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Posted

I just received a pocket watch which I was hoping had a Unitas 6498 movement, it did 🙂

The watch was described as being 'overwound', I think the main problem is all the 3 in 1 poured over the balance which has seeped through the entire movement!!

I'm going to stick the complete movement in the wash before disassembly and take it from there.

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Posted

Yuck.  I think you're probably right about the extra oil, of the not-watch-friendly kind.  As many others on this forum will likely agree, the term "overwound" gets used way too much, particular by laymen in the sales advertisements for non-running watches.  Any watch that is wound all the way would happily unwind *unless* something prevented it.  The thing that prevents a watch unwinding is the thing we must fix.
And sometimes that condition is as simple as just a bunch of filth that needs cleaning out.  Here's hoping yours is that simple, and that once she is clean, the movement takes off running like new and will await her fresh oil and regulating!  I think I will check in on this thread later; I like old pocket watches.

Posted

I got the oil off the movement after two washes. The watch started running although very poorly.

Nothing wrong with the mainspring but the balance spring was out of flat and round, bug*er! All near the stud so not too bad.

I've corrected the hairspring but it's way off centre, I'll adjust the collet tommorow. Just noticed in the first picture more marks on the balance wheel other than my black mark. Also, in the last picture, one of the banking pins has been adjusted too. ... someone's been mucking about with this watch before me.

On the positive side of things, it's all good practice.

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Posted
5 hours ago, KarlvonKoln said:

overwound

Well, for 60 years I have scoffed at the "overwound" claim until recently I overwound my GMT chronograph with a Valjoux 726. I learned later that this is not uncommon. I think it is a broken crown or ratchet wheel. Next year I will get the guts to fix it.

Posted
5 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Well, for 60 years I have scoffed at the "overwound" claim until recently I overwound my GMT chronograph with a Valjoux 726. I learned later that this is not uncommon. I think it is a broken crown or ratchet wheel. Next year I will get the guts to fix it.

Well, there I can agree: "overwound" -  in the context of having cranked  a watch so far that something broke could indeed be termed "overwound".  I suppose I'm only scoffing when I hear it used by sellers or lay-people to refer to a watch that does not run no matter how far they wound it, yet is mechanically complete, so they have no clue what's the matter with it.  It's too often used as a catch-all phrase.
Sorry to hear about the Valjoux 726.  I guess they can be a tad fragile then?  I hope it will be an easy fix for you.

Posted
2 minutes ago, KarlvonKoln said:

I hope it will be an easy fix for you.

I am quite anxious about it frankly. It will be my moat complex repair to date.

It is my understanding that this is a common problem with this movement. I have the suspected replacement wheel and the teeth are pretty dainty. More so than anything I have seen before.

I agree with on the general overwound comment

Posted

I am still skeptical that "overwound" is a valid diagnosis. Blue steel mainsprings don't break because you did something wrong they break because the metallurgy is vulnerable that way after many cycles of use and that is why we have modern alloy mainsprings. If you effed up your keyless works that is probably because of a design defect with your keyless works or because, like my ST36 watch, the stem is a hair too short. 

But it looks like it is running fine now, to me. 

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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
    • At work, I'm on MS Edge, not through chose, on my phone, chrome, no issues with either. 
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