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Apologies for being uncouth- I've not put in enough effort in the community lately due to a relocation, health issues, children schooling from home, and just the general "2020 malaise" but I've got another beauty in hand that I'd like to share. This is a Jardur Bezelmeter (model 960), probably from around 1945, which I picked up from eBay this week. It cost a pretty penny too but it's a piece that's been on my wishlist for a long time and this particular one ticked all the boxes. The Bezelmeter has an interesting history- from what I have read it was marketed primarily to aviators and military personal during the 1940's and according to legend was commonly sold through military post exchanges. Collectors seem to believe that the watches often served active service members. Advertisements from the period make it clear they were marketed as tool for the adventurous professional. Introduced more than a decade before the Navitimer and Breguet Type 20, it was certainly a watch ahead of it's time. It's quite a large watch at 38mm and exhibits all of those traits we usually associate with a Pilot Watch- luminous hands, blackened dial, tachymetre scale, and of course the chronograph function. Specialty features include the countdown bezel and 180 degree scale on the dial (useful to pilots executing a standard rate of turn). The movement is shock protected, the case is stainless steel and water resistant with a screw down caseback and cork seals; all fairly unusual features for a watch of this age. All the Bezelmeters I've seen house either a Valjoux 71 or 72 movement inside. I prefer the former as the earlier Valjoux 71 Bezelmeters had slightly larger cases and sported the more elegant cathedral hands. The movement in my Bezelmeter needs a service (naturally) as it only runs for a few seconds. I can't wait to get to it but unfortunately I've already got a line of other watches to clear out first.

I use stock hands or aftermarket hands, depending on what I think looks good. I tend to use stock hands (with their awesome lumibrite) more, but sometimes I switch it up. I'd like to say that this is always an intentional choice, but sometimes I fumble the hand installation and break a factory hand. I've gotten way better at installing watch hands, but I'm still not perfect. I am considering purchasing a Horotec Watch Tool Hand Press after a particularly painful and expensive loss of a handset from a watch I really liked. I'll be posting separately on this. No plans for indices, lumed or unlumed, in the future ... other than the blued chapter rings I'm still working on. I need to recover my initial costs before buying the equipment I need to ensure a consistent blue, so the chapter rings are still paused. That'd be cool, but no way in heck I'm capable of that. I'll leave that to the pros. ? For whatever reason, I've never owned or desired to own a chronograph. I spent a few hours photographing the watches I've built to date instead of grinding fordite dials over the weekend. I'd like to write a guide for watch photography for folks ... but I've still got a ton to learn.

Keeping with the spirit of this community, I'm not going to discuss any business stuff here. I've shared my photos and notes 'cause I hope they inspire someone else to try to do something cool and creative with watches, and I hope my progress notes will help.

Ha, I hadn't thought about that. I'll probably go with some Sharpie on the back.

Landed a trio. Paid $0.99 for the two Hiltons, and the seller threw in the Benrus for free. Shipping was $15, which is my personal absolute limit for shipping, but I figure $0.33/watch makes up for it. Plus, they're all fully jeweled Swiss movements in stainless cases, and one was even ticking on arrival (with a wind). Another started ticking after I opened it up (must have shook something loose). The Benrus is DOA so far. It's open through crystal, and the movement looks decent enough. Didn't investigate at all, and just closed it back up though. Had to cook up some dinner before play time.

Hi all, I have been using this Meyers movement holder no58 that I perchased here in Australia for a while now and I must say, they don't make things like they use to. It's easy to set up and it holds all movements regardless of sizes, shapes or form. I have a Seiko 6309 plate in there that I just jeweled the barrel arbor port in there and the other movement plate is an omega 485 ladies movement plate. It has 4 different clamps that slide in and a quick release button where my finger is. It does not rock or come loose. The movements have no sharp corners intruding into the plate because the clamps are rounded. I have about 10 different movement holders including bergeon and this beats all hands down. What do you think?

The other day I was thinking about when I was a watchmaker and I was having problems with my posture and my neck. I was diagnosed with very sever spondylitis and was told the wear in the bones in my neck come close to someone in there 70’s I was only in my early 30’s at the time. My neck would lock and I was unable to move my head. The bones would rub each other because in some of my vertebral cartilage was none existent this also caused bad headaches and tightening of the muscles in my neck, it felt like my head was about to fall off. I had a Therapeutic counselor come around and have a look at my work shop. My work bench had to be a certain height so did all the other benches. One of the best recommendations for my posture and to help my neck was a ergonomic kneeling chair. It worked wonders for me and improved my posture and neck they are extremely comfortable. Here is the chair

Thanks, I was just about to look for that but you beat me to it.

Jon recently did a most comprehensive walkthrough on bfg866, here https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/tags/bfg 866/ Helps if you take a look.

I predict you will see all kinds of crud in the solution. crud which keeps the watch from working. Granted this is an expedient, not a substitute for a proper full service, but you should be able to determine if the movement is a runner or not.You may want to change the naphtha two or three times. you can use a light synthetic oil for lubrication.

