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Well, A cutting broach will, of course, make the hole larger and so if you wish the hand to still fit the pivot then smoothing broach is the way to go, depends on if you want to remove material or not but be careful, even though they are smoothing broaches they may still bind in the hole as you turn and you run the risk of breaking the hand. To be fair, I have found smoothing broaches useful for clearing out stubborn debris. I remember finding what I suspect was glue in a seconds hand pipe once and couldn't use acetone due to the hand being painted. @rduckwor I have merged your "dual post" as it keeps the forum cleaner. Kindly be patient in waiting for other members to respond rather than opening new topics with the same subject matter - many people are on different time-zones - have jobs - or are simply spending time with family

A Timex by any other name? Quartron? yes, a 1970 prototype ... took a bit of work and some JerseyMo know how and here you go.

I bought some cheap ones (angled and straight) and ground them down to finer points which I keep for HS only. I also put a small elastic band around the arms which I can move up and down to 'set' the gap of the points. This stops me inadvertently letting them open too far too soon!!! BUT I still mess some HS up, hands not steady enough, and I can't mod them!!

It's not a bad procedure. I'd do two distilled rinses after the initial wash, but only 5 mins or so, then in IPA for 30 seconds to soak up the water (more and you risk softening or dissolving the shellac), the hair dryer. You're probably clean enough with that to skip the naphtha.

Hey! I've found a "secret" reset button on the scope! No need to wait anymore. Here are the pivots. The one on the balance bridge isn't easy to see, but here it is (or should I say here it isn't )

This is quite an informative document in general if you have a timegrapher: https://www.witschi.com/assets/files/sheets/Witschi Training Course.pdf Given that the amplitude is calculated by the machine as "the time between the first pulse and the third pulse of the beat noise" could there be something that is causing an unexpected noise in between that is causing the timegrapher to throw up its wrong calculation? It's perhaps notable that the machine's calculation and your observation are a factor of two out (152 vs 300+).

You don't need a smoothing broach for a hand. The smoothing broaches are for smoothing the in side of a bush. These ready to use bushes, the brass is so soft a cutting broach is all you need, if you look in side the bush after cutting it is left smooth so much it looks as if it has been burnished. That is all a smooth broach does, is burnish. Always use good broaches, they will always keep there cutting edges. Cheap won't last long.

Hi everyone! So I’ve just picked up my first Omega and to be honest I am very excited to start this project! It’s an Omega Chronostop with a broken balance and tangles mainspring but otherwise mechanically seems in good shape. I’ve accumulated all the pieces necessary to do the repair mechanically so now I’m on to the case. I’d like to get it restored back to original but not quite sure where to go. I brought the case in to my nearest Omega dealer and they said it could not be sent to a service centre to be re-done as I dont have any original paperwork. Since there is a sunburst finish on the case a lapping machine would be ideal. Can a person send in a case independently from a dealer to Omega? If not, can anyone recommend a case restorer that could bring it back close to original finishes? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sort of a seiko meets timex affair.

When you wind, you turn the winding pinion which engages the crown wheel. That engages the ratchet wheel, which is fixed to the barrel arbor. This winds the mainspring up around the arbor. As it unwinds, it turns the barrel. This takes 35ish to 50ish hours on a normal watch. If the barrel turns at the same rate as the ratchet wheel while winding there is a serious issue (entire escapement missing, center wheel derivetted to its pinion...).

Thank you. I have a donor on its way, it will arrive in three or four days and I'll clean it to use its balance. I know I'll end up searching for a donor for the donor, as always. My amateur cleaning procedure is a bit long and not necessarily correct, but here I go: 1.- Hot water + detergent + amonia: 20 minutes in my cheap chinese ultrasonic. 2.- Distilled water: 20 minutes in the US. 3.- Drying with a hair dryer. 4.- Naphta: 20 mins. in the US 5.- Drying with a hair dryer. 6.- IPA: 20 mins in the SU 7.- Drying with a hair dryer. After the cleaning I inspect the jewels and use woodsticks/rodico if needed.

