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Hello Stuart, A lot of the Accutron PDFs refer to two major oils, OL207 which is now Moebius 8201 and OL219 which is now Moebius 9020. Which model Accutron are you going to repair. Cheers, Vic

Camera books? I have a few, and on old watches, and electronic (like accutron) BUT, " I hate electronics". cheers, vin

Hi Joe , glad to here that you put your studies first , and working on watches is a good way to relax your mind and body . I have the cousin to your Bulova Oceanographer 666 diver ,.....An Accutron Deep Sea 666 diver I had picked up at the swapmeet . It looked good when I got it but found out when I opened it up that the movement was incomplete and the winder for the inner rotating bezel was stuck ....looked like rust but was happy to find out that the winder gear was made of brass. So some ultra sonic cleaning and both baking soda and also vinegar treatments freed everything up . I bought some donor Accutron parts and that puppy is working good now. This watch was my introduction to Accutrons .

One of our problems for this discussion is the name Accutron. To us it has a very clear definition of mechanical tuning fork watches. The Bulova later on it was something nifty to put on the dials of quartz watches. They could use it on the grounds that the quartz crystal was in a tuning fork shape. So I've had people asked me about their tuning fork watch and have to explain that it's not a real tuning fork watch even if Bulova claimed it was. Then the website below the entire website is very interesting the page that I have below as something you probably haven't seen before. http://www.decadecounter.com/accutron/clones.htm

Parts on sale on the Bay and I have posted the PDF covering the repair Vintage ORIGINAL Bulova Accutron 2185 Part 648 Hour Setting Stem Pair w/ Info Bulova-Accutron-2185- Pages 58 to 71 Supplement for Hour and Date Settings Manual.pdf though you will still need to get a button. Good luck, Cheers, Vic

Aloha Vic , lowcountry and All . I have started studying the Accutron tech manual for the 218 movements...there's a lot of ground to cover . I have a movement that I just received and the fork hums ,but the gears do not continuously spin when I push in the crown to the run position . The index wheel does start but stops every time I pull the crown out and back in . I checked the troubleshooting section and it states that the index wheel may be dirty . But , I played very sightly with positioning the crown and there's a place where the gears all turn as normal . that position is neither in or out of the setting or run positions . I also read that there is a hack adjustment on page 20 . SO , I think that I need to either adjust the hack , or [God I hope not ,...not yet anyway ] , replace the hack . I am also thinking that the pilot part of the stem that engages the hack may be worn ...or too long . I do have a couple of new accutron stems coming my way and hope that they are for the 218's . What comes after step #2 ? My pdf jumps from page to page.... Can anyone please give me your thoughts and input on the hack adjustment ? ......... Thanks , Louis

I went to the clock & watch fair at the Motorcycle Museum in Solihull on 12/7 and enjoyed an extended walk around. My impressions are that some of the stall holders had lost touch with reality on their pricing. I would have thought that they would of at least matched the prices on the Bay but I found only two watch stalls where the pricing was what could be described,in my opinion, as fair. One guy was trying to sell 3 accutron 218x movements for £25.00 each but could not say whether the coils were working or not and on one the battery strap and screw with insulator were gone. He confessed he did not know much about them but thought the price was fair for parts. I passed on that one, the coils were a big question for me and I would have needed to test them plus whether the fork was still magnetic and again the index wheel and pawl fingers would need inspection with a scope - too many ifs and buts and not enough guarantee for a £75.00 shot to nothing, if he had wanted £35 for the three I may have had a punt. Another had a spaceview conversion (poorly defined chapter markings on glass) for which he wanted £300 and guess what, it was not working ! I did see a nice Favre Leuba (twin barrel) and 9ct gold Marvin but resisted. It looked like I was just going to leave empty handed but saw one stall with two big piles of watches and asked the guy how he came by them and they were apparently from an auction. They appeared to be so called designer watches mainly quartz but he said there were wind up watches in the lot. The price being £10.00 a watch. I scoured around looking for old leather straps first then screw on backs and older styled crowns but was finding nothing of great interest. Finally I found a watch that ticked the boxes, old smelly leather strap, dirty case, dome head crown and screw back. The case is filthy but no dings or deep scratches. The glass is a mess and cracked but the dial appears ok so I asked for his best price and he said £8.00 so I got it. Really I just wanted to get something I suppose. Not an astounding watch but really clean inside though the movement looks a bit mass produced. The pic makes the screw heads look a bit chewed but that is just the shading / lighting as they are all untouched and I doubt whether the back has been off. It is working and the date moves over without problem. I had hoped it would be a Bulova Caravelle but now have doubts though the Accutron Back remover (L) fits perfectly. The gasket is still sound and I like the Crown. It will go in the queue for total clean and service. If anyone recognises the actual movement it would be nice to know. The glass may be a problem but as I am taking it off anyway I should be able to size it, quite a high dome with a magnifyer looking like it is stuck on the underside. Cheers, Vic

No idea about the 10 1/2 F either unless it's the size in ligne that the dial fits. Something on the order of 23.68 mm. Sadly, you're probably correct about the need to hide the Jewish identity of the recipient. Bulova was at one time a US manufacturer that utilized Swiss movements. Currently the brand is owned by Citizen Watch of Japan and split into two lines. Bulova which utilizes Japanese movements and Bulova Accu-Swiss which was formerly known as Bulova Accutron. The Accu-Swiss line is supposedly Swiss made.

