wls1971

The problem with buying outside the E.U at the moment is not the tax and duty that is applied to items which in most cases is quite small but the cost of handling charges imposed by the couriers, for collecting the tax and duty on behalf of the exchequer. I have wondered depending on what happens in Ireland, if there is no hard border and customs checks, companies could open offices up in southern Ireland and channel goods to the rest of the E.U through those a similar thing used to exist with the channel Islands with companies like HMV selling CD's free of tax to the U.K mainland. Whatever happens I expect a minefield of loop holes to open up from day one, it wont be plain sailing.

Your welcome glad your work on this movement has paid off

Ebel parts are very difficult to get why must it be Ebel ? Its just a round gasket that fits in a groove at the back of the bezel its not a fancy shaped gasket so it should be possible to fit a generic Swiss gasket.

I would also say don't underestimate the sheer amount of time it can take to catalogue these things, I had the great idea of selling my record collection on discogs once I have thousands of vinyl records I absolutley gave up on the idea after listing about 50 records it just took forever to photograph and list them, if you have the time good luck

Yes the small reference number at the bottom of the dial tells me your watch was produced in 1974 (its a 7 not a 1 )and has a calibre M24 movement fitted

No one seems to be sure what the star and S trademark signify's but it appeared around the time that Williamson started using the word "Astral" for their movements a name later to become synonymous with Smiths who kept the trademark when they bought Williamson "There's a pocket for every Astral and a Astral for every pocket"

They are fantastic divers watches ,Seiko have always offered good value dependable watches and I have quite a few in my collection both quartz and automatics, the only fly in the ointment with Seiko as a company is there tendency to change models and designs like I change my socks this can make it impossible to get case parts, bezel inserts or bracelet links for even very recent models because no one carrys the spares because Seiko dont produce them once a model is dropped from the range.

The case may be original but the movement is certainly not, the Eta 2824-2 used by Tudor was top notch as far as finish went with highly decorated bridges and a rotor marked Tudor, so this one is either totally bogus or had a complete movement replacement. If the case is original it would have to be considered a "Franken"

The movement in your watch was manufactured by H.Williamson in Coventry the S in a star is a know trademark of Williamsons, it was produced in various grades starting with a 7 jewel version, so would have been bought in by Dent and supplied to Spikins jewellers who had nine retail jewellery shops in the London area, Williamson also supplied Thomas Russel and H.Samuels with movements they also founded the Buren factories in Switzerland in 1898. They fell foul of the law in 1899 by claiming their watches where English warranted when in fact they had been producing the parts in Switzerland at the Buren factories, they then expanded their factories in England to manufacture fully movements to comply with the law, they where eventually bought out by Smiths.

You can download the Ronda catalogue off the cousins website a Ronda 256 is for a Tissot 12.5L calibre 28. https://www.cousinsuk.com/document/category/ronda-stems-by-ronda-number

Oberli and Loeb is still in existence the company changed name to Oberli CNC in 1998 they are a small engineering company that amongst other things manufacture tools for the watch industry, the tools they produce are specialist tools manufactured to the clients manufacturing needs. The tool you have will have been made to do one job over and over again in a manufacturing environment. You could try contacting them and see if they remember who they produced it for and what its use is https://www.oberlicnc.ch/html/fabrikation.html#ringe_muttern Personally I think this tool is for pinning a hairspring to a collet

This video of Marks shows how to fit a chronograph pusher obviously removal is the reverse of the operation:

Its to help with fine adjustment of the regulator its not actually connected to anything you line the slot up with a gap in the teeth on the regulator then use a screwdriver blade to turn the regulator it stops the balance cock getting marked when adjusting and keeps the blade in the slot so it cant slip.

Yes there is no reason why this machine should not be able to clean parts provided it is running correctly . I do on occasion pre clean parts that are extremely dirty, i.e parts that have oil that has gone gummy on the plates but other than that these machines are simple but effective at cleaning. I cannot comment on the solutions you are using but I have been using Quadralene clock watch and instrument cleaner and rinse it has worked very well for me.

I have a national watch cleaning machine similar to the one you have the basket set up looks very different to the one I have attached to mine, on mine there is a fan like part that the basket attaches to this churns up cleaning fluids as it spins ensuring good agitation of the fluid. The brass basket holder you have looks very corroded i would be inclined to think the brass is reacting to the cleaning fluid causing discolouring of the fluid maybe re chroming would help with this. Does the rheostat speed control function correctly this machine would date from the 1950's so it could be worn and not spinning fast enough.