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EUREKA!!!! ok gents, thank you again to everyone who tried to brain storm this thing with me. I was just about to throw the my my out the window and retire but the fact that the hands stopped in the same position every time was really bugging me. So before finding the bottom of my favorite spirit bottle I gave the new Minotaur mvmt one more look under the microscope with the dial removed. When I looked at the hand wheel it looked like a speck of something in the teeth so I magnified. Nope! Not a speck of anything but rather IT WAS MISSING AN ENTIRE TOOTH! Luckily I had the wheel from the previous mvmt which was perfect. I dropped it in yesterday afternoon and it’s been keeping perfect time ever since. I’m going to give it the rest of today for a full 24 hour run, but I’m pretty certain the missing tooth was the issue. Thank you all, you all are AWESOME!

JD shouldn't you be putting these in the Tool section ......

I agree with clockboy. It appears to be a damaged balance staff pivot or the jewel it sits in is damaged. There is a lot of movement in the balance wheel when you touched it.

The claw tool is for "wedge-ledge" crystals, not armored. Press is the way to go.

And it will never end, also you will find you buy tools that are described to do one job and you use them for a different one. My favourite tool for removing hands off watches are my Begeon hairspring leavers. If you haven't already set yourself up an account on Cousins UK if you plan to get serious, also Eternal Tools in the UK are also worth looking at. Do your research before buying tools as sometimes you can get away with the cheap Chinese tools, but other times you really need to buy the expensive ones. Don't go cheap on your tweezers or screwdrivers, also invest in a cheap 400 grit diamond sharpening plate to sharpen your screwdrivers and a cheap sharpening holder for the screwdrivers if you haven't already.

Thanks for confirming :-) just wanted to check before I bought more tools haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The eccentric bankings are the pins that limit the movement of the pallet fork. They are accessible from the dial side and are slotted twice almost looking like philips head screws. That the balance sort of hangs up on the fork with no power is almost certainly due to it having a single roller instead of a double roller. I'm guessing this has a single roller. The action of the guard pin is much less secure on a single and it can get a bit sucked in to the roller. Usually not a problem in use but faults tend to show up differently or more with little or no power.

Thanks for the replies, the L&R cleaner does a great job. I will just shorten the cleaning time. Been too busy lately to work an any watches, starting to get itchy palms!! Got to get back at the bench! I have an old aircraft clock that I am going to try and turn a balance staff for, wish me luck!

Good for you. I'm sure you will be a great intrest to you. When I started, I took up an apprenticeship back in the early 70's, it was 5 years then another two as an improver. I was very lucky as the workshop was well equipped and everything was at hand. My master was also extremely good in all aspects of horology, which helped me to gain the experience I have today. You will never stop learning.

This is a recent acquisition all it really needed was a good cleaning and a mainspring. It is a 6size Seth Thomas made for Montgomery Wards stores. It.s in a beautiful gold box hinge case.

Found this excellent vid on what to look for when purchasing a watchmakers lathe.