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Hi amplitude freaks, What is so important with high amplitude? TIA

I'm getting better. Really enjoying myself. However, as most beginners do, I have started on cheap watches. They are more prone to damage, wear and tear. Many of them have problems with the barrel bridge. The barrel hole for the arbour is worn and too large. On many of them I can insert the tip of the tweezers there is that much movement. I need a Staking set, I think to myself. On my £10 a week spends that is 3 month saving and not purchase anything in between. Boohoo. Why not DIY? I have a hand press for £11. I purchased a set staking punches for £11. Cut holes in a plastic holder. Woohoo! A staking set. A rubbish one compared to proper standards. But I have to tell you it worked. I closed my first arbour hole and it has worked. Hammer time was gentle.

Isopropyl alcohol has amusing properties. If you look up on woodworking groups there are Some people that claim it will dissolve the shellac. But that alcohol is used as the final rinse as our cleaning machine at work and it does not dissolve the shellac. But I know the shellac itself very use even the watchmakers kind varies over time and because watchmakers acquirer old stuff that can be quite a bit of time were some is better than others. My current favorite is one of the watchmakers locally purchased a pound or so of flake shellac from the woodworking store and gave everyone a little bag of it. This stuff melts beautifully and flows really nice. You put a little chip on top of the fork and just heated up and it flows beautifully.

I thought some future repairer might find this thread so I will now try to describe how I dealt with the spring that covers the cap jewels for the escape wheel pivots. Thanks for all input which proved very helpful. The diameter of the spring is approximately 1.2 millimetres (the cap jewel diameter is 1.1 mm ) and the spring sits submerged in a hole and the edge of the spring is inserted into a groove that runs around a bit below the hole. It proved difficult to find a tool that was small and flexible enough to hold the spring in the hole while prying it out, so I found an alternative strategy that worked well both for removing the spring and for refitting it. See the below description. To get the spring out I used a sharpened oiler while covering as much of the jewel hole as possible with a piece of peg wood carved like a screwdriver. I jabbed the oiler under the spring and then bent the spring inwards and upwards which caused it to come loose from the groove/lip without putting undue stress on the spring. When the long leg of the spring (the other leg is, yes, shorter) has been freed from the slot in the hole, it is basically just a matter of carefully lifting the spring out of the hole. The cleaned cap jewel was refitted in the hole. To get the spring back in place, I pushed one edge of the spring into the groove of the hole. After that, I again covered as much of the hole as possible with my pegwood screwdriver blade (not visible in the picture). Finally, I gently pushed the other leg of the spring in and down with my tweezers to get it into place in the hole. Hopefully, it is clear from the picture that I pressed onto the edge of the spring between the two closed tweezer blades. Spring is fully seated.

That's because on YouTube you're the king. I've seen now or know of two separate examples of people on YouTube who the viewing audience sent them a Rolex to restore. So if you want nice watches to work on getting YouTube channel. Don't worry if you think you don't know anything that doesn't stop a lot of people on YouTube just look convincing Sound like you know what you're doing. Yes Seiko is they used to be cheap but now their collectors items. Even the current Seiko watches are very very popular. But somebody on the group relatively recently picked up something for $50 which seems expensive for Seiko. I think I remember buying Seiko's long time ago for five dollars each that's reasonable price. But the $50 Seiko turned out to be relatively rare and should really go for several hundred dollars. Which made for a really nice learning watch for somebody to break stuff. Oh and of course the much older say goes like this getting parts are nearly impossible. So yes interesting Seiko's are out there but getting them cheap probably more of an accident than anything else.

Actually, I love Kalle's laid back relaxed demeanor. Typical Dutch I believe, so different from how people behave in the UK. I love watching how much delight he takes from working with watches and sharing his knowledge in such a relaxed way. The pace of life can be too fast these days and watching Kalle is a way for me to unwind and learn along the way.

