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Hello, I am working on an Accutron Astronaut and after putting it back together, (cased up) I notice it hums, (doesn’t hack) and the minute and hour hands don’t move... everything was looking good during the overhaul. Paul and index line up how they should, the tuning fork vibrates the coils are good. Can anyone with more experience on these help me out? Please and thanks.

Good afternoon everyone. I have a great project, however my skills and knowledge on the subject are limited. Let's say that I inherited from a relative of mine, my father's brother, a watchmaker, this beautiful machine from about 1974. Although it is very well cared for, it does not work. I have inspected and I think the problem is with a zener diode (BZY92C10). Or a pair of transistors that activate the solenoid that hits the cylinder with the helical track that prints the succession of points. PCB1. The side tracks is rotate to match PCB 2 Is rotate o mirror to match The motor turns and the paper strip advances. But the characteristic sound of the impression tapping is not heard. In fact I was able with the help of a tip to check current of 12-24 volts, I could see that at the output to the printer / solenoid, a pulse corresponding to the beat of the clock is generated. But it seems that the current is not enough to drive the solenoid coil. The solenoid coil works if I activate it with a 9 volt battery. In other words, you can hear the “click”. If any of you wish to join me in this project, I would greatly appreciate his help. Thanks

Bulova Accutron 2181 - had an open coil I managed to bring it back into life. Longines 9L - not serviced just pics Eterna-Matic Centenaire "61" - 1438U - not serviced just pics. Longines Cal 431 - not serviced just pics Lemania Cal 4650 - not serviced, just pics. Risieres Felsa 690 - not serviced, just pics. Felca Cal ETA 1080 - not serviced, just pics.

Just picked this up earlier today. This find just about epitomizes vintage watch collecting for me and what really keeps me going. Hit 2 antique malls today and saw a couple of pieces at the first one but just nothing that I needed. At the second one saw a Accutron 218 but it was 20 minutes behind the actual time. These "malls" have numerous booths of a variety of sellers who likely go in once or twice a week. Considering that that watch should be within a couple of seconds a month, I figured it hadn't been phased so passed on that for now knowing it would need work to run correctly and the price tag. Then I found this Excelle in a display case. I never heard of the brand, but in was an auto and had a little heft. It turned out to be 40mm lug to lug, 35.3mm case width, and 12.3 mm thick. On the spiedel once size fits most flex band. At $10.80US with tax I immediately pulled the trigger with nothing to lose. Before pictures: I spent a nice 30 minutes taking it out of the case and running that through the ultra sonic replacing the crystal and gasket and recasing, but spent five minutes first getting it running close on the timegrapher. Had a new crystal already in stock. I probably could have sanbed and polished the old one, but for $3 there is nothing like a new acrylic that makes a watch pop, in my opinion. The caseback gasket was hardened and just glad it wasn't tar. Changed that as well. Here is the after Pic on a temp black strap while I decide on a leather or steel bracelet. An added bonus was doing some research and finding out the Elgin connection and the movement is a PUW 1563T which is German I am pretty sure and probably why it doesn't say Swiss made on the dial. This movement is supposed to have a hack feature and quickset date by pushing the crown. But neither of those complications seem to be working. Not sure if the stem is cut too short because there is no gap for the crown to move. Either way at some point will need to be serviced and check the keyless works to find out what is going on with the quickset and hack of the sweep second hand.

Looking through my Dad's tools, I have multiple Accutron back wrenches. I also found three index wheels. Cannot tell which model they are for, however. I put an accutron on my Vibrograf B200A and I get squirrelly results. Frankly, I never understood how the vibrograf was supposed to be able to read an accutron--knowing the principle of the vibrograf operation. I never gave it much thought until today. But, the accutron is keeping good time...maybe 3-4 seconds a day. --------------------------*** AHAAA!! Push two buttons...the Accutron button plus one other. And just like that, my Vibrograf is useful again!!

That is an Accutron tuning fork watch. I wouldn't advise a newbie to attempt this. The repair would require a microscope, an Accutron tester, a multimeter, a variable power supply and specialized tools. There are a lot of articles and videos on the web explaining the inner workings of an Accutron. Absorb everything you can and then decide if you are ready for it. If you are looking for a battery watch to dabble with, perhaps a modern quartz watch would be a good starting point. Or an electromechanical watch like a Timex Electric, Hamilton Electric, Dynatron, Cosmotron.

Hi Geoff, welcome to WRT. You must know a thing or two about Accutron watches. Hope you can share your knowledge with us whenever any interesting topic arises.

