Hey all, I'm exited to join this forum

[Paumanok]

Hey everyone, my name is Matt and I'm just getting into watch repair. I'm on the younger side at 23 but I've been wearing and overall interested in mechanical watches for about 9 years.

 

I recently brought some nicer watches to a watchmaker for estimates, and the cost for a clean was about 4x the value of my favorite Vostoks so I decided to take the dive and order tools and some junk watches.

 

While waiting for the junkers from Ukraine to arrive, I partially took apart a Seiko 5 s726 and got it back together in no worse shape than it was before. I think it may be magnetized so I guess a new tool needs to be ordered .

 

I'm looking forward to being on a forum, its been a few years since i've been a part of a forum community!

 

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[oldhippy]

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum.

[watchweasol]

Hi And welcome  A demagnetiser is easy to make or there are plenty of chinese ones about depending on how you want to do it, I am at the other end of the spectrum 70 + and been doing this as a hobby for more years than I like to admit.  This forum is full of good advise and many skilfull members just enjoy the experience

[Paumanok]

Hi And welcome  A demagnetiser is easy to make or there are plenty of chinese ones about depending on how you want to do it, I am at the other end of the spectrum 70 + and been doing this as a hobby for more years than I like to admit.  This forum is full of good advise and many skilfull members just enjoy the experience

I went to school for computer engineering so i'm not too afraid of an electronics project, I wish radio shack was still around as I'm pretty impatient with waiting for parts. From what I understand, it's just a coil producing a magnetic field and you slowly pull the watch away to demagnetize. It's been a little while since I did any EM calculations but it'd be a fun side project.

Also, the way I see it, the field needs some young blood to keep these time pieces going. I hope I can learn a lot from the more experienced folks.

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[watchweasol]

Hi  Ex Computer engineer my self (mainframes).. right on basicaly thats all it is but  requires fuse , switch etc. when removing the watch from the magnetic field move it away to a distance of three feet whilst keeping the button depressed then release.  I use an old voice coil from an old disc drive ( a hollow coil on a paxolin tube (old eh)  and an old Vdu transformer down to 12V output it works well and it was cheap and de mags all the tools as wll

[Paumanok]

Hi  Ex Computer engineer my self (mainframes).. right on basicaly thats all it is but  requires fuse , switch etc. when removing the watch from the magnetic field move it away to a distance of three feet whilst keeping the button depressed then release.  I use an old voice coil from an old disc drive ( a hollow coil on a paxolin tube (old eh)  and an old Vdu transformer down to 12V output it works well and it was cheap and de mags all the tools as wll

Thanks for the advice, I'll research into it a bit.

I love talking to the veterans of the industry.

A bit of a story, I was at a train museum with a girlfriend, she was studying EE at the time. An older gent dressed in full conductor garb comes over to talk about the steam engine. He asks us what we do/ study and she says EE, I say CE, so he jokingly starts talking only to her, asking her to explain it to me. He then asked about what kind of stuff we work on, so I start explaining in simple terms and he leans in and says "at what point do I tell him I helped designed the early IBM mainframes"

Damn was I embarrassed but I was very humbled. A lot has changed but not nearly enough that old and young can't find things to talk about.

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[clockboy]

Welcome Matt, Enjoy the forum. The Seiko 5 s726 is a simple movement to start with but don't get to hung up on low amplitude it's just the way they are built. 

[yankeedog]

Paumanok ? with a moniker like that you can only be from Long Island.Have fun with those old vostoks, you would be surprised how nicely they can run.

Edited January 21, 2019 by yankeedog
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[Paumanok]

Paumanok ? with a moniker like that you can only be from Long Island.Have fun with those old vostoks, you would be surprised how nicely they can run.

In the years I've been using it, I think you're the first to get it.

The Vostoks are wonderful and super durable for far less than 100 dollars.

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[yankeedog]

I am originally from Deer Park. As far as the Vostoks, I have A pile of old ones. Mostly from Latvia and Ukraine. They run as well or better than old entry level Swiss movements.

[Paumanok]

A bit of an update on my entry into repair.

I bought four Vostoks from Ukraine on ebay and they finally arrived. Two are 2409a movements. The first night I took a look at the uglier of the two and pulled it apart aside from pulling the cannon pinion. I only lost one screw but I was able to get it back together. The fatal flaw of this watch seemed to be a bent hairspring but it was overall complete. With the bent hairspring, it did not want to run at all. The second 2409a movement had a good hairspring and really wanted to run, but the balance wheel jewel was missing so it only ran upside down.

I tore down the first movement again, knowing how it all goes together, and carefully submerged most of the components in some mineral spirits and brushed with a fine paint brush, blow dried them with the dust blower. I was considering taking the whole balance cock from the other movement and transferring the jewel, but then I decided to remove the hairspring+wheel from the cock and transfer the good one over. After the clean, oiling the jewels, and reinstalling the balance cock with the new hairspring, the watch took off and has been running very nicely for about two hours so far.

I haven't reattached the hands yet because I want to switch dials and case with the other movement. Sadly in cleaning up the face, I took off some of the "Boctok" logo and some second lines. I still like the dial but its not looking too good anymore.

Another small hitch, I use the TG timer program on my thinkpad and the mic on the display can pick up all my other watches, but for some reason can't get a fix on this watch so adjusting it to be accurate may need to be done at a later date.

 

Overall this experience was a huge confidence boost in both being able to take it apart without losing too many things, as well as remembering where all the parts go. I did however, have a small gear from the keyless works pop up and end up on the top of the back rest of my chair. I was looking all over for that thing and was about to give up before seeing it. Amazing, the magic that sends these parts into wacky places.