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Full service; Valjoux / ETA 7751 Triple calendar Moon-phase.


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Valjoux / ETA 7751 Triple calendar moon-phase;

This gold-plated Berney-Blondeau S.A. with an ETA 7751 belonged to a German gentleman who received it new on his 60th birthday in 1995. Through the years he kept the original box, the warranty card as well as the 1995 price-list and the dealer’s business card. He has worn the watch only on social accessions and the watch spent most of its time stored in a "Panzerschrank". According to the original price-list, the 1995 purchase price was 1450 CHF.

As you can see, the watch held up pretty well, only a few small scratches in the front- and rear mineral-glass crystal and on the top of the lugs some of the gold-plating has worn through. The watch ran, all function did work. It had never been serviced nor opened 😉

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Disclaimer;

This walk-through is written in the way I do it. That's not to say it's the most correct way of doing things but as they say: there are many ways to Rome, all leading to the same result. Neither do I, as a hobbyist, have fancy horological equipment such as a cleaning machine or a "sterile" & "dust-free" room and therefor the end result will not be "Rolex"-standards. All I can say is that I'm always give it my best shot and I will mention problems encountered or were I went wrong, so you don't have to 😉

Without any further ado, let's dig into this beautiful & complicated watch ......

First make sure that you downloaded the latest ETA 7751 "Technical Communication". Throughout this walk-through I'll use the same parts reference numbers as used in the "Technical Communication". Below the currently latest September 2021 version;

7751 manual.pdf

Before having done anything to the watch, I tested all the functions for proper working and took the timegrapher readings to see if there was anything which needed special attention. These readings can later be compared with the readings after the service.

Dial-Up;

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Dial-Down;

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Crown-Right;

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Crown-Down;

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Crown-Left;

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Crown-Up;

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From the readings, it's clear to see that the watch needed a proper service.

 

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The back-lid, just like the front-crystals found on pocket-watches, required a knife-type case-opener. Checked out the oscillating weight ball-bearing, it had next to no play and therefor good for another round. Removed the oscillating weight (48). Removed the two casing-screws and clamps, pulled the stem and flipped the case over onto a soft pillow.

 

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With the watch-case removed, the winding stem re-inserted and the movement was placed in a proper 7750 (or family) movement-holder.

To me, working on these movements a proper movement-holder is paramount. During the disassembly of the movement I encountered some problems and without this holder I most likely would have made scratches or worse.....

 

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Pulling the 8x hands; they all came off without any problems.

 

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All the hands safely nicely stored in a small plastic container.

 

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The same counts for the dial, after the removal directly stored in a plastic container with on both sides of the dial a soft lining.

 

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Removal of the Day & Month indicator disk (78) and the Moon phase indicator (79)

The keen observer may have noticed that there are no screws next to the movement holder, for example the two screws holding the Day & Month indicator respectively.

When working on complicated movements or movements which I'm not familiar with, I took on the habit, when possible, to replace the screws in the same hole as they came from. For sure, it's more work, but some movements do have multiple types/sizes screws and it will become a big puzzle if you store them in the same container / basket.

Replacing the screws works (most of the time) very well for me, but in some cases the replaced screws shoulder-out deeper than as they would have done when holding the part above. The protruding screw may touch parts below or when replacing bridges, prevent the bridge from not seating fully "level". To me, replacing the screws thoughtfully is far simpler than facing a huge sorting puzzle later.

 

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Removal of the combined maintaining plate (76) and the Month star driving wheel (77).

The three tiny screws holding the maintaining plate (76) were extremely tight. I couldn't loosen them with my standard (new) screwdriver bits so I had to grind the screwdriver bit to match the exact the same shape as the screw-grooves. Only then, with "force", they came loose and I was glad for having a proper movement-support! One slip of the screwdriver, with the force that was required, could / would have easily made a deep score in the plate or worse ........

 

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Removal of the Day jumper spring (71), Day & Month jumper (70), Day jumper (72) and the Moon phase yoke (73) plus an early warning ! 😉

 

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With those parts out of the way, the Moon phase platform (75) had to come off. Assuming that the with the arrow highlighted screw was one of the screws holding the platform down, I turned the screw only to discover that it was the moon-phase corrector eccentric ....... Oops !!

The setting of the eccentric has to be checked at the end anyway, but now I know for sure that it's set wrongly.

