The Beginning Of The End

[icius]

Hello all,

 

I just want to start out by saying thanks to Mark for sharing his knowledge and expertise via Youtube and this forum. Your videos are excellent and I never would have been introduced to this wonderful world of watch repair without them.  

 

It's great to meet you all.  I can see already that this forum is going to be a great resource and community for those who share my new interest (illness?)

 

So, what I wear every day.  Right now it is this:

 

Seiko 5M62-0B20

 

 

This is the watch that started it all.  I've had it for years and it was a birthday gift from my wife.  Really my first somewhat decent watch.  Some time ago, it stopped working.  Though my googling I determined that it might have been the storage cell/capacitor and that this is a common problem on these after some time.  I saw that they had replacements online that were easy to obtain and I thought "hey I can fix that".  

 

This led to the purchase of my first watchmaking tool, a Jaxa Case Opener.  

 

So I replaced the storage cell and the watch was working again.  Hooray!  Then recently it stopped working again.  More googling let me to Mark's channel and this video on determining why a Seiko won't hold a charge:  https://youtu.be/hngZxIrPVko

 

I became completely hooked on Mark's videos and watched all of them!

 

This led to the following work on this watch:

 

1. Complete disassembly, cleaning and lubrication

2. Replacement of stem and crown (don't ask)

3. Replacement of the crappy plastic crystal a local mall kiosk installed a while ago with a sapphire crystal

4. Solder fix of the induction coil (which was the actual problem)

 

So many tool purchases later, the watch is fixed and working great and I have the satisfaction of knowing it has been completely serviced.  As you can see from the many scratches, she has had a somewhat rough life on my wrist.  The finish is chrome and gold plate so I'm looking for ideas to gently polish out some of the scratches without breaking through either finish.

 

I also have on my bench these two:

 

 

I can't seem to accurately date either.  The Waltham has an ST 1686 movmement in it.  I am waiting for a new balance to arrive to complete it.  It will also receive my first re-lume.

 

The Benrus is even more of a mystery as it appears to be a re-dial.  I can't even find a dial like it anywhere so not sure what it is, I just liked the dial. 

 

The Benrus has a Durowe 7420/3 movement in it.  Sadly I broke the hairspring on it removing it from the balance (lesson learned, make sure your hand removers are actually under the collet and not just resting on the hairspring before prying)

 

Anyone have a hairspring/balance from a Durowe 7410 - 7420 lying around? :)

 

So that's my story so far.  I have five more watches arriving over the next few weeks which I will share when they arrive (did I mention illness?)

 

[Geo]

A very warm welcome to the forum icius. That was an excellent introduction and I look forward to further instalments. Please be warned, it is a disease that only gets worse! :)

[bobm12]

 

Please be warned, it is a disease that only gets worse!

Absolutely! and Welcome to the forum. You are well on your way after all those repairs!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[clockboy]

Welcome Icius to the forum. It seems your already hooked into the world of horology. Enjoy the journey.