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Posted

Well recently serviced a Louis branded watch. It has a 1950's AS 1194 movement.

It was running about almost dead on for the first few days, now it's running about 20 sec slow. I do not have a time grapher yet. Doing it the old fashioned way. Anyway what kind of accuracy can I expect out of this movement? Or may be too much oil on the pallet stones? Any advice?

Thanks

 

 

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Posted

Did you demagnetise the movement and the tools you used on it? I would check the h/spring for dirt, could be a tiny hair on it. When oiling the pallets stones only the tiniest amount and never oil the pallet pivots.    

Posted
3 hours ago, oldhippy said:

never oil the pallet pivots

Is this true for all movements?  Maybe I misunderstand you.  The few movements I've been learning on have oil cups in the pallet jewels.

Posted

Because the pallets hardly move from side to side oiling the pallets can and will create drag, which will cause the movement to be erratic in its timekeeping.  

Posted (edited)

I'm 99% sure that oldhippy is saying to use very little oil on the actual pallet stones on the pallet fork itself. You don't oil the pivots on smaller watches, which most vintage wrist-watches fall into. On larger pocket watches, oiling the pivots is OK, and probably advisable. I don't remember the exact size cut-off for oiling vs non-oiling. I had a few watches that were giving me grief until I found this out and corrected the situation. Good luck.

Edited by MrRoundel
Posted
Never oil the pallet fork. 
Ok think that maybe my problem. Still learning. So I oiled the pallet fork pivots and probably put too much on the stones. So time for a disassemble to clean the escape wheel and pallet fork and try again.
I have the red and black dip oilers. Which one should I use for oiling? Also how to get a tiny amount of oil on the stones?


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Posted

To oil or not to oil!
I'we begun to oil the pallet stones, it actually says synthetic grease on the little bottle of Moebius 9415 not oil but in the oiling sheet from ETA it says oil.


But to oil the pivots of the pallet fork with let's say Moebius 9010 wouldn't be a very good Idea. It's to runny and will find its way to the gap between the pallet cock and the fork.
Since the power here isn't very big it will cause loss of amplitude or bring the movement to a total halt. 


I have tried to apply just a thin film of 9415 on the pivots before installing the fork and that seems to work and makes the friction even less than without lubricant. As for the need of a lubricant here the question is already answered. No.


Found this article on the AWCI site about lubricating the pallet stones.

https://www.awci.com/watchmaking-excellen/lubrication/

Posted

There seems to be some confusion about oiling a watch escapement.

Use the finest oiler

The pallet stones are to be oiled. Never oil the pallet pivots and never oil the pallet fork.

Oil the escape wheel pivots.

Oil the balance pivots

You do not need to oil the teeth of the escape wheel, the oil on the pallet stones will do this by the rotation of the escape wheel and its coming into contact with the pallet stones.  

  

  • Like 1
Posted

So, oldhippy, are you saying that it's inadvisable to oil the pallet pivots on larger pocket watches? I'm just curious. I never had noticeable ill effects from doing so on 12-18s movements. I only had issues once I started working on wrist watches and carried that technique over.

Regarding oiling the stones and not the escape wheel:  that's interesting, but I like it. It seems virtually impossible to get the right amount on the teeth on the escape wheel without it spreading too far. Thanks for sharing your learned experience. Cheers.

Posted

I have a few of these.I would tell you that they are more reliable than they are accurate.Fifty years old and more they may have quite a bit of wear.I think that they also suffer from hasty assembly.They seem to show more than a bit of beat error,within a minute or two a day is about the best you can expect.



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