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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/30/18 in all areas

  1. Nice Omega JBerry , ... I too have seen the Turler logo on a few fine vintage watches . Kinda like Tiffany I imagine . While I will quickly admit that I am addicted to Hamilton watches new and old , I recently had the opportunity to service a vintage Gruen with a 480SS movement and was impressed with the interesting design it presented . Multiple winding barrels , levers , clicks , and srpings . Also very nice finishes to the movement parts . So I have been on a Gruen phase these days . They are nice ..... Here's one I recently acquired as a good deal because it was sold as a non-runner . The first pic is the sellers .
    3 points
  2. I can think of a few regular contributors on here that could potentially tick the boxes but of course I have no idea where anybody lives. This advert is currently in a horological magazine; I know a little background so if anyone wants to DM me I’ll fill in any gaps that I’m able to. Mods: I think this is in the spirit of the forum but if not please nuke it as you see fit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  3. So I've desired one of these for ages. Usually they came up at the wrong time and I didn't have the money. About a month ago, a perfect one sold for $960AUD which I was jealous about. I found a faulty example in germany which was rusted and water damage. The seller kindly had enough photos to show some potential survival prognosis for this unfortunate drowning victim! It cost me just under $300, and it came without a strap. It clearly has had a hard life, however the case is near perfect. About a year ago, spare parts still came up on ebay - now not so much. I am aware that Omega don't really want to touch these and it costs stupid amounts as well. Basically I've stripped it down - can see that someone broke the wiring to the crystal. They have bodged soldered some of the contacts. The general majority of parts are there - it was only missing a crown, battery holder plate and the gasket for the caseback. The crystal has a light chip in it. Otherwise okay. (it's on the inside). The circuit board will be cleaned and retraced with tin. The motor is perfectly intact. The Movement plate is totally rusted. I have stripped it down and cleaned it and it looks like it will survive! You gotta love Swiss quality - no way that chinese parts would survive rust. I have researched and found that the 1320 cal is similar - the running gear is quite the same, the only part I broke on mine was the setting lever - which is easily sourced. I have broken one calendar retaining screw but no big deal. They were super rusted and I was lucky to get them out. My ultrasonic cleaner sadly decided to go bust - so I will have to wait to finish this job. My final step is to remove the stem from the movement hopefully. The cost of a donor 1320 is around $180 - a donor complete watch with crown is about $300. I want to at the worst case just get the analog side working - if I cant get the digital side working - no big deal - it is still a grail watch for me on a budget. As the strap is missing, my plan is to modernize it and fit a leather strap. I plan to cut a intermediate attachement piece from aluminium or steel which will sit between the strap and the case - I will also source an omega deployment clasp and make sure I brush the steel to fit the look. The leather will be thick cowhide in tan colour. It is a huge project- but luckily I have experience working with rusted calibers and also Omega. Quartz has also been my recent play area and so hopefully should be all good. At the worst case it will sit until I find a donor movement and/or crystal. I forecast a working watch for around $700 total inc. purchase price. That isn't ideal - but it isn't horrible either. We are talking Australian Dollaridoos as well which are similar par to Canadian dollars. Oh woops - I forgot that I will possible get the dial re-surfaced. Not sure - maybe not. The patina is interesting but a little rough. Who knows, lets see. If anyone has spare parts or ideas - I will kiss your feet
    1 point
  4. Ironically when I went back to look at the seller of the UK 401615 mainsprings I found it was ”schillachi61” with 1390 items listed on his store. Great investigative work, thank you again @tritto & all. Of course it does not solve my problem of the $39 landed cost for a MS. I recently watch a video of Marks about how to identify and purchase a mainspring, think I better revisit it, lol.