No umbrage taken in in any form. It's not often you are wrong, but you are right again. I have been looking on ebay, and the sets usually start at £100+ but then sell in excess of £300. I can only dream. However, at least I can try my 'DIY 'fix' when I need to. I see the YouTube videos of the 'fixers' who always seem to be able to obtain Omega, Rolex watches to attempt their restorations. Galling when the current prices of the 'Mumbai' watches exceeds my pricing strategy. Have you noticed how prices have crept up over the last year? Even my learning items, Seiko are now out of my league. Ah well. Thank goodness for my bride who obtained a 1/2 price digital Microscope with a 7" screen for me as a Christmas present. It's brill. Regards. I am keeping the faith. Ross

That case is great for anyone whose afraid of radium dials.

You should be able to "view original listing" and see all the photos. If you are unhappy, make your own photos, contact the seller, and if you can't agree on a solution, get Ebay involved. Most problems can be solved amicably, but if not, Ebay will usually side with the buyer.

I like that channel too. I do wish he was a little more concise. He can, literally, take an hour to get across a concept that could be summarized in a paragraph in 2 minutes so I find that I don't watch his videos as much as some others. But he seems such a nice and friendly guy that sometimes I don't mind the time sink. This was a really cheap ebay find that came with the original (I think) band which was the main reason I bought it. The listing said it needed some TLC and that "Keeps time but sometimes you can't set the time". Just needed a cleaning and is good to go.

Hi Clockmakers and Apprentices, i "accidentally" bought a longcase clock without actually knowing what I was about to buy, i just bid on it and noone bid on me. Purchase price was £550 +20 %. I am a bit anxious now, not sure how to fit into the house and how to tell the family. What are your thoughts? Lui

This is Trey from Taiwan, I am a amature watchmaker and collector, own a lot of pocket watch and wrist watch. My faviorite watch movement would be Marvin cal. 560 Nice meeting you guys.

One of my favorite activity is to reuse pallet wood, managed to do many thing out of them around the house and for the watch/clockmaker hobby, but this guy is on another level: My plan was to make something like him and I more or less have the components for it however I came across of this and could not resist even though it was a bit pricey. Full with toys, including horological tools. And some withworth thread gauge for every day usage. Would anyone know what this tool is?

Welcome we always do our best to answer the questions just remember pictures with the question help a lot in the diagnosis. Cheers

Welcome! I've found this forum is great for knowledgeable direction, and usually friendly to boot You seem like a guy who knows where his towel is, so you're off to a good start already.

That looks to me like a broken setting lever spring, which is the thing that makes the "click" when you pull out the stem to set the time. I'm going to guess that was impinging on the works inside the watch when it's face up, and fell out of the way when face down. I don't know anything about Rotary watches, but it definitely needs to be taken apart and serviced, and the spring replaced.

Hi Its just as John explains, that without history , pictures etc its difficult to put your finger on the problem but just as an aside, Do you fully wind the watch and wear it or as John said leave it on the bench. At what point does it start to fail , after the spring has rundown a bit, Because it could be the spring is dry/dirty and sticking in the barrel, some gunge in a jewel, or a pinnion, an out of round wheel, basically a thousand things more information required please.. all the best.

The jewels are usually pressed in gently. This means to get them out means that you have to remove the balance bridge I would remove the balance wheel from the balance bridge when you do this. Then using peg wood push from the backside and both the hole jewel and the end stone and settings will come out. You can't just loosen the screws and pop them out they have to be pushed out gently.

What is the watch doing at the time it's having a problem? In other words are you wearing this watch on your wrist Or is sitting on the bench in front of you when you notice there's a problem? i don't suppose you have a timing machine? Always nice for helping with Trying to diagnose problems. Then background history of the watch is this a watch you've serviced is it a watch you recently acquired the problem just suddenly pop up or has it been reoccurring. Then for those of us who like pictures I have a link so we can see pictures of what your watch would look like where should look like. Because I was thinking if the problem occurs spread over day is perhaps a calendar mechanism but I see this watch doesn't have a calendar. https://17jewels.info/movements/f/fe/fe-140-c/

In the list of your orders (first screenshot), click on the photo of the press. This will take you to a page with a green banner and the text "Congratulations...". Under the item description you will see five stars, "Be the first to write a review", and "See original listing". eBay.pdf

Hi. I use both the lever press and the screw down type(Robur Copy) Indian I believe. Frank (Prazis) mentioned them some time back as I believe he was importing them and gave his valued opinion on them. I have found the screw down type easier to control. May be Frank can enlighten you. The one you have got without the bits is virtually useless, as said a door stop.

