch, and at this point it is advisable to oil also the balance jewels. b. Check to see that there is a ring of oil around each train pivot and that the jewels are not over-oiled or under-oiled. c. Check the jewels that have caps to see that the globule of oil has been formed properly between the flat cap and curved hole jewel and no keyhole shape if so remove re clean jewels and check seating the re oil and repeat check for perfect ring. Check Number 8 a. Oil stem properly. b. Oil friction parts of setting. c. Oil wolf teeth of clutch wheel and winding pinion. d. Oil clutch wheel groove. e. Oil points on setting lever that contact the setting bridge or the clutch lever. f. Never oil dial train. Note: ‘dial train means all wheels following center wheel staff. g. Seek expert advice on some types of intermediate wheels connecting clutch at setting positions that require oil. Check Number 9 a. Check condition of pallet arbor pivots. b. Check for chipped or loose stones, shellac or gummed oil on pallet stones. c. Check guard pin for straightness and proper shape. d. Check polish of pallet arbor, pivots and fork slot. e. Check end shake of pallet fork. f. Check height of pallet stones in conjunction with escape wheel teeth. g. Check matching stones. h Check drop lock i. Inside and outside drop. j. Draw. k. Hang-up of stones on escape wheel teeth. Check Number 10 a. Check tightness of roller jewel in roller table - uprightness of roller jewel. b. Check the height of the balance wheel in conjunction with the fork bridge and the center wheel. c. Check the clearances. d. Check the height of the guard pin in relation to safety roller. e. Check the proper length of roller jewel and fit of roller jewel to fork slot. f. Check the guard clearance. g. Check the corner clearance. h. Check the jewel pin shake. i. Check the guard test, j. Check the corner test. Check Number 11. a. Check the hairspring in-the-flat. b. Check the hairspring in-the-round. c. Check the quadrant of the hairspring to see that it is formed properly between the regulator pins and stud d. Check for beat of the watch by equalizing the force to receiving and discharge pallets. e. Check for the collet wobble. f. Check for trueness of the balance wheel, and for the flash of the balance pivots g. Check for trueness of roller table. Check Number 12 a. Place the watch on the timing machine and take a rate in the dial down position, then turn the movement over to dial up position and take a rate. There are three things that should be observed from the rate that was taken: 1. Dial up should indicate the same time as dial down. 2. Observe the closeness of the lines to determine if the watch is in perfect beat. 3. Observe how the watch is running in reference to the time error over a 24-hour period. b. Adjust the mean time rate of the watch so that the dial up and dial down positions will record on time. Do not move the regulator more than one degree in adjusting the mean time rate. Any other alteration must be made by adjusting mean time screws or by adding or removing weight from the balance wheel in such a manner as not to affect poise, static or dynamic,. c. If the rates in dial up arid dial down are found to be different from one another, then this indicates a mechanical error in the watch which must be traced out before proceeding. d. If the watch is found to be out-of-beat, then of course, it should be put r in proper beat at this time. We might emphasize that if the watch was put in proper beat in accordance with the proper procedure at the bench, then an out-of-beat condition or minimal amount would not be indicated on the timing machine. e. When the above conditions have been satisfied, the next step would be to take a rate in positions and errors corrected. If everything has proved to be satisfactory, the watch should be tested for isochronal test be made on the timing machine, which consists of re-testing at different winding levels and rate in the dial up position. Check Number 13 a. Check for proper lubrication of cannon pinion on center post. b. When replacing the cannon pinion, be sure that the leaves of the cannon pinion do not come down on top of the minute wheel teeth so as to bend the teeth of the minute wheel. c. Check tightness of. cannon pinion d. Check to see that cannon pinion does not ride up when watch is being set. and smooth consistent operation. Check Number 14 a Make sure that the hands are fitted securely to the parts to which they are attached b. Make sure that the hands are adjusted so that there is equal space between the hands and the hands are set as close to the dial as possible. c. Check to be sure that the hands are shaped to the contour of the dial. d. Check to see that\ the hands are positioned so that they are synchronized with one another. Check Number 15 a. If there is no case for the movement, simply disregard this check and proceed with the next check, number 16. b. Check for proper snap/screw back of the case. c. Check for the clearance of the hands under the crystal. d. Check the crystal to see that it is securely fitted into the case. e. Check to see that the crown is next to the stem and reasonably close to the case. f. Check for tightness of movement in case. g. Check the spring bars to see that proper spring bars are used for the particular type of case so that the band is held securely to the case. h. Check the lug holes to see that they have not been worn badly by the spring bars to a point where the hole may break through and allow the spring bar to come out of place. Check Number 16 a. Set the watch on time with a master clock. b. Let the watch run for a period of 24 hours and check the error in the time repeat in several positions. c. Allow the watch to run until it completely runs down and check the length of run. The watch should run a minimum of 30 hours, preferably 40 hours, if it is in “A. I have no answers to any of the steps since I didn't make this up. Maybe Mark might.