Whew!!....I got the humming accutron going again by following the advice I found on an accutron blog ..."Give it a gentle rap on the side at the 3 or 9 O'clock position to help the capacitor get the movement going "...That's it ,I'm not going to mess around with that watch again . One thing I've found to be true with 3 accutrons I worked on this last 2 weeks is to follow the tech manuals advice [ or admonition ] , to remove the stem and crown in the pulled out setting position . And VERY carefully replace the stem in that position....DO NOT push the stem in past that point to reinstall it . I disengaged the yoke from the clutch groove 3 times and had to dissemble the calendar works each time to fix that problem . These use a screw type setting lever . The hacking affects some very tiny index and pawl jewels . I just ordered an electronic microscope [ from China ] to see them so I can adjust them .....I hope .

Aloha All , Well the good news is that I finally got my swap-meet Bulova Accutron 2182 Deep Sea watch working and keeping good time . The other good news is that Man , did I learn a lot about Accutron movements using my original broken movement , 2 donor movements ,....1 working and 1 spare for another project to get it working , 2 pdf tech manuals...1 downloaded from some watch forum and 1 purchased on Ebay and downloaded , and Youtube videos . After getting the stem off and removing the movement I was able to press out the hefty acrylic crystal . The inner rotating brass bezel came out easily and cleaned up well . The crown and gear that turned the bezel was frozen in place with crud and a little rust . I kept it covered with penetrating oil for a few days with no results . Then I used some paste made of Alum and hot water for about 12 hours...I kept adding drops of hot water every few hours as the paste started to dry out . After putting the movement in my ultra sonic cleaner after the Alum , the gear and crown started to wiggle a bit . Next I soaked the gear in vinegar for about 12 hours and the gear and crown finally started to turn freely . I next installed the working donor movement , but either the crown and stem would not stay in , or the calendar would not work correctly . The coils on the tuning fork are magnetized and every tiny screw and spring would be drawn to the coils . If a part pinged off , especially the springs for the calendar indents ,....check the coils and 50% of the time they would be stuck there . I decided to put the project to rest for about a week and started to study the tech manuals I downloaded , I finally took the project watch out again and very meticulously lubed and installed the setting mechanism and calendar works using the tech manual as my guide . installed the movement into the case with the crystal and rotating bezel , and BINGO , it all came together....at last . I've attached a few pics showing various parts of the watch....

Very cool indeed! My only concern is that's it's electronic; and being such, there's the problem with the circuit and coils issues ... how on earth would you ever get replacements :huh: This is the sad truth of quartz, they are an item with a finite life span; and not heirloom items :( Possibility the only exception to this would be the Accutron movement, as they appear to be point-to-point component, instead of surface mount circuit boards. But since I have never owned a Accutron, nor seen one dismantled, I could be wrong.

As much as I hate to admit it ,....I got the fever and picked up this working Accutron. As I was searching Accutrons lately . since my swap-meet find , I was surprised how these watches seem to hold there value ,...working or not . After saying all that , I'm through with Accutron purchases .....Honest .

I think this movement are very hard to work on . If you don't have very much experience in this tuning fork movements ? I don't have any Accutron watches but i have a few Omega F300 watches .Which are similar movements . They have some very small index wheels with very very small teeth on . With a diameter of 1 cm they have over 300 small teeth . If you brake one of this teeth the watch won't work . I send all my F300 and some Esa 9150 watches to http://electric-watches.co.uk/. You can read a lot about the different movements also . I would like to own a Bulova accutron some time in the future .

id like to find a cheep mvt. for my collection of emty accutron cases. vin

Hi All I've an 11 jewel 1879 Waltham pocket watch with very old and pitted jewels, particularly 4th and escape wheel. They've caused a bit of uneven wear on the pivots so I'm getting wavey traces on the timegrapher. I've polished the pivots and this has improved the situation a fair bit, but would really like to replace the old jewels. Now, as they are held in chatons, is there any way of purchasing replacement jewels complete in the chatons? I had assumed since Waltham made bajillions of watches that spares for the jewels in chatons would be simple to find, but I'm buggered if I can! Am just I going to have to try and put replacement jewels in the existing chatons? I'm just a hobbyist, but am a bit of a perfectionist so would like to get the watch running as well as I can. She's a lovely heavy size 18. Next watch I'm on to is an accutron space view... A bit of a different beast! Cheers in advance guys.

Hi , ..Nice Hamilton . Looks like my X-Wind . As far as the Accutron running fast , you are talking about phasing the watch to run on higher voltage batteries . At 1.5 instead of 1.3 volts . You may want to try an accu-cell made for this . You can try one ,...as they are more expensive , to see the outcome .