    1 point
  5. I'm using two different set ups. Mainly I just sit the watch on the laptop mic, which works for most things. I also use an old Nokia 3.5mm headset with microphone that was lying around in my junk pile. The latter option works reasonably well with the mic blue-tacked on to the watch, or the movement holder. Mostly however I just fold the laptop flat with the screen open on to my desk and place the watch on the place where the microphone lives, which on my ThinkPad is next to the camera. This is of course, far from ideal, but it appears to work reasonably well, so long as the room is quiet, and there are no ticking clocks nearby. I adjust the microphone sensitivity on the computer so I get good results without picking up too much background noise. I'm using Linux, so I use the built in Sound Preferences app to do this. When I have some spare time, I intend to cobble up or 3d print something more suitable, but for the time being, and considering that I am not doing this for a living, the current setup will do. The headset is in the office, so I can't show you pictures of that at the moment as I am working from home today.
    1 point
  6. Thanks for trying Watchmaker, appreciate that! Kinda irritating to get stuck when the balance is actually and unusually ok. I guess I'll have to keep my eyes open for a potential candidate to replace the escapement wheel.
    1 point
  7. This is a Derby calibre 33 movement.
    1 point
  8. Just got to love that Gruen, thanks for sharing ricardopalamino. Today it´s one modified watch on my arm. Since the dial was gone beyond repair due to a cracked crystal I had to replace it with a NOS one. Decided to go with a twotone color scheme , silver and gold. The powerhouse is a classic Landeron 48 from the 40's..
    1 point
  9. The lowly kitchen apron to the rescue. After having spent way to much time on the floor looking for parts and finally bending the pivot on a newly installed balance staff it was time for a solution. Pip to the rescue with his recommended Jacot video by Richard Edwards. While the video was certainly informative on the use of the Jacot tool, it was his use of the apron that caught my eye. Pure genius I thought and raced off to the nearest craft store for a plain white apron with no pockets. After I endured the smiles and jokes from the wife it was time to try it out. Brilliant is all i can say. It simply clips to the underside of the desk with spring clamps and slips over the neck no problem. Easy as pie. I dropped parts all night and not one hit the floor. It is easy to remove and I just leave it clipped to the desk if I have to leave for a bit. Probably old news to most of you but hopefully it will keep someone else off the floor and at the bench. picture not uploading for some reason... Ron
    1 point
  10. The more I think about it the less I am inclined to believe you will find a quartz movement the will match the feet on the original dial.are you prepared to alter the dial?btw Otto Frei has nos AS 1051 movement. 5 1/4 x8 1/4. Pretty close to your specs.
    1 point
  11. The other option is a home made movement holder.and cheap miyota movement out of a fashion watch.you could go down to the local junk shop and see what you could mock up.this way you could play Russian roulette without shooting yourself in the foot.
    1 point
  12. Piece of wood.lay that sucker down on your kitchen table and get yourself a flat piece of wood about one foot long that covers the back almost completely.press down.put your back into it.just make sure it's lined up properly.I couldn't tell by the pictures.but I assume that is a flat crystal
    1 point
  13. The PTA or Pultra's are beautiful lathes. they were made by Smart Brown who made top notch tool makers lathe, same caliber as a 10ee or Hardninge HLV. I've a 10mm PTA, next size up, with all the accouterments and love it. I struggled with urethane belt joining for a long time. The challenge is perfect alignment so you have vibration free operation and secondly there is a cure time so it should held perfectly in position for up to 30 minutes. Sans cure is why the break and the small the size the more challenging a strong perfect joint is - that comes from a conversation with a belt manufacturing when I finally asked for help. Eventually I made the following fixture and its hard not get perfect joints. Basically 4 cold rolled steel bars with holes drilled as shown and dowel pins in reamed holes to insure alignment. First you clamp both sides of the belting with say 1/8" protruding. Slip a hot knife between the halves, get the belt good and gooey, pull the knife and clamp the to sides together. Leave for half an hour, trim with nail clippers and you have a perfect belt. It works so well I had a belt manufacturer ask to quote making them for them for resell (didn't bother).
    1 point
  14. I attach mine to the underside of my desk with Velcro. This way if I forget it's there and move away/stand up I don't end up pulling the desk (or my neck!), it just detaches. Stephen
    1 point
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