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Thanks VWatchie, much appreciated! I'll look into the things you're suggesting and we'll see where it goes!

Can we resolve the ethical issue if I put "Bolex" on it in the Rolex font, (Brando + Rolex). It will get someone from a distance who knows watches to engage in a conversation but when they actually look at it I have to explain quickly what it is about. Deal?

This will help you to understand some of the parts and set up.

Ammonia is a good cleaning agent, with the added benefit as said by jdm that it brightens brass. It has been linked to stress cracks in brass, primarily antique clocks; it seems not to be an issue in watches. As with anything the concentration level and time spent in are big factors, I remember a student forgetting a watch in the cleaning machine at school over a weekend and all the plating was gone and the brass parts visibly pitted. One sees movements that have likely been serviced a dozen times in the past with similar etching of parts and plating. Bottom line is it's a traditional and effective part of many cleaning formulas. I use one that is lightly ammoniated, and a clock solution where the ammonia content combines with oleic acid to form a soap that is very gentle to even old brass. Biggest issue is probably whether you can stand the odor, as stonger solutions can be quite pungent.

Hi, it will take clamping collets for pivot drills. Frank

WOO HOO!!- I live in Sheffield!! I have this Vostok true 24 hour new old stock manual wind coming next week! The owner of 'The Watch Forum' found four, Tested them and they were fine so he offered them for sale but only one per member, I looked in the sales forum at exactly the right time! It was only £25 posted!, It's 44mm across and has a screw down crown and come on the bracelet- The bezel actually rotates too! John

We'll keep looking over your shoulders, or is it breathing in your neck Tada

"Testing if the mainspring barrel spins freely takes just a moment and rules out one of the most vexing causes of low amplitude. If you don’t do this and get a watch running at 230 degrees dial up, you’ll run around in circles trying to troubleshoot the problem. Good amplitude starts at the mainspring barrel, so scrub and spin that sucker." From the article: Testing Barrels Before Inserting Mainsprings Seems very much in line with your approach @Endeavor!

Hi Gary from the pictures I would surmise that the back is removable but judging by the dial size the movement comes out through the front either by removing the crystal or removing the bezel and crystal. once the back is off you will probably find. the screws securing the movement to the case. I am unable to locate at present any technical info on the Geneva sport 50 other than Ranfft. Cheers

Sorry for being a bit laconic in my previous replies. I was playing table tennis and watching football (Everton - Manchester United) with my 10 year old son while thinking about my amplitude problems. Anyway, now I have a few minutes of quietude. Having re-read the posts in this thread and your recent posts and the more I've been thinking about it, the more convinced I am that the going barrel needs to be gotten out of the movement and investigated. I'll try @nickelsilver's method as shown here. I just love that sentence. For someone who didn't do anything mechanical for 55 years, watch movements oftentimes still feel like an enigma to me. I know well how the various parts of a watch work and interact with one another from a theoretical point of view, but I still haven't been able to fully transform this into an abstraction where things and events feel perfectly obvious. I'm getting there though! Yes, looking at the first video again it does seem to indicate that further investigation is required. For those having made the fundamentals of how a watch movement works into an abstraction, that's likely very obvious, but not so to me (not quite yet anyway). Anyway, now I'm thinking that if the train was perfectly free (from the barrel arbor to the escape wheel pinion) then touching the crown (which is what I'm doing first in the video after having "over unwound" the mainspring) should not make the wheels spin, but they sure do. I think I was fooled by the fact that as soon as I touch the winding crown the train starts to spin, but that indicates that there's power trapped within the mainspring barrel which is released when I tap the crown. If there was no power in the mainspring, because all of it had already been released to the train, nothing should happen when I tap the crown. Seems pretty obvious to me now! I will and I want to! Thank you! And if I run into some "enigma" I'll report back and you can give me your opinion which is immensely appreciated! I will even assemble the barrel without the mainspring to make sure it has shake and spins freely. If not I'll adjust it with my staking set as described here. Yes, I got myself a staking set too. When will it ever end?! Thanks, for your feedback @Endeavor I was beginning to feel very lonely here, but not so any longer!

Today I'm wearing the 2 tone silver dial brother of the black dial Timex Big Q I wore the other day. This one also has the original bracelet.

