Just Had A Watch That Baffled Me For Hours!

[DJW]

I've been working on a Hamilton 912 Secometer for the last 5 hours...

 

It came in with a tangled hairspring, a broken staff and just plain filthy! I disassembled and inspected it for other faults, nothing found initially. I sent it through the L&R cleaning machine and finally had something nice and clean to work with! I replaced the staff with a Hamilton NOS part, sorted the hairspring (wasn't too bad off) and reassembled and tested.

 

The watch would not run. The balance did not turn freely. After confirming the staff was correct by comparing it to the broken one, I knew that wasn't likely the issue. I started looking again at the balance hole jewels. The cock jewel looked as if it had been messed with...tool marks on the brass jewel setting. I looked at the staff again closer this time and noticed the top pivot (the bottom pivot was the one broken) seemed thinner than the replacement. I compared the old and the new with my Seitz jewel hole gauge and found the replacement staff was 2 sizes larger! I checked the lower jewel and the new staff fit fine.  

 

I had 2 different sized jewels for the upper and the lower balance hole jewels. This tells me that a previous repair was done using a different size jewel and then the staff was adjusted to fit that sized hole. I replaced the smaller jewel with the correct size.

 

Wait there's more!

 

I got it all back together and the balance was still acting erratically, like it was still binding. I removed the hairspring and removed the pallet fork to test that the balance was spinning true ( I had already poised and trued the balance outside the movement).

I gave it a puff of air and off it went! But, when it slowed down, the balance started oscillating back and forth just as if the hairspring was installed! Also, I noticed the escape wheel was spinning whenever the balance was spun....Impossible, since the mainspring was let down and the pallet fork was removed! There was not physical link between the balance and the escape wheel.  

 

FINALLY, I ran the balance through my demagnetizer and then ran the movement....That FIXED it!

 

Talk about a strong magnetization!

 

Anyone have this issue before? It only took me a couple of hours to find the magnetization issue!

 

I then had a Beer!

 

 

[SeikoWatch]

i've never had a problem with a Pocket Watch for now,, the reason is, I only have a couple Westclox Pocket watches and I disassembled and reassembled one of my Westclox... but..... now I have an old Pocket Watch, no name, not the real dial to this Watch and not the hand set for this Watch and one of these hands is broken and the canon pinion to. so I keep this frankenwatch for pièces only :)


Enjoy your Watch my friend :D

[Mark]

I've been working on a Hamilton 912 Secometer for the last 5 hours...

 

It came in with a tangled hairspring, a broken staff and just plain filthy! I disassembled and inspected it for other faults, nothing found initially. I sent it through the L&R cleaning machine and finally had something nice and clean to work with! I replaced the staff with a Hamilton NOS part, sorted the hairspring (wasn't too bad off) and reassembled and tested.

 

The watch would not run. The balance did not turn freely. After confirming the staff was correct by comparing it to the broken one, I knew that wasn't likely the issue. I started looking again at the balance hole jewels. The cock jewel looked as if it had been messed with...tool marks on the brass jewel setting. I looked at the staff again closer this time and noticed the top pivot (the bottom pivot was the one broken) seemed thinner than the replacement. I compared the old and the new with my Seitz jewel hole gauge and found the replacement staff was 2 sizes larger! I checked the lower jewel and the new staff fit fine.  

 

I had 2 different sized jewels for the upper and the lower balance hole jewels. This tells me that a previous repair was done using a different size jewel and then the staff was adjusted to fit that sized hole. I replaced the smaller jewel with the correct size.

 

Wait there's more!

 

I got it all back together and the balance was still acting erratically, like it was still binding. I removed the hairspring and removed the pallet fork to test that the balance was spinning true ( I had already poised and trued the balance outside the movement).

I gave it a puff of air and off it went! But, when it slowed down, the balance started oscillating back and forth just as if the hairspring was installed! Also, I noticed the escape wheel was spinning whenever the balance was spun....Impossible, since the mainspring was let down and the pallet fork was removed! There was not physical link between the balance and the escape wheel.  

 

FINALLY, I ran the balance through my demagnetizer and then ran the movement....That FIXED it!

 

Talk about a strong magnetization!

 

Anyone have this issue before? It only took me a couple of hours to find the magnetization issue!

 

I then had a Beer!

 

 

Well done mate - you deserve that beer  :beerhat:

[autowind]

Nice bit of detective work there,  I think you deserve a 6 pack.

[DJW]

Nice bit of detective work there,  I think you deserve a 6 pack.

The probllem  is, I've been doing that a lot lately! :sleep:

[SeikoWatch]

this is not very good for your liver hey DJW ! :lolu: :P