My first watch service

[DFeryance]

I've been following Mark's courses and finally had the courage to attempt servicing a watch movement myself. I collected a few old movements off of ebay. I decided to start with a Gruen Precision as it was the only one without a date complication so I figured it would be easier. I'm very much a beginner and made a few mistakes but as I didn't break or loose any parts -- or bend the hairspring -- I call that a success.

Probably the biggest mistake is that I didn't take enough pictures when disassembling. I knew better, but wasn't patient enough. To some degree I was worried about springs popping off and concentrated on those instead of grabbing the camera. This caused pointless frustration when re-assembling and I also don't have as many photos to share. 

The other mistake is that I didn't purchase enough sizes of screwdrivers. I started with a 0.60, 1.0 and 2.0 (mm) figuring that would cover the range. A good number of screws required something in between 1.0 and 2.0 so I had to use a 1.0. This caused some small notches in the screw heads. I have since bought 3 more screwdrivers so I should be better in the future.

Here is the Gruen before servicing.

While I was trying to be careful to not unscrew the setting leaver screw too much, you can see that the crown wheel fell out. I don't know if that is normal with the movement or it was just loose.

The #13 etched into the top plate was not done by me. I have no idea what that means. Year serviced? It isn't the caliber number as that is on the back.

 

I was very careful to keep the screws next to the associated plates and parts as well as take pictures of them. I had no problem finding the right screw on re-assembly.

For cleaning I used Naptha in an ultrasonic machine. I also did hand cleaning on pivots as well as cleaning off corrosion. The movement had corrosion near the barrow, the keyless works and the minute wheel. I was able to clean the corrosion off of the plates but didn't attempt it on the minute wheel. I was concerned I would end up damaging the teeth.

For lubrication I used the Mobius synthetics. Instead of D5 I used Moebius 9104 Synthetic Oil Synt-HP 1300 as I saw that in ETA service guides and is pushed as a successor to D5. But otherwise I used the oils from Mark's course. It took a while to learn how the different size oilers pick up the different viscosity oils. I had plenty of cases where I had to clean up extra oil with rodico. But I am getting a better feel for it now.

The mainspring was an old blackened steel spring.

While I wanted to finish the project quickly, I decided I wanted to do this right and order a new alloy mainspring. I also don't have a mainspring winder to get it back in anyway.

I ended up messing up when pushing the new mainspring into the barrow. The outer side didn't fully slide in. While trying to correct that, the whole thing popped out. Figuring it was all a loss now, I tried to do the manual wind technique to see how it goes and managed to bend the spring horribly. I ordered a new mainspring and was able to slide it into the barrow ok this time.

The movement design was a little different than the Unitas the Mark shows in his course. The click mechanism is different. Also the winding reverse-threaded screw is instead two screws which is pretty nice. Probably the tricky part was the plate design. I followed Mark's videos as I re-assembled but I had to remove plates after I installed them to get all the wheels in place. The barrow had to go in earlier.

One annoying problem is the cannon pinion; it wasn't sliding properly. I suspect corrosion but maybe it was just tight. It was so tight, the balance would freeze when trying to move the hands and the hands didn't move much. It was this way both before and after I cleaned and greased it. I used a tiny drill-bit to try to scrape the sides of the inside hole of the pinion hoping to get any corrosion out. After that I used baking soda hoping that would also help clean and polish a bit. After that a rinse in Naptha. Not sure how great of a technique that is, but for sure it helped. I can now set the time without problems.

All put back together

Very shiny except for the minute wheel.

And with the dial and hands re-installed. The hands were originally bent but I was able to carefully straighten them.

 

I am quite proud of doing this for the first time. I've done other work with watches before this but this is the first time I've worked on a movement.

[oldhippy]

After removing the stem, it is common for the crown wheel to fall out. Nice to know you have expanded in screwdrivers. You will come across all sorts of marks on the inside of cases and movements. After removing hands and dial. It is good practice to remove the balance complete first. Then let the spring down.

Good for you. 

 

[watchweasol]

Hi  well done just shows what care and patience can achieve a credit to you

[jdm]

 

9 hours ago, DFeryance said:

Probably the biggest mistake is that I didn't take enough pictures when disassembling. I knew better, but wasn't patient enough. To some degree I was worried about springs popping off and concentrated on those instead of grabbing the camera. This caused pointless frustration when re-assembling and I also don't have as many photos to share. 

I did a walk-through recently with the handheld camera and it will be the last time. Must use a macro stand, position camera for the best light, set a fixed focus, small aperture and set the mov't to same distance for each shot, measure with a stick. Otherwise there is too much manipulation around the piece.

16 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

It is good practice to remove the balance complete first.

And even before that, the top jewel. Or it will be awkward to do on the removed balance.