    12 points
  20. In order to start learning my Jacot tool and select the right size bed, I wished for a Seitz jeweled pivot gauge. Sadly, the prices asked for these gauges are astronomical. Currently on eBay from €350 and way upwards to over €500 !! Wild West prices In my Seitz jewel-box I had a "complete" range of jewels 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 & 19 in the OD size of 110 and 20,22,24,26,28, 30 & 32 in the OD size of 120. Marked 27x spots (1x1cm distance) on 10cmx10cm, 1mm thick copper-sheet and drilled them out with a 1mm drill. The holes for the jewel sizes 8-19 were reamed to 109 and the other holes reamed to 119. Cut the "to be jewel-gauge" at the size of 10x4cm, polished it and inserted the jewels; Left the holes open for the "missing" jewels; 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 & 31 and there are two more slots empty for 33 & 34; Whether I'll ever need these bigger sizes? They weren't in the Seitz jewel-box, perhaps for a reason? If I ever stumble over these sizes, I can insert them, the holes are already there. Those "missing" bigger sizes are also easy & safely to measure with a micrometer or gauge-caliper. For now, I have a jeweled pivot-gauge with a full range from 8/100 to 20/100 and from 22/100 to 32/100 in steps of 2/100, I think enough for making a start on my Jacot-tool Next, to finish this project off, is to find some small metal-stamps to number the jewel sizes.......
    12 points
  21. Ah ok- but only because you asked, John. That's my CNC. Put it together about 13 years ago, I figure it runs about 1000 hours per year, so it seems to have turned out pretty solid! Built on a Schaublin 102 short bed, with a Swiss X/Y slide with Rollvis zero backlash screws, DC servo motors, and a control built by a Hungarian guy (in Hungary). It repeats on location under 5 microns, which is plenty good. It has 100mm travels, which so far has been enough. The spindle is a Swiss Gepy, it can do 15k rpm but it's had a hard life, so I keep it at 11k. That's still a bit slow for the small cutters (down to 0.2mm) but it does OK. That's my Sixis 101 mill, I use it for all my gear cutting as well as general milling. There are 3 different dividing spindles, one for Sixis plates, another for the stacks of brass plates, and another that's universal. A Sallaz pivot burnisher; it's a production machine, and I found for the small runs I do it works better with a hand crank, like a Pivofix that went to the gym. Profile projector, mostly used for checking gearing and gear cutters, but lots of other things too. 10,20,50 and 100x magnification. That's a jig boring machine, which see lots of use but I include it as I often use it as a measuring microscope. Made by Dixi (another to the right by Hauser). Hauser measuring microscope, I have several lenses but use 50x all the time. And my most treasured machine (there are lots of others, haha), my 8mm lathe. It's a Leinen WW82, with a Levin cross slide, with the X screw switched out for one from a Schaublin 70. I use it several times per day, sometimes all day, sometimes all day for days in a row!
