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Fifteen Ticks To The Minute.

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clockwatcher WRT Addict

clockwatcher

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Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!

 

A while back I bought myself a Favre-Leuba quartz watch with an ETA 555.415 movement to add to my small F-L collection. It was a non-runner but that wasn't a particular concern. A new battery made no difference so okay, display only.

 

More recently I bid on and won a going ETA 955.412 movement. I had misremembered that I had a 555 in the watch, not a 955 as I thought. No matter, I would swap them over. The first thing to tackle was the date ring as the donor date was at 6 and the recipient at 3. With the aid of Mark's excellent video I exchanged the rings although when I changed the date it felt a bit stiff, despite a dob of lube on the ring teeth. I should say that in the interim I had a crash course in tweezer wielding and sudden undesired launching of very small parts into the ether. An LED torch and lots of hands and knees were all that was required to remedy the matter and I only had to search for the same part twice.

 

Again, no matter. So I put the dial and hands back on, set it all in the case and added battery. Bingo, the watch went!

 

It was only after a few seconds that I noticed that the second hand had a nervous tic! This is the bit that has me stumped. The second hand moves once every four seconds! I know this because every time it moved it jumped four seconds - hence 'Fifteen times a minute'.

 

 Suffice it to say that the battery was removed and I contented myself by entirely disassembling the 555 movement for practice.

 

2070.gif  Has anybody any understanding of what's happening? The 955 was going quite normally before I mucked around with it! 

 

Cheers

John

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clockwatcher WRT Addict

clockwatcher

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No, Dumb -di-Dumb-Dumb-Dumb is what I am! The watch has an octagonal crystal and when I put the back on with my press I bust the **BLEEP** glass! I don't know where I'm going to find another - it's one with long sides and short corners.

 

If I bend over, will some one please kick me?!

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clockwatcher WRT Addict

clockwatcher

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Bob, I've looked at all the images of F-L watches that the web offers but haven't yet seen an identical watch.post-742-0-91241000-1428964352_thumb.jpg

 

I don't even know what model it is unless the number 5955-53 and the infinity fish shape on the back are a clue.

 

Any ideas about crystal specialists who might carry a spare? To be honest it needed a new crystal as the old one had an ugly scratch and, not being acrylic, would have taken some serious polishing out.

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DMLarsen New Member

DMLarsen

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I  think i just watched a video from Mark today that had something that sounded similiar to what you described.   I believe If I remember right, he was replacing a battery to a movement and it was a matter of reprogramming it to get it back to one second intervals?  I have tried finding it to no avail.

 

Sorry this post was uselss nonsense. I hope get it figured out

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bobm12 Distinguished Member

bobm12

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Hi clockwatcher,

 

The shape of that crystal reminds me of a newer Seiko I fixed once. The crystal was glued in place...and I replaced it with a Seiko part.

 

Well, all that said, I found back then that when crystals were not available or custom, there are unfinished blanks that can be used -- this might be old news for you, I'm just stating a "discovery" :)  - In any case, I believe that if you don't have the equipment, some suppliers will shape it for you...and you might get at least mineral glass quality to that! Worth exploring that avenue, I think (?).

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

 

PS. a good place to start would be Esslinger for unfinished glass.

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clockwatcher WRT Addict

clockwatcher

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Nothing about watch repairing is old news to me Bob, which is why I'm finding so much on the forum absolutely fascinating.

 

I'll have at look at what Esslinger can offer but there's always the option of just getting some flat acrylic and shaping it myself. In common with most of my watches, this F-L doesn't stand me in very much so I'd be content to have it for display only.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

:thumbsu:

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