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So I've been servicing watches as a hobby for about six months now and I'm stumped by a Timex M25 problem (seems to come up consistently for me). The movement was good when I started - setting worked fine and was smooth. Did a basic cleaning and lubrication without breaking down the train, so really just the calendar/setting works. All good and smooth until I place the cannon pinion - then the crown barely turns. I've been over the section in the manual for "Refitting the Cannon Pinion" and see the reference to supporting the center arbor, but that seems to be for a full strip down of the movement.

Any help on this one would be much appreciated! Everything else is good and the balance is going strong. Attached photo shows where I run into the problem, when the cannon pinion is set in place.

 

m25-cannon-pinion-problem.jpg

Posted

I think I have figured this one out! I went back to the manuals and saw the reference to the "friction pinion," which was confusing at first but they mean the double-pinion setup. I separated these two, lubricated the inner one, and put them back together. Now I'm getting the correct slip that is needed between the two pinions when switching between winding and setting.

Also makes sense that this would stop working after cleaning without getting oil back between the stacked pinions.

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