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Looks very clean. Trafalgar jump hour for me today. Non quick set date hence it being incorrect.

At this point, look all around the bridge to see no space to the plate. Final check, one stick on top of bridge, another turns the barrel, observe the escape wheel spin. Now you have all pinions in 100%. What can happen now is that while you screw in you dislodge, to prevent that keep the stick on top and drive in two opposite screws. For the rest you can relax. This is one operation where is important to have the work as high as possible.

Search for pix of genuine pieces, on sites that deal in high end watches. Best

Scraping away layers of paint and grime, revealed this 1978 Timex Marlin front loader. Dead as a door nail, and fully wound when it arrived, it is now running well. It obviously still has a few battle scars, and the crown needs some attention, but what would a vintage watch be, without a little age related character.

If the escape wheel pivot is snapped or not correctly seated it can give the appearance of jamming the train looking like it won't release power as the wheel is tilted. The only suggestion I can make is patience and if you feel like you're beginning to get frustrated. Cover it and walk away for a bit then return later, I've broken pivots more times through frustration and a desire to hurry up than carelessness or otherwise. Pin pallet movements are both good for practise in that they're plentiful and cheap but bad in that they're incredibly fiddly to get the barrel and train plate aligned. For good cheap practice movements I heartily recommend a couple of cheap HMT watches from eBay Indian sellers, you can get them for less than a tenner in auction and 10 to 15 on bin listings, they're based on a citizen, (miyota) and are quite nice to work on for practise.

Hello Ken, regarding age, complexity and probable wear of the movement, I would say the estimate is reasonable. You will have to pay similar for European/US service by experienced pros. The chronographs coming from Asia to my workshop were all butchered in some way and in worse state than an defective but untouched watch. If the watch is worth such investment will be your decision. Frank

OK, so even the magical world of watch servicing and repairing that we love so dearly is caught up by reality "once in a while"!? Dang! Who would have thought!? Add to all the things you mention taxes to be paid and overhead in the form of tools, consumables, parts, premises, etc., etc. perhaps $1000 for a complete fix and service of a vintage 1940s Phigied Monopusher with Angelus Caliber 210 is that bad after all!? Perhaps even a bit of a bargain?

Not saying it's not possible to do a manual wind watch in 1.5 hours (but it would be pushing it to do it right), but on that watch there is also uncasing, cleaning and possibly polishing the case, maybe a crystal to change, timing in 6 positions, either the face time or email time with the customer, checking it a couple days later, maybe adjust, get the case out from the safe and recase, retest, box it, or contact the customer... In a service center where someone does the case work, the emails/calls, changes the solutions in the cleaning machine, orders the oil and pithwood and toilet paper, and no work needed other than cleaning and a little hit on the regulator, yes, perhaps 1.5 hours. To do 5 in a day you could take a 15 minute lunch break and one more 15 minute break if you don't have to do anything else other than sit at the bench. But then you wouldn't get 150 per watch..... I find that out of say 10 watches, I end up spending time adjusting the escapement on at least 3, dynamic poise on several as well, there's always chasing down parts from suppliers, there's always surprises. I remembering calculating how much money I could make when I was in school and was like "why isn't everyone doing this, it like free money!!". Then I started buying tools....

In my rather weak defence, it has a blue dial... and the price was right... and ... err... well that's it really.. not much of a defence.

Professionals have a huge amount of experience, an absolutely dedicated work space, a lot of specialist equipment, often a decent stock of parts, and much more practice under their belt compared to most hobbyists. The result is that they are able to deal with much more than one watch in a day. For a standard manual wind watch with date for instance you could be looking at as little as 1.5 hours of bench time to strip, inspect, reassemble, and lubricate, provided the inspection doesn't throw up any problems. While one watch is in the cleaner the next is being stripped. So in a 7.5 hour day you could be servicing up to 5 watches provided they just require a basic service. Watch Guy charges £150 for a basic service, so that would be £750 per day, or £3750 for a 5 day week, or £180,000 for a 48 week year (4 weeks holiday). I could survive on that!!!! Obviously this is an entirely unrealistic example, and you have to cover all of your costs and overheads out of that money, but even at only 2 watches a day you're looking at £72k. It comes down to being properly set up, treating it as a job and not a hobby, and of course, having a big enough customer base to bring in the work. That being said a lot of the pros have a waiting list.

