Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'AS1012'.
-
Hi fellow watch friends, back again with another service for ya :) This one is a woman's bracelet watch that were popular 20-30 years ago ... your Mum probably had/has one of these. Now when I say this movement is small, I mean it's small ... I don't think I used a driver over 0.8mm on it. And being small doesn't mean they are more difficult, but you need good optics to make working on them enjoyable. ...yes, that's my thumb! I've worked on a few of these now, and they commonly are held in the Caseback as seen below. So be careful when removing them so as you don't damage the Dial or Hands. Once I had removed the movement from the Caseback, I saw my very first indication that this job wasn't going to be a quick service. Notice that Ratchet Screw? Here's a close-up of it. I see this way too much servicing watches, and it's become my pet hate. King Kong has worked on it before me, and has tighten every screw up to 50 foot/pound ... Arrghhh!! :growl: Needless to say, when it came to removing nearly all the screws, it was a battle; but the battle was lost with the Ratchet Screw and I was unable to undo it (even after applying some heat) and it seared off ... so 1x Barrel Abor and 1x Ratchet Screw to be ordered. My mentor and trainer is a 78 year old master watch maker, and the VERY first thing he impressed on me is not to over tighten screws. "We are not torqueing down head bolts on a V8, these threads are less an a millimeter across ... use a light touch son.", is what he told me. I'm sure some old hands here can also add their words on wisdom on this matter. Ok, end of rant :P Back to the service... Firstly, I removed the Hands and Dial, and as per normal with this style of watch, there was moisture ingress. These types of watches aren't very well sealed from the elements (no Caseback Seal, no Stem Seal), so you'll nearly always encounter some rust removal in the servicing. This looked fairly light corrosion, and I was hoping it hadn't gone further into the movement. Here's one of the reasons this watch stopped. Heavy corrosion around the lower Barrel Arbor pivot. Next, as always, I removed any tension from the Mainspring, and removed the Balance and Pallets. Next I removed the Ratchet (shearing the screw in the process), Crown Wheel, and then removed the Barrel Bridge. As you can see, very old, dry, and dirty grease. Main Plate looked in good shape, which saves a LOT of work ... if this thing is covered in rust you've got your work cut out for you. Pulled the Cannon Pinion, and happily it wasn't ceased, but also is still a good fiction fit. Here's a reference photo of the Gear Train setup once the Bridge is removed. Again all looks good and no damage to any of the pivots or jewels. Stem, Clutch, and Setting wheel are filthy and typical of a non-sealed movement of this age. On to the Keyless Work, and unfortunately rust had gotten in here too. The Yoke Spring was the worst of it, but with a little time and effort, it cleaned up fine. Setting Lever needed a little work too :unsure: So the parts are in the cleaner, having a bath for the first time in 20+ years. And I've emailed the good people at Old Swiss Watch to get a new Arbor and Ratchet Screw. I'll have the assembly post up as soon as the parts arrive, and get this little movement tickin like new! Thanks for reading my post, and I hope this helps and was informative. :)
- 19 replies
-
- 2