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And it’s happened, I’ve snapped the pivot on the escape wheel. This pocket watch has caused me so many problems, cost a pretty penny in spares and a lot of my time. The owner popped in to see me yesterday to see how it was going. And today after I told him I’m just about done whilst re trying the escape wheel I snapped a pivot.

so I’m onto cousins to get some 0.02mm pivot wire and eBay for some micro drill bits (or maybe cousins ) and it’s time to set up the lathe and attempt to drill and fit a new pivot.

cannot wait to give this watch back it’s been nothing but trouble. Oh well some things are sent to test us, and out of my collection of about 100 cylinder escape wheels not one is the same as this one!!!!

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Cheers old hippy, I’ve started scouring the bay again for those little boxes full of escape wheels in the hope that another seller has a job lot for sale. It’s a 3/4 plate movement approx 45mm in size, there’s loads out there, I know I’ve bought about 6 trying to use them for spares and not one is the same when it arrives!! It’s a mine field out there!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok I cheated abit, I managed to find a pinion in another escape wheel that was the same size, so out came the staking set and I tapped it out and fitted it into the old wheel, will put it all together tomorrow and hopefully get the watch back to the owner. I can then concentrate on my projects for a change!!!

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    • Welcome to the forum, enjoy. It’s highly unlikely you will be able to purchase a new bezel look on eBay for a pulsar watch for repair to find a bezel.
    • just one little minor reminder here this isn't your normal balance wheel.  pages 17 and 18 are what you really want to be looking at. normally studs don't turn but this watch has the etachron system designed for lots of adjustment. Personally I would try to rotate the stud back to where it's supposed to be. If you're lucky you didn't actually bend it at the stud it just looks really bad as the stud has been rotated grossly out of position.. I think things will look a lot better if you put the hairspring back where it's supposed to be by rotating the stud. it's hard to tell if you actually did bend it at the stud or not we won't know until you rotate the stud back more or less where it's supposed to be. Then you want to pay attention to the manual of how to put the hairspring back in the regulator pins because yes they rotate also and they rotated specific directions otherwise bad things will happen to your hairspring. so initially you can open up the regulator as wide as it can go and don't worry about closing it until thing everything is right then you can close them a little bit
    • I need to see photos of the whole movement before I comment. 
    • Hi @Jon, so, from one extreme to another the beat error is 0.1(min.pos) to 0.2(msx.pos), and as you mentioned the rate does up and down dramatically. Also checked the position of the collet, and the collet is not central to the jewel on the balance cock. Balance moves freely, per my understanding.   So, after 24h the ampl. fell down by approx 20 deg, which I would assume is expected. After adjusting the endshake I believe I gained around +10 deg. of balance movement. Which is great, and overall the balance is not at 220'ish deg.   What I did next, some might think is non-orthodox, but was wort a try. I too the mainspring out, checked again for endshake and if the pin moves freely, and cleaned everything. Usually when installing the mainspring I would use some barrel grease on the barrel walls, install the spring and put a 2-3 drops of D-5 oil on top of the wounded spring and in the places where the arbor sits. This time I took the spring and applied a ultra this coat of Molykote Dx paste on the whole spring, before installing it in to the barrel, and added some oil to the arbor as usual.  The result improved, at a full wound the balance produces about 230-237 deg. @JohnR725 I'm getting closer to 300 😃   What I am noticing, there is a fluctuation in amplitude. With time it would rise and drop about total 8-10 deg in an interval about 2 minutes. I assumed this ruled out the power transfer from the barrel itself. So I took the gear train out, cleaned and lubed. 
    • Thank you so much, Hector and CJ. I appreciate the tech sheet and the video. Gasp, I think I will make the attempt. What's the worst that can happen? I think there may be a new balance complete in my future, though.  I'll update the post and let you know the result. R, Frank  
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