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Showing results for 'accutron' in topics.
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Aloha All , Here's a trio of Accutrons I just received . I got the "Bowtie" in one auction and the other two watches in another... First off is the Accutron Bowtie...it's stamped M7 on the back which dates it at 1967 . It was running when I received it but have not yet removed the case back to check things out so I'm not really sure what the movement # is , but it is a date only . It has the tuning fork second hand . I had a new Accutron Teju Lizard strap that I installed on it ,... the strap has a gold Tuning fork emblem on it . It's a Long size and a bit too long for me so I am going ask an acquaintance that works with leather if he can size it for me . It's nice . Next is a really nice looking Woman's Accutron . Gold with a metallic Orang y dial with Gold indexes , and a 10K gold filled case . It has a snap on case back and is stamped N2 which dates it to 1972 . It was advertised as a mans watch ,...but it's not . The mesh band is part of the watch and not installed with spring bars . It has a 2183 movement ,...no day/date and no second hand . Last but not least is a kind of different character . I think it does not have the original case back as it does not have the date stamp that I can see and is stamped Swiss on the inside of the case back . It has the 2182 day/date movement with USA stamped on it , but it is skewed so that the stem is at 3 o'clock instead of 4 o'clock....this movement was probably re-cased . It has an accutron dial but there are a couple of small letter "T"'s by the 6 o'clock index . Still , it is a nice watch ,....a bit larger than other Accutrons .
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I have a square Bulova Accutron that has a pretty badly scratched Glass crystal. Its 29mm across the flats and has rounded corners. The 100 Year Accutron Anniversary issued in 1975 is slightly similar, but has a 30mm square one, which appears to have very slightly bowed sides and are available at around £30. Mine however Isnt one of those, I cant find out much at all about it at all.--its a couple of years earlier and seems to be a very rare one, and a chunkier heavier watch altogether. Only found a couple of references to it on the web. Seeing I boobed and it no longer has its name on the glass, a new crystal could possibly be marked/painted with the name etc... Here it is, The Case Number is 7387 and dates from 1973-- It wouldn't be out of place in that old Si Fi series, Space 1999!
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I just picked up this Accutron last weekend at an estate sale. This is my first and have a question. It is not running and I'm assuming the battery needs replaced of which I have ordered. It is a 218 movement. Am I OK to just install the battery and see if it works or should I completely service it before installing the battery? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Hello, I am new at this forum, and I have a question right at start. I have got an accutron for a year, and I looked into it with a microscope first time (only with loupe earlier). I found out that fingers are dirty, looks like oxidation. I put photo of them. Is it possible to clean them without disassembling the movement? I have read that someone has applied naphta to the index wheel while running... Thanks in advance for help! BR Jukka
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- Accutron
- Index finger
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Although I was trying to be good and not purchase anything till I had sorted out the multitude of watches I have in the queue, I saw this Accutron on the bay and bought it for £32.49 plus about $5 postage to my sons place in LA. I had not got an Accutron 2210 up to this point in time, and to be honest the movement does not have a particularly good rep for reliability. However, the parts are comparitively cheap compared to the 214 and 218 and through a quirk of fate I have quite a few NOS 2210 parts that were amongst a job lot of 214 and 218 bits I bought some time ago. It is a 1973 movement and coincidentally that is when these were first produced and the movement is quite small, being used in lots of ladies watches which do not command the same prices as the mens accutrons - good for getting parts. I queried with the vendor the size and was advised it is 34mm excluding the crown so it is in a mans case. Condition was described as "Awesome" but I will settle for reasonably good seeing it is over 40 years old, there are some scratches on the glass and I deduce from the back that the case is gold plated which is difficult to tell from the photos, but I will take what comes. It will be a while until it is sent over to me along with some 218 coils I took a punt on but I look forward to seeing it. Was not going to buy any more repair jobs but I weakened, however, I am definitely back on the wagon for a while. Cheers, Vic
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Supplement For A Repair To Accutron 2185
Vich posted a topic in WATCH REPAIR TUTORIALS & INFORMATION
This may help out with Accutron 2185 problems Bulova-Accutron-2185- Pages 58 to 71 Supplement for Hour and Date Settings Manual.pdf Cheers, Vic -
2x Barlow lens yes/no ?
