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Ladies and gents, I found the most awesome old gold watch chain! It has spring links! I am always so careful with my antique pocket watches, and still fear to drop them, even while on a chain. I've re-staffed a number of balance wheels that no doubt suffered a similar fate. But this chain has lessened that fear somewhat. So my "watch of today" was my beautiful Elgin 339 clipped to this chain.

For me, there’s no binary yes/no answer to this. It really is a matter of feel, experience, inspection under magnification, the age of the movement and what a replacement costs vs invested effort to “revive” it that all play a role determining the answer above. For an Omega 56x series reverser wheel you’ll spend more time trying to revive a reverser (which, by the way is also much more serviceable, but also harder and more expensive to find a replacement for) than you would an a Sellita SW200 where replacements are cheap and easy to find.

Got the tool I wanted, and I managed to get the roller jewel in place and solid. Turned out not only was the jewel loose, but there was a chip in the end. So, I removed the jewel, cleaned the old shellac off it, and cleaned up the roller table. Turned the jewel around so that the good end was exposed, shellacked it in place and made sure it was lined up. The watch is running. There is more that could or should be done to get the escapement correct, but I'm not sure how far I'm going to go with this one, have to see how well it runs. The little combination tool was very helpful for holding the roller table. Would have been a real pain without it.

If the gasket is 25 years old, it may have deteriorated and be acting like glue. Maybe that's the residue you saw. You need a way to transfer more torque to the back than you can with the friction ball. As obtaining the right tool is not likely, your best option is to glue a nut onto it. If you used this method successfully in the past, why are you reluctant to repeat it?

@JohnR725I live in a “3rd world” country (South Africa) and even here you can’t make a middle class living charging $120 to service a watch. I make many times that spending that same amount of time in my day job. But quote the average someone $200 to service their inherited vintage Omega (that stopped working 20 years ago) and you’re told you’re effing mad. This is why watchmaking is dead as a profession in modern times; everyone wants that cool mechanical watch, no one considers what it costs to maintain it. A wrist watch is no longer an essential tool, it’s novelty jewellery. So I do it as a hobby, a make a few videos and I fix broken things. If this hobby can make a little money to at least contribute to its vast expenses then that’s a bonus. I have many other hobbies that are just money pits, so there’s at least that. Speaking of making videos: there’s a lot of criticism being levelled at YouTube watchmakers, either because they don’t show enough detail, or that they talk too much, or that they’re hacks, or whatever other negative thing you can imagine. But these YouTube watchmakers have done more to expose watchmaking to the average Joe than what any of the professional watchmaking institutions have ever done. Professional watchmakers scoff at these “hacks” in their comment sections but fail to see how these YouTubers create interest in the average Joe and turn them into enthusiasts. Anyway, enough rambling from me…

Standard movement variation, Look here - http://chinesewatchwiki.net/Chinese_Standard_Movement And here - http://chinesewatchwiki.net/Hongqi_Watch_Factory Glad you got the back off.

It would be really helpful to list specific examples. Nobody can learn if we don't know what the exact example is. Then is getting into watch repair Is it same as learning to be a an auto mechanic? Both you can go to school for so that seems the same can we make exact same comparisons of various fields to watch repair? Well I like to make a comparison that's not to an auto mechanic. I make a comparison to becoming a doctor why? Doctors have to go to school and study. To do watch repair successfully you should read some books study learn how a watch works. Doctors get to practice did you notice they still call themselves practicing doctors many years after their out of school because there forever practicing. Typically doctors practice on deceased people they don't have to worry about killing somebody yet. Ideally in watch repair you should start practicing with a deceased watch with no intention on saving it just get some practice. Or maybe a clone the 6497 there cheap and nobody cares if it dies a painful death. Because like doctors you need to practice and initially well you need disposable things to practice with. Watch repair and becoming a doctor is very similar there a life time learning experience everybody on this group is still practicing. Some of us are better than others but were still practicing were still learning. So think of watch repair As a lifetime learning experience and nothing is going to come quick and easy. Oh then there's this other problem newbies and their expectations which conflicts with what I just wrote up above. They saw the videos they saw how easy it is anybody can learn watch repair no skill or knowledge needed. Then they come to the group with their expectations of how the group should function versus how it does and then there very unhappy the group conflicts with watch repair is easy and anybody can learn no skill required. Basically we end up with learning watch repair is an interesting endeavor. Takes a long time heck of a lot of practice like forever. Getting spare parts is a pain in the Ass for all of us nobody okay almost nobody. I know people work at Swatch group if they need a part the back room is infinitely deep. But then there also working on very specific calibers they're not trying to work on watches that span the last hundred and some years all of us have parts problems. So yes something as seemingly easy to get a part it should be easy if this is watch repair probably will not be for all of us just newbies.

