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Hello, I have just joined and see that there are lots of new members here, many of whom seem to be novices like me. I confess that not only is my interest in watches very recently acquired but I am honest enough to admit that I don't know if it will last: my real love is photography. However, I have recently bought a very nice-looking watch at a thrift store: it cost me about $12 and I was so pleased with it that I spent $30 on a new leather strap for it. I have also bought some basic tools for changing straps and batteries. My interest is in watches as aesthetic items, and in watch-collecting, rather than in watch repair: I don't have a good natural aptitude for fixing things. But I do like to "have a go" and am quite careful and methodical. If I am going to buy watches cheap, online or in thrift stores, they may well need fixing up to a greater or lesser degree. If I want to start a basic watch collection my first instinct is to aim for a variety of styles and mechanisms. My two watches both have quartz movements. My thoughts right now are that the quartz movement is, by far, the most sensible technology for watches. It's the most accurate time-keeper and also very economical i.e. cheap! However, I am hankering after acquiring a watch with either a mechanical movement or possibly an Accutron, tuning fork movement. I would appreciate any advice on how to plan my next purchase. Really I think I am just going to use my aesthetic sense: some very expensive watches can, to my eyes, be quite vulgar in appearance while some cheaper watches can surprise me with their elegance.

In the last month my treasured Tissot gave up the ghost, as it was a present from my mother I took it for repair where I found that the prices of repair locally (North East) were in the region of £120.00 and the jeweler/watch repair person advised that they would just replace the insides (ETA 955.112). I thought that was high and decided to research. To cut a long story short I purchased a new movement from Greece for £16.75 and then realised I could not replace it without removing the stem and crown. Thanks to the videos on You Tube I became aware of Mark Lovick and so with advice gained as you can see in the photo it is up and running. The Glycine was found by me as a teenager, broken and battered and discarded on the sea shore in Scotland and I picked it up and was about to send it skipping across the water but at a whim put it in my fishing tackle box. When sorting out my mothers estate and clearing the house 35 years later it resurfaced dried out but battered and I noticed the serial number on the back. To cut a long story short it was eventually sent to Glycine where it was serviced and was supposed to have a new crystal fitted but when returned I noticed that the crystal had just been polished ! I complained and it was sent back and they fitted a new crystal and returned it along with a complimentary Glycine leather watch strap - result. I have been looking for a practical hobby (other than DIY) since retiring and in my family history research I found that my 3 generations of my family were watchmakers originating Derbyshire - maybe it was a sign. I have been looking for a pocket watch by Benjamin Harlow (Lane End, Staffs) for a while and have had a casual interest in watches generally. After messing on with my Tissot I ended up watching more and more of Mark's videos and decided to have a shot at repairing for fun only. I decided to set a limit on the funds and started to think about what to do and somehow picked up an interest in Accutrons. In the end I eventually decided that I would only look at Tissot and Bulova. With my working background being in IT right back to the days when we used soldering irons I quite liked the idea of the "humming" Accutrons. Which finally brings me to the third watch, a recent acquisition because if I was going to mess round with them I should of course have a reasonable working example (at least that was my argument when I told my lovely Wife). I am building up a stock of Accutron stuff which is being sent to my son in LA and I will pick it up on holiday. I bougnt an accutron 218 movement on e bay for £23.00 and to my delight when i inserted the Accucell it started humming (even if the rest does not work - project 2) and it sounds identical to my watch so with that and the other stuff to pick up in LA, non working Accutrons 214 and 218, I will have loads to play with. I am reaching the end of the budget limit now with the purchase of all the tools etc it is quite expensive but judging by the posts and thanks to the interest engendered by watching Mark's videos it looks like fun. So basically I know nothing about watches, have no experience but I can research competently and follow quite complicated instructions - I have not joined a forum before and hope you bear with me and advise whether I inadvertently transgress protocols in some way. regards, Vich

Hello everyone... Bulova ACCUTRON (carcass)

Thanks gentlemen! As to expense, well, I won this fully serviced on owner watch for the princely sum of $300! When I look at whats new out there for that it makes this one seem somewhat of a bargain I think. I got a better movement than in my Accutron for Accutron money! The deals are out there if you keep searching and don't just jump on the first thing you see. The week before I saw a similar one though in not as good condition and with no fresh service and I nearly went for it until I did some research and realized it had the movement replaced for a standard ESA one. Nothing wrong with that in terms of functionality as apart from the copper plates they are identical movements to the Omega but it was not an Omega movement and it went for pretty much the same as this one!

