Manual Wind watch not running when wound but not worn

[fr3x]

Hey everyone, this one is a mystery to me.  I have a manual wind Durowe 450-1 movement, which has recently been cleaned and lubricated.  After completely reassembling the movement, dial, hands, and casing the watch, I put it on the counter (running), while doing something else.  After about an hour, the watch stopped running.  I had wound the watch before putting it down.  When I came back to the watch, not running, I reset the time, and it started running again.  This time I put the watch on, and wore it for about 10 hours, and it kept great time.  I went to bed last night and took the watch off.  Wake up this morning, and the watch had stopped again.  I made sure the watch was wound fully before going to bed.  Beyond re-servicing the watch, any idea what might be going on?  Admittedly, this is only the third manual wind watch I have done myself, but the other two were pretty straight forward.  I have not checked the hands since casing to check for clearance, but did check before casing the watch.  Thanks!

[Gaus]

Look for the adjustment of the hands. Are they touching either the dial or the crystal. Stops the movement at the same time. 

[AshF]

Sometimes, if you've got low amplitude the balance can stop.  If you're wearing the watch then even small movements can start the balance going again.  I have a watch that is doing this right now and needs looking at again.  I believe this is why professionals will test the watch over a few days, a day on a rotation machine, a day dial up, dial down etc.

[Nucejoe]

42 minutes ago, Gaus said:

Look for the adjustment of the hands. Are they touching either the dial or the crystal. Stops the movement at the same time. 

Hands stop touching on wrist? 

[watchweasol]

A quick test is to  remove the watch from the case  and wind it up. Put it in the movement holder under a cover and check the duration if it still stops check the balance amplitude for a good swing, balance spring for sticking  and have you de magnetised it.

[Tudor]

I was going to suggest demag, as well as one-dip of the hairspring.

If those are good, possibly side shake on the balance?

[fr3x]

I haven't de-magnetized it yet, which I can definitely try when I get home.  I don't have a timegrapher yet, but will be ordering soon.  In the meantime, I will take the watch out of the case and check in a movement holder.  When I reassembled the watch, I did not notice side shake issues when I checked.  I'll give an update this evening, thanks everyone!

[saswatch88]

17 hours ago, fr3x said:

I haven't de-magnetized it yet, which I can definitely try when I get home.  I don't have a timegrapher yet, but will be ordering soon.  In the meantime, I will take the watch out of the case and check in a movement holder.  When I reassembled the watch, I did not notice side shake issues when I checked.  I'll give an update this evening, thanks everyone!

Demagnetize is good practice but wont solve your problem. either you have a positional balance issue, broken or cracked bottom balance pivot jewel, and/or you did a poor job cleaning and servicing the watch particularly on the mainspring and barrel arbor.

[Nucejoe]

Do the following tests, let us know of your observation.

1- In set position and as watch is runing, turn the hand anit clock, dose this stop the movement ot tend to. turn clock, dose amplitude pick up considerably?

2-Remove hands and dial, bench test in face up and face down positions.

3-Put some naphta on jewel assemblies to the staff, fork arbout, pallets and escape wheel.

I presume you didn't replace the mainspring.

Regards joe

[fr3x]

7 hours ago, saswatch88 said:

Demagnetize is good practice but wont solve your problem. either you have a positional balance issue, broken or cracked bottom balance pivot jewel, and/or you did a poor job cleaning and servicing the watch particularly on the mainspring and barrel arbor.

Hey guys, sorry I didn't update last night, I actually ordered an antique Esser staking set from the UK, and spent the evening cleaning and lubricating it for fun.  I did almost as an aside demagnetize the movement, wound it up, and left it on my bench.  I checked on it this morning, and low and behold it was still running.  I am going to put it on a timegrapher when I get it in and check it out for positional discrepancies.

I did check the jewels in my microscope when I cleaned the components.  Everything looked good to me.  I should also note that the movement looked like it had been well maintained before I got it, with 4 sets of service marks on the caseback.  I know that doesn't mean things were done properly necessarily, but I have seen a fair few watches with scratched up screws, bridges, and other evidence of potentially sloppy work, and this movement looked very clean.

Thanks so much everyone for your feedback, this is such an amazing resource!

[les13]

3 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

3-Put some naphta on jewel assemblies to the staff, fork arbout, pallets and escape wheel.

 

Joe, For us newbies, does the naphtha test help locate friction? If there is a change then re-clean, inspect, and lub the jewels naphtha was added to. If not, the friction is upstream???

[Nucejoe]

1 hour ago, les13 said:

Joe, For us newbies, does the naphtha test help locate friction? If there is a change then re-clean, inspect, and lub the jewels naphtha was added to. If not, the friction is upstream???

You said it, it helps locate possible friction due to dried or congealed oil.

Though Naphta or lighter fluid momentarily acts as lubricant it also ruins the lubing so re-clean & lube will be in order. 

Regards 

joe