    12 points
  22. My son designed this and gave it to me for Christmas
    12 points
  23. 1970 Seiko 5606-7000 with hand made stamp dial. Running at 0 SPD and amplitude over 300 degrees at full wind.
    12 points
  24. Thought I’d show off a watch project that I have been working on. Wanted to create vintage inspired watches. Tell me what you think so far!
    12 points
  25. Hey folks, I'd like to share a watch I put together for my Brother's birthday. The movement is a pretty old Unitas 6497 which I picked up from the widow of a watchmaker a year or so back, the plates have been skeletonised and I'm pretty sure this was a once off job by the watchmaker. The mainplate is brass, and the decorated bridge plates appear to have been plated (quite crudely, when inspected under a loupe). The movement is keeping great time now that it is serviced. I made an attempt at a logo using the film-free transfer technique Mark has used in a couple of recent Youtube videos. The logo didn't adhere very well to the dial, not particularly happy with it. In person and to the naked eye it looks pretty good I think. The case is a 41mm case I picked up from Ofrei, who I sourced the dial and hands from also. Hope ye like it!
    12 points
  26. Hello, everybody. I wanted to share my restoration stories that I have done for a long time and thrown into my archive. First I discussed the Atomic Mars 71 Brand using Valjoux 7734. As it was seen, scratch and dial is broken. To begin with, I tried to brush the Case as Brushed and make it the first day. If it is decorated, I polished and re-painted the indexes (with acrylic paint). I usually do this in three layers so that the paint is not deleted in a short time. I replaced the case buttons and tubes with aftermarket buttons. Since the condition of the dial was in very poor condition, I had it re-painted. The quality is not so good. In Turkey, unfortunately, not doing the job well. Caliber 7734 (Valjoux) is a special and robust mechanism for me. With good maintenance and lubrication, you can reduce deflection values up to 3-4 seconds per day. I added a short timelapse video about it :) As a result, such a result came before us. Thank you Taskin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKH6yTKUfpM
    12 points
  27. Part 3 is a sort of redemption, or at least some lessons learned. The donor arrived about six weeks later (thank you Covid) and I quickly transferred the balance complete. The wavy traces quickly returned. So I stripped the movement again, paying close attention to the barrel arbor bearings. Looking closely, I could see that the barrel had actually been scraping the bottom of the barrel bridge. Manipulating the barrel with the bridge on and the train removed, I could also see that, under torque, the barrel would foul both the bridge and possibly the mainplate. Swapping in the donor movement bridge, the wavy traces continued. The free running of the train was okay with the pallets removed, but, turning my attention to the mainplate barrel arbor bushing, I could see this was slightly out of round. Under torque, the barrel would still hit the bridge. So that was it. I could not close the barrel arbor bearing hole, so after repeated reassemblies and inspections, I became convinced that the original movement was a goner. Thankfully, I had the donor, which I decided to service and install in the watch. In truth, the donor looked to have very little wear - I am unsure what kielbosched it in the first place. I serviced the donor and prepared to install the balance complete. Here tragedy struck again, as it appears that one of the problems in the donor was that the regulator arm was improperly seated in the balance cock, or the pins were just too short. Closing the regulator pins, the hairspring caught the closing arm and became kinked in the terminal curve. Here I finally did Mark's video justice, carefully massaging the hairspring until it was again smooth throughout the curve. A final hurdle: the balance on the donor movement had no endshake - none at all. Having watched Mark's video on unexpected endshake problems, I looked for a shim under the balance cock. Sure enough, Minsk Watch Factory had indeed made a shim under the cock, near the screw, which I had flattened as I had rubbed the tarnished mainplate with pegwood. So I got my screwdriver, and made a painful jab into my newly-cleaned donor movement. Reinstalling the cock, it ran strongly! Hurrah. Here are the results, positive and negative. On the positive, the watch runs strongly and relatively straight in all positions. There is also relatively little positional error (maybe 5-10 seconds a day, but I can live with that). But here's the heartbreaking thing. This donor, this seemingly babied donor with no major signs of wear, has exactly the same problem of wavy traces and variable amplitude as the original movement! It's less pronounced, sure, but it's there - a 15-20 degree variability in amplitude at seemingly random intervals, with the associated wavy lines. A reflection on that below. Battle-ready once again, but not without difficulty. Another charm(?) of the Luch is that the dial does not sit flush with the movement, so you need to be extremely careful