spectre6000 replied to Endeavor's topic in Eyeglasses, Loupe's, Microscopes and other Optics
I have both 2X Barlow and 20X eyepieces, but I don't use either for watchmaking. Accutron movements seems like a good application for the eyepieces, and I'm sure there are occasions when you really want (though probably not strictly need) to get as deep on a mechanical movement, but that seems like a wait until the need arises sort of thing. That scope looks like it's from the same factory as the AmScope, et. al., so I wouldn't worry about inexpensive eyepieces getting hard to find any time soon. -
2x Barlow lens yes/no ?
HectorLooi replied to Endeavor's topic in Eyeglasses, Loupe's, Microscopes and other Optics
Try it out for yourself. Do you find 22.5x sufficient to oil a pallet jewel? Is 3.5x wide enough to see the whole watch? Like I said, the only time I need higher magnification is when working on Accutron watches. Possible upgrades that you might want to consider are a led ringlight for shadowless lighting and a tiltable microscope mount, so that you won't need a step ladder. -
If you look carefully it's not your normal screw back as you're already noticed. Typically you see similar things on Accutron Bulova watches where there's an outer ring that screws on. But this ring doesn't look like it's screws it looks like its locked into tabs four of them on the case. The problem with outer rings are ideally you should have a special wrench. Another was it fits into the notches and then you can turn. In the case of Bulova they do have a special wrench. You can use your standard case wrench except. Normally with a standard case wrench to tighten it up and hold the back tightly when you rotate it you do not want to grab the back itself tightly as typically it's held in place with a tab or something in its physical location. So all you want to do is rotate the ring Only.
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I contacted a respected watch repairer to ask about repairing Bulova accutron tuning fork watches. The reply came back that parts were impossible to source so he couldn't help me. Does anyone on this form repair these watches. I have 2 that were working but now don't and I would prefer to pay for the repairs rather than go through the whole process of trying to learn how to do it myself. Life's too short to start another field, I just want to get to grips with mechanical watches. I started this thread because another member posted about receiving coils which were damaged in the post and it got me thinking.
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Recently I got an early 214 from 1963 that had a faulty coil. The coils on these are in two parts, a cell-coil and component coil, joined by three fine insulated single-core wires. The Cell coil had gone O/C due to water/battery leak rotting out the fine wires where they attach to the soldered binding-posts--Mainly because Bulova hadn't covered a small section of the wire with any protective varnish. A replacement cell-coil was bought from the guy in Bulgaria and the old one replaced on the coil assay. Fitting to the movement, it didn't run. It would go for about 5-10 seconds after plucking the fork, but the hum would slowly die away. I assumed the resistor and capacitor were messing round --so replaced these in the component coil side. Still the same. I checked the transistor--but it looked good in testing--I replaced it anyway, using a silicon device tacked in to test, altering the bias by changing the resistor from 3.9 meg to 2.2 meg, to accomodate the different bias requirements between a Silicon and the old Germanium device it was replacing and tried again. Exactly the same! I monitored the current using my home-made PSU, it would initially pin the meter and that would die away to 5uA, but the movement still not running and no hum either. Plucking the fork, it would run for 5-10 seconds, then the hum would die away, and no appreciable difference in current draw. The clue was the constant current it was drawing after the initial pulse. It was perfectly clear when I dragged the Scope out and checked. The coil set was oscillating at 200 odd KHz! When the fork was plucked, the 360Hz was modulating the 200KHz. I guess a Long-wave radio could have picked it up if it was close by! Fortunately,--Bulova had also run into this problem as well and on some coils added an extra capacitor to the component-coil to damp out the radio-frequency oscillations. A 0.01uF (1 Nanofarad, 1000pF) cap was installed at the point the wires from the cell-coil attach to the component-coil. Its placed between the leads of the drive coil (Red wire) and the feedback coil (Green wire). Doing likewise with an 0805 1nF SMD cap cured the issue completely and the movement runs normally, even self-starting--with lots of wires and components hanging out of it! I just now need to rebuild it all properly and neatly into the component-coil recess--Which should be fun!. I'm guessing that the inductance of certain Cell-coils must be just right to cause this oscillation so they added the extra cap on those causing troubles.
