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Posted

I bought a Raketa 2609ha on the local flea market. Worked a couple days, then stopped. Being the price (and value) of such watch substantially lower than the price of a professional revision, I thought it was the right chance to step into the abyss of watch-repairing, and see if I could do something myself.

 

Disclaimer: I don’t need this watch to be super precise, and I don’t need it to last many years without the need to open it up again. I like the watch for its aesthetics, and I’d like it to run ok-ish, just to wear it as some extravaganza in some social occasions.

 

Considering it was my first ever attempt to disassemble a watch, it went surprisingly well at first… until the Pallet fork came in. Putting it back in place, I noticed one of the jewels lost its shellac, was loose and tilted. After the initial panic and discourage, I managed to carefully put the jewel back in place and fixed it with a small dot of super-glue (I know… but I have no shellac, and this watch is not to be sold. Additionally, superglue comes off with acetone if needed). Unfortunately, as proud of myself as I could be after such delicate operation, the pallet still won’t engage with the escapement as it should.

The fork is somehow blocking the escapement wheel. I don’t have a clear view of the parts when they’re mounted (the pallet bridge is in the way), but it seems that the jewels are "catching" into the wheel's teeth and block it from moving in any direction.

I suspect i've been terribly unlucky to find such issue in my first cleaning attempt, but here I am... any contribution will be much appreciated! 🙂 

P.S.:I won’t have access to my workbench for a couple days, but I can try to post some pics as soon as I get back to it, if this can help.

Posted

Hi  It sounds very much like the pallet/fork jewel you put back is not set right causing a miss lock on the escape wheel,  There are two things you can do , one is ti reset the pallet jewel  or tow and probably the quickest is to find a donor movement on ebay as swap in the pallet/fork.  adjusting the jewel can and probably will take an age without the propper tools.

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Posted
4 hours ago, Gruccione said:

I suspect i've been terribly unlucky to find such issue in my first cleaning attempt

I usually like to recommend beginners start with a running watch. Then if it's not running afterwords it makes it easier to narrow down whose problem that is.

Then cleaning the universal fix In watch repair doesn't always fix everything. Yes it really can fix a lot of things but not everything.

Then nice that you found the problem but you probably caused the problem in the first place. That's the reason I like people start with a running watch preferably a new running watch

Then as you found out replacing the jewel is a problem. Agreeing with the above answer you got popping it in and having it work the first time is very unlikely. This is where a parts watch would be really nice to have.

Posted
32 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

I usually like to recommend beginners start with a running watch. Then if it's not running afterwords it makes it easier to narrow down whose problem that is.

Then cleaning the universal fix In watch repair doesn't always fix everything. Yes it really can fix a lot of things but not everything.

In my defense I have to say that the watch was running at first, then stopped. I opened the lid and saw that there was oil everywhere... so i thought cleaning was the solution. 

34 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Then nice that you found the problem but you probably caused the problem in the first place.

Yeah, I can't be sure about it, but this crossed my mind aswell. I know I've been very cautious in all the steps, but the possibility is out there, given my inexperience.

4 hours ago, watchweasol said:

find a donor movement on ebay as swap in the pallet/fork

Thanks to both of you, I think I will follow this advice 🙂 

Posted
2 hours ago, Gruccione said:

In my defense I have to say that the watch was running at first, then stopped. I opened the lid and saw that there was oil everywhere... so i thought cleaning was the solution.

While cleaning doesn't fix everything neither does the handiwork of others applying excessive oil. I had a pocket watch the other week that was like that was literally drenched in oil and for that cleaning is the proper repair.

2 hours ago, Gruccione said:

but the possibility is out there, given my inexperience.

The unfortunate problem with learning watch repair is that everybody breaks stuff. All of us remember the stuff we've broken. If you not breaking watches you're not working on them. But with time The things that you break diminishes considerably hopefully.

  • Like 3
  • 2 months later...
Posted

So here we are. After finding some cheap movements on the bay i managed to replace the pallet, escapement wheel and balace assembly. After 4 days of wearing the watch daily, it seems to work just fine.

My "watch accuracy meter" app records -15 secs/day and 0.8 beat error. Taking these insights with a grain of salt (it's a free app, not a real device) i'm quite surprised. I'll see if this holds up with time.

Oddly, i had to remove the brass spacer under the balance assembly (as I'm told, spacers like these are typical of soviet era watches but i'm not sure what purpose they serve). With the spacer in, the spring didn't work at all. Weird...

 

Thanks again everyone for the support, the help, and the interest in the project!

IMG_20220309_105252.jpg

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    • it would be nice to have the exact model of the watch the or a picture so we can see exactly what you're talking about. this is because the definition of Swiss watch could be a variety of things and it be helpful if we could see exactly the watch your dealing with then in professional watch repair at least some professionals they do pre-cleaned watches. In other words the hands and dial come off and the entire movement assembled goes through a cleaning machine sometimes I think a shorter bath perhaps so everything is nice and clean for disassembly makes it easier to look for problems. Then other professionals don't like pre-cleaning because it basically obliterates the scene of the crime. Especially when dealing with vintage watches where you're looking for metal filings and problems that may visually go away with cleaning. Then usually super sticky lubrication isn't really a problem for disassembly and typically shouldn't be a problem on a pallet fork bridge because there shouldn't be any lubrication on the bridge at all as you typically do not oil the pallet fork pivots.  
    • A few things you should find out before you can mske a decision of what to do. As Richard said, what is the crown and all of the crown components made of . Then also the stem .  The crown looks to have a steel washer that retains a gasket. So be careful with what chemicals you use to dissolve any stem adhesives or the use of heat. You might swell or melt the gasket unless you are prepared to change that also . The steel washer maybe reactive to alum. Something I've just used to dissolve a broken screw from a plate. First drilled out the centre of the screw with a 0.5mm carbide . Dipped only the section that held the broken screw in Rustins rust remover. This is 40 % phosphoric acid. 3 days and the screw remains were completely dissolved, no trace of steel in the brass threads. A black puddle left in the solution.
    • I suppose this will add to the confusion I have a roller jewel assortment. It lists out American pocket watches for Elgin 18 size and even 16 size it's a 50. But not all the various companies used 50-50 does seem to be common one company had a 51 and the smallest is 43. American parts are always interesting? Francis Elgin for mainsprings will tell you the thickness of the spring other companies will not even though the spring for the same number could come in a variety of thicknesses. But if we actually had the model number of your watch we would find it probably makes a reference that the roller jewel came in different dimensions. So overlook the parts book we find that? So it appears to be 18 and 16 size would be the same sort of the arson different catalog numbers and as I said we don't have your Mongol know which Log number were supposed to be using. Variety of materials garnered her sapphire single or double but zero mention about diameters. Then in a section of rollers in this case rollers with jewels we do get this down in the notes section Roller specifications but of course zero reference to the jewel size. I was really hoping the roller jewel assortment would give us sizes it doesn't really. But it does show a picture of how one particular roller jewel gauge is used  
    • Seems to still do it through my mobile data, I use an android phone almost exclusively, but I'll double check it. Thanks mark Strange, I'll try my laptop that utilities edge. I've been on site half hour since I got home, it hasn't done it yet. Thanks John
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