No eyebrows is not a good look. Could be worse though I guess. I'll take a look in my stash this evening and see if I have a suitable BFG 866 donor in case you need parts. I doubt if I have a date version, but I probably have something I can pop in the post (FOC of course). By the way, you will generally get away with dunking a pin lever movement like this in lighter fluid, but I wouldn't recommend it for something a little more delicate. Fine for the more agricultural stuff like Timex mechanicals, BFG 866 and EB8800 perhaps, but not for anything more fragile. Also the purists will say (quite rightly) that this is not the best way to ensure that everything is squeaky clean. Professional watch cleaning is a somewhat more sophisticated process.

Naptha will dissolve the old tired and tarry oils, and free up all of the gummed up parts. Naptha == Lighter fluid. Unleaded petrol also works. Obviously these products are highly flammable, and probably not very good for your lungs or skin, so work in a well ventilated area, avoid smoking or juggling with fire, and wear gloves. Lightly oil means VERY lightly oil.A tiny amount. Just enough to lubricate those tiny pinions and no more. Any excess has a nasty habit of migrating to places it shouldn't like the dial, the crystal, or worst of all, the hairspring. At all costs, avoid getting any oil on the hairspring. If you do accidentally manage to oil the hairspring, then all is not lost, we can advise how to recover from this issue, but avoid it if you can. Hairsprings are very delicate (obviously) and oil will cause the coils to stick together, either stopping the watch, or worse still, causing the hairspring to deform. If you don't have a watch oiler, use a pin. Flatten about 1/4mm of the point with a pair of pliers or mole grips to give you a tiny spade like end. Watch oil can be picked up online, but is relatively expensive. Watch oilers can also be picked up online, and are relatively cheap. DO NOT USE WD40. It is not a lubricant. It is a moisture repellent, originally designed to deal with the frozen condensation that forms on the surface of rocket propellent tanks on the Atlas missile. It has many uses, but oiling the mechanism of watches and clocks is NOT one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40 If you have nothing suitable, and can't justify the high price of watch oil, then at a pinch, you will get away with sewing machine oil, or supermarket own brand scent free baby oil. This is not a recommendation, just an observation. Proper watch oil is recommended. Once you have it running, carefully clean your grubby fingerprints from the dial and the crystal and remember next time to wear finger cots or latex gloves. Now inspect the crystal and dial for more fingerprints and dust. Once you have the thing cased back up, its a pain to have to disassemble again just because some spec of dust got in. Do not blow into or onto anything. The condensation from your breath will cause things to rust, and interesting bacterial growths to appear at some random point in the future. Use a rubber puffer if you feel the need to blow on anything. Canned air may well destroy the hairspring, as it comes out of the can at about ten thousand miles per hour, scattering screws and other tiny parts like hands, and bending hairsprings. Don't ask me how I know this. ?

Hi I have a shelf full of binders with informatiom dodgey memory, I know i have got the info but which binder Ha Ha

Hi, I got for Christmas in 1976 a Benrus Citation when I was 13 and I loved it. That watch is long gone and I got this one on eBay. It needs a battery but it did not have one. The Benrus movement looks to be an HS-19 7 jewel. The battery compartment looks pretty deep so I bet two cells stacked would be it. What battery would it take? Hopefully what ever battery it is is still made. Assuming I can get it running I bet the lubricants are all dried up after 40 + years.

Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. This thread needs a weekday bump and I need to attempt to post a photo. This pre-Invicta Glycine Combat 6 has replaced my G-Shock GW7900B as my EDC with the exception of days where I have to roll up the sleeves and get dirty.

Wind it up.soak it in naphtha. Let it dry and lightly oil it. However dont soak the date wheel. Naphtha and paint don't get along well

Exceptional answer. I am starting to get really busy repairing pocket watches and watches for 3rd party friends, but have not established myself as a part time business yes. I do have a gentleman from the US who is sending me 1 of 12 pocket watches at a time for servicing as he pulled my heartstrings for me to do this)nice guy) and he has watched my crazy YouTube videos over the years. I would like to get into more higher end watches and I dropped a cool $1000 on a Swiss mini bench to do watches properly. The only thing left is a proper cleaning machine. Lighter fluid works fine but I’m sure I will eventually poison myself:) So this Rolex is my third and I am getting a little braver. I can soon retire from the daily grind and my wife said I should go take the watchmakers course in Switzerland (where my mom came from). Who knows and I will shut up now. All you Guyses help is really appreciated btw. Look my up on LinkedIn and you will see a different sort of guy : JD Richard, L3Harris.