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Looking for a good cell-coil for a 214. original is a three-wire coil, but I can re-wire a two-wire cell coil into a three to work in place, if you have one going spare, maybe from a set with a duff component-coil. Thanks.
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Bulova Accutron 2180 2181
JohnR725 replied to markr's topic in Quartz and Tuning Fork Battery Operated Watches
No need to scan the manual somebody else did it for us. I've attached the service manual a specification sheet and the bonus parts list. The reason I use the word bonus is that the parts list came with the boxes of the material. Siege to the various watches at least the tuning fork watches would have a box with a lot of envelopes and due to have these cards that showed you the parts. So here is where someone scanned in all the cards and made a nice PDF for us. I'm probably being nitpicky here but when I think multimeter I'm thinking analogue and if somebody use the word digital multimeter then the fluke would qualify. Accutron 218 --Manual.pdf Accutron Parts 214 218.pdf Accutron_Specifications.pdf -
Bulova Accutron 2180 2181
LittleWatchShop replied to markr's topic in Quartz and Tuning Fork Battery Operated Watches
Regarding meters...it is not easy to find a 25ua analog meter. That is why I recently bought two accutron test sets because they use a rather large 25ua FS meter. I am planning on building a test platform using one of them. I know nothing about servicing accutron and don't plan to head that way...just hijacking this thread to add my thoughts on meters -
Hi all , After not winning auctions on a few watches ,.. a similar model to this one , 2 Accutron Astronauts , 2 Omega SeaMasters , I pulled the trigger on this Beauty . It had a BIN price of $899,99 or make offer . I had been watching this watch for about a month along with about 20 or 30 other watchers . The date code N1 places it as a 1971 model . I made an offer that was accepted by the seller and now this Baby is on its way to me .
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From Esslinger website: This special purpose Moebius grease contains Molybdenum disulphide to enhance it lubricity and resistance to pressure. It is designed for use on automatic mainsprings, to ensure proper functioning of the bridle. It is also recommended for use on the Bulova Accutron watch movements. Moebius 8201 natural watch grease lubricant Contains Molybdenum disulphide -------- I use this.
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I have a problem. Ive got this Slava Transistor watch--the one the Russians ripped off in the 60's of the American Bulova Accutron 214.... Its a fairly close match,-- visually they look identical, quite an achievement IMO... My issue is this. Its third wheel has a rusted off pivot, fairly common on the Accutron version due to moisture or batt leaks and there's fair evidence of a leak in this one.. The Accutron 3rd wheel wont fit--2nd Moscow Watch Co (Slava, Seconda, Vostock etc) in their infinite wisdom made their staff smaller in diameter than the Americans, no idea why... My only solutions as trying to find a correct good third for this mega-oddball are near impossible, are- 1/ machine down Accutron third wheel pivots.... 2/ Replace the jewels but dont know if plate holes are the same size and I dont have the equipment to deal with jewel replacement anyway. So--Anyone good with the watchmakers lathe fancy having a look?
