Landeron 248 misaligned second recorder.

[Paumanok]

Hi all, I've finally put my foot through the door of the world of chronographs, and I got an excellent deal on a gold cased Luxor chronograph with a Landeron 248 movement. The dial looks perfect, so perfect at such a price I assume it was either redialed or a miracle occurred when my offer was accepted.

The only flaw to the watch is the second recorder resets to about 1 -2 minutes past 12, every time. I thought initially the second hand just needed adjustment, until I noticed the minute recorder will advance a minute when the second recorder crosses midnight exactly, but still resets at 1-2 past 12. This means a recorded minute is actually 58ish seconds.

So adjusting the second hand won't solve this problem, and I'm very curious what about this movement syncs these two registers.

 

If anyone has advice, it would be appreciated.

[nickelsilver]

I think you can just remove the hand and set it at zero when in reset position. If that doesn't do it there's a laundry list of potential issues, on which books have been written. Try that and if you still have a problem it can be addressed.

[Paumanok]

49 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

I think you can just remove the hand and set it at zero when in reset position. If that doesn't do it there's a laundry list of potential issues, on which books have been written. Try that and if you still have a problem it can be addressed.
 

Thanks. That was going to be my first step. I asked because I was curious if the "resets wrong but advances right" was indicative of something specific that I haven't come across in discussions yet.

Worst case scenario, I line up the second hand and don't think about it much when the minute recorder advances.

[nickelsilver]

Crap sorry, I was thinking the minute recorder was not resetting to "12". May still be a simple matter of resetting the hand, but then the minute jump will be off, which means moving the finger on the chrono runner.

What I actually suspect is that the hammer is out of adjustment, and is making full contact with the minute counter but not the chrono runner, and you want the reverse of that. Depending on the version you have it may have an adjustable hammer, or may require filing.

[Paumanok]

5 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

Crap sorry, I was thinking the minute recorder was not resetting to "12". May still be a simple matter of resetting the hand, but then the minute jump will be off, which means moving the finger on the chrono runner.

What I actually suspect is that the hammer is out of adjustment, and is making full contact with the minute counter but not the chrono runner, and you want the reverse of that. Depending on the version you have it may have an adjustable hammer, or may require filing.

Oh that's interesting, that totally gives me something to research which is exactly what I was after. I'll post in here if I make any discoveries.

[Paumanok]

It appears there is an eccentric screw to adjust the hammers as seen from here:https://watchguy.co.uk/technical/Landeron/1472_Landeron 148.pdf

The only thing is its extremely tight and won't adjust either way. I really don't want to force anything on this movement as its otherwise very nice. Also the whole hammer assembly moves which makes it very difficult.

EDIT: It seems that its not an eccentric screw despite being in that table. Its just a screw with a tapered head. Regardless, it may be that the previous watchmaker was showing off feats of strength when putting this watch back together.

Edited June 19, 2019 by Paumanok

[nickelsilver]

Yes it should be a tapered screw, it forces the hammer arms apart or lets them come closer together. They are often really tight. Put some oil around the perimeter of the head and coax it in both directions. A little turning usually makes a big adjustment, careful!

You may not need to adjust it though, do you have clearance with the minute cam? Also, the jumper spring that brings the hammer in contact with the cams doesn't generally have a lot of power. It needs to be greased and reliably coming into contact with the cams. The hammer faces will need a light coat of grease where they contact the heart cams.

[Paumanok]

1 hour ago, nickelsilver said:

Yes it should be a tapered screw, it forces the hammer arms apart or lets them come closer together. They are often really tight. Put some oil around the perimeter of the head and coax it in both directions. A little turning usually makes a big adjustment, careful!

You may not need to adjust it though, do you have clearance with the minute cam? Also, the jumper spring that brings the hammer in contact with the cams doesn't generally have a lot of power. It needs to be greased and reliably coming into contact with the cams. The hammer faces will need a light coat of grease where they contact the heart cams.

I have some proper oils coming in soon, so I can try that as well. This watch has the non-grooved pushers so I was able to pop the movement out and recenter the second hand. I didn't quite get it the first time but I was tired last night and didn't want to push it.

This is my first chronograph and despite getting a solid deal, probably the nicest watch I currently own. So I need to balance my confidence in servicing simple movements with my desire to wear this watch.