when seating the hands to make sure they won't hit the dial. And back on my wrist, at long last. So, a summary. Why should you, an absolute beginner, try to diagnose and fix a battered Russian watch that hasn't been opened since Gorbachev? Well, first, you won't break the bank. These are plentiful, and if you get a plain dial they are cheap as chips. Second, you will use a lot of Mark's lessons. Not just chapter 2, but 3 as well. I watched every single video repeatedly, and tried to apply them all. If not for his video on barrel arbor bearing wear, I would never have found the problem. Last, I practiced a lot - a lot - of skills. I'm still bad, but getting this Luch back on my wrist has made me feel like I'm on the road to being a real watchmaker, whatever that means. And why should you avoid articles like this? One reason: poor, inconsistent build quality. From the shim, to the regulator pins of incorrect length, to the badly-seated dial, it doesn't take a George Daniels to see that these things were absolutely slapped together. This makes them hard to work on and diagnose. And even when you find a good donor that was seemingly retired after only a few years in service, you may find that it has the same fundamental problems as the donor you thought was deeply, unusually defective. So just live with it, and know when good is good enough. Don't make perfect the enemy of the acceptable, because they sure didn't when they built these things in the first place. So that's it. If you're exceptionally patient or you didn't have anything better to do tonight, thanks for reading this far. And thanks to the people on this forum for helping me out with this project - I am very glad I joined. Cheers!
    12 points
  28. On behalf of "Watch Repair Talk" moderators, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all new members. This is a friendly place with plenty of knowledgeable people who have varying degrees of horological expertise, the great thing is they are willing to share that invaluable knowledge and help one another. To help us keep things running smoothly, I would ask all new members to read the forum rules and place their posts in the correct sections.
    12 points
  29. Greetings dear forum members! My name is Vladislav. I am from Ukraine. I speak Russian and use a translator, so I apologize for possible mistakes. I collect watches and repair them. With respect, Vladislav.
    11 points
  30. OK...more like a "place" than a "center." I will be spending half my time here, so I needed some way to do horology. Since Accutrons need a subset of my tools, and I have about 50 to work on, I decided that I could setup to do just Accutrons here. I still need a cleaning setup...working on that! I have the microscope, test set, and the hand tools. Today, I took an Accutron that was not working, opened it up, adjusted the index and got it running. It needs a cleaning, but I was proving the tool set to see if anything was missing. Hopefully I will solve the cleaning methodology over the next couple of weeks.
    11 points
  31. Tissot calibre 781 Disassembly (Please sort the images by name in ascending order) Tissot calibre 781 Assembly (Please sort the images by name in ascending order) Tissot calibre 781 ranfft facts Some time ago my brother handed me this Tissot dress watch from the mid-1960s housing a Tissot calibre 781. My brother collects watches but doesn’t tinker with them (yet). Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to give this Tissot 781 an overhaul (you always learn something). It did seem to run and being a 17-jewel manual wind watch I thought a service shouldn’t take too long or pose any challenges in particular. Anyway, when I removed the case back, I noticed to my surprise that the balance had stopped. I thought “that’s funny”, as it was fully wound and had been ticking along fine while I was looking at the dial. Going deeper I realized that the one of the balance staff pivots was broken off. So, I called my brother and told him the bad news and that I had no experience replacing balance staffs. Well, my brother didn’t become too upset about this but simply told me to keep the watch and possibly repair it in the future if and when I would learn how to replace a balance staff. I wasn’t sure I was ready for it, but life is unpredictable so I thought that it was now or never that I would learn how to replace a balance staff and get the necessary tools to do it. Long story short, I did learn how to replace a balance staff and the watch is now ticking along just fine. In the process I got first class help and illustrations from my fellow Swede @HSL, and if you are in the process of learning how to replace a balance staff, I do recommend reading the following thread where you’ll find HSL’s (and other helpful) posts about this “Staff replacement, balance wheel wobble”. To call this post of mine a “Service Walkthrough” is perhaps a bit of a stretch as the pictures don’t include any oiling suggestions and/or tips/instructions. Nevertheless, I’m thinking that the pictures still might be useful to anyone servicing this calibre and perhaps pondering in what direction the main spring should go and/or what screws to use where, and so on.
