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Hello lovely watch people, i rarely post up my watches and i should do more of them because we all love to see and read stories about them. So today, i do have a little story of yesterday but first i ask to bend the rules and post not one but two watches side by side. The Sekonda in my picture i believe belonged to my dad's father, i found it while emptying my dad's flat after he died a few years ago. This is the watch that started it all for me, in terrible condition but after 2 failed attempts at restoration it now happily sits ticking away on my wrist most days. As for yesterday's story, i attended 100 miles away from where i live my 93 year old uncle's funeral my mum's brother, a kind and generous loving family man who will be sadly missed. Now his father my other grandfather worked for many years keeping the shipping lanes clear and safe for vessels coming into the Hull docks in the town where i live. After many years he retired and received the traditional retirement watch for good service often a Smiths watch was given. From my mum I became aware of his watch less than a year ago and obviously my interest was sparked so i began to ask questions of it's whereabouts and if possible could i have some photos of it so i could hunt down the same brand and model. Turns out my uncle had given it to his son 20 years ago and pictures promptly arrived on my phone from my cousin. It was indeed a Smiths Astral which by strange coincidence i had already collected 5 of but not that particular model. I began my hunt for the same one and by another strange coincidence i found the exact model for sale in the same 9ct gold case not 400 yards from my house, i was very happy. Back to the funeral, sat drinking with some of my family my mum takes my hand opens it and places my grandfather's watch in my palm " thats for you " she said. My cousin had given her the watch to do with it as she saw fit, six of my family including myself got hmm well rather emotional. As it happens my grandfather hardly wore it, my uncle never wore it and neither did my cousin who had kept it in a drawer for 20 years and could have quite easily given it to his son. I was told yesterday that " it's now in the right hands ". Coincidences are a strange thing, I'm a big believer in fate, my grandfather's brother was a watch and clock repairer and lived just 2 minutes from my house, my treasured new watch was given to my grandfather on his retirement the same year i was born. I kind of believe it's been making its way to me for the last 57 years. If you've stuck with me this long then i thank you and you need a bloody medal . Here is grandpa Jack on the left and grandpa Fred on the right. Soooooooooo happy today .

Some people think ANYTHING related to watches must be worth a fortune ‐----- Granted, there are 2350 fancy crystals, but 2349 will never be used

No mater what you use wear a mask in a well ventilated space and protective gloves.

I think the Lutheran prayer says it best. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the watches I cannot buy, the courage to buy the watches I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

If watches could talk ... I gave my grandfather's pocket watch (Waltham) to my son on his 21st birthday. He wore it with his wedding suit and carried it with him to the hospital the day his son was born. I never thought it would mean that much to him. My other grandfather was a machinist so I got his tools.

IPA is safer as its used extensively in the medical industry and also in a lot of household cleaning and disinfectant products but probably not as good as benzine for dissolving old oil and grease. Otherwise thats all that we would use, its biggests use for us is to dispel water so many of us use it as a rinsing agent when using waterbased cleaners. Gasoline isn't a cleaner, it is primarily benzine but has other additives to improve combustion same as most lighter fluids.

Why policing eBay? Isn't it the free-market who determines the prices? And if it gets sold for a ridicules price, who's is the stupid one, the seller or the buyer?

This was originally £60 or so. After many months I felt sorry for the seller and politely told them it wouldn't sell, I got a passive/aggressive reply. It's been listed at £9.99 for months, it still won't sell.

Seiko has a case service guide. I have a copy but I can't remember where I got it. It should be online with a search. According to the guide, the F is a case construction mark and there are different procedures for the case. Found it: https://seikoserviceusa.com/uploads/datasheets/Servicing_Guide.pdf

Hi @Neverenoughwatches yes at heart we are but I believe that’s the purpose of these things is to continue their life, the monetary value is nothing tha fact it belonged to your Grandad does have value. The fact it’s almost new bears testament to the mindset of years ago. The cost was higher and as a rule it would have been worn for best like weddings and funerals etc, in between times it was cherished and put away till the next time a bit like the wedding suit

Nice One. @Neverenoughwatches I like you have family pieces, mine were clocks and a gold Omega (my uncles) which I had for fifty years and on the occasion of my Grandaughters wedding presented it to her husband for the duration. It’s travelled far and has further to go.

the problem with quartz watches like this are the watch itself was probably expensive when it came out. Then kinda like working on Rolex watch that's expensive all the components of course will be expensive. Then it appears to be that this watch was only made for one company which presents other challenges like it's going to be difficult to find. Here's a description down below notice your price is better than theirs. https://www.joseph-watches.com/all-products/breitling-eta-e10-351-new-old-stock-1990s/ then something similar it's not the exact same movement has been discussed before. Notice it's scarce which is what happens when you have a movement that's manufactured for basically one company. https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/20912-breitling-aerospace-movement/ notice supposedly there's a substitute movement although somewhere else I saw suggestion that the display wasn't the same? apparently there is a replacement movement but I'll just attached the PDF as it's not entirely helpful at all and I'm sure the movement is not available. It appears to be based on the pricier movement if you can actually buy a used watch for probably cheaper than the brand-new movement price possibly. in general a watch quartz watch running backwards only does this if the stator has been damaged or sometimes they can be flipped over. Usually they try to manufacture them differently so when you're putting them back they cannot be flipped over. But basically this controls the direction of the stepper motor rotation. Because I was curious I found the tech sheet for something similar to your watch so we can look at that part and see how it looks as to how easy it could be modified changed whatever this is the part that's the problem in my guess is that he probably doesn't take very much to knock it out of alignment and in your watch runs backwards. not finding a suitable picture this is close enough but you have to use your imagination as the shape isn't quite right. this shows how a normal quartz watch works problem is why the shape isn't quite right is that the position where the rotor stops isn't actually a circle like it shows. The reality is where it stops is a little closer to the rotor which is why it stops in a specific place. So if you were to move things a little bit you can then get the stepping motor to go backwards. Or as I once did I did a little bit a filing to change the intro shape so the rotor stops in the different place and of course it goes backwards. But since you're is is an entirely different shape it probably gets distorted by the screws holding the coil in or just about anything and that's where the problem would be. Unfortunately has these are restricted movements there are no parts list cross referencing where we might billow find a replacement components free orders Breitling aerospace watch 0030_11.03.2011_V2_EN.pdf ETA_ETA 989.331.pdf

If we were to stop interfering with other peoples life, there would be a whole lot less wars.

The polishing worked out well. It only needed a bit of satin brushing on the sides and mirror polishing of the case back. The reason I got this watch (in dire need of a service) was because @nickelsilver spoke well of Peseux. Now this movement (Peseux 7040) probably wasn't their top-of-the-line but still performs very well after a service. No repairs (except replacing the scratched-up case and case back crystals) or adjustments were required so easy to work on. Here are the numbers. Fully wound minus 1 hour: Dial up: Rate: +5 s/d, Amp.: 310°, B.E.: 0.1ms Dial down: Rate: +3 s/d, Amp.: 305°, B.E.: 0.1ms Crown left: Rate: -1 s/d, Amp.: 260°, B.E.: 0.1ms Crown down: Rate: +8 s/d, Amp.: 265°, B.E.: 0.1ms Crown right: Rate: -5 s/d, Amp.: 275°, B.E.: 0.0ms Crown up: Rate: -12 s/d, Amp.: 265°, B.E.: 0.1ms Fully wound minus 26 hours: Dial up: Rate: +4 s/d, Amp.: 265°, B.E.: 0.0ms Dial down: Rate: 0 s/d, Amp.: 270°, B.E.: 0.0ms Crown left: Rate: -6 s/d, Amp.: 240°, B.E.: 0.1ms Crown down: Rate: +2 s/d, Amp.: 225°, B.E.: 0.2ms Crown right: Rate: -3 s/d, Amp.: 223°, B.E.: 0.0ms Crown up: Rate: -12 s/d, Amp.: 223°, B.E.: 0.1ms

I always use tungsten carbide, but 99% of the time I make the drill. Simple spade drill, with slight back-taper along its length. Being free-hand ground, the lips are never exactly the same, so it tends to drill slightly oversize, and that along with the back taper means in the event of a break it just falls out of the hole. They are also less likely to break than spiral drill, in my experience at least. Spiral drills are generally ground with an extremely slight back taper, but in reality when drilling it's like the whole drill is in contact with the hole. HSS can take quite a bit of misalignment and abuse; but I have never gotten one to drill properly hardened arbors in watches or clocks. Carbide is brittle and fragile, but seems happy drilling hardened and tempered steel.

I really don't think anyone is. I sometimes am interested in items where the seller believes they're sitting on a fortune whereas I know they are not. Letting them know the truth hopefully leads to a deal, but as Richard experienced more often than you might think it just annoys the seller. I even had an experience where the seller became very rude and threatened to block me for just very politely suggesting and explaining (linking to historical selling prices) that his asking price was way too optimistic.

Really no one? Tool is used for milling the bearing for rubbed-in jewels. For those without a lathe… Frank

A 0.99 pence Chaika R2356 7 jewel quartz went on the healing bench last night. It seems to have perked up and is running fine, so today I'm wearing it on a fresh new strap. If you want to see an interesting collection of Chaika / Чайка (seagull) watches click -> here <-

it actually works better if you just download the catalog in your favorite format. Then there's index in the back which sometimes helps. unfortunately the tool catalog does not explain how to use the tool

Thats lovely, i think of it as a way that our ancestors can watch over us or even just a good luck charm if you want to think of it in that way. Some watches spend more time with their owners than their owners spend with their partners. You might think me strange and ok yes a lot of folk do , it depends what you believe, but there is some connection going on between a watch and it's life long owner. My home is full of old watches, clocks and antiques,lets just say i dont sleep too well at night .

The bladder for another fountain pen arrived today. So here is the follow up. How now *not* to replace the bladder in your precious fountain pen. The process started innocently enough. I attempted to unscrew the cap. Instead, the stainless sheath parted company from the plastic of the top and started to rotate. This produced two new problems. First, I obviously now needed to re-secure the stainless sheath to the cap, but more importantly, I couldn't actually unscrew the top from the pen. I reached for some light oil and attempted to dribble it in to the threads. In the process, I managed to pour it down my leg. Nice. "Well.." I reasoned, ".. these jeans needed to go in the wash anyway." so I pressed on undaunted. Next I wrapped some masking tape around the body and the top, and carefully grasped them with mole grips, trying in the process to avoid crushing anything. This worked better than expected and the cap started to unscrew. Unfortunately however, the next problem became obvious pretty quickly. The pen still had ink in it, which it proceeded to vomit on to my leg... "Well.." I reasoned, ".. these jeans needed to go in the wash anyway." so I pressed on undaunted. I cleaned up as much of the mess from my hands and leg and the pen as I could, and set about replacing the bladder. With the pen now spotless, and no obvious possible source of further trouble in view, I set about securing the stainless cap to the body. The cap by now was considerably more stainless than I was. I poured out a small measure of shellac into a little plastic container, and started to dribble it into the gap between the two components, and ... promptly poured the contents of the container onto my leg... "Well.." I reasoned, ".. I am clearly an idiot." so I pressed on undaunted. The job is more or less complete, but I suspect the jeans may never quite be the same again. Now I need to sneak them into the washing machine before my wife sees them, and hope that a quick boil wash will hide the majority of the evidence.

Gasoline as used in cars should not be used. Far too dangerous as a combustible as well as to your health. Benzine, which is essentially what lighter fuel is, ok. Isopropyl alcohol is very different, not nearly as good of a solvent for dried oils and such, but an excellent rinse. No Gasoline!

I made a burnisher from a bit of HSS ,to get the so called teeth on it I just drew it over emery cloth like you would do if you were draw filing , from what I understand because I have never seen one the pivot polishing tool is a very fine file one end and a burnisher the other end. Dell skin flint in Warwickshire

Hi Guys. Old Hippy is correct. The old adage . Buyer beware. People have the conception that EBay is cheap it’s not. If it’s too good to be true back off and look twice before parting with money. Do your research.

Hi Khan. Regarding the two chemicals, both will have an effect if inhaled in quantity. Chemicals used for the cleaning of clocks and watches are best used in ventilated spaces, just a fan will do to circulate the air. Bearing in mind they are both inflammable is another factor you have to be aware of your surroundings. I have used isopropyl alchohol for many years with no ill effect although the fumes from gasoline are noxious and care should be taken. Others will have their own opinions.

As marc and ww have stated, just like mechanical watches quartz analog battery watches with a dial face and hands also have a mechanical side that needs periodic maintenance that includes servicing, repair and replacement. Wise of you to remove the batteries which has saved you some extra misery. So the line release is a little gadget that operates a small magnet from inside of it. The watch is placed on the device's surface and after a button activation a motor spins the magnet that acts upon the magnetic rotor inside the watch. The rotor is meshed to the mechanical side of the watch hence the gearing up to and including the hands spin to free things up. The old lubrication is still old lubrication and will almost certainly solidify again at some point. Warming up the movement is a good idea and will help the line release to do its job.

If you are not a native english speaker, your english is actually very good. Thanks for the advice. I'm probably not going to provoke anything right away, lest I feel the desire to smash it with a hammer.

Thanks WW and thats a lovely sentiment that your granddaughter and her husband will remember forever. I think watches should have a life, this one i have of my grandfather's has never had one, its condition is immaculate, the 9ct gold case and bracelet has barely a mark on it, the dial has hardly seen the sun. A life is something i now have to give it, we're all big softies really aren't we

My advice with ebay if you are not sure leave it. Some of the clocks that pass through what the sellers say are nothing but porky pies. The Chinese are the worst buggers.

Can you try these? ETA 988.333 or 988.432. Please see the attached and hope this helps. Joe Breitiling_replacement.pdf ETAcal.988.333.pdf

It’s expensive for sellers on eBay, buyers are often resellers trolling for bargains, international listings sometimes lead to interesting pricing…and that’s just the legit stuff. The crystals looks like the all too common ‘hail mary’… My fav scam is selling the pdfs from AWCI or free places online…including here…

Welcome to the forum, enjoy. The rivet needs to be drilled out, providing there is enough space between the barrel and plate I would use a flat headed screw rather than a rivet.

I am amused by the Ebay listings that have a very expensive watch with 20+ photos of the case including a measurement for each side of the case but no photos of the movement and a no returns statement.

Looks great!

Thank you Matabog, I've seen this 3D prints and I'm already in process to build them. Great work by the way. Perhaps I was not clear in my question. What I asked was if there is 3D print for a 6 position articulated base to where the mic stand would be mounted too. Thanks Thank you Frank. I'm glad I found this great forum @svorkoetter Hi Stefan, We exchanged e-mails back in 2020 and I had the opportunity to congratulated you for your excelente work in developing this software, but I wanted to publicly congratulate you again for this amazing software which has helped a lot of hobbyst watchmakers like me. It's simple, easy to use and has everything we need for our work and at a very affordable price. A big applause to you.

The kit is incomplete as you can see. My wife sent me the pictures & no name on the box. Anyone recognize it from the images & give recommendation? $25

Aw Frank you beat me to it , i was just getting my head around its use, another 3 months and i would have had it nailed Its nice to have old tools cluttering your bench waiting 5 years or more to be used. I have a seperate bench for that exact purpose

The rod has broken off. It certainly wasn't packed well for transport. This is a modern clock. Do you know the make? because that will help. If you drew a blank your best bet will be to buy a set of chimes which most good clock material suppliers stock. There are different types, in modern ones like yours they tend to be this type of thing. Could you upload a photo of yours and how it is fixed to the case.

Hi there. I'm not sure about grandfather clocks but I suspect it has snapped off in transit. The tapered end should be attached to a threaded block that screws into the chime mount. I had a similar problem when I purchased a mantel clock and noticed one of the chimes was way off key. It had snapped and been repaired at some point. The problem with repairing a chime rod is that it will affect the pitch of the note so it will sound odd. You may need to buy a new rod or set of rods. I looked to replace just one rod and in the end bought a replacement set second-hand on Ebay. I'm sure others will be on soon to give more help.

Well, that's not good news. I've ridden past the school a few times on my motorcycle, Lititz is close to where I live. I like the building, it's impressive, yet somehow fits in well with Lancaster County vibe. The area has a lot of history in American watch production. Also somewhat close by is the old Hamilton factory building (I think it's apartments now), and RGM. I'll be sorry to see the school close, even though I've never seen inside.

Yes it is. The pic I posted is from Cousins showing 7 in stock

fat heavy stubby ones, I use them for barrel arbors, stretchy watch band adjusting etc.

It’s very weird, as the other fake I have has regular screws on the lug. But this one seems to have a smooth face with no space for a screwdriver. I really don’t want to cut it off. I should be able to take the case-back and movement out with the strap still on the case, but I would love to figure out a way to have these straps come off. I appreciate the input, and will take a closer look.

Dry lubricant. 20 or 30 years sitting in a drawer without anything moving and the lubrication is likely to have gone a bit gummy, which is why the one that does run is draining the battery so quickly, and the others won't run at all. One little trick that you could try is to allow the watches to warm up a little on a radiator or perhaps with a hair dryer. Don't cook them, just get them warm to the touch. With any luck the warmth may loosen up the gummy oils a little and allow things to start to move. You could also try a line release tool to spin the movement up which may get things going again.

The case looks home made. The stakes and anvils look a little rough, but most importantly it's missing the staking tool itself. If your intent is to have a complete staking set, you'll need to make sure you get a tool that the stakes and anvils fit. If the stakes are not marked, then you'll have to measure them to figure out which tool they will work with and then track one down by itself. Usually they stay together as a set.

Ive seen these on ebay in little cases with other relevant parts that go with it. I did know what it was for but for the life of me just cant remember. There is a place where you can search through a watchmaker's catalogue of tools. I had a quick look but there are over 700 pages so i gave up and thought I'd pass the work onto you . Give me a min and I'll come back with a link to it. Ok you only get the link if you promise to come back and educate others on your find src="https://archive.org/embed/20thcenturycatal00purd" width="560" height="384" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe> [archiveorg 20thcenturycatal00purd width=560 height=384 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true] Ok no I'm making a real balls up of this let me sort my head out Another go https://archive.org/details/20thcenturycatal00purd/page/4/mode/2up

Not sure about copyright but found the picture and a very good article here, fig 17. https://bhi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/08-HJAugust22-AOTM.pdf Dell

I've done this technique, it works great!

It was due to watch & clock repair.