Back about 6 decades ago - I started collecting pocket watches. My favorite Saturday morning activity was going to a local flea-market, wandering the isles of outside tables, looking for something cool to buy. I found what I liked to buy was pocket watches. So I started buying them. It wasn't that frequent that I found one that met my standards (more than 15 jewels, balance wheel still spun, and affordable - around $10-15), but when I did, I usually came home with a new treasure. I continued this search, but there got to be less and less interesting watches at the flea-markets, it seems that others had started doing the same sort of thing and had deeper pockets than I did. So I had this bunch of pocket watches - not a large number - maybe 10-12 total - most of them needing at the least a good cleaning. Somehow I found my interest moving toward railroad-grade watches, and I managed to collect a few - including a Hamilton 950B with a broken mainspring that I had to dig deep to buy - $35 - probably around 1977 or so. This focus has resolved itself to 23 jewel pocket watches meeting the Ball standard for railroad use. I'm trying to collect every 23 jewel watch made for railroad use by every major watch manufacturer. These are usually marvelous movements and a real testament to the sort of precision manufacturing the watch industry in the US introduced in the late 1800's. Then life got it the way, my interests changed and the watches were sitting in a drawer collecting dust. They stayed in that drawer for about 40 years. For some reason about 2 years ago - perhaps Covid isolation started it - my interest in the watches reignited. I pulled them out of the drawer to see what I had and what they needed. I did have some minimal watchmaking skills 50-60 years ago, but my hands are no longer as delicate, or my eyes as good as they were back then, so I found a watchmaker I trusted - and sent him my 950B to restore. If you've heard of "Tim Tells Time" (Tim Chaney) - he does marvelous work. My 950B came back looking at least as good as the day it was new, maybe better. And running just as well - accuracy about 3 seconds/day on the timegrapher (depending on position +/- 3 seconds), 285 amplitude. I also now found a new way to find watches - on-line auctions. These can be addicting. "LiveAuctioneers" is one I frequent a bit, and of course eBay. My background is in engineering and technology - and I found myself collecting Accutron watches from the tuning-fork era. That's since also branched out into other "electric" watches - ones that don't have an "IC" chip - but use a battery and perhaps a transistor to make the movement tell time. Anyway - way too much probably - but I'm hear to pickup tips on repairing the electronic/electric watches and perhaps chat about some of the better railroad pocket watch movements. Thanks for having me.. Don Eilenberger Picture below - my wife's pendant 0 size watch - by Waltham - after being rebuilt by Tim Tells Time..

Ok. Working on a 214 tuning fork astronaut! I am getting dizzy trying to fix this one. I lack the experience on tuning fork watches. So my big question is what is affecting the gears from rotating on the dial side. After I install hands? The cannon piñion rotates well on its own, the minute wheel will rotate if added, then after I put the minute bridge on it will stop, but this isn’t happening with a different bridge(without hack) a lot shorter bridge just covers minute and setting wheels. So that’s how I have it on now, saw rotation of gears, got excited so I dialed up and installed hands, watch buzzes the second hands spins, but the hour and minute hands don’t move... so my quiestions are as follows. specific to astronaut model only 1. Does it matter if I use regular 214 minute bridge? 2. What causes the rotation of dial side to seize, when the stem hasn’t even been installed? If the hack is missing ( watch can’t be hacked) correct? if stem is out of the casing, it can’t be the stem! Right? I am sure I am overthinking. Your help is appreciated. TIA Ps. I did replace the centre second pinion jewel with new shatton.

Can anyone clarify if this is a genuine or conversion? I'm thinking of buying it..... serial number 1-714271 M9 I have no reason to doubt the seller, it all seems legit but someone might say otherwise! Lee

I think all of us who have attempted servicing an Accutron are familiar with this phasing diagram. But all that assumes that the amplitude of the tuning fork is such that the index jewel travels a distance of between 1s and 2.5s over the entire useful voltage range of the battery. But what all the literature out there doesn't explain is how to make the index jewel travel between 1s and 2.5s. All they say is that there are some tuning forks out there that cannot be phased properly. There doesn't seem to be any test equipment out there that is capable of measuring the actual travel of the index jewel. I think it is important to be able measure this travel distance before even attempting to do phasing. It's like the amplitude of a conventional watch. If the amplitude is too low or too high, proper regulation cannot be achieved. I was at my mentor's workshop and we were playing around with his digital microscope and noticed that if the frame capture rate is adjusted, it can actually make the index jewel appear to move in slow motion. And the travel distance can be actually seen. If anyone out there is into high speed photography or stroboscopic photography, I hope this information is useful to you to develop a "timegrapher" for tuning fork watches. PS. I am tagging @LittleWatchShop here. If you are planning on developing an Accutron service centre, please read this.