    11 points
  32. Finally! Wearing it for a few days to confirm my standards. Bellmatic 4006a
    11 points
  33. My wife took these pictures today. Not sure if there is a message that I am supposed to get The first bench is the one from my Dad. The second is the one I bought from Maine. The third I bought from someone in Wyoming. The last watch bench came from Dallas. The other bench is just a converted office desk. The last picture captures a portion of the room. This was not staged...and I am a little embarrassed about how it looks. That's me and Cromwell.
    11 points
  34. I just finished another Seiko 6309 diver over the weekend and finished it off last night, see before and after shots Front: Tape was the only thing holding it together, here is the back of the case: And here is the view when I opened the case : And when I got the movement out: The hands were completely fused to the cannon pinion and the dial paint eaten through to bare metal After cleaning in my 'home-brew' 566 and rinse solutions (please see my other thread, HERE) and then polishing the glass and case, then replacing the dial and hands with aftermarket replacements and a new cannon pinion from a donor watch along with a new bezel (because I had a spare so why not), here is the final result: Very pleased with the result
    11 points
  35. I know it's not much. I feel quite chuffed. I would like to inform that I have completed a full restore of a watch. Been a while in learning, but a good feeling. Seiko 7S26. Working well.
    11 points
  36. Hi everyone, I’m not exactly new member, but since after my short appearance here 2 years ago I’ve been silent to community I think a bit of update is good comeback. Yes about 3 years ago I’ve started watchmaking hobby due to lack of good quality puzzle. Few Amazon purchased tools and flea market soviet watch got me started all right. Number and quality of tools, new and ambitious projects eventually brought me up here. I have to say community here always helped me with my questions and I always remembered this forum as great knowledge resource. Eventually sign up for Distant course in BHI and decided to pursue watchmaking as my profession. Age 32 not easiest decision to make specially for my GF. Since all future plans and me wanting to move from Estonia to Slovakia because lack of watch interest and opportunity there. After longer talks we all were confident, this is way to go for both of us. For my surprise, took me 2 weeks to find a job in local watchmaker shop as apprentice. Basically they gave me poor salary and table under staircase (pure Harry Potter style). Long story short, I worked harder and longer then others and soon became shift leader, then mechanic watch repairer to junior manager of two workshops with team of 5 watchmakers. Meanwhile working on setting up my own shop, that consumes all of my money (honestly, learned to live of 2 digit numbers on bank account) I’m coming back here since all this time wanted to join community that I liked, helped me and inspired me to all this adventure. Cheers guys, glad you’re still rocking here! Jakub
    11 points
  37. Beginners often ask about where to find this or that crystal, as it happens replacing is cheap and easy as long they are just flat round ones. But the crystal may not be found as generic, or can be expensive, or hard to find. So good old polishing is needed. Here again my technique key points: Crystal mounted on case, that will make it so much easier and safe to handle. Caseback removed, check below why. Jeweller's motor or other rotary tool with a fixed stand. You really want a screen like a carton box. Plastic roundel from a credit card as big as its size allows. 