Edited August 4, 2019 by jdm

[oldhippy]

 Someone who is just starting to repair watches I don't advise a beginner to start removing the incabloc. That is way I never mentioned it. 

 

[jdm]

35 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

 Someone who is just starting to repair watches I don't advise a beginner to start removing the incabloc. That is way I never mentioned it. 

So a beginner should take apart the mov't but not the balance jewels for cleaning and oiling?

It wouldn't be a complete job then, the watch would not run to its best, and lack of oiling is bad for continued use. 

Fortunately anti-shock systems are not that difficult to work with the right technique - as shown in Mark's videos and others.

[AndyHull]

I can see @oldhippy's point. The frustration of removing and re-fitting the shock protector can be a bit disheartening, so perhaps on the first run through, it could be skipped. It does need to be done though, for a "complete" service.

However, the only way you will learn how to do this, is by practicing (and screwing up, or is that only me ), so once you have the confidence to take the rest apart and re-assemble, then I suggest you have a play with a few different shock jewel systems.

Some, Incabloc for instance,  are easy to work with, and some others (anything you need to compress and rotate at the same time for example) will stretch your expletive vocabulary to its limits (or is that too, only me ).

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by AndyHull

[oldhippy]

Some, Incabloc for instance,  are easy to work with, and some others (anything you need to compress and rotate at the same time for example) will stretch your expletive vocabulary.

Oh yes, the air turns blue.

[oldhippy]

35 minutes ago, jdm said:

So a beginner should take apart the mov't but not the balance jewels for cleaning and oiling?

It wouldn't be a complete job then, the watch would not run to its best, and lack of oiling is bad for continued use. 

Fortunately anti-shock systems are not that difficult to work with the right technique - as shown in Mark's videos and others.

A beginner should start with the basic movement and work up the ladder. Any thing other then basic should be practiced on with an old movement, so if it goes belly up it doesn't matter. Its common sense. 

[jdm]

14 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

A beginner should start with the basic movement and work up the ladder. Any thing other then basic should be practiced on with an old movement, so if it goes belly up it doesn't matter. Its common sense. 

The OP one is an old mov't. It also has, I think, hinged shock springs that are easy to work with. With Mark's HD videos and his calm guiding voice it becomes easy to visualize and repeat the technique of working on shock springs, example below, shock system fitted at 21:00

Beginners should not be discouraged to do that. And for a gradual, guided approach to complete watch repair why not enrolling in  the excellent course https://www.watchrepairlessons.com/

Edited August 4, 2019 by jdm

[oldhippy]

Now you are getting a bit disrespectful. I have around 30 years experience as a watch/ clock maker, not just a repairer. In my days I could make watch parts and clock parts. Watching someone working is a good way of learning. It is not the same as doing it yourself. That is why learning on a practice piece is safe and as I have said it doesn't matter if mistakes are made. 

[DFeryance]

I didn't have trouble with the shock system on this movement but it is good to know that others could be tricky. I've run the movement for a while comparing it to a known time and there weren't any major deviations. I also didn't have any problems with it getting stuck after running for an extended period of time. I have a good amount of electronics background so I plan to build the microphone and amplifier for watchoscope software. That'll get me a much better feel for how well the movement is running.

[oldhippy]

Good for you. 

[AndyHull]

4 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Now you are getting a bit disrespectful. I have around 30 years experience as a watch/ clock maker, not just a repairer. In my days I could make watch parts and clock parts. Watching someone working is a good way of learning. It is not the same as doing it yourself. That is why learning on a practice piece is safe and as I have said it doesn't matter if mistakes are made. 

Watching others work, listening to others narrate their experiences, sharing you mistakes as well as your success is key to learning.

Slightly off topic, but here is my minor cockup of the day. I'm sitting here trying to figure out why the Citizen 8270A I was looking at yesterday, which appeared to be running fine, also appears to be all over the place when I stuck it on the time grapher. 

Only after I had tried it upside, downside, leftside, rightside, and inside out did it occur to me. The time grapher was also picking up the sound of the Timex electric petite, which is sitting on the table beside me, and which has a tick like a grandfather clock.

When I moved removed that from the room, the Citizen looks almost perfect.

[AndyHull]

In fact the Citizen's rate has dropped from +10s/day yesterday to -90s/day today, and the swing has increased.

Why is this an improvement? Presumably the lubrication has taken effect within the rather ancient, but newly cleaned mainspring and it now has less friction/stiction, and is providing slightly more power.

This is one of the reasons why you can's simply button up the back and call it done, the moment it is clean and running.

Of course, if I were repairing the thing for a customer, and the watch had any value, I would be better off simply replacing the mainspring, but since I'm doing it for my own enjoyment, I would say this is a good result.

[DavidMasters]

Well done. I'm no pro and do not service as a job but I've been at it a very long time and the satisfaction of completing a service is still with me.