Jump to content

EB 8800 movement


WildBill

Recommended Posts

8 hours ago, WildBill said:

I managed to clean and oil the bottom end stone, is there a way to do the top...?

 

Do you mean stones on the cock side? Or on the mainplate, dial side?  Both have same design, do you mean cleaning without removing the balance from the cock?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

Do you mean stones on the cock side? Or on the mainplate, dial side?  Both have same design, do you mean cleaning without removing the balance from the cock?

Yes, the stone on the cock the "top" stone,  the hairspring gets in the way, don't want to take off the balance if i can help it.

6 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

Do you mean stones on the cock side? Or on the mainplate, dial side?  Both have same design, do you mean cleaning without removing the balance from the cock?

 

6 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

Do you mean stones on the cock side? Or on the mainplate, dial side?  Both have same design, do you mean cleaning without removing the balance from the cock?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can access, remove, (by means of 2 small screws underneath, (where you see what appear to be pins beside the cap jewel), clean and lubricate as you normally would by removing the balance complete.

Care must be taken as the  stud appears to be pinned rather than held by a screw as you typically see and likewise care in refitting and repinning as this task is fiddly.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah thats makes sense, why make it hard, they could have put the 2 small screws on the top of the balance cock where they look like 2 studs.

I would have to take the Balance off from the stud, don't think i want to go down that road.

I have put the balance in lighter fuel for an hour the then put it in ultrasonic cleaner for 10 mins, "still in the fuel"..

Put the watch on the time grapher Rate -2 spd Amplitude 255 Beat error 0.01 Turn  the watch upside down and it looks like a snow storm

It is a 60 year old watch....Thanks for all of your comments

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is an annoyance and some old pocket watches do have the screws on the top, I guess for wristwatch calibres it's a clearance thing?
The important thing is that you try to oil the jewel as best you can, hold the cock upside down on rodico or similar and while carefully holding the balance to the side and using the thinnest oiler apply a drop to the jewel hole and then poke through with a thin piece of wire, not ideal but better than running it dry.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One may get by without much skill for some tasks, skill for balance complete R&R is a must however. If you don,t feel confident with this task now, I recommend practicing on a piece that you wouldn,t mind ruining. Do the same over and over, you will improve even develope some techniques and making use of other's experience is always useful . We all have destroyed our share of hairsprings. 

When you say you don,t want to go down that road, I think you mean not at this point in time, you just don,t feel like going down that road now. As for real small screws just soak real good. You will cut through it like butter.

Best wishes.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 For what little its worth, there are different versions of that EB8800 balance, some like the one you have and some with a more conventional spring.

image.png.348a3e43cfd0337dd16f68afb42e00ee.png

image.png.b61c8040611d2f8dd384cafce3bf8d8d.png

It might also be worth checking that the fork pins are not bent, (see below) although this tends to cause the thing to explosively unwind.

image.png.24c04e50d3a184516ea51369703f28a8.png

So far as I can tell, and from a couple of experiments in this regard the different balances for the EB88XX series are all interchangeable (except possibly the 8815, although I haven't encountered one of those).

Note the second and third pic balances actually have a jewel, it just happens to be almost transparent.

So if you have a problem you may be able to swap the balance from another movement to prove or disprove the issue is with the balance.

From your description I suspect that one of the pivots may be worn or missing. If you are feeling particularly brave, or foolish, the balance staff is available as a spare, as is the balance complete. It is obviously significantly easier to replace the balance complete, or even easier, replace the whole balance from a donor including the balance cock/shock protection/jewel (delete whichever doesn't apply).

Edited by AndyHull
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

One may get by without much skill for some tasks, skill for balance complete R&R is a must however. If you don,t feel confident with this task now, I recommend practicing on a piece that you wouldn,t mind ruining. Do the same over and over, you will improve even develope some techniques and making use of other's experience is always useful . We all have destroyed our share of hairsprings. 

When you say you don,t want to go down that road, I think you mean not at this point in time, you just don,t feel like going down that road now. As for real small screws just soak real good. You will cut through it like butter.

Best wishes.

 

 

10 minutes ago, stevew said:

Would like to add be careful with using lighter fluid in an Ultrasonic Machine as its volatile.