600 grit wet paper. No other grit is needed, as it will lose abrasiveness already after 20 seconds of use and become comparable to finer grades. Try to got directly over the deepest scratches, but without insisting too long (as in 5 seconds max) so to not dig valleys. Find the right compromise regarding the work angle, going flatly is good, but isn't even reasonable to try to sand the entire surface even. Look at the white streaks from inside the glass while working. You will see if you're getting right at the scratch or nick because if so the defect will show up in contrast Be patient with the paper stage. After a while it becomes hard to see if all scratches are gone, but you must remove them all before going to the next step. You should have made a mental note or drawing of where the defects are, rinse it up and observe at different angles. In difficult cases you may need to replace paper once or twice. Crystal will look now very foggy, that is normal Once happy refit caseback and crown, or rodico in the tube. The diamond paste is much more messy and you don't want that inside the case. Mount an hard felt wheel like 7 or even 10 cm dia, 2cm thick, place 1 cm of diamond paste (No. 10 or 14 good, but others work too) on the section toward you while keeping the crystal horizontal. Let the wheel grab the compound one bit a time, keep well pressed up and go over until all paste is used and you can present the entire surface to the wheel, rotate the watch and collect the past on the other side, place it on the crystal again on the other side. You can't do more than 30 - 40 seconds of work before adding fresh paste. Usually I do 4 or 5 passes like that. When working with paste is almost impossible to see the result with cleaning up. Clean with dishwasher detergent, dry it and observe well. Very likely you will notice some small defects, up to you if you want to go back to paper, concentrating on the spot only. Final polishing can be done switching to another wheel and finer paste, no less that 10 as these have no practical effect. Cerium oxide is another option but I didn't try it extensively so far. Below what I did today in about 20 minutes. The central scratch was quite deep. No final polishing or cleaning yet. After:
    11 points
  38. This project has been ongoing for about six months. Another specimen from the box-o-watches. It was a mess when I dug it out. The dial was a wreck. It had the alarm, minute, and hour hand but no second hand. At the time, I did not know it was supposed to have one. Found out later that the center wheel was busted. The first threshold was to see if I could get the dial refinished. I won't go into the ordeal, but it took about four months from start to finish! I had a crystal in my stock so that was not an issue. I bought a donor watch that had some of the parts I needed and the dial finally arrived. This week was the reassembly event! The last challenge was the second hand I got from the donor. When I snapped on the bezel/crystal, the second had would not clear and the watch stopped. This was extremely aggravating and tedious. At one point, the second hand took flight!!! I called the wife: "Help!!" She has a knack for finding things. I heard it hit the skin drawer. It was not there. It had bounced off and on to the floor. I found it!! Anyway...it is now running on the bench. Regression testing as they say in my business. I am showing two pictures because I turned off the LED lamp so I could bet better color balancing to illustrate that the watch is gold (gold plate).
    11 points
  39. I had a need to safely remove a C clip holding in two pusher buttons and thought I would share my method on the forum. I had a spring bar removal tool with a solid pin on one end and a scalloped forked end on the other. I placed a small bit of rodico on the bottom side of the clip and turned the C <- gap facing up. As you can see in the picture, I simply used the forked end that was the perfect gap to push off the c clips. I installed by getting the clip in place, C gap facing down, and used a #200 flat screwdriver blade and carefully pressed down to lock in place. I used the case wall to keep the c clip and push button slit in line. Don't attempt to push the c clip back on with the button pressed all the way in, use the wall of the case to help keep the clip straight in line. Hope this helps someone.