P/N PZ5072 (Steel ring) is not restricted, otherwise I couldn't put the price above already. I don't know and I don't promise that is identical to your existing one.

You aren't scammed paying the price of a genuine item, and that is quite rare. So e.g. the watch above is $40, how can one dream that is genuine?!? Buying it you're however an accessory of the crime of counterfeiting.

Thanks Frank! I shall have another go to centralise the coil when I have a go at changing the jewel/stone. I’ve got a few spare pocket watch parts which I’m hoping to have a replacement part, if not will have to buy one from somewhere... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree with the Pain in the ? , not great movements. But last 2 i did the plate went on straight away! Must have been pure luck, as usually a struggle. Mine were scrappies for practising, one has a broken pinion on the Balance, but not having the tools to sort it got put back in scrap, just not worth spending on.

Not a real Breguet coil and a good bit out of center, but I'd say: not bad for the 1st time! Frank

well done a tickelish job completed. Fiddling with regulators pis and boots often lead to disaster, a slip of the screwdriver and its all over so good control is required so one again well don to you

You have done even better shaping the next overcoil (s). Lessons won,t be just another lecture, but answer your questions. Congrat .

Somehow when putting it back together for the last time without the broken escape wheel, it runs fine when the spring is wound, all the gears spinning gently and winding it down. Also managed to get the balance wheel sat perfectly, gently moving back and forth for ages. Just when I lose hope I get it again xD I'll give it a bit and then I think I'll try, hopefully for the final time, and fix this thing once and for all

I finally managed to get the spring looking almost correct, however it appears the jewel is worn as it’s not yet free starting [emoji2955] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the face of it this does seem to be a rather enthusiastic estimate. For comparison I checked out the "Watch Guy's" online price list (this guy is well respected as an independent), and his price for a basic service on a manual wind chrono without an hour recorder is £250. This doesn't include the cost of a mainspring which he will replace so add about £20 for that, or other spare parts that are required, but it does include the crystal. As he says " All other repair work, including fitting new crystals, is usually included in the service price unless it is extensive. Case and bracelet cleaning is also included in the price, but not polishing." So all in at about £270 plus the cost of spare parts. That works out at about $330. What we don't know for sure is what parts are needed, or what the cost of procuring those parts is, although $610 is a bit ambitious to say the least.

1000 seems high if it's just a service and doesn't need parts. From the pics I can see the hairspring is in bad shape, possibly an easy adjustment, maybe not; the minute counter jumper is bent, adjusting those is a 'make or break' exercise often. Perhaps the staff is broken, if they are unavailable that would certainly push the price up several hundred bucks. It could be the estimate is high to cover eventuals, but might come out cheaper in reality. The above 250GBP seems in line with Swiss repair prices, probably similar in the U.S., for a straight service no extras.

Mark has not been taking repair work since a while, please do not set such expectations. Of course everyone is free to ask or confirm by using PM directly to him. Regarding the $1,000 estimate, that doesn't specify if any part has to be replaced, hence it could be possible that work consist simply of servicing and mainspring adjustments, I think it's not reasonable but at the same time that is what the market commands as the alternatives are few. However there are many able watchmakers with online presence, for example watchguy.co.uk which lists servicing manual wind chrono starting at GBP250. Another name that comes to mind is Archer Watches in Canada. I'm sure there are others

Sorry but I have checked with the BHI and they have no registered watch repairer in Singapore. I did notice that there are repairers on ebay but I don't know if they are reputable or if they are willing to repair Chrono's

If something is near to rocket science then making of a correct Breguet coil. Encouraging a beginner to it is like advice to ruin the rest (we saw this just recently). How can you determine the coil number and the right shape (depending from that number) by watching a video? Not mentioned the special and rare tools that are needed for the work and were discussed here recently. Frank

Thank you. Dial and hands are from Dagaz, superb quality! https://www.dagazwatch.com/apps/webstore/products/show/3654766

Either “Sir” or “Madam” should be fine