Hadley on the left is about 7 while Winston is just about 2. Hadley, for the writer Homer Hadley Hickam whose story of "Paco" convinced me to adopt a cat after some years without one and Winston, after Churchill. We were asked to foster Winston for a month as the shelter was over burdened with kittens. He exhibited some British Short hair characteristics. Hence... "Paco: The Cat Who Meowed In Space" is a nice short read for Kindle users. Heart warming and inspiring for cat lovers, it is also full of insider NASA information if one is interested in space travel. Who could possibly not be! Of course, no financial interest in Hickam on my part. Just a fan.

Hi all Noob here!! I'm in Sheffield (Used to be known as Steel City, I've worked for 40 years in a Heavy foundry!!), In England and have collected watches for around 45 years, I've amassed a bit of a collection in that time and used to repair them until arthritic fingers/thumbs were causing tools to slip from my grasp I sold my National Electric parts washer as it was stood doing nothing but I still do bits like fitting cells/bracletes and replace crystals etc with watches! I've boughtabout five or six watches in the last couple of weeks which include a couple of Dan Henrt, Seiko, Orient and Vostok! Some of mine.. I'll shut up now before I put everyone to sleep!! Cheers, John

Yes, of course......., I could have known from looking and some thinking So, the test in the video is inconclusive. Also, in the 2nd video you needed far too many spring-power to get the balance going. Normally, say 5-6 clicks, max 1/4 of a turn of the ratchet wheel should be enough to get the balance-wheel ticking over. That doesn't seem to be the case. Leaves you with a systematic trouble shooting, to find out where the fault or faults is/are. There is no magic to a movement and the starting point is the main-spring. The power transfer from the main-spring to the escapement and than the escapement self. Before you started on your watch it was running around 260 degrees horizontally, so there wasn't and couldn't have been that much wrong with it in the first place. Sometimes people get too hang-up on the amplitude alone. My suggestion is to start from scratch again. Redo the main-spring (clean/oil). Build the bare (with nothing attached to it) power-train up (with clean pegged jewels and pegged pivots) and see how it performs; ideally you see recoil in the escape wheel. It should run smooth until the main-spring is fully unwound, no tapping required. When you know the train is fine, you can exclude that from the "trouble"-list and focus on the next, the escapement. You know how I think about the fantastic Moebius 9415, so go initially for the Dr.Tillwich 1-3 . If you don't get a ticking balance with a few clicks of the ratchet, you have to separate and split your focus on escape-wheel/fork and fork / balance-wheel. Remember, unless you've done something to it, there wasn't much wrong with those items in the first place, so no point in bending / aligning hairsprings etc. Let's get first back to where you started. All should be done without anything attached to the power-train. Let's get first the movement running before attaching all the horns & whistles.

The only time fumes will be an issue is when the jar is opened. I use L&R 566 which is labeled non-ammoniated, BUT it does contain ethanolamine which stinks like ammonia. I typically run the cleaner jar in the buzz box for 15" and then two L&R rinses for 5" each. I still have to clean some jewels manually and then rinse again. Good Luck, RMD

Serial number shows it as a 3/0 size Waltham Equity. My Waltham parts book from shows the 1907 "O" size, which I believe shares parts with the 1907 3/0, as having a mainspring number of 2230. The 2228 is for the model 1900 "O" size, and is narrower/shorter and thicker. The serial number shows as a 1907 model 3/0 in my serial number book. Good luck.

New evil plan. I will create a sheath over the broken shaft and pivot by drilling a hole in a piece of blued steel, just smaller than the shaft. Then I will friction fit the shaft inside the new steel part. Then I will grave down the long pivot to .24mm for the second hand pivot. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yep, often you are your best own teacher .....

Well, as this thread doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of love I’ll see if I can give you some ideas VWatchie. My experience is limited, but as far as I can see the train doesn’t seem to suffer from any drag, so I really don’t think there’s any need to check the barrel arbor shake. Also, I noticed it took about a minute or so for the balance to stop oscillating (without the pallet installed) after you started it with that piece of peg wood, so I think that’s fine too. So, train and balance seem to be in good shape now that you have adjusted the HS with the help of nickelsilver (well done btw!) The way I see it, things start to go bad once you replace the pallet. Now that you’ve pegged the pallet jewel holes and the pallet pivots did you check its shake and that the pallet is swinging freely? Also, have you checked the status of the pallet stones? Use your tweezers to make sure they aren’t loose or angled in some strange direction. While you’re at it, take a look and feel at the impulse jewel and the roller just to make sure everything seems OK. I know this calibre has fixed banking so it wouldn’t be easy to make any adjustments if needed. Nevertheless, test the pallet banking just to make sure the guard pin doesn’t lock up when banking. Of course, it could be a matter of the pallet stones locking too deeply into the escape wheel teeth. I did see in the video that the balance locks up in the same position each time it stops. As already mentioned, my experience is very limited in this field, but I still think that it is plausible explanation. I’m sure more experienced members can confirm or refute this idea as needed. Anyway, you mentioned that you have another Unitas 6325 with a near perfect amplitude so why not test your movement with its pallet. If it solves the problem, you’ll know for sure it is that pallet that’s causing the low amplitude and locking the balance. Good luck and keep us updated!