While cleaning up the case, I polished out the crystal, then gave it a wipe with a paper towel. And that's how I learned that despite being on the inside of the crystal, the Accutron logo wipes right off with a little soap and water I should have been more careful, but live and learn. I'm not too heartbroken, as the crystal has some pretty bad cracks and deep scratches, and I was planning to replace it anyway. I have to say, I still love the results of a quick polish on the wheel with red rouge. Here's a before and after of two Accutron crystals. This was all of 5 minutes' work. Cleaned up and back together. Unfortunately, the lugs measure 17,mm, while all the straps I have are 18mm. I have a suspicion this watch was treated roughly and the lugs may be bent, but I'm not brave enough to try bending them back.

Well I finally did it. Dug out the old Hamilton with its demised 500 movement and modified it--just a bit! but not with a 667 Hamilton to make 'Pacermatic' oh no, much more fun with a tuning-fork movement, still 'electric' and still a revolutionary movement, with that graceful seconds hand flow motion. Go Quartz?--You Must be joking! The original 500 movement had broken trip/contact wires, and try as I did, cant find any anywhere. Looks like they went unobtainium sometime last century! I recently got hold of a mens Accutron, I had thought was a 2180, but turned out to be the smaller 2301 so-called, ladies movement in the mens case with a substantial brass spacer-ring. This movement is just a fraction bigger than a British penny, runs at 480Hz with 240 tooth Index-wheel but unlike the other ladies Accutron this caliber has a seconds hand. I dismantled both watches. The coil was dead in the Accutron, so I sourced another complete working watch for £20--Bargain! I serviced the first movement then borrowed the coil from the worker fitted it, where it ran under a glass in its holder for a couple of weeks. I used the now coil-less worker movement as a template for my experiments. I examined the Hamilton movement ring. This part has two projections that serve to retain the battery overhanging the side of the 500 movement, so these would need to be removed. A small grinder took care of that. I now had a more or less round hole in the Hamilton spacer-ring, into which I hoped to fit the Accutron brass spacer. The Accutron spacer was just a little too big, so I reduced its external diameter a little until it fitted the Hamilton ring. I lined up the stem slots and roughly held in position with rodico. fitted the template movement in the middle then came the dial. Here I had a problem. The feet were exactly in line with the outer diameter of the Accutron movement and the inner diameter of Accutron spacer-ring--Bugger, they had to go, which is a shame as I had wanted to retain them, hoped to drill the spacer-ring to accept them, it was not to be! So,--Off they came and the dial feet stumps ground down flush. Again with Rodico (love that stuff!) held the dial to the combo spacer-ring then offered it all into the front case half. Snapped the back on and checked for position of stem hole in movement to case--Amazingly, it was a straight clear shot right into the movement, so I tried the Accutron stem, all good! Out it all came again, so cleaned everything and securely soldered both the spacer-rings together, making one solid part. I then fitted the running movement to the spacer combo after flux and excess solder removed, and reattached the dial with a small amount of double-sided tape, that strong very thin stuff. Only issue now was the hands. The original Hamilton ones are all too big for the Accutron movement, so until I find a solution, I took the original straight gold hands from the mens donor Accutron and cut them to size, fitted them and reassembled back to the case. If you didnt know what a Hamilton Ventura or Pacer is supposed to look like, I guess you wouldnt tell, Its not too bad. The stem proved a Lot easier than I first thought. I shortened the mens case stem and again surprisingly, the Hamilton crown fitted perfectly. Its running now and will take some pics when I strip it all out again to clean the case and crystal, but its nice to wear this frankenstein love-child of two arch rival American watch makers.... --It even has kept time more or less to the second too! Anyone any ideas how I can source or modify hands to fit the Accutron movement so to re gain its correct appearance?

So-called "Digital transistors" are just transistors with appropriate resistors included in the package to allow them to be driven directly from digital logic ICs & microcontrollers etc. You definitely need a normal transistor for the Accutron.

Hi there Somewhat of a novice collector tending to lean towards Hamilton vintage watches. Although I do have an Omega Polaris and an Accutron. Trying to play with battery replacement on my own having purchased a kit recently. My first challenge is how to get the back off of my Omega Polaris!