Hi Ross sure the prices are on the up, when I started and got tools from an English company (TG Loader in Oxford) Bergeron tools were the issue later on there were other cheaper versions , French, Japanese . As more and more hobbyists take it up of course the demand rises and the price accordingly, that’s why some improvisation is needed. I rebush clocks by hand using a vertical drill press not a Bergeron one costing two grand. All the best

Transparent isn't new to Waltham they had the idea first. They didn't have any of this newfangled material's lab use something more traditional.. https://omegaforums.net/threads/insane-crystal-carved-waltham-pocket-watch.23310/

“Review offer You received an offer Other buyers may have received this offer. The first to accept, gets the deal. Modding Watch Vostok Amphibia Handmade Watch Steampunk Watch Previous price was $500.00$500.00 Seller's Offer $485.00 ($15.00 off) Expires in 40h 36m Message Here's your chance to get this item at a great price! ”

In Desktop website view, ‘’purchase history’, more actions’, ‘view order details’ click on the item, ‘see original listing’

Hi Anthony tother way round with me Scottish mother and Lanc Father brought up in Yorkshire an like your self not disposed to throwing money around. I have three sets of screwdrivers two I bought many years ago and still good, and a french set from redrooster uk they all need dressing but using fine grit wet and dry on a block with a little oil works wonders. Unfortunatly watch screws differ in slot width with different manufacturers so having a few screwdrivers dressed differntly is handy. cheers

A solo ugly aprofessional fixing. To be sure. Hi Ross disregard the previous text, fat finger trouble and a duff predictive text on the ipad. What I meant to say It is a professional fix using the rodico. You will probably be able to do lots of jobs on that rig. I used a 36 hole stake and a set of punches for quite some time and even managed to re staff watches with it, now got a couple of staking tools to do the job. I you keep an eye out on the bay they do have small sets turn up and you can add to them in the future. well done. cheers

If you want some quality screwdrivers without paying the earth pop over to the quality Chinese tools thread, there is a set on there that are of a very high quality for under £30 a set, they also look identical to one of the Bergeon sets if that's important .

Fitting the screws perfectly is due to dressing, not the blades. New Bergeon blades do not fit many screwheads properly and require some time with India or Arkansas stone to get just right. If you then switch calibers (from say a Japanese Seiko to a Swiss AS movement) you may then find your carefully dressed blades don’t fit those screws and need to be reshaped. At that point, swapping in a set of replacement blades may save time and effort, especially if you’re continuing to work on the previous caliber. CousinsUK sells a range of “Swiss Quality” screwdrivers (made in France) for 2.65 GBP each. They take the Bergeon 6899M hardened stainless steel blades, the Bergeon grub screws etc and are highly recommended. The Chinese Kwong Yuen screwdrivers are also well recommended.

Cool - I made a tadpole of progress. I've got a pot connected so I can change the speed of the oscillating motor. I need to add the switch so I can select between constant spin and oscillation. Also, I'm sure once I implement interrupts, I can simplify the code and at the same time, smooth the motor up too. Hopefully I'll figure that out soon. I'm kind of learning to code from scratch again. I can't remember the simplest of stuff from back when I kind of knew a little of how to do it several years ago. I hate considering the difference between how much I've forgotten vs. how good I'd be at it had I stuck with it all these years instead of totally ignoring it.