Before I bought a couple of 344's, I had seen that they were the battery of choice for this watch. Even the website you provided says they are a replacement for the 1.35v #343 of yesteryear. However, the better voltage match of the Accutron-type would be nice. I might end up going for it and buying the the "Accucell" for it. If the watch was the later model that had the battery hatch it would all be so much easier. Every time I the battery is changed you have to "blow the hatch" and risk ruining the crystal with the vise during reassembly. Still, I like the watch enough to consider investing $11.00 per year. We'll see. BTW: It looks like in order to use the Accucell in the ESA9150, I have to do some sort of modification or something. This is noted on the website you posted, if one has a movement where the positive side faces up, i.e. the back of of the watch. They don't say what to do, just that they have a solution.

Moving right along. There's no way that I could have done the job without having the technical manual. There are sequences that must be followed, or else. A couple of things to note though: 1.) When you're ready to fit the date-setting spring, don't install the bridge that is over it first, as specified in the manual. You need a little bit of room to compress the spring so that it fits into its recess, which is partially under the minute-wheel bridge. You can put in one screw first, and swing the bridge over and away from the spring boss, fit the spring in carefully, then swing the bridge back over its rear end, replace other screw and tighten both screws. 2.) There's a point where you need to move the thin spring arms that are installed on the lower side of the train bridge once it's installed. I filed the end of a brass tapered-pin down very thin, and used that, held in a pin-vise, to get in to manipulate those little suckers into their friction wheels. Those will be the plastic wheels that are on the center-wheel arbor, as well as the third-wheel(?). At any rate, they are the two plastic pulley-like wheels that sit parallel to the wheel itself. The little spring just add a touch of tension to the wheels. Interesting setup. 3.) There's a stop-works like setup for the date mechanism. Once you install it, be ready to check it for freedom. The first time I did it, it was only free to a point, but then locked up between the finger under the minute wheel and the maltese-cross piece below it. There's a channel in the top of the maltese that it seems you want the finger lined up with. After I redid it, it seemed to work fine. 4.) It does seem that the #344 battery, at 1.55v, packs a bit to much power for the watch, which was designed for a 1.35v battery. With that battery no longer being available, there's an expensive Accutron-dedicated battery that works well, but is expensive. With the 344, the watch does run fast. I'm going to try to regulate it by slowing it down at the balance. Trial and error is tough though, as it's a monocoque case that's a pain to open and close. The watch runs approximately +45 seconds per day with this battery. Would it be possible to slow it down enough at the balance? If so, how much should I move the regulator? I don't have a timing machine, so it's all trial-and-error, unless someone can help with some good info. Thanks ahead of time. Cheers. MAH00269.MP4

Personally I always oil both ends of the centre seconds pinion/wheel.... This part is most/more prone to corrosion if for some reason moisture gets in the case. This pinion/shaft is holding the seconds hand--which acts as a heatsink, therefore that shaft will be fractionally cooler than the rest of the bulk of the movement, the result is condensation usually at the pivots, it then rusts/seizes solid--Or in the case of Accutron 214 gets twisted right off on the chaton jewel side, but strangely the watch keeps on running quite often......

I only work on Tuning-Fork types, mainly Accutron.... The differences of the date mech of the 218 series relate to the day/date 2182 and the date only 2181/218D versions. they are fairly different too... Day-Date 2182 has the trip-spring with the hook that fits into pillar-plate, and abuts against a nipple, then onto date trip-arm, the date detent-spring is fitted After the date bridge is in place by threading it through the hole in the date-bridge, short end to middle of movement. 2181/218D has the date-trip spring thats threaded into/under the date bridge after the bridge is fitted.--Yup, Weird! If you strip the train on any 218x, during reassembly, leave the fourth wheel bridge off the bottom till the main bridge is fitted on top with all 4 wheels. This means there's only two wheels to locate the jewels, not three, (third locates anyway as its held by hack-lever.) Makes life so much easier and no need to poke around to locate the wheels, you dont want ever to touch the Index wheel with anything metal...

Hi, I really like the accutrons. I currently have two, a cushion case spaceview and a 14kt tv case 214. As to what to do if they run too fast there's a few things to try which you may already know. Before phasing check to see how many teeth the index finger will hit before pulling away from the index wheel. If I remember correctly it shouldn't be more than 4 or 5. More than that means watch will have to run fast. I also remember reading somewhere that there are some that can't be phased for a modern battery and I have ran across a couple of those and had to resort to using the accucell. It seems like there are a lot of accutron collectors where I live. A guy just brought in four for me to work on last week. One was a spaceview with the second hand dragging on the crystal, one was a 218 with a bad coil and the other two just needed batteries. He also had an elgin electronic that someone had put a 387 battery in upside down. Even if battery had been right side up watch wouldn't work because it needed a 357 which is much thicker. The 387 wouldn't make contact with the hatch cover spring.