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Omega Constellation Chronometer 1976 1250 wont run
JohnR725 replied to Bradlandry's topic in Watch Repairs Help & Advice
typically they're not supposed to run fast if they run fast somebody didn't phase the watch correctly. Or they didn't phase the watch taking into account that there now using a silver cell with a higher voltage. perhaps today this is true because were all familiar with quartz watches. At the time in the tuning fork watch came out Bulova discovered the watchmakers were having issues. So they had a several day training program. Unlike the training programs or stuff the other watch companies were doing where you got a certificate just to be there this was different. Two days of intense training with a written and practical exam. Only those people that passed got the certificate and could call themselves a Certified Accutron Technician. as this is an electric watch the same test equipment you have for quartz watches will work fine. Variable voltage power supply with the ability to measure microamps. Unlike quartz watch repair a microscope is necessary to do the phasing. The index wheel and the jewels associated are really tiny and a microscope would be rather nice here. to get you started I have some light reading. The 214 service manual is really where it all get started so it explains about how it works phasing etc. Then there's a fact book that explains similar stuff. then the Omega tuning fork in this discussion wasn't really made by Omega. The Swiss needing their own tuning fork watch designed a new tuning fork watch and it was sold by a whole bunch a Swiss companies. I have the manual for that and this is interesting watch as it implemented all sorts of improvements to make it much easier to work on. then an interesting link. Notice they have a reference to how to phase the tuning fork watch to run at a higher voltage. These watches were designed specifically to run with Mercury batteries and were never meant to run on silver cells with the higher voltage. This requires a slightly different procedure for phasing which is why you require a variable voltage power supply. http://members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot/acc.htm Accutron 214 ServiceManual.pdf Accutron Facts Booklet.pdf ESA 9162 Repair Manual Omega 1250.pdf -
Citizen HISONIC movement (3711A date only model)
khang posted a topic in Watch Repairs Help & Advice
Dear all, I always wanted an Accutron but you know they are quite expensive (converted ones a little cheaper). So I purchased a Citizen HISONIC for a reasonable price from Yahoo Auctions and learned my lesson :). You get what you pay for. The case had and the crystal had a lot of scratches, which is not a biggy but the movement is dead. When I looked with a loupe, I saw that index jewel is missing, pawl jewel bent badly, one of the coils smashed and more issues. So trying to replace these parts, especially the jewels is beyond my skill and it will be a challenge to find each and most probably will cost me almost an Accutron I assume. What would you do? Try to replace those parts or find a new movement? Where is the best place to source a new movement or parts? Watch shops here in Japan are asking crazy expensive prices. ¥40.000 - ¥60.000 (around $400 - $600) to fix it and I cannot afford even if I could, I'd buy myself a nice Accutron instead. I was so happy until I unscrewed the back cover, auctions are not my thing I guess :). Thank you in advance. Cheers.- 3 replies
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- citizen hisonic
- caliber 3711a
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Hi All , The postman delivered this Accutron 2180 today . In good condition and running smooth . The dial fades from dark blue to light blue . I installed a new Bulova strap I had and will install a new crystal soon . The date on the back says N3 , which translates to 1973 . Also on Craigslist here on Oahu , Hawaii I picked up this Tissot Visodate Heritage for an offer under $200 . I had been looking at them on the "Bay" , and at the local Auth. Dealer . I'm Stoked...
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Hi, Some of the first watches I worked on were accutron 214's and I have always liked them. Anyway a week or so ago I was searching the web and came across this one. It was described as humming but the hour and minute hands were hanging up as well as being 14kt gold. I decided to take a chance and put a $550.00 bid on it. It is turning into one of my favorites .
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After Geo started the time to hum topichttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/426-time-to-hum-again/?hl=accutron#entry2872 I had to have one! I brought this little number yesterday & it arrived this morning. these are a really pleasing watch, prices are VERY reasonable & there's loads of history available about them online & the buzz from the tuning folk is lovely to listen to. I'm amazed these aren't dearer to buy. Anyway mines a 1969 (year I was born) Accutron spaceview, with the Swiss 770 case, wide gray chapter rings & orange second hand. the wider chapter ring & orange second hand tie in with it being a later 1969 as they changed these details due to falling sales against the increasingly popular 218 models. also my case back is missing the mention of water resistance which was taken off later in the 1969 year so its quite easy to date. Lee