Hello and welcome to the forum. The steel city, I looked after some computers at Edgar Allen and British steel some years ago, at least you can breath the air now not chew it

Hi Have you got the case back off =, If so what make is the module. Can you supply close up pics of the movement.. The hole you mentioned marked push is for stem removal. Them perhaps I can find the tech sheets for this module and be of some help. Cheers

What you must see is continuity (usually about 2Kohms) across the coil, but to do this you usually have to remove the circuit so as not to get a false reading...

Sadly some ham fisted battery changers, when removing the back of a quartz watch, 'follow through' with the back removing implement and nick an exposed coil, rendering it open circuit, and surprise surprise, it doesn't run with a new battery...............

Give a read to the answers above.

After you've done a few they take the same time (or less) than an 861. Even with the additional complications of automatic and date.

Some of the custom dial designs I posted are most certainly homage, since the original manufacturer did not produce anything similar (although other manufacturers did). This for example. I guess the issue really boils down to motive, and if the motive is to create a fake, and pass it off as the real thing, in order to con someone in to parting with the value of the real item, then there is a problem. There is a fine line between what is art, and what is not. Even the use of trademarks is legitimate if the result is unique and interesting as Mr Warhol demonstrated. It may not be to your tastes and may in fact annoy you, but motive is everything here.

That just goes in the center, over the day ring. The dial keeps it in place.

Agree, since housing is commonly set as you say " above" the main plate, so the spring groove is accessible, On this piece, however, someone may have pushed it in, perhaps for end shake adjustment. Regards

Very nice.

I competition agree! Although, to be honest.. I'm not sure I'd put my own name on a watch.

Very difficult to find those hamilton parts for a 992

Thank you for the kind compliment Mark. It’s incredible how a little cat can become such an integral part of your family. We are all missing her greatly. Time is is a healer, but we’ll never forget her. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well the story had a happy ending - for those of you who’ve been on the edge of your seat, holding your breath in anticipation of a conclusion. The parts were installed without issue. I finished up the service of the movement. Regulated, tested, and re-cases it. It’s wearing well and I can breath a little sigh of relief. Actually, this has put me on to want to work on more movements like this. Time to find me some broken Rolex watches! (Do those evening exist anywhere????) Thanks again to everyone for your help!!! Don’t know where I’d be without a forum like this. No, wait, on second thought I do, up s**** creek!

I traded a watch with a friend for a fake Tudor Black Bay, It's a lovely solid watch but I can't bring myself to wear it as it makes me feel cheap and fake, I never thought i'd have scruples about it! Well! I just went through sixteen pages of watches in my Imgur account and it seems i've not even taken a pic of it!! John

Hi I've been wearing a couple of recent incomings! Dan henrt 1963 Pilots Chrono, It has the SR71 Lockheed Blackbird on the case back! This is number 0348 of a run of 1,963 pieces Also been alternating bewteen this Dan henry 1968 Dragster chrono This one is number 0318 of 1,968 pieces.. John

Someone has to have this part before I seriously damage myself trying to repivot the current one. The Jewel hole is around .24mm Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I really can't decide if Brandon's watch is beat up, because it was a movie prop, or beat up because the poor thing got beat up as a result of the anarchy that took place while filming the movie. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-strained-making-of-apocalypse-now-1758689.html Either way, re-creating it is a legitimate goal as far as I am concerned, after all, I have to confess to being subscribed to Adam Savage, and if it comes out half as realistic as his blade runner binoculars (spoiler alert, they are fake too), then I await the results with interest. EDIT: Is that a Seamaster he's wearing? EDIT2: I do believe it might be. -> https://iknowwatches.com/adam-savage-myth-busters-watches/

There is a kif tool you can buy for these springs See here or you can shape a piece of peg wood by slightly hollowing the middle

No eBay is not censored in Turkey, (other sites are} and even if it was VPN are normally used to circumvent, but the OP cannot use PayPal as he explained above. Other countries are also like that for sure, or impose crazy duties, etc.