Well, thanks to some help from a forum member, the Accutron is back in business. That ETA movement was indeed the correct one. The sweep second hand didn't fit, so the hand that came with the new movement was painted to match. Everything works perfectly! I definitely didn't baby this watch and it's had its share of abuse, I decided that the case needed a polish, and I'll be sure to treat it a bit more carefully moving forward. Thanks for the help!

Hi Hendo, All good so welcome and carry on. I am a retired electronic engineer. Almost a self taught watch repairer. I still use de Carles Bible. Some watches find their way to me after their owners have been quoted a lot of money to fix them. I fix quartz as well but not Accutron and F300. There are some highly skilled people on this forum but I am not one of them. Regards, Mike.

Hi Max, Your precision engineering will stand you in good stead. Good luck with the project. I could not do that but an old friend who was a Swiss trained watchmaker and now gone taught me quite a lot of practical and theory. I just service and repair standard watches. Not big complications . I re-battery and fix quartz as well and the electronic`s are easy for me as I was an electronic engineer. All good wishes for your success in watchmaking, a very skilled business. There is a lot of expert knowledge on this site and use a copy of Practical Watch Repairing. de Carle. I consider it a bible on mechanical watches. The Accutron is detailed as well. Good wishes, ?Mike.

Hi RJK, Your Bulova Accutron was the best tuning fork watch. I had an Omega F300 (not as good as the Bulova) I smashed it many years ago when a car pulled out and knocked me of my motorcycle. I escaped with hardly a scratch. Watch and bike were wrecked !!. Speak later.

As someone who takes the view that if it's been assembled, it can be dissembled and therefore fixed, I make occasional forays into clocks and watches and have a reasonable set of tools. I've practised on a few Chinese movements for the skill building and entertainment, but I confess I wouldn't take any of my 'real' watches apart - off to the professional for those. I'm more likely to tackle a clock due to the scale. Strong preference for mechanical, although - putting chronometer definition aside - possibly my most 'accurate' watch is a Bulova Accutron, which I have rated down to around half a second a day over two months. Built an interesting rating circuit based on the usual piezo element, but not sure i'm willing to open a very good watch to do the adjusting! I do get a string of more modest value watches for inevitable battery and/or gasket replacement, case polishing and other minor fettling and maintenance. So, an enthusiastic amateur.

Hi all, Since I haven't found an Accutron yet, I jumped on this vintage Timex Electric. It's far from a tuning fork movement but it's satisfying me for the interim. It had a neat calendar band with 7 changeable cards for the appropriate month. Runs great and looks sharp. I thought it was kind of unique; can't make out the serial number but I think is a '67 model/style 84. Not too familiar with thier Taxonomy. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Hi, I'm a newby, so please be gentle! I have an early Accutron into which I need to fit a new crystal. I have a NOS crystal. I understand the principle of fitting a tension ring crystal with a press, but need to make a die to fit the crystal. Does anyone know (or can estimate) the optimum internal angle of the top die please? Secondly, on a slightly different subject, I have seen on this site discussions about recessed crystals and non-recessed crystal, but from what has been said I still don't really understand the difference. Could someone enlighten me further please? Thanks in anticipation. pcuk

the watch forum has a master accutron servise master. " silver hawk " ( Paul ). vin

Hi all, It's been a while since I posted anything, I retired a year ago and have been busy working on our house and keeping busy with watches but haven't really had anything worth sharing until this week. Anyway I put an ad in the local paper looking to drum up a little business or maybe even buy some interesting watches. Yesterday I bought a box of assorted watches. Got two 18s Elgin pocket watches, one accutron, a handful of other watches and this Wakmann. As soon as I saw it I knew I was going to have it. I offered the guy who owned them $300 for the lot and he said $350 and I said Ok. The Wakmann doesn't run yet because the hairspring looks like a birds nest. I know Mark has a video about how to straighten out hairsprings and I have done a few but this is beyond me so I have ordered a balance complete from Jules Borel at what I thought was a very reasonable price. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I did take a close up of the movement ring because it looks as if someone used tar as a seal. I have put the movement back in the case just to show what the watch should look like when it's finished. Also see the tangled hairspring. I'm not sure what happened but the regulator arm was pushed into the center wheel so I'm guessing the wheel caught it.

