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Hi Guys for your interest there is a PDF source on "google drive, " If you are interested give it a go you will probably find most of what you are looking for, there are always some missing (SWATCH products) but the older ones are there. good hunting

@AndyHull and I have been chatting, and we think it's time to formalize the 404 Club. 404 is the HTTP standard response code returned when a file (page) is requested and not found. You've probably seen the "404 Not Found" page a few times in your internetting adventures. Turns out though, watches can be found for such a tiny sum! Some surprisingly nice ones even! Every currency doesn't have the same buying power though. Fortunately, the Dollar to Pound conversion at the moment works out to about $5.00, and the 500 response code means there's an internal server error... Not quite poetic, but at least it's on theme. Similarly, Euro to Pound works out to €4.50. 450 is specific to Microsoft and means "Blocked by Windows Parental Controls" ... So you guys behave! So the way this works is you buy a watch for your currency/error code plus reasonable shipping (I've been saying $10 max unless I really like the watch, in which case I'll stretch to $15; the point is to avoid those $1 buy $200 shipping scams), fix it up for as little as possible, then add it to your personal collection, sell it off to pay for the next one, gift it to a friend, hang it around your neck as a tribute to Flavor Flav, or whatever else strikes your fancy! Somewhere in there though, post a picture of it here!

I’m also into vintage camera equipment but stick to just two cameras these days - an Olympus OM4 and a FED 2 which is a Leica rangefinder copy. Wouldn’t fancy doing camera repair!

@rodabod I was very nearly in that situation myself. It's an easy mistake to make for a naive vintage watch collector. Modern top brands are so expensive, but reasonable looking watches from those same brands in the 60s are inexpensive and readily available. This is also the case with one of my other loves -- vintage camera equipment.

I bet some buyers end up spending more on servicing costs that the original outlay for the new watch in the first place. That doesn’t really make sense to me.

Here is a link for instructions on how to upload pdf's to google drive https://gsuitetips.com/tips/drive/save-pdfs-and-web-pages-directly-to-drive/. Google drive has to be down loaded to you PC as a programme and this then allows you to access the cloud.

Thanks all for your thoughts. As luck would have it, the cannon pinions and wheels were all there, I made up a new post for the cannon pinion, managed to file down the hand setting to make it the same size as the winding square. The watch goes like a train, gains 4 minutes a day, so I'm not complaining, also I found a new loop and made up the pusher for opening up the back. I know it wasn't really worth doing, I just did it because......

I hope that replaced parts are returned to the owner, demanding collectors may be willing to pay dearly but they become very unsettled by loss of total originality when even slightly different, "service parts" are fitted.

This is a great idea. I am willing to contribute as well!

Even better!

Hi Joe Under the heading resources there could be put a heading to enable us to either drio in the link, or the PDF's as we pick them up, Maybe one for the future. I have a fair collection on my machines and would willingly put them up. Google drive I belive is a source on the net.

Hi Len At Your service I have attached a copy of the ronda 726. I myself usually keep more than one copy some on another computer and some on a flash drive just in case. 1450_RH726 (2).pdf

thanks! its a clone of the Elgin Madame Jenny.

Well, that was so easy as to be anticlimactic. I figured 30 minutes was enough curing for a glue I would be removing with acetone anyway, so I gave it a shot using my desktop jeweler's vise (cushioned by some soft plastic). I wouldn't have tried this without a case vice except that I noticed the design of the lugs gave two nice reinforced perpendicular surfaces that would fit easily into a jeweler's vice without significant risk of damage. Slow, even pressure with a 1 1/8" wrench opened the caseback on my first attempt. Easy peasy. Thanks all for the advice!

Depending upon the Age of the tech sheet you will find Variations especially for lubrication. I don't have a timeline but it goes in this order 9010 originally although the earlier tech sheets of other recommendations. then 941 comes out. Later 9415 a grease originally for higher frequency watches. Then the tech sheets were either or and it didn't have anything to do with frequency. Finally 9415 is the choice for everything. Okay to be technical it's not for everything there are some other specialty lubrication's but for this discussion it's 9415. I've attached a newer PDF of your watch and it's 9415. Also first link you can see the oil listed and that just says it's for escapement's. That on the grease section you'll find the 9415. http://www.moebius-lubricants.ch/en/products/oils http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&ETA_2836 ETA CT_2836-2_FDE_481924_17-1 2018.pdf

