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Certina KF 240 Balance wheel material

Apestapatas
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Apestapatas Member

Apestapatas

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Hello all, I have a Certina KF 240 calendar movement.  The balance wheel pinion pivots are broken.  The replacement balance completes I see on ebay are gold colored, the original balance wheel is white.  Does anyone know if the materials changed on these balance wheels over the years?  

Thanks for the help!

  

jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

Posted
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If you are concerned about keeping the original balance wheel, and if all other balance parts are in good state, and you have the needed tools and experience,  you can replace the balances staff only for a very small cost.

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watchweasol Distinguished Member

watchweasol

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As posted by jdm fit a new staff to maintain originality.   As balances are manufactured as after market spares it is likely that is so, The weight spring etc will be the same.

 

Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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Can you tell what is says on the package?  Genuine Certina has always used advanced technology for instance Nivachron is really antimagnetic and temperature resistant. 

If your watch is in good shape, I,d search with reputable material houses. 

 

Apestapatas Member

Apestapatas

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4 hours ago, jdm said:

If you are concerned about keeping the original balance wheel, and if all other balance parts are in good state, and you have the needed tools and experience,  you can replace the balances staff only for a very small cost.

This is true, unfortunately I don’t have the tools or experience to do this.

4 hours ago, watchweasol said:

As posted by jdm fit a new staff to maintain originality.   As balances are manufactured as after market spares it is likely that is so, The weight spring etc will be the same.

 

Thanks for the insight this is good news.

2 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

Can you tell what is says on the package?  Genuine Certina has always used advanced technology for instance Nivachron is really antimagnetic and temperature resistant. 

If your watch is in good shape, I,d search with reputable material houses. 

 

I will attach pics of the balance wheel and the eBay balance wheel.  The watch is not in good shape at all.  The dial looks like it was touched up at one point and it is missing the calendar pointer.  But the movement itself does not have any damaged parts aside from the balance wheel.  This makes a lot of sense, although it was not obvious to me. Next step is to see how much a repair shop would cost to source and replace the staff.

Thanks for the help everyone!

C98E76BD-C3BA-407D-BF4D-1EBA77194034.jpeg

DBBF57EC-AECA-44F2-BF44-62085FC96120.jpeg

6791360C-96B0-42B8-B4DE-93A8122A0E24.jpeg

Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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4 minutes ago, Apestapatas said:

After posting the pics I realized they are not the same!  ?

Nevertheless, you are better off to just replace the balance complete with a new one. Any repairman skilled to build a well poised and balance oscilator is sure to charge more than the price of a new balance complete for his work. 

I keep the old balance for when you are skilled enough to do it yourself.

Apestapatas Member

Apestapatas

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3 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

Nevertheless, you are better off to just replace the balance complete with a new one. Any repairman skilled to build a well poised and balance oscilator is sure to charge more than the price of a new balance complete for his work. 

I keep the old balance for when you are skilled enough to do it yourself.

Thanks for the quick response.  Only issue now is that the balance I have does not look like the one on eBay.  I could assume this was done if a different material was used to compensate for the weight.  I have a KF 320, I wrote the wrong movement on the title.

Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

Posted
Posted

I think you got the right spare balance complete, Go to Dr ranfft site, just enter into your browser; 

,,,,,,,,,Certina 320 ranfft.,,,,,, 

You'l  see its 12" ligne, 320 kurth

I just go ahead and instal the spare you have and see what happens, keep us posted please.

Apestapatas Member

Apestapatas

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13 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

I think you got the right spare balance complete, Go to Dr ranfft site, just enter into your browser; 

,,,,,,,,,Certina 320 ranfft.,,,,,, 

You'l  see its 12" ligne, 320 kurth

I just go ahead and instal the spare you have and see what happens, keep us posted please.

Yes sir,  thanks for all the help!

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