Hi sorry did not realise you guys are limited , what have you got access to in the way of a market place. We sort of take it for granted the fact we have free access to the web uncensored. cheers

Difficult to argue with that since you are unwilling to share your "method", however, since the subject of this thread is "CUSTOM DECAL DIAL TUTORIAL", and not some mysterious secret "method" let me address the subject of longevity of decals. Decal making has a long history, dating back through the centuries, and is arguably as old as the act of tracing an image on to a substrate, however the modern process, it could be argued really took off some time in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. (19th century "Decalomania" Vase) One of those credited with its invention was the engraver Simon François Ravenet ( a contemporary and assistant of the English painter, print maker and satirist William Hogarth). The process has evolved into a stable of modern industry, with decals appearing on all manner of substrates and in all kinds of processes. The process used in the waterslide decals described in this thread, for use on watch dials is almost identical to the process used on children's toys throughout the 20th century, with everything from clockwork tin plate Hornby locomotives to Matchbox and Dinky cars being adorned with water slide decals. Any process that can survive the actions of a child playing with it could hardly be described as anything other then very robust, assuming the surface on to which the decal is being applied, is clean and blemish free, and the decal is applied according to the prescribed method. Clearly the only way to know if these dials will stand the test of time is to wait 100 years and see if they are every bit as legible as their early 20th century counterparts, however, considering that they will generally not be subject to abrasion, moisture, harsh UV light or solvents, and that their surface is sealed with a waterproof lacquer, I have no reason to doubt that they should bear up just fine.

This watch isn't about the quality. It's about the fun of making it. Like making a model car. I had a good time making it and adding my own details that weren't' there like mud splatter and a rust spot on the fender. I also think it's a good fishing lure at social events. I think someone who knows watches would ask about this thing. Regular people wouldn't. Gouges and scratches on the case? Where's the Bezel? Did that used to belong to an underwater welder who worked on wounded submarines like a road side assistance service of the sea? I think my first response is going to be that "It was a nice watch but the guy I stole it from put up a fight and the alley way fight that ensued took a tool on everyone including the watch." I rarely ask about common high end watches people have in social gatherings. So many who own them only have them for status. Most can't tell you the history of it or why they even got it, other than "I liked it." Even if the inquisitive individual thinks it's stupid to make a fake beat up Rolex based on a picture I saw of a movie prop, at least I found a watch guy to talk to.

Just because it's not in the book Every stone has a statue inside it's up to the sculptor to find it .

Hi Watchie you might find this interesting its an old book by FW Brittan on springing and adjusting watches cheers practical springing.pdf

I have now cleaned the movement of the clock and after being under test for a week it has been re instated into the case and just needs adjusting for time keeping over the next couple of weeks, the clock had very little wrong with it, minor wear to the pallets and a broken spring on the maintaining power ratchet. below is a copy of the original patent application form: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/cb/23/0f/34b4fc44f86b51/US1468267.pdf The main advantage for the use of two trains in a chiming clock was to simplify the servicing and Maintenance of the clock and reduce manufacturing costs it also allowed the movement to be much more compact than a traditional three train chiming clock of the period, although most of the mantle and bracket clocks made where in appearance no smaller than three train clocks of the time with the exception of some of the mantle clocks with platform escapement which where very compact in design. The movement was best employed in the construction of Grandfather clocks with Tubular bells which before where very large and imposing in size, the compact design also made it practical to manufacture Grandmother clocks with tubular bells, having been recently shown a 9 tube grandmother clock by a collector that was even smaller than the rod chiming one I now own. The key to the design is the ability to seamlessly split the drive between chime and strike, in order to do that the design has a two part contrate geared chime strike drum that allows the chime barrel to be locked and drive transferred to the strike via a differential gear as seen in the photos below: side view of movement with chime strike barrel in situe In order to lock and unlock the chime and strike a large V-shaped lever is used When chiming the lever is pushed to the right by a spring this engages the lever with the striking wheel pins preventing it from running but allowing power to the chime drum. The clock works in much the same way a Ting Tang type clock would it is fitted with a rack that has twin rack tails one for the quarter chime sequence and one for the hour chime/strike sequence which can only engage with the hour snail when a cut out section of the quarter snail is reached near the hour as shown below: In order to lock the chime and unlock the strike a tension spring is employed, this is connected to the V shape locking lever and is tensioned on the hour by a pin located on the quarter chime snail this pushes the lever to the left but is prevented from moving by the rim of the chime barrel after a full 16 note chime sequence the lever engages with a slot on the chime barrel rim locking it, at the same time this disengages the lock on the strike and that begins to run striking the hours. At about 5 past the hour the pin on the snail releases tension on the spring and the V-shape lever is pushed out of the slot on the chime barrel and back on to the hour strike pins allowing once again quarter chiming.

blockquote widget That guard pin appears to be quite bent, (upward as per this pic) normally these would be straight and in between the horns when viewed from above. That in itself could cause a binding and dragging on the impulse jewel in one of the positions according to endshake and movement of the pallet fork and balance.