I've always loved watches and always wanted to collect them. Knowing That most of the watches I'm drawn too are well out of my reach, I never started collecting. I'd wear what ever Quartz someone might gift to me and once it was beat to hell I'd just toss it. At, 45 I decided to try and rebuild my first watch, another long time bucket list item. That was my 1968 Bulova Oceanographer that I picked up at an estate sale for $10 purely by chance. After that one I had intentions of finding, fixing, and selling vintage watches. That was back in January. I've run into a slight twist in the plan though. After fixing and wearing for a day or two, I can't bring myself to sell them. With that said, I have now become a collector. Here is my modest collection that I have gotten much enjoyment from. 1968 Bulova Oceanographer 1976 Bulova Accutron 1975 Timex Automatic Early 90's Zarja 3105 Early to mid 89's Vostok Amphibian Vostok Kommandirski (unknown age) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How many times have I been asked that question ? In all honesty , I don't know . From Rolex to Timex , I like them all . I guess it's kinda like being a parent ,...you don't have a favorite child . I wake up every day and try to figure out what it's going to be . I usually will wear about 4 watches a day so I can check to see if they are operating properly , or if they may need maintenance . If it's a work day the answer is easy . I only have about 20 [nice] beaters to chose from . For casual every day wear , there are a few I might wear more than others . I guess I have acquired an attachment to some of the watches I have repaired that gave me more of a challenge ,...some more than others . So I will share those for starters..... First off is a Seiko 6139 chronograph I bought in parts and pieces . I paid $58 for it if memory serves me correctly . I had to figure how to put the puzzle together , then how to get it to run , and finally , how to make adjustments and tweak it so it worked as it was intended to run . Next is a Bulova Accutron Deep Sea diver with a tuning fork movement . I bought it at the swap meet for $140 not running . When I got it home and checked out the movement it was rusty and the parts were stuck together starting at the crown , stem , and gear for the rotating inner bezel . The movement was ruined and I had to gather a few movements to make one good operating movement . With the cost of buying the watch and parts I ended up spending around $200 . This was my first experience with Tuning Fork watches . The rest of the watches had their own little roadblocks to get around , which the greatest obstacle was finding sometimes obsolete parts . The Citizen Americas Cup watch is a good example of that . I now have 4 of them with 2 working . The other 3 watches in this group shot is a retro Seiko automatic , A vintage Croton Buccaneer that for some reason , even though it has a smaller watch case , I like it . And last in this group is a Germinal Voltaire , which with it's offset pinion , ended up being a small challenge figuring out how to dismantle it . I broke some parts on this watch and a donor and had to ask for help on this forum . Then tracking down the parts was fun . Now that I know where to get the parts I am working on my 2nd Germinal Voltaire as I write this . So Now , let me ask You ,...What is your favorite watch ?

Beautiful watch. I have always enjoyed BULOVA watches, collecting and repairing them. I have probably 50 in my collection and hundreds of parts movements and thousands of individual parts. A BULOVA accutron was the first watch I ever purchased myself at 10 years old, and I also have both my grandfathers watches that are BULOVAs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+2.5 cheapo eyeglasses from poundshop, and another pair with 20X loupe stuck on with Rodico for setting up pre-position of Accutron fingers. I found using loupe as designed it steamed up all the time causing irritation and annoyance, just when you get the damned things aligned--you couldn't see 'em anymore. All normal dissassembly and reassembly done with just the eyeglasses. Parts examination done at 20x For Indexing I use a £5 cheapo Chinese microscope 100x I modded for the job. Indexing jewels look like two house-bricks on a circular sawblade Works for me!

A week or two ago I read on a forum (I think it was this one, but I could be wrong) about an electrical mechanical watch they had repaired. This type of watch up until then I didn't know existed (How much I still have to learn). From what I understand these watches were very short lived in the 1970s and used an electrical circuit to energise a magnet to swing the balance and were just before quartz watches came into being. I'm aware of tuning fork watches like the Accutron, but know very little about these other electrical watches. Has anyone got a good resource they can point me at so I can read up on them more, or recommend a few brands / models to look out for to buy? At the moment I don't want any rare or super expensive ones, just some good ones to learn to work on. Thanks Tony

I use these for small parts like Accutron index-wheels in the ultrasonic-- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2ml-test-tube-sample-vials-container-with-snap-cap-x-25-Freepost-/120916343579?hash=item1c272cfb1b:g:8VkAAOSwPe1Tz5aQ The advantage is--being a sorta softish plastic, parts bouncing round due to the ultra dont get damaged as could be possible using a glass bottle/vial/beaker, being semi sealed you can use any cleaning fluid you like in them with just water in the ultrasonic tank keeping cleaner fluids costs down --Yup. I'm a cheapskate!

I repaired a Accutron a year ago but I don't own one yet. All of my own Bolova's have Swiss movements. So I still want a older American made movement Bolova. Accutrons seem to fall victim to "free" battery changes. The one I fixed was a mess of corrosion from a busted gasket.