I just got one of those Accutron astronauts as well and I love it. It runs a little fast, but I understand that it just means it needs to be adjusted for the higher voltage off modern batteries. Maybe I'll find someone to do that this spring. This is my current daily though: Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

I was trawling the net and found this lot for sale:- A pre 1970 Bulova Accutron gentleman's battery operated wristwatch, circular champagne dial with date aperture, on an expandable bracelet, a Rotary gentleman's gold plated wristwatch, circa 2002, the rectangular dial bearing Roman numerals, both boxed with certification a Ronson lighter, and a compact. (4) Est £60 - 80. Now the question will be will the gamble pay off as the charges from the saleroom plus postage go on top. I decided to have a punt at the lower end and got the lot for £60, plus charges and post brings it to £88.80. However both watches come with boxes and certification. The Accutron easily covers the total charge ( if I can bear to part with it ) and the Rotary does not look too bad which is a bonus. I am banking on the fact that the owner kept the Boxes and certification as someone that does take that sort of care may have looked after their watches. I remember my father having one of those lighters which were really common in the day but heaven knows what I will do with a womans compact - hold back on the comments George. Off to hospital shortly today for my pacemaker replacement op, as a bit like the Accutrons my battery has died - hope i don't need rephasing :D , but on my return I will eagerly await my parcel. Cheers, Vic

could i be just a sales pitch? much like the railroad watches, designated RR on the case,BUT not certified.? accutron soled a wrist watch with it on the dial. vin

Given at least some similarity to the Accutron, I wonder if someone who works primarily on those would be willing to take this one? Oldfathertime.com and accutrons.com are the two places I know of. Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

I'm unable to answer your question, but I'm wondering if these movements are the same as or similar to the original Bulova Accutron movements?

Cheers chaps, Funny you should mention pacemakers George, every time someone mentions big magnets to find little bits I think its alright for some but I have to keep big magnets at arms length. My wife would not let me get an induction hob because she read somewhere that they could affect a pacemaker - must mean she likes me around. Makes your tag line quite prophetic except time could "stand still" permanently if I decide to cuddle a magnet so I'll stick with the Mrs. I have actually "fixed" a watch already Will, it had been in a drawer for ? years and new batteries did not work so at the time I just ditched it into a placcy bag with about 5 others. It was another of those infamous knock offs this time from Fuertoventura. There must of been something gumming up the train as I put it on the "Mechanic Line Free" pad and after an initial dance back and forth the pointers all started whizzing around - most peculiar. Anyway I put a battery in and to my surprise it is working ! There were several others in the drawer so I will play with them but I had to order some AG11's which seem to be flavour of the month for this stuff - 99p for 10, expiry 2016, Eunicell. Well I was not going to buy good ones for these watches so they can take their chances. Also came across this for $4.99:- Bulova ABC Interchangeable Parts Catalog for Bulova, Caravelle, & Accutron Parts Printed July 1971 Cover of book has some creases and wear. Inside pages are in good condition. I am sure it is in the public Domain but I could not find a free PDF as the sites that offered a free download wanted a bit too much info for my liking, in fact my software intercepted two vicious bits of malware. At that point I decided to buy the original and get it shipped to my son in LA - hell of a difference in postage price. I may make it into a searchable PDF and put it on the site once I confirm its status but that would really be a labour of love as there are quite a few pages. Anyway I found a problem with my Accutron test set (broken wires and wrong VR settings) so it is bits on the dining room table - not popular even with the table protector on. I think I might adopt this for my tag line "Whuy whea sed theres nowt te dee when yu retiar like, yer bugga ahm knackered." Cheers Vic

Indeed the movement does not require a spacer. What is the problem with the tension ring and the crystal ? I had an Accutron once that came with a standard ACT tension ring acrylic crystal and I replaced it with a new one and everything was fine, you just have to do some tests. Usually they fit.

Just thought I would add my thoughts. I have to say the combination of electronic and mechanical in the Accutron 214 and 218 elevates them to a different category whereby the skill needed to phase them due to an index wheel 2.4 mm wide with 320 teeth 0.01mm high, is quite testing. With the Spaceview you throw out the dial so the works can be visible. So as usual I seem to be straddling the fence again. I went into a jewellers in LA where I was advised that if an Accutron came in with a solid gold case it was most likely it would be scrapped for the gold. My Ancestors were making silver watches in the Georgian period and before but sad to say even the silver in the watch cases is now regarded to some Philistines as worth more than the skilful hand produced parts making up the movements so I appreciate where Lawson is coming from. In conclusion I suppose I am saying that I am happy to be in the company of people with varying opinions but all of whom have an appreciation for the tastes of others and who honour the skill and hard work of past and current watchmakers no matter what type of watch. My son wants me to sort out a mechanical Bulova self winder for him, got a working movement a while ago to play with, he does not wear a watch at present and tends to use his phone. Hopefully a convert. Back to the Uk in 2 days. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hello from La, Made it here but a bit zombiefied have not even sorted through my Accutron goodies purchased on eBay.com and sent to my son. Weirdly woke up at 6.00 am CA time but starting to flag a bit now. Off to San Francisco tomorrow. Will keep an eye open for second Hand stuff while here hoping to pick up more Accutron stuff. Also looking out for the odd micro brewery to try out their produce. Cheers to all