Sony TC-K61 Got this with a Thorens TD 160 record player together, unfortunately it did not do anything, it had watch issues. No lubrication at certain places or it had old lubrication acting as glue. So it was cleaned up and re-lubed with watch oil and molykote dx grease it was a bit tricky to take it apart but all functionality is restored. It did not play at all and there was no rewind or fast forward. With a pair of headphones I can enjoy 80s music again

Case has three pieces, still in the car. Maybe I smuggle them in one by one? Took a few pics about the movement, does not tell me a lot to be honest. It probably did not run in the last few years/decades so it needs a service/restoration probably. I have the pendulum and the weights but they do not seem to be in a good shape. One little acorn is broken off from the case but it is going to be easy to turn a new one, not sure how I will match the color though or what shall i do to the case in general. Going to take other pics once it stops raining.

Well I'm halfway to freedom. My left arm gets released this Friday and I swear, from time to time a feeling washes over me like my arm is locked inside solitary confinement and goes a little insaney. This only lasts for a few minutes and goes away, but I'm sure looking forward to being let out of this cast thing. I'm not sure how well all my connector bits will be functioning once released, but it has to be better than this strait jacket.

Have you dressed the tips? Even Bergeons require dressing every now and then and for my use they are a bit too sharp out of the box.

According to Ranfft, the sub second arbor is .20 mm http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&1ranfft&b&2uswk&Elgin_626 You can find various small hands at Otto Frei, this page lists hands for chronographs and sub second hands that fit a .20mm arbor. https://www.ofrei.com/page966.html Cheers!

I picked this up back in 2020 and have only just managed to take a proper look at it and get it running correctly. It contains a rather unique sunburst silver dialled, "H Samuel" branded, West German (so pre 1990) six (eight?) jewels "(un?)adjusted" PUW 681A,683A quartz alarm movement. The relatively rare movement is obviously the thing which caught my eye. When I saw the original ebay listing I didn't know it was PUW and thought the movement might be byJunghans, Glashütte or someone similar. As it happens I wasn't far from the mark. Junghans did use some PUW movements back then. If you search for PUW on ranft you will find that in addition to Junghans, Lip, Cupillard, Dugena, Bulova, Gruen, Kienzle and various other brands also used PUW movements at different times. When I originally got it I stuck a battery in and it ran, but the alarm didn't work. There appeared to be a missing spring contact, to connect the piezo speaker in the case back to the circuit board. Also there seemed to be no obvious way to set the alarm time hand. Since I had no other information about it I put it to one side until the day I could figure out how to fix it. Today was that day. I started with an internet search on the movement number, which is stamped in microscopic letters next to the battery holder, and actually found a copy of the "Technic Information" here -> https://www.emmywatch.com/wp-content/plugins/watchsearch/inc/documents/puw--681a-683a--movement_parts.pdf Armed with the documentation, I now had the necessary info to figure out where the original spring attached to the circuit board, so I fabricated one from a gold plated scrap Ronda battery spring and soldered it in place. The "Technic Information" also shows the less than obvious method for setting the alarm, so now I can wake up to a rather odd and tinny rendition of the Mexican hat dance.. at least I think that is what the weird alarm melody is. Setting the alarm is a slightly clumsy operation, since you need to press the button with the winder in position 2, hold it in, and turn the crown at the same time. This is obviously almost completely impossible while wearing the watch, and even if you take it off, it is still a rather awkward two handed operation. To silence the alarm, you press the button, but to set it again, you pull the crown back to position 2 and press it back in. "Alarm Set" is indicated by that red flag next to the date. "Alarm Unset" replaces the flag with an all white one. Having said all that, if you are a heavy sleeper, you are out of luck, as it is relatively quiet and also only plays three rounds of the "tune" before it shuts up again. Perhaps more usefully though, the movement also hacks, so accurately setting it to the second is easy. Not all quartz movement from this period did hack. A little more information about PUW including their partnerships with many well know brands (including Glashütte and Junghans) can be found here -> https://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Pforzheimer_Uhren-Rohwerke_GmbH_(P.U.W.) English translation here -> https://watch--wiki-org.translate.goog/index.php?title=Pforzheimer_Uhren-Rohwerke_GmbH_(P.U.W.)&_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Like a lot of brands, they were absorbed by SMH/Swatch Group. More PUW Caliber PDFs here -> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B279zYzmTSk3Qm02WndOV2ZjWmc?resourcekey=0-t_QXKmKyubzp2gvWvmV7pg