The lighter fuel was in a small jar with screw lid, I put water in the Ultrasonic Machine then put the jar in the water.

10 minutes ago, stevew said:

Would like to add be careful with using lighter fluid in an Ultrasonic Machine as its volatile.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

 For what little its worth, there are different versions of that EB8800 balance, some like the one you have and some with a more conventional spring.

image.png.348a3e43cfd0337dd16f68afb42e00ee.png

image.png.b61c8040611d2f8dd384cafce3bf8d8d.png

It might also be worth checking that the fork pins are not bent, (see below) although this tends to cause the thing to explosively unwind.

image.png.24c04e50d3a184516ea51369703f28a8.png

So far as I can tell, and from a couple of experiments in this regard the different balances for the EB88XX series are all interchangeable (except possibly the 8815, although I haven't encountered one of those).

Note the second and third pic balances actually have a jewel, it just happens to be almost transparent.

So if you have a problem you may be able to swap the balance from another movement to prove or disprove the issue is with the balance.

From your description I suspect that one of the pivots may be worn or missing. If you are feeling particularly brave, or foolish, the balance staff is available as a spare, as is the balance complete. It is obviously significantly easier to replace the balance complete.

Only worked 8800 am i right those in the pic's are dia-shock,? would have been a lot easier with Dia-shock.

I love this hobby but had lots of failures with Balances and Hairsprings, I've just been reading its an on going problem

which makes me feel not so bad. The balance wheel looks wobbly which could mean a bent pivot, I don't think i have the skill

to put in a new balance staff..  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, WildBill said:

The balance wheel looks wobbly which could mean a bent pivot, I don't think i have the skill

Sounds more like a broken pivot. If the balance appears to wobble while running, works in one position (say dial up), but not in another (say dial down) then there is a pretty high probability that one of the pivots is missing. 

Perhaps you could grab another couple of cheapest of the cheap EB 88XX watches off ebay and see if you can get a good balance in one of them. Ladies fob/chain/pendant type watches, and things with trashy dials often go for a couple of quid, if you can spot one with an EB88XX movement,  this works out way cheaper than purchasing a new balance.

Fortunately this was a very high production volume movement, so there are loads of them out there. Unfortunately, the balance is a common failure mode, as is wear on that strange arrangement of spring steel that holds the mainspring barrel. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes i have another 8800 the balance has a broken bottom pivot it wont run at all, I checked the pivots on this one and they are OK but i feel the bottom pivot could be bent, I will check out ebay for another old movement with a decent balance in it.... don't know why i am bothering with this old watch but i don't like to give up on it, Its a challenge,, Thanks for help  Cheers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

Is it possible to swap the two balances from one balance cock to the other, or are the hairspring studs glued rather than screwed in place?

I don't know about this one but I think no mov't has the end stud glued to the to balance arm. Even the ultra cheap C&C used a microscopic pin for the purpose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, jdm said:

I don't know about this one but I think no mov't has the end stud glued to the to balance arm. Even the ultra cheap C&C used a microscopic pin for the purpose.

In the constant battle for cheap, glue is not unheard of. Ronda for example were not above such practices.

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Ronda_1233_21

From memory I think some of the Q&Q stuff is also glued. I don't think Timex ever went down that route, they tend to use pins, but given the low cost nature of the EB 88XX series, and the number of different balance variants I've seen, it would not surprise me to find an example with a glued hairspring end.

I guess the idea was that since the thing was so cheap, you were unlikely to bother stripping down the balance, and would simply replace the whole thing, or more likely, scrap the movement, or indeed the whole watch.

Edited by AndyHull
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, WildBill said:

don't know why i am bothering with this old watch but i don't like to give up on it, Its a challenge

Half the fun of this game is fixing the things. The monetary value of the watch, in my opinion is not really that important.

Different if you are doing this for a living of course. Nobody is going to spend $100 servicing a $2 watch, unless it is of great sentimental value.

Here's one I fixed earlier. I know it isn't a fancy $$$$ Rolex, but ain't  bad looking for what it is, and it was very rewarding to get it going.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, jdm said:

I don't know about this one but I think no mov't has the end stud glued to the to balance arm. Even the ultra cheap C&C used a microscopic pin for the purpose.