"The wheel on that long pivot", is the big wheel you see sitting outside ebauche( sits on gear train bridge and drive center arbour) a rare and hard to find part, some folks are for removal/ replacement of it at service time so to inspect, clean, peg the jewel underneath, however, if it was to be removed at every service, its hole would wear out, so OH says" if every thing looks OK you might think about just leaving as it is" meaning don't remove it if all looks OK, clean in place. I explained part of the delima one usually face in my earlier post and am with OH, specially if you haven't found a source for all new parts to its drive unit. Needless to say, pull streight up, is concernd about bending of its pivot or cracking its jewel, but doesn't gurantee more. The piece is worth a good restoration. Knowing you, you wont spend much time on aestetic restoration. lol. Good luck.

You are my saviour!!! Thank you so much! I will check these links out!

That is a BFG866 - not too difficult to find, and I may even have a donor in my stash. I'd need to check. http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Baumgartner_866 https://17jewels.info/movements/b/baumgartner/baumgartner-866/ Your version is the 17 Jewel Calendar version, but I think most parts are interchangeable between the different versions. Cousins have some parts. https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/filter/bfg-movement-parts Cousins also have the service manual which will detail the differences between the different versions. https://www.cousinsuk.com/PDF/categories/2529_BFG 866,866.31.7.pdf More about BFG here. http://www.mikrolisk.de/show.php?site=280&suchwort=Baumgartner&searchWhere=all#sucheMarker

If you haven't found one.. perhaps there is no need for one. A gentle push down - it's all you need to set a Central Seconds Hand on that watch. Just make sure your "pusher" is clean, flat, soft enough not to scratch the hand surface, etc. Do NOT try to push it 20 times "to make sure". One gentle push after it was centered and set correctly on the pivot. Then tilt the movement to see from the side if the seconds hand is sitting in parallel with the minute hand. There should be enough clearance between two. If it sits too low - it maybe that the minute hand was not pushed all the way down, or you need to tighten the seconds hand tube slightly. Hands 1.50 x 0.80 x 0.18mm

Isn't that the one that lifts and separates?.

This recently joined the club, and I posted about it when it arrived. It went back under the microscope this evening, having mysteriously stopped dead. The culprit was a tiny fibre which had worked its way into the balance, causing it to be wildly out of beat. Once removed everything was back to normal. I've included a mystery mechanism shot, since I couldn't actually identify what rather pedestrian pin lever is powering this one. It is stamped [RE], One Jewel, Ingersoll YY, 1513 Swiss, none of which elicited anything useful from aunty Google. I previously stated it had no jewels, but it apparently has one. It is also remarkably quiet for a pin lever. Often you can hear them from the other side of the room, but not this one.

I do not know of a specific 562 holder either. I'm sure if you contact Omega directly, and ask for one, they will begin ignoring your request immediately...

I keep wearing this:

Donald De Carle in his book advocates wrapping the balance with tissue when de magnetising in order to protect the balance spring, as Quoted in Practical Watch Repairing chapter 21 with practical drawings and how to build your own. Mine is larger and well tested having used it in excess of 20 years. When build it was tested on various scrap movements to good effect and also tools. No pictures as it may be again condemed. I have dismantled some of the foreign Line release/demagnetisers and their quality leaves somthing to be desired as regards the quality of the soldering an wiring. You pay your money and take the chance that you get a good one. or pay through the nose for bergeon.

Okay I really need one of you to start a company where I can just call you up and tell you all the watch parts I need and you run around like an idiot and try to find them. Let me know when your new company is up and running please. I have a long list.

My mentor taught me a trick which he learnt from his Swiss master. Wrap a tiny blob of Rodico on a pegwood, like a Q-tip. You'll save a whole lot more of the stuff. And change it more often. He also told me that the stuff from stationery stores, like Faber Castell's, work perfectly well, and at a fraction of the price of Rodico.

Please forgive the poor quality snapshot, but it all came together. I am over the moon! Here's my first completed fordite-dialed watch: I'll provide a more complete write up, better photos, and another completed watch example ASAP.

Hi jon, I fully agree with weasol, great pictorial. My question which you may not cover in your lessons, is; would you happen to remember the CGS for bfg 866 hairspring. I still have about fourty of them waiting for restoration and am short of hairspring and if you know where to source HS for 866 and springs out of what other bfg caliber is compatable with bfg866. BFG movement have long been obsolete, so is information on them. Finally I have spare new and used parts to the caliber, should you need any I might have , be gift wrap them for you. Regards joe.

Hello everyone, This is my second project after building the Skull Watch for my daughter's birthday. I also wanted a watch with a Swiss movement for myself; And I found a Unitas 6498-1 for this cool "B-Typ Fliegeruhr" project (that's German for a navigator type pilot watch). This time however, I've put my text and photos into the PDF file attached because its easier to edit that way. Okay, and I'll post one teaser photo right here! Cheers, Mark Swiss Fugitive.pdf

Dear watch repairers, I would like to take a moment to celebrate the lives of hairsprings lost; in the shaky tweezers of beginner watch repairers, in the dark bowels of attics and hobby rooms. These hairsprings have become needless victims of mankinds insatiable appetite for high amplitudes and low beat errors. May they rest in eternal peace, with their equally maligned friend; the pivot. Thank you and stay safe, Gaspard de Coligny