Howdy, y'all, from sunny South Carolina! I'm just starting my horological adventure, inspired by a 50-year-old Accutron (218D) purchased for my 50th birthday last April. There was a sentimental consideration when selecting a family present for a my semi-centennial celebration: What's more appropriate than a historically significant timepiece that has been ticking as long as my own ticker? (OK, before my fellow Accutron brothers and sisters speak up, it hums not ticks.) Before that, my interest in watches was strictly practical and job-specific. As an outdoorsman and Scout leader, my "collection" consisted of G-Shocks, Suuntos and Garmins, with a smattering of analogs from Fossil (yes, I know). Since that fateful birthday, my interest in "real" timepieces has exploded. Who knew one could spend hours window-shopping online for watches on eBay, or watching repair videos on YouTube?! I purchased a second, non-functioning Accutron (N3-218D) with the goal of learning how to repair it. Then came from Amazon shipments of tweezers, loupes, movement holders and all of the accoutrements necessary for the task, as well as the skeptical looks from my lovely wife... I found a source for the appropriate coil that seems to be the most common culprit and stripped the movement down to individual parts. And then ... Without a 20+ power microscope, I'm stuck; thus, the wait continues as I source an affordable microscope that won't draw more severe looks from the love of my life. I've started a small, thought-out and affordable collection of watches, including a new Seiko 5 sport (4R36) and a Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles (Powermatic 80) dress watch. And just this week, I received two vintage (can't believe I'm saying vintage) 80s- to 90s-era Seiko 5s from eBay: a functioning 7009-876A and a non-functioning 7S26C (from which the balance cock screw is currently hiding in the berber carpet of my home office). Along the way, I dragged my teenaged son into this new world. One of his 15th birthday presents was a simple Orient Bambino, and on his own volition and using his neighborhood lawn-mowing earnings, he purchased a beautiful Seiko Presage dress watch for church. I suspect I will be tapping into the vast experience of this forum often as I semi-ignorantly dive head first into this new adventure, and in advance, I thank you for your patience and guidance! -Mattutron (North Augusta, SC)

@JohnR725Forget I ever mentioned anything about age. Is there really such a thing today as "Synta Visco Lube"? I was wondering what the Moebius equivalent would be for the two oils (OK, one grease, one oil) that the manual suggests. I have Moebius 9000 for quartz watches. Would that be a good substitute? I've been using 9010. BTW, have you seen the Horotec oiler I mentioned? I don't recall having seen them sold until very recently. It's possible that they've been around for years but I just missed them. The wire that they use is very thin indeed. Maybe even .06mm, if that's possible? I received the Accutron index/pawl post tool yesterday and I'll see how that works for getting the pawl finger sitting better. Maybe I'll get lucky and I didn't de-mag the fork by pulling it from the US while it was running. I hope I wouldn't have to be lottery-winning lucky for it to be possible. Cheers. @JohnR725Oh, and BTW, since you attended Accutron class, and are obviously quite knowledgeable about them, I'm wondering if you know an Accutron expert named "Samantha"? She used to post Accutron related posts on the NAWCC board but I haven't seen her for a couple of years now. She seemed to really know her way around them. I'm just curious to what happened to her? Cheers.

I have an issue with this as well. The bi-directional friction bezel on my 1970 Accutron Deep Sea 666 was turning a bit firmly. I needed to clean the case anyway so removed the bezel. The spring was left surrounding the upper portion of the case, but I don't see how it does much good there. There's a groove around the inside of the bezel that seems designed to hold the spring, but the spring is too small in diameter to fit into it. When I try bending the spring into a larger diameter it just springs back to its original size. It seems too thin, and so possibly fragile, for me to bend it excessively. Does anyone know how this is supposed to go?

On the way, the tiniest Accutron, and my first 404 club-eligible project (since I've learned about it, anyway). "Untested", so expectations are low.

Same here, and I do that whenever possible. The problem is when it's not, like on pressed-in Accutron train jewels, or a handful of settings I've come across that are not meant to be disassembled.

I doubt ESD would be able to destroy a coil. The problem of open Accutron coils has always baffled me. Even if 1.55V were to be applied directly to the coil, it shouldn't be able to fuse the wire. And if anyone noticed, it's always the cell side coil that fails. So is it a design fault that's causing that coil to burn? Maybe as the components age, the waveform changes and creates more back EMF? Maybe @LittleWatchShop could investigate the cause of the failure and solve the mystery.

LOL Yes my first VOM was a Triplett Model 630, 1970. However, I am not a luddite...my best meter is a Fluke 87V. I made the measurements with Cen Tech P35017. This morning, I measured the current output of the CT with my Fluke. When measuring resistance with the CT, I get 484uA. When in diode mode, I get about 800uA. I know you have lots of Accutron experiene...I take it you have never knowingly popped one of those coils via measuring?? ---non sequitur--- the going train on these things continue to amaze me. I was initially deathly afraid of it because of the index wheel. No more. About 20% of the time, the wheels just jump in place as soon as you drop the plate down. The rest yield quickly with a few nudges with my modified oiler. I only wish Bulova used similar engineering on their cases. Yes

I went for it. Turned these feet on the lathe I have one of these. However, the Accutron dial makes an abrupt curve near the edge where the foot goes. This tool/feet would not work. I could have opted not to drill all the way through the dial. If I had a visibility issue, I would have done that.

It would be close. But these Accutron dials are relatively thick. I think there would be enough surface area to make a good bond.

I understand this seems to be a common problem related to the canon. Does anyone have any advice or a link to a manual or diagram that can explain how to fix this? the watch gums fine and when setting it the hour and minute hands move correctly.