People who gave up on trying to get into watch repair because they were really discouraged at how unwelcoming and hostile and unhelpful the community is to new people. Again i really noticed this as well right off the bat. this is one of the better places and one of the only ones I still post on for that reason.

? Quite a few of who Col. Do you mean previous members ? Maybe there were problems at one time, it happens in many forums. Members aren't vetted. And comments can be misunderstood. There will always be a few that like to cause new members a problem. Just had one myself on a facebook group this evening he wanted to play games so i played along, he ended up making himself look foolish to anyone reading. What can you do , forget it and move on i say.

That's why I've never bought anything with less than 15 jewels.

I'd Superglue a large nut on the back. The glue is easily removed with acetone.

Just a word of caution often times apps are not reliable it's better to spend the money and buy a Chinese timing machine and avoid the headache of tracking down nonexistent problems because of faulty apps. For those of us who like to see what were talking about here is somebody servicing one https://watchguy.co.uk/service-avia-st96-4/ Let's look at the clues the app if it's reliable says Watch is running fine. This is because the app and timing machines only can listen to what the balance wheel is doing they can't see the rest of the watch they don't know if the hands or even on the watch whether the moving right whether the calendar changes they only know what it's hearing and it's hearing that the watch sounds like it's running fine which is a clue. Then when you put the cannon pinion On you are supposed to try it out. Ike pull the crown out in the sending and set the watch once that's on how did it feel? Yes I know this is subjective test but if it felt super loose well that would be a problem. Then there is the other problem notice from your description around the time that you're probably starting to drive the calendar mechanism he gets heavy? So if you're having a calendar mechanism problem that could be loading down the gear train possibly. If the cannon pinion Is not tight that is definitely an issue. Then conceivably could be all of the above calendar mechanism loading things down the causing of the slippage that you're getting. Basically ago I have take the hands and dial off and examine the calendar mechanism and of course check to see if the cannon pinion Does really feel right does it feel tight or loose? Then also follow the Suggestions from Nucejoe. Then out of curiosity what lubrication's were you using?

This Suizo 1950s AS1361N 10 micron gold plated Automatic got an outing today. It is a gents watch, but is quite a diminutive piece (as was typical for the time). It is also very well engineered. The plating has a few wear marks, but other than that it is looking pretty good for its age. There is one minor discrepancy though. The dial states 25 jewels but the rotor says 21 jewels. Oh well, I guess nobody's perfect. It got a new crystal as the old one had resisted my best polishing efforts, but still wasn't up to scratch. I also treated it to a period correct 17mm dark green leather band from a job lot of 1950s or 1960s straps I picket up recently. Before you ask, no, I am not responsible for all of those scratches on the rotor, they were there long before I got my hands on it. Suizo is almost certainly a Achille Hirsch brand.

I wonder if this is your longest post ever John. Well we all appreciate you here and would be lost without you. Your boss sounds like an a hole. You have my sympathy.

Grease is for high torque low speed gears/ arbours, oil is not suitable for canon pinion as it often wont stay where put . Did you lubricate all parts that move in date change mech? Best to follow data sheet which shows oiling of each part. Are springs to the date mech correct ones? Rgds

This 1977 Bulova with an 11AOCD movement cleaned up nicely. Both dial feet were broken and the quick set date function didn't work but it's sorted now and ticking along nicely.

The beech is noticeably harder than the hornbeam and is available in a 2.0 diameter size. I used a piece of the beech for the diafix tool. I’ve done the diafix in my scrap practice bridges with just two #5 tweezers. Works just some of the time. Need more practice but the frustration and cursing that accompany diafix and tweezers (and lost jewels and springs) is a deterrent. The notched pegwood is just so much easier IMHO. Takes most of the sweating and frustration away.

That's a very interesting, and much cheaper, idea! Here's one that goes from 35-70°C for $40 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X29YPGZ

Wow, so many blue dials! Thanks @AndyHull for the tip! Here's my Enicar Star Jewels Ocean Pearl

I cant say I've encountered that either. Trying to understand why it would be done this way instead of a friction fit to the center wheel