Sorry about your mishap, unfortunately I can't help in locating a spare part, I surely hope you can find it, try an UltraViolet LED light in darkness. Incidentally is for very good reasons that is common advice to work on anything that could remotely fly off inside a clear plastic bag. Ask me how do I know that is sound advice that doesn't cost a penny, for beginners, intermediate, and why not - pro's.

My Watchmaker Cat - working at our old set up in the dining room.

So I picked up this bad boy on eBay from someone in Spain. It's pretty messed up cosmetically, and missing a heeled bush and a removing punch. Considering all that, I definitely overpaid, but oh well. I don't know how rare these are to find on eBay, so I just decided to grab it. I scraped off all the old flaking paint and found a very similar color paint at Michaels. Not a very professional job and you can see some brush strokes, but all in all it's much better. I know the colors look off in the pictures, but that's a camera white balance issue. In real life the colors are very similar... a completely unattractive greenish gray oatmeal. Why Bergeon used this color I'll never know. Carefully removed the rust from the metal plate with steel wool and very very fine sandpaper. Did the same with the punches and bushes which had a nice coat of oxidation on them, then put them through the ultrasonic like they were watch parts. The original chrome plating had worn away on the top knurled nut, but not to fear! I busted out my little Caswell "Plug N Plate" kit and used "copy chrome" (real chrome plating is dangerous and pretty toxic apparently, but I can't see much of a difference between old chrome plate and Caswell's 'copy chrome' - looks about the same). The biggest unknown was if I could find replacement punches / bushes and yep! I just ordered them from perrinwatchparts.com... they were super expensive. I definitely overpaid for these, but again, oh well. I just wanted the tool to be complete. So ta da! I now have a Platax tool. I'm going to break out one of my many Bulova movements with a broken staff and experiment with using this tool on the poor thing. I don't know the I really needed this tool, per se. I have a nutcracker - type roller remover which works pretty well (I might have broken a few staffs by squeezing a little too much, but those staffs were broken anyway), and I have the little K & D balance remover tools for my staking set. I don't see how the Platax tool would be so so much better than the K & D tool, and I'd imagine any objections or concerns about the K & D tool widening the hole in the balance by using force instead of cutting out the old staff would also apply to the Platax tool, no? It also uses force to drive out the old staff while keeping the balance arms pinned. So maybe I didn't strictly need this, but when it popped up on eBay I couldn't resist, because I want to be able to follow along with what Mark does as closely as possible... and I'm still so new at doing this. So, now I have a Platax tool, a complete 'inverto' K & D staking set (got for under $100, go eBay!), and just picked up a Seitz Jeweling tool (ouch, that was too expensive). I am now wondering what other real watchmaker specific tools you need to have to be able to deal with most, if certainly not all, the issues you find on vintage watch movements ??? I mean, I'm not going to buy an old mechanical watch washer and put it in my one bedroom apartment in manhattan, not going to happen (at least, not if I don't want my husband to divorce me ). So I make do with a tiny, cheap Chinese made ultrasonic machine. And obviously, I'm not going to buy a lathe either, for similar reasons (space constraints, expense, plus wouldn't know how to even begin to use it)... but I'm wondering if I've covered almost everything else? In terms of being able to make watch parts, yeah, that's the holy grail. Living in manhattan comes with many advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are obviously space constraints and expense of living. But the advantages are there are lots and lots of resources. In fact, there are a few "Maker Spaces" in the city, which are co-ops you can join and you can use their tools, like CNC mills, CNC lathes, 3D printers, 3D scanners etc etc... you can join these co ops for not much money, and they teach you how to use the tools.... I know that the consensus so far is that 3D printing watch parts won't work, because the machines are not accurate enough on such a small scale. But the CNC lathes? The CNC mills? Could they do micro-machining, in theory? It's something to think about. I think I'll create another thread about that sometime. Maybe I can pick up some good tips. Anyway, hooray for overpriced watch tools! They are so much fun!