I'm led to believe Glue is a No No in watches, but i did find the plastic domed crystal was glued in place with super glue i managed to get it out before i knew about the glue "a right mess".

The hairspring stud is not held by a screw but looks like its pressed in "friction fit" wouldn't attempt  to  do any more hairspring work without a Microscope

 

7 minutes ago, jdm said:

I don't know about this one but I think no mov't has the end stud glued to the to balance arm. Even the ultra cheap C&C used a microscopic pin for the purpose.

 

8 minutes ago, jdm said:

I don't know about this one but I think no mov't has the end stud glued to the to balance arm. Even the ultra cheap C&C used a microscopic pin for the purpose.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

Half the fun of this game is fixing the things. The monetary value of the watch, in my opinion is not really that important.

Different if you are doing this for a living of course. Nobody is going to spend $100 servicing a $2 watch, unless it is of great sentimental value.

Here's one I fixed earlier. I know it isn't a fancy $$$$ Rolex, but ain't  bad looking for what it is, and it was very rewarding to get it going.

 

Thanks for the link, I think i may have passed on the Voyageur looked a bit of a wreck, did you ever get it finished.?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, WildBill said:

Thanks for the link, I think i may have passed on the Voyageur looked a bit of a wreck, did you ever get it finished.?

Well, the  Voageur was cleaned,  serviced and runs, and has hands and a crystal, but I'm still on the lookout for more correct hands, and a bezel of some sort. I suspect it had a timezone style bezel rather than a dive bezel, but since the watch seems to be pretty unique, I have yet to see another example to compare with.

What remained of the original set of hands looked like those on the Sicura "Marine Star", but the ones I have on it currently are just some vanilla hands I had in stock.

Edited by AndyHull
Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • in general this shouldn't be any change. but in general questions like this it be nice to know the specifics of the watch in other words how was it performing before it was cased up and what is it doing now.
    • just as a reminder this watch is a Swatch group product. This will bring up a problem like spare parts and technical information. that I found some links to some information on when I talk about your watch and some of the technical and basically your watch is equivalent to 2834-2 for which I'm attaching the technical sheets. But equivalent does not mean exactly the same you want to do a search on the group for C07 as we discussed this watch before including the technical differences how it's supposed to be regulated and basically because it's watch group there is no parts availability. https://calibercorner.com/eta-caliber-c07-xxx/   https://www.chrono24.com/magazine/eta-movements-from-the-2824-2-to-the-powermatic-80-p_80840/ https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/h-10-movement-details.4636991/ eta CT_2834-2_FDE_481857_15.pdf
    • people be honest.... Swatch is evil for the watchmakers and repairers, BUT not everything in watches from Switzerland is from the Swatch-Group. As far as i know, Selitta got sacked by Swatch as a Movement-Assembler for them and they started to produce Movements in their own Name with slight Modifications. As far as i know, they sell Parts to the Market for their Movements. In most cases, if a ETA-Movement fails, it is a valid Option to replace it with a Selitta Movement, which i consider the Solution for this Mess with the Swatch-Group...... I have no Connection to anybody at Selitta, but being a Swiss-Guy, i still like to have Swiss-Made Watches, but not from the Swatch-Group.   ok ? regards, Ernst
    • Just one more greedy act by Swatch. They started a number of years ago here in the US..cutting off supplies to watchmakers that could build complications that many Swatch houses couldn't even touch. Old school masters who had gone through some of the most prestigious houses in the world. Otto Frei has some statements on their page about it. I tell all my customers to avoid new Swiss watches like the plague,..unless they just want an older one in their collection that still has some parts out on the market, or they have really deep pockets and don't mind waiting months and paying through the nose to get it back. Plenty of others to choose from..IE Seiko,..or other non-swiss brands Even a number of Chinese brands are catching up with the Swiss,..and I think that in time, their actions will be their downfall
    • Yes. If that's not what you are experiencing...start looking for something rubbing. A 1st guess is that one of the hands is rubbing against the hole in the center of the dial. Especially if you now have lower amplitude in face up/ face down positions.
×
×
  • Create New...