Don't know is there are any lesson's on this subject, I have done mine okay and it back in the watch working . thanks to the guy's here again

Ugh. I see broaches are not free either. Something else to add into the "Want List". Projects get set aside until I can get back to them and I am running out of room as I go broke! But I'm having a fantastic time. Thanks Mark!

A 1973 champagne gold sunburst cased Timex Marlin with a well preserved cross hair dial on my wrist today. It looks and run a whole lot better than it did when it arrived, although there are a few minor pin marks on the crystal which didn't quite polish out. I spotted it this lot, and was the only bidder, so I landed the whole bunch well within the 404 club rules. In fact they work out at sixty five pence each. I'll see how many of the rest I can get going, and keep you posted.

I have use a pin vice for chronograph second hands, you can do it, but only if you are talking a couple of hundredths of a mm. Go slowly tighten only a little bit and test fit, easy to close it a bit more, real PITA if you go too far and have to open it out again with broach. Bergeon of course sells a special tool to do this if you have a few hundred pound spare, else get by with a pin vice, just make sure it is a good quality one that closes evenly so all sides (or 4 spots evenly spaced) get closed in evenly.

I forgot to say what type of end is on the mainspring? If its a T end make sure you have it sitting in the slot when you push it out and for other types make sure the end is placed so it is close to the catch on the barrel wall so the spring does not need to move to far to lock into place, if it has to move too far before it catches it may slip past and not catch.

Orient is quietly owned by Seiko, and they are lively on the market having many aficionados. Check US website, much more enjoyable than the JDM one. https://www.orientwatchusa.com/

Yes you can. Just make sure you have the spring sitting the correct way round to go in the barrel and set the barell down on a hard surface, place the mainspring inside the barrel still in its holder and find something that is just smaller than the surround to gently push it out. If its an automatic watch make sure to apply breaking grease to the barrel first.

You are correct, although the Pinion will tend to take the easiest path and may slide into the existing slots. To tell you the truth, I would stake it on and then put a bit of JB Weld on the back side just to make sure it is secure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Right on Joe without confirming that the pivots are intact there is no point second guessing. Judging the movement looking at the video as Andy remarked "top pivot" worn broken etc.

Yes, I forgot to mention that I also checked the endshake, and although I haven't done it before so I don't have some experience to compare to, I think it moves too much up and down. Also with the naked eye I can see that it slows and the amplitude falls when I turn it to dial up, so I'm quite sure that pivot is damaged.

Looking at the video, my gut feeling is that the top pivot (balance cock end pivot) is worn elliptical, bent/damaged or perhaps even missing. The view down through the top jewel doesn't seem to show any signs of the pivot moving, which I would expect to see when looking down through the jewel, suggesting it is short or missing. Can you feel excessive vertical or lateral movement in the balance if you move it gently? It should be possible to replace the balance staff, if this is the case, but that may be outwith the scope of your tooling, as it is not a simple job without the right tools.

It would help if we could see a picture of the timing machine results. Then preferably two positions would be nice at a minimum. One of the dial positions and crown up because it's a pocket watch. Then a picture of the balance wheel would be nice preferably when it's not running so we can see what it looks like.

The pinion teeth likely left slight indents in the hole. As you put it back together place the tooth in the middle of these and you may achieve good friction without massaging the wheel first.

This is from the second wash of the Sekonda. You could make soup out of it. The rest of the images are dial and date ring pictures just for the record. I may attempt to convert them in to clear backed water slide transfers to fix the dial and date ring if I get the time. The graph paper has 5mm squares.

Well guys, after almost 1 month of work I have a working clock.

Hi, i'm sure I've seen a watch maker pushing in a new mainspring, straight from the surround it come's in, is this correct.? If so can anyone tell me the right way of doing this...many thanks....Bill

You are posting int the wrong forum, should be "watch repair help". Not everyone scans all threads. You can also ask mods to move you posting by clicking "report post" which appears hovering on the share icon top right of any posting.