I've been working on a Seiko 6138-0040 Bullhead that belongs to an acquaintance of mine. He bought it new in the 70's, wore it until 1985 when it quit working, and it has sat in a drawer since that time. The issue of the watch not working was simple enough to fix. The hour recording wheel would not reset, and I found that the hour fly-back lever had snapped. Once I got the replacement part in I serviced the movement. After the initial inspection everything appeared to be in good order aside from some play in the upper barrel arbor port. That steel bushing was replaced with a jewel from Vintage Time Australia. Everything went back together nicely, but I was getting amplitudes in the 180-195 range. The Seiko 6138 generally runs at a lower amplitude, but this was too low. I took the watch apart again, thoroughly cleaned everything (again), and set myself to the task of rechecking everything, include end shakes and side shakes. Although the original mainspring looked to be in really good shape, I sourced another. Even with the brand new mainspring, the amplitude still wouldn't get above 200 degrees. At my wits end I took the watch down for the thrid time. This time I removed the barlow lens from my microscope, lessening my available viewing area and work space, but allowing me to zoom in much closer. I finally found that the inside lip of the lower barrel arbor jewel (located in the calendar plate of the 6138 movement, not in the main plate) had a very small chip in it. It was very difficult to see due to the way the light was reflecting from the jewel, but I finally managed to get a picture of it. The chip is at the 11 o'clock position of the inside jewel rim. After finding this chipped jewel I doublechecked the barrel arbor and did not see any scratches or other evidence of damage. Unfortunately this jewel is not the same lower arbor jewel that comes in the standard jewel upgrade kits (for the 61 & 63 series movements) because on the 6138 dual register chronograph movement the barrel arbor goes through the main plate and sits in a jewel on the front calendar plate. I sourced a cheap 6138 calendar plate but the barrel arbor jewel was in good shape. After swapping the jewels out and adjusting end shake, everything got cleaned (one last time), reassembled, and I'm happy to report that the amplitude issue has been solved. This one tested my ability, and most of all my patience. I wish I had a deerstalker hat so I could have called upon my inner Sherlock Holmes and figured this out sooner, but at the end of the day(s) a successful repair has been completed.

I've put that mainspring calculator in my cloud storage, so feel free to download it. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17noK3_STuT7pQCAqFjIpUyZ4XweRyGdK/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117325986396951414363&rtpof=true&sd=true Enjoy!

Ok, I think I'm about done with it. As promised, a little update video

My first ever mantel clock is serviced now. mantel_clock_2.mp4

Garden keeps me busy, but I could not resist and bought this on eBay, an incomplete set for £10.5 + £2.9 P&P. Box still needs fixing, but I cleaned the pivoter up a little bit. My first jacot tool, and I know that not the last one as I bought another one. Before: After:

Thanks for your kind words @Endeavor! Heartwarming! Well, that box looks more tempting and exquisite than a box of fine Belgian chocolate! You'll never be out of spare parts and movements for your finest CCCP dials. I just bet you got that box for a trifle! Well Endeavor, we have been promoting these Russian watches for a long time now, but I must say, the passion for them doesn't seem to catch on much here on WRT. Anyway, never give up, never give in! We'll just keep going with our collusion, oops, I mean promotion!

Again one of those exquisite walkthroughs with pictures second to none. Very well done Guess what I bought today? A box full of Vostok 2414 movements, in plastic containers and fully sealed ......... these have the gold-colored anti-shock springs so they are from the Soviet times, pre-1992 One just can't get enough of them; brilliant CCCP quality