 

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Removal of the Moon phase jumper (69), Corrector maintaining small plate (66) and the Moon phase jumper spring (67). Still in the picture the Date & Month jumper (74) which should have been removed before this picture was taken.

 

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The original stem was replaced by a longer stem to adjust the Calendar driving wheel (61) which was holding the Date-star (63) down.

 

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Removal of the Date-star (63, shown in the previous picture) together with the Date-corrector (65) and the corrector maintaining small plate (66).

 

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Removal of the calendar platform (62). Slowly back to familiar ground; a standard ETA 7750 starts to appear ... 🙂

 

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Removal of the Hour wheel 24hrs H1 (59), the Calendar driving wheel (61), the Hour-wheel (60), the Day corrector (58) and the Day corrector spring (57).

 

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The removal of the Hammer-spring (56), Set hour-hammer operating lever (53 & 54), Hour counter lock (55), Hour counting wheel (52), Minute-wheel (51) and the free Cannon pinion (50).

 

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Pulling of the Driving pinion (49) has to be done carefully; either with a pair of hand-levers or two small screw-drivers. The upwards force on either side of the pinion has to the equal or you may break the pinion of the great wheel (16) (a previous experience has taught me so !! 😩 )

 

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Flip the movement over and from here on I'm using a Bergeon 4040 movement holder.

 

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First the removal of the Hammer-spring (45). When removing this spring I had up till now difficulties avoiding making a small mark in the Automatic device bridge (44). It was our WRT-member "Nickelsilver" who tipped me off using a piece of Scott tape over the edge of the bridge. This worked very well and for the first time I was able to remove the hammer without leaving a mark!

Thanks Nickelsilver! 😉

 

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The hammer-spring (45) and the Clutch-spring (47) removed.

 

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Remove the Auto device bridge (44).

 

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Removal of the Reversing wheel; (43), Reduction wheel (41), the Clutch (40), Oscillating pinion (39), the Hammer (42), Chronograph wheel (37), Minute-counting wheel (38), Minute-counting jumper (46), the Lock (33), the Operating-lever (36) and the Minute counting driving wheel (19).

 

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Removal of the Chronograph bridge (34), the Friction spring (32) and the Operating lever spring (35).

 

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After the removal of the Ratchet wheel driving wheel (33) it's time to release any residual power in the main-spring. This can be done by holding the crown, lift the Click-spring (20) and slowly release the tension by letting the crown slip through your fingers.

 

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Removal of the Chronograph cam (29), Cam jumper (28), Detent (30), Ratchet wheel (23), Crown wheel core (22) and Crown wheel (21).

 

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Removal of the Balance Assembly (26+27), Pallet bridge (25) and Pallet fork (24).

 

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Removal of the Barrel bridge (18).

 

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Removal of the power-train; the Great wheel (16), Third wheel (15), Second wheel (14), Escape wheel (13), the Movement barrel (12) and the Stop lever (17).

 

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Flip the movement over for disassembling the keyless works.

 

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Removal of the Setting lever jumper (11) together with the Intermediate setting wheel (10), the Time setting gear (9), Rocking bar (8), Yoke (6), Setting lever (5), Winding stem (4), Winding pinion (2), Sliding pinion (3) and the Yoke spring (7).

 

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All the parts safely stored in a compartmentalized box with lid, ready for cleaning & demagnetizing.

 

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Regarding the "wear & tear" of all the watch-parts; it was clear to see that the watch hadn't seen a lot of use. The Oscillating weight ball-bearing (48) was good, reversing wheel (43) looked good etc. However, I decided to change out the main-spring.

This type of barrel has a lid which cannot be "pushed" open.

To open the lid, I place a sharp knife in the groove between the barrel and the lid and while pressing down on the knife roll the barrel, in my case on a "soft" leather underground to avoid doing any damage. This widens the groove into a small gap and with the smallest screwdriver one can pry, going around the barrel, the lid off. When done carefully you won't leave any marks.

 

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Barrel & Arbor cleaned, braking-grease applied ready for the new spring.

 

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Apart from a few (see "technical communication" !) the parts were soaked for 24hrs in Zippo lighter fluid and pegged; all the sprockets, pivots and jewels.

Thereafter all the parts were checked for magnetism.

Instead of using the unreliable compass method, I'm using an App called "Lepsi" on my iPhone. This App doesn't tell you how much magnