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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/28/24 in all areas

  1. Less give a damn- more **BLEEP** it! …nice that it is keeping time I’ve done a couple of these (one with your assistance) and there’s a third that needs work on the tension between what drives the hands and the barrel. Did you have any issue with that? …and I saw Ranfft make a small comment in a thread re: pin pallets- a couple drops of Tillwich blu, let it run down the pins. It is good for 20 degrees of amplitude… I’m using this oil as a cheat code on my unmotivated Venus chrono…
    2 points
  2. Heres my watch of today, a Smith 13'" RY . My missus bought me this for this Valentines day a bargain 14.99 with a reduction, the seller has occasional 20% off offers now and then so it was about 15ish with delivery. I love Smiths and i love bulleye dials, this is my first one. The watch arrived non working as stated and i knew what was inside and what would be against me, but i enjoy a challenge, we dont expect a lot if anything from pin pallet movements. A balance pivot was broken and i didnt have another staff but i did have another RY with a battered dial so i robbed the balance and tweaked it around to make it work apart from that mostly just a good clean and relubrication. Keyless works are pretty rough by design and the crown is a bugger to get in and out with the dial on, the setting lever hits the dial before it releases it, so a little mod is needed to help that along. Major problem was the pins on the lever were quite worn which make the old tg have a snow storm fit. Its a similar read for most pin pallets, these were brass as was the escape wheel. But perseverance is me, i didn't change the pins but i did spend some time dressing and polishing the worn areas which improved the trace a lot with some straightish lines and a beat error of .5 . Not sure what the lift angle should be on these and i Wasn't in the mood to work it out and who believes timegraphers anyway, but at the default 52° it runs with 260ish full 210 after 24 hours dial down , the verticals rates were pretty much all over place. So lets just put it in it's superlight aluminium case and see what happens. Been wearing it now for 3 weeks and it's consistently losing around 1.5 minutes a week winding each morning i think pretty good for an old pin pallet watch. I just love this dial, thanks wifey heres my Valentine's gift for yer sweetie x
    2 points
  3. yes that's definitely not right at all. I have a picture one of my friends has a Omega coaxial there was having issues to lose asking me where he should send it. As that's a specialty watch I suggested the service center. When he got it back he sent me a picture so the replace the dial as you can see the hands the mainspring barrel and I think the price was really quite decent considering all the stuff they can replace. So I do know they do change the barrels but the other person I worked at the service center when I would ask questions and unfortunately I can't remember all the answers. I think a lot of the changing a parts is at the discretion of the watchmaker. Plus I don't know enough about the chronographs and whether that would be considered a vintage watch? I take some of the vintage watches may have been sent directly to Switzerland or another service center. Obviously with a watch like the one down below they probably have a infinite supply of parts is its relatively modern vintage stuff becomes more interesting even the watch companies don't have necessarily infinite supply of parts. But no matter what the watch shouldn't disintegrated six months that's definitely an issue.
    2 points
  4. I wish they would have done so in this case. The whole story went like this: I sent my speedmaster to an omega service center about 10 years ago (at that point of time I haven't even started watchmaking). After the watch came back to me it had only about 6 months wristtime until january 2024 (not fair for this nice watch but the other pieces of my collection want wristtime too ). So my conclusion is that the barrel was already faulty when it came back from service, can't imagine that amount of wear in 6 months wristtime. In january 2024 the performance on the wrist was quite bad, so I decided to have a look by myself. I have to admit that I didn't check the barrel close enough as I thought it must be ok, couldn't have issues after official omega service. That was a mistake, I will learn from that. Follow the golden rule: Nothing is certain except death and taxes.
    2 points
  5. parts touching that aren't supposed to touch definitely would cause an issue. there not supposed to be touching there supposed to be independent which means that @VWatchie is correct that the ratchet wheel has no effect on performance. so if the ratchet wheel in your particular case is touching that is definitely going to be an issue and needs to be addressed. did you know that the Swatch group service centers do not change mainsprings? Swatch group service centers have an infinite supply of spare parts so they just change the mainspring barrel the whole thing. Plus anything else the watchmaker doesn't like just gets replaced like anything related to the escapement they just replace the components because they can.
    2 points
  6. The pivots look OK. In this position, balance may rub on the pallet bridge, the roller table may rubb on the pallet fork, the bottom of roller table may rubb on the main plate, and on the tip of the screw that fixes the bottom endstone plate, the impulse jewel may rubb on guard pin, the rounded part of the pivot may rubb on the hole jewe too. Thiss all may be due to broken, missing or moved down endstone, or the plate with the stone has some dirt or other obsticle under it. But, sometimes different odd reasons can exist, like for example someone has changed the balance from a donnor movement. All the reasons are visible and must be checked. For beginning, remove the lever and it's bridge and do the free oscillations test.
    2 points
  7. as I'm reviewing the discussion this is exactly what I was thinking. You look at the front of the watch you look at the opening in the back and the fronts definitely bigger than the back at least by the pictures. I don't think I've ever seen in a screw on bezel at least like this. I'm pretty sure you'll have to pry the ring off to get the whole thing off. They do make special tools for this though if you can't get something conveniently underneath it. one of the unfortunate problems of Swatch group products are we don't have access to a Swatch group database because otherwise if we had a case number we can look up the casing information and get all kinds of nifty information but somebody has to have Swatch group access. I look forward to the crystal lift idea make sure you get a video for us we all could use a laugh. Well you're not going to be laughing as your crystal is going to disintegrate so is the bezel and not can be a pretty picture at all crystal lifts are only for acrylic crystals plastic the flexible. I'm guessing that's probably a sapphire crystal and sapphire does not bend to come out it was pressed in. The bezel ring has to be pried off carefully would be my guess.
    2 points
  8. Over the last weeks I followed VWatchies thread about his ETA 2763 showing erratic amplitude: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/28929-serviced-eta-2763-having-erratic-rate-and-amplitude/page/4/#comment-245378 I have a similar problem on an Omega 861. The base movement shows alternating amplitude in both horizontal and vertical positions. The range is more than 25 degrees, no periodical behavior, pure random. In the above quoted thread there was a lot of talk about the regulator pins, hairspring, collet, geartrain, etc. and I do not doubt that all these may be sources for the problem. However, I couldn‘t get one question out of my head: Can the problem be on the other side - mainspring, barrel, ratchet wheel? Some kind of error which prevents the barrel from delivering constant torque to the center wheel? To find out where to look I built the following setup: I assembled the movement without barrel and ratchet wheel. Then after some research and calculation about torque in the geartrain I 3D-printed this part and completed it with an axle and a pin. The movement in a well chosen vertical position. Please notice the spoke of the center wheel. Now the „torque generator“ is fitted to the center wheel. The axle is pushed into the pinion and the pin is lying on the spoke. Finally I have to choose the correct weight to get a torque which results in an amplitude in the area of 280 degrees ( yes, watchmaking is an expensive hobby - my 2 cents). And that‘s all. When the lever is in nearly horizontal position this setup provides a nearly constant torque on the center wheel for several minutes (I assume you live in an area with constant gravity). For me this one answered my question. The alternating amplitude was gone, less than 4 degrees fluctuation now, which is always the case with my Weishi. So the source of my problem is somewhere in the area of the barrel - will work on that the following days.
    1 point
  9. Hi. I would like to take issue here regarding battery driven , watches, clocks,etc. I will and do repair these clocks in fact I have sever al in my collection as well as the regular mechanical ones. I have one on my mantle piece over 60 years old tha belonged to my wife’s Aunt, long gone Iam afraid and it has been cleaned etc and never missed a beat and is accurate. Every one has their preduices as regards Electrical /electronic Horology but I regard it as part of the progress time line of the art of Horology and to be treated as such. Like Darwin’s theory of evolution it evolved. Two cavemen knocking rocks together and a shard broke off , looking at it he worked out if it was stuck on the end of a stick he would have a spear. Likewise his pal seeing what he was up to picked up a piece and did the same, now that’s evolution. Some clockmaker decided to build a clock that ran with a battery and no spring to wind up and break, progress and both the mechanical and battery driven clocks evolved, the battery ones got better to the point that if it broke you changed the complete unit. Likewise watches did the same but both can be repaired by people who approach Horology with an open mind without preduice. We all have our likes and dislikes bu I for one would never dismiss any technology because I don’t like it. The mobile phone is a good example of modern technology at work as is the automotive industry. There buttons and switches in my car I don’t use because to me they are not nesessary but I still drive the car.
    1 point
  10. I haven't gone through all the reading of what it might be or not. The first thing I would do if nothing obvious stands out is replace the mainspring, you have to start at the source of the power. Nine times out of ten that is the problem.
    1 point
  11. you think you're going to sleep tonight you're not, you're going to ponder the question of what makes you think those of the right parts?
    1 point
  12. Sounds like the story with my Rolex. Poor (expensive) job done by an official Rolex dealer with an "in-house" watchmaker, hence I learned watchrepair and did the servicing myself. Same story as I learned with the Omega 861, again poor job by an "in-house" watchmaker by an official Omega dealer. Once your watch goes through that back-door, you have no idea what is going to happening to it Quite nice that they sent back the parts which had been replaced !
    1 point
  13. glad it worked out, those ESA movements are obsolete but new old stock is still out there, now that you know the make/model you could also do a cross reference to see if something more current would line up with the dial feet and hands...for future use if needed
    1 point
  14. I am same as you oldhippy I won’t touch anything with a battery, I keep getting requests to but I just say I only do mechanical clocks, there are quite a few errors & omissions with the repair guide have a look at this. https://mb.nawcc.org/wiki/Encyclopedia-Subjects/Torsion-Clocks/Book:Horolovar-400-Day-Clock-Repair-Guide-10th-Edition-Errors-and-Updates
    1 point
  15. Nice experiment. As it will be no problem, please put a twice less mass (half of the two penies) and read the amplitude, will be interesting. I mean to determine what is the relation torque/amplitude.
    1 point
  16. When a newbie starts to put His fingers in a clock movement, if the clock starts to tick, then the newbie's heart is full of joy, He is inpatient and wakes at night to check if the clock is still ticking... A ticking clock or watch is like a man that breaths and has pulse. And this doesn't mean that that man is healthy and able to do work. The same with the clock - if it ticks and even to the end of power reserve, this still means nothing and doesn't guarantee timekeeping at all. And the main parameter of a clock or watch health is the amplitude. As You didn't mention anything about amplitude, I guessed that it may be You case too... Yes, the amplitude is measured by degrees of rotation of the balance wheel against it's 'zero' or neutral position. And a table with the amplitude will have one additional column, for the amplitude. Actually, I don't need this table, but just to know if the amplitude is good enough or bad, at least when the main spring is fully wound. Good will mean above 250 degr., and all less than 180 will mean too bad. Yes, the guard pin and safety roller are what is shown and they would never touch when the balance swings. If they touch, this leads to friction and amplitude loss. Yes, the gap with the arrow is 0 and it is a real problem, but it is true only when the string is in horizontal position, and I believe that the picture has been taken exactly in such position. In vertical position, which is normal for the balance, the mass of the balance wheel must straighten the hairspring in a manner that the balance will hang on the spring and neither the bottom of the tube, nor it's top will touch the limits. This is easy to check - try to lift or lower the balance along the string and You must see that it is possible and actually it hangs on the spring... As I understand, You didn't disassemble the movement and cleaned it in whole. No, this is wrong, as all the abrasive particles that got in the bearings with the dust and as wear product will stay there, and the old hardened oil can not be fully removed. The main springs can not be cleaned at all this way too. Sometimes such cleaning leads to stop of the movement again in about one month, and sometimes leads to very fast wear of the bearings.
    1 point
  17. Date complication on my Seiko Kinetic is retro. Right, I couldn't find a Cobel whose caliber designation starts with G, all seem to start with C or CB . Didn't buy it anyway, description by the seller said automatic, turned out to be quartz. Rgds
    1 point
  18. So, first let me apologize for the delay in responding to the several comments that I received. Thank you for taking the time to offer your advice and thoughts on potential paths to solve my problem. In my continued search for a solution I stumbled upon a video that described the process of properly identifying the manufacturer and movement number. I followed the directions, disassembled the watch and found the information I needed. The movement is an ESA 944.111. During the process of identifying the manufacturer, I also identified an additional problem with the plastic base plate. I came to the conclusion, as Cyclops had suggested, that I would probably be better off replacing the movement if it was available. l was able to locate a supplier on EBay who had three new ESA 944.111 movements in stock . The supplier is Migma Watches located in Germany. They were kind enough to pull one of the movements and put a battery in it to confirm that it was working. I bought it and it is on the way. I would have preferred to have repaired the original as I have owned this watch for 42 years but I’m quite happy to just get it functioning again. I should be able to get it up and running in no time once the movement arrives. The rest of the watch is in very good condition. Thanks again for your help!
    1 point
  19. That is an unusual date complication. I've not seen an Asian watch with that configuration.
    1 point
  20. does not say Swiss anywhere, could be asian....
    1 point
  21. Its been over 25 years since I gave up horology in my time there were not so many of them about and the book I had I only found one mistake and that was with a miniature movement the suspension spring was too strong. All those I repaired the spring layout was printed. I certainly would not have touched those horrid battery ones.
    1 point
  22. Great experiment! Maybe you would see periodic change if you could register rate and amplitude for longer periods. Passage of one barrel tooth takes about 5 minutes! Frank
    1 point
  23. Hi We all know why they leak and what causes them to leak, therefore we avoid the causes. We keep them in environmentally safe conditions. I have witnessed a leaky battery that cleaned up ok and still worked but I have also see a watch where I removed the back an all there was left was a crusty deposit that’s how bad it can get @RichardHarris123i doubt you will find any meaning full data as each manufacturer will keep his failures out of sight. Most of the batteries are constructed from the same or similar materials and the most common cause of failure is the separating membrane breaking down , gassing causing pressure in the can and breaking the seal, end of story. Whether you would ever ge5 an un biased report is doubtful
    1 point
  24. I have to admit that I don't agree here. On the 861 the ratchet wheel is placed right on top of the barrel and underneath the bridge. In combination with some wear and dirt it could cause some scrubbing to the barrel and so influence the performance.
    1 point
  25. Hi guys. I have used Renate batteries for years and only had one failure and that was no leak it just packed up, replaced FOC of course. I think we must not get **BLEEP** about batteries and surveys because as @Neverenoughwatches said who wrote the chart and who did the survey and who sponsored the survey, probably energiszer . @VWatchie if you have used Renata for years and no problem why switch just because some one wants you to buy their higher priced batteries. Batteries no matter what make even car batteries have a shelf life depending on storage conditions humidity levels, heat cold all will effect the life. Indeed I have purchased the odd car battery in the past that packed in in short order. You buy a battery through many dealers and the price depends on the dealer. The same Exide battery purchased via your local motor trade shop is more than likley tens of pounds cheaper than the main dealer or the AA, RAC, etc. it’s a question of choice, I don’t intend to change just for the hell ofi it. Based on my experience Renata are as good as any on the market regardless of price.
    1 point
  26. Plus, Vostok movements are Swiss in their construction, so nothing odd about being Russian! Everything you learn when working on cheap Vostok movements can be applied when working on the more expensive Swiss movements such as ETA, Sellita, Unitas, Omega, Peseux, and so on.
    1 point
  27. Latetothegame has posted about this watch before, it just might be a lot easier to replace the works than repair that post, your movement looks to be quartz, the Chronosport I saw had an ETA 555.11? so could be ETA, Ronda, I do not understand why a movement model number or picture of said works is scarce?, one can only help with more info or drill the post out and go from there.....
    1 point
  28. one of the confusions for people new to watch repair is what are they working on? Yes you have a description up above but that is not helpful as we need to know who actually made the watch itself. In other words companies purchase movements and put their names on them so we need a picture of the watch movement itself from the backside to identify the watch.
    1 point
  29. Hi there is always the possibility of drilling out the stump a nd glueing a pin in place to act as the pivot
    1 point
  30. you're not the only one in the make the observation of they work okay and maybe they can work better? Here's an example from a watch company Omega watch companies are interesting continuously changing their thoughts and ideas on how to solve a problem and typically throwing lots of money at the problem. That's because they have a infinite supply of money unlike us. so let's go back to an earlier sheet from Omega where they did recommend one of the tools up above. Basically a much fancier version of your blue box and demonstrates how it has to be used. In other words when you push the button and produces a alternating magnetic field and whatever you're trying to remove the field from has to be slowly withdrawn if you expected to become demagnetized. Otherwise you just place it on her in and push the button ou'll achieve exactly the opposite. These all work by magnetizing the watch with the sine wave of the power going in and as you slowly withdraw you slowly cause the magnetism to diminish to nothing providing you do it correctly. then this is watch repair there is almost never one procedure for anything. So yes there's a whole bunch of different tools for demagnetize ing. I suppose it has to do with how much money you have. Then is it necessary no if you don't care about the watch running or keeping time if you don't care about those things then yes it's necessary. Then it depends upon how obsessed you are for when you should do this? When the watchmakers I used to work with when the watch came out the cleaning machine he would demagnetize all of the individual parts baskets before reassembly and I assume he did it after assembly but I don't actually know. somewhere is at a lecture where I'm not sure they actually carried the demagnetize are on the tool belt but if they had a tool belt it would've been on their. In other words they were continuously doing it because it doesn't actually hurts anything for the most part then does it matter? Normally what I been taught in school before putting the watch on the timing machine you always demagnetize but by doing that you miss out on something? I was once doing a comparison of a witschi timing machine and the Chinese 1000. I did not demagnetize I timed the watches loaned to me by the person who loaned the timing machine and found something really fascinating yes this watch desperately needs to be serviced but what else does it have going wrong? here is a timing machine program notice in the simulated paper tape the same affect the scene on the graphical display notice the watch still needs to be serviced but something is changed? then from out of the timing machine manual telling you the same thing we have yes magnetized watch is not a good thing. Really gets bad enough they hairspring coils could stick together in the watch will run insanely fast. So as part of his servicing watch has to be demagnetized that includes even modern watches we do it all the time in the shop is put it on the demagnetizer including watches that claim they can't be magnetized.
    1 point
  31. This is a very sad day for the industry.. For most of us being amateurs the cost of replacing parts for ETA,s etc will be beyond affordability for the customers. see full statement below We have now received the decision from Judge Michael Green on whether or not the High Court has jurisdiction to hear our claim against Swatch, and sadly it is not the decision we had hoped for. As we have pointed out in previous news items (see below),the rules that Judge Green had to apply strictly prevented him from examining in any way how the Swiss Court arrived at its verdict, even if it is blatantly obvious that the verdict is wrong. As Swatch’s lawyer was summing up in the last few minutes oft he hearing, the Judge twice pinned him asking if it was alright if, as a result of the Swiss verdict, consumers had to pay 50% more for their watch repairs. After some stumbling, their lawyer’s reply was “Yes”, so I am quite sure that Judge Green left his court fully aware that the Swiss verdict does not reflect the norms of British Competition Law. However, the rules simply do not allow him to take that simple fact into account. Judge Green noted that our two arguments relating firstly to British Competition Law now being different from that of the EU, and secondly to the contention that the legality of the Authorised Service Networks has not been tested, had both been mentioned in the Swiss verdict. Because they had been mentioned, he felt that to allow us to argue them again would constitute re examining the Swiss case, and could not be allowed. As to our claim that we were denied our right to be heard because our evidence was not considered, our lawyers had argued that the evidence we provided could not have been looked at because had the Swiss Court done so, it could not have reached the conclusion that it did. In his verdict, Judge Green highlighted general statements in the Swiss verdict that evidence had been looked at, and acknowledged the arguments we made to him, but again he considered that this was re-examining the Swiss verdict, and could not be permitted. Our case has attracted considerable interest within the Legal community, and within minutes of the decision being made public we were approached for comment by one of the largest subscription news services, Global Competition Review. They asked us two very pertinent questions, and I reproduce them for you below along with our responses, as they neatly summarise the consequences arising from our case. What are the key takeaways? Enormous damage has been done to the fundamentals of UK and European Competition Law by the Swiss courts. It has always been the case that the effect on consumers and competition has to be considered in any decision making, but we now have a ruling that states even monopolists can remove wholesale markets from the supply chain without any consumer benefit based justification. Those entities looking to subvert Competition Law and exploit consumers for their own benefit will be looking at this very carefully. Has the court made the wrong decision? If so, will you appeal? The issue lies not with the High Court, but rather with cross border jurisdiction treaties that have no requirement in them for foreign jurisdictions applying UK law to take account of the Ratio Legis [a legal term for the fundamental reasoning why the law was written] of that law, and have no remedy within them for UK Courts to overcome decisions that clearly do not. After eight years of work, and a very considerable sum in legal costs, I can not begin to tell you how disappointed I am at this outcome. For the time being, there is no further route through the British Courts that Cousins can follow. However, I promised that we would fight to the end, and that promise stands. The UK is no longer part of the Lugano Convention, whose rules Judge Green has applied, and as yet nothing permanent has replaced it. The political tide turned against repair prevention by restricting supply of spare parts some time ago, and our efforts on behalf of the Watch Repair industry have resulted in high level contacts within several Government Departments. You can be sure that we will keep working to overcome this unjust situation that we now all find ourselves in. I will keep you advised. Kind regards Anthony
    0 points
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