Search the Community

Good Day Everyone, I am a new member to Watch Repair Talk and a new horological hobbyist tackling my own personal repairs as needed. I have been tinkering with watches for a few years on my free time starting with non-function pieces I picked up from swap meets, garage sales, estate sales, etc. with successes or understanding of complications and how they work together. Recently one of my personal time pieces (a prized possession of mine) was due for service, an Omega 1164 (ETA7750i) Calibre Seamaster Professional. After seeing the costs for servicing from various places, I subscribed to Mark's YouTube Channel and decided to tackle the task myself spending the equal money for a repair on "proper" tools and lubricants to complete the task and I DID IT (Thank you Mark for your amazing videos, I couldn't do it with you!)! After much pride and bragging among family and friends that cared to listen I kind of became the go to for battery replacements on quartz movements and band replacements. Recently a very good friend of mine came to me with a damaged timepiece that was more a user error issue and asked me if I would be willing to take on the task, and like a junkie or addict I jumped to the opportunity. The piece in question is a Bell & Ross Military Type 123 (ETA 2895-2). The time piece had a run in with a door jam and had the crown and stem pulled from the timepiece with such force that it firmly pulled the screw down attachment for the crown from the case (please forgive me if I am not using the appropriate terminology). My first thought was with that much force there must be damage within the movement, so I began the disassembly. I manged to get it apart and cleaned and started the assembly but immediately ran in to a problem. The gear train assembly is jamming when I put the movement together. I worked to gently tease the pinions in place and have had them seated in their bridge but they bind up? I have seen the videos for ETA 2892 that Mark has posted and understand the care of working with the second wheel, third wheel, and escapement. the trouble I am having is the moment I place the escapement pinion in place under the bridge the second and third wheel seize up. The second and third wheel will rotate freely but then they both stop when the escapement is in position. The movement itself is strange to me with the elongated pinion on the escapement that passes through the main plate to a jewel on the underside floating above the plate? I hope that this question makes sense to the more experienced and that they may be able to shine some light on my problem, I have checked the wheels and all of the pinions appear to be in tact. Thank you everyone for your feedback and support. I worked 2 days after work on it for a total of about 4 hours which is crazy for 3 gears and a small bridge...I am at a loss.