This is one of my first watches. I own it for more than 40 years and I stored it for years after it fell and the crystal snapped. Seven years ago I decided to restore it . I went for two or three watchmakers for an estimate but In the end I decided to do it on my own. Had to Redial/Relume, find a new crystal, gaskets, hands, bezel spring and movement overhaul. Took me a while and finally finished it a few weeks ago. I’m very pleased to wear it again (though I’m not planning to dive with it) The original watch looked like this: There was a lot on my list: There were scratches on the dial and the black lost its depth, The lume was in bad shape (though the lettering was better.) The hands were missing, and I had to find something that resembles the original hands (“Hens teeth”) The Mineral Crystal broke long ago and I had to find crystal and gasket(s) The rotating bezel had to be polished and repainted. The bezel click spring was missing. The crown gasket over the years became black goo and had to be replaced. The crown tube gasket was missing (I didn't know it at this point) The movement was in fair shape, but has to be serviced. As I wrote I decided to do it all by my own after I received several estimates from watchmakers (I guess this was my intention from the beginning but I didn't have the know how nor the confidence.) Took this as a project and had to dig for information. Since there are few versions of this watch I had to find the right info. Some restored a similar but not the same version and I had to dig for the right info. The dial: I sent the dial to Robert Miller at international dial company. He told me he has the original dies for the “professional” sub (The orange sub) for this watch he had to change it to sharkhunter. (this was seven years ago, now I see the company changed its location and website) You can compare the before and after. The Hands As the original hands were lost, and there are no originals to be found.I Found very similar ones at Yobokies. This sub uses Eta 2472 movement (aka doxa 118), which uses the same hand size as seiko. Yobokies (and dagaz) sells seiko mods, one of them is the soxa mod or axos mod which mods the seiko to look like the doxa sub. The ”soxa” hands looks very similar to the sub’s hands. Since they were meant for slightly bigger dial, I had to shorten the seconds hand. I was also happy to see that the lume color on the dial and hand were the same. The crystal and the crystal gaskets. Since the crystal broke years ago I had to find one that fits. I was a little bit confused from what I saw on the net until I realized there are few versions of the sub. In the synchron sub for example (A later version of this watch- from the time synchron company purchased doxa) the crystal is a thick flat mineral glass. It is inserted from the front and held by a thick visible orange gasket. In this version the the crystal is a stepped glass, 3.6mm thick approx, it is inserted from the back of the watch and held by a screw in retainer ring, with no visible gasket. Because it is not manufactured anymore, some watchmakers produces a close clone by bonding two flat crystals in different thickness and size. This guy on the bay produces this crystal by copying an original one(as he said). He posted it as a “DOXA SUB 300T Sharkhunter” crystal unaware of the various possible versions for this title. At the time I wasn't sure it will fit mine, so I made one using the watchmakes method by bonding two crystals to one using ultraviolet curing bond. At the same time I was looking for a fit gasket when I stumbled on a post in this forum . Now You can’t see the original post’s images, but in this image (from the post) I found that the Crystal was held by two (probably the same) gaskets (the gaskets on the center of the image). Ordered some gaskets in various possible sizes and choose what fitted best. The gaskets fits the inside of the watch and around the wider bottom side of the crystal. It is all held by a screw-in retainer ring. (bottom left ring in the image above). Can’t tell if this was the original design, and I didn’t make any pressure test (yet) This is the crystal and gaskets I used: The rotating bezel At the time I didn't notice the bezel has polished and brushed parts, so I polished it all, and colored the marks and numbers using nail polish lacquer. On the luminous dot I used epoxy glue mixed with luminous powder. It was one of the first things I did on the watch and left it as is. The bezel spring Had to create a new bezel spring following this post. I used dentist's 0.8mm stainless steel wire but I wasn't sure what of the exact wire girth, so I ordered from AliExpress various wire sizes. Made this spring. It's not perfect but it's doing the job. The crown gaskets The original crown gasket became black goo long ago. Couldn't find any information regarding this screw down crown. The closest design I found was Rolex twinlock crown . From the shape of the crown and tube I assumed the possible sizes of both case and crown gaskets. I ordered some possible gaskets sizes and used the ones that fitted best. I added even one more gasket around the case tube to imitate the Rolex triplock (obviously unnecessary...) The Movement In this watch doxa used the Doxa 118 movement - a slightly modified eta 2472 movement. The movement had to be serviced. On some point on this long period I decided to service it on my own. It was the most intimidating part of this restoration because I had to learn this from zero. Bought some old movements on the bay for cheap, bought some required tools and started to take them apart and rebuilt them again. After I gained some confidence I did it on the doxa. I made some damage but found the right replacement parts (One of my discoveries was that movement springs tend to fly and disappear while flying…). It took me longer than I thought. For couple of years I left it in the box, but the covid19 period gave me little time to get back to it and finish the job. more to do Need to regulate the watch, probably after I will build a proper timegrapher mic. Maybe pressure test: just to check how waterproof is it. I’m not planning to dive with it. Bor bracelet: maybe yobokies. found this on alibaba but minimum order is 200… Thanx Gabriel (This was also posted on Watchuseek doxa forum few weeks ago)

Here is the watch that started it all. A Sicura "Voyageur" 17 jewel Ronda automatic.

One further point. That watch dial looks fairly recent, probably 60s or 70s however it only says Swiss Made Generally if the dial did contain radioactive material it would be tritium, which as far as I recall is only a relatively low level beta emitter. BUT The if my estimate of the age of the dial is correct, then the dial would then generally say T - Swiss Made - T Where the T stands for Tritium. This has been a requirement in the Swiss watch industry since the 1960s I suspect therefore your dial and hands are Zinc Sulphide lumed, which is almost completely radologically inert, and not a particularly effective lume. There is an interesting article on lume here -> http://www.kronometric.org/article/lume/#4.0