    11 points
  40. I apologize, but an error has slipped into the assembly sequence of pictures. For detailed info please see the following post: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/12634-eta-calibre-2472-service-walkthrough/?tab=comments#comment-115897 When I first started out trying to service and repair watches I took a picture of every step, and I really needed those pictures as I didn’t have the knowledge to deduct where the parts should go, how they worked, and how they interacted. Now that I’ve gained some experience, I no longer need all those pictures, but I still need some pictures. For example, it’s very convenient to have pictures of the train of wheels or certain parts of a date complication, and so on. Anyway, I really enjoy taking these pictures as I go and I organize them and keep them on my OneDrive for future use. For this project, servicing my brother’s Atira Plana housing an ETA 2472, I felt it would be fun, interesting and perhaps even useful not only to take the pictures but to edit the pictures adding visual and textual instructions. These pictures are made for my personal use and are not intended as a tutorial or to tell other people how to service an ETA 2472. The pictures simply document how I went about it. Nevertheless, I guess others may find my work useful so I’m happy to share it. There are many ways to service a watch and I’m still learning. That said, I do follow the practices taught on watchrepairlessons.com and they work very well for me! Here are links to my other service walkthroughs here on WRT: Unitas Calibre 6325 Service Walkthrough ETA cal. 2824-2 (17 jewels) disassembly/assembly Vostok 2409 Service Walkthrough ETA Calibre 2472 Disassembly (132 pictures) ETA Calibre 2472 Assembly (131 pictures)
    11 points
  41. I have a few more but these are the “keepers” that are in regular rotation Might make a separate projects post but the blue dialed one with no brand name is one I made from parts from eBay after getting inspired to do so by mark’s project.
    11 points
  42. I just thought I'd share this as it may be useful for another learner. By far the most difficult thing I've come across starting out in watch repair has been correcting bends in hairsprings. I've got the right tools, the right light, a powerful eye glass and a pile of scrap watches I've been practicing on. But I found time after time I was just making the hairsprings worse. I think part of my problem is that I'm slightly dyslexic and I find looking at the spiral really confusing sometimes. But I had a bit of break through last weekend which has dramatically improved my technique. Quite simply, I hold my eye glass up to my iPhone lens and take a close up picture of the hair spring. I then make a cup of tea and sit and look at the photo, zoom right the way in and really think about what I'm going to do. This is so much more effective than hunching over the hairspring and straining my eyes for long periods and losing patience. Once I've really thought about what I'm going to do, I go back to the hairspring with a clear strategy, ie, slight bend in, fourth from the centre at 3 o'clock. I apply the bend, take another picture and repeat. I know it sounds simple, but it's been a huge help to me and I'm finally having success
    11 points
  43. I could manipulate the site code to get this to work, but it looks like there are problems across the board. jQuery is not defined, ips is not defined, etc. Might want to roll back any updates or speak to your web admin.
    10 points
  44. Today.... My 1940's Heuer Ref 347. Rugged looking watch with its battle scared dial. It has a Valjoux 22 under the hood. It's quite a large case for the time which gives it more of a contemporary flair. I were this one quite often.
    10 points
  45. Very true. And I do feel very uncomfortable forcing people to introduce themselves before interacting in other areas. But I am willing to listen - this is a membership site and we all have a stake in it's success. The reason why I have never forced introductions in the past is because people should have choice - new members have a choice to introduce themselves as well as existing members have a choice to simply ignore their questions. I must say - I am a little disappointed that this is an issue as the original intent of this forum was to be a help towards others with less knowledge as well as a community where all levels of horologists and enthusiasts could come together and simply be - and be relaxed. With that in mind - I have a solution, and it is a very very simple one. .... 1. I am not going to enforce an introduction policy, but I will make it more clear that members of this site will consider it polite if people do so first. ( I will work on making this prominent in the welcome email and I will make this clear with a information box at the top of the forum which only new members will be able to see). 2. If a new member posts a question without introducing themselves then, and here's the simple part, existing members who may be offended by this do not have to participate in that thread. We even have an ignore function on this forum if you feel that strongly about it. 3. Any member, both new or old who harasses new members, and it's reported to me, will be warned - persistent harassment's will result in a ban. A Word Of Encouragement... One-hitters who don't even reply sometimes are extremely annoying. Especially if you have crafted a three paragraph response with pictures and the OP does not even acknowledge your reply. It sucks. BUT - remember this. This is a public forum which gets indexed by search engines. Your replies are never a waste of time - it's all good content which will be read many hundreds or thousands of time - there is no telling how many people you will have eventually helped - with this in mind, it does not even matter who starts the conversation, your replies and the passing on of knowledge will stay on this site for people to find for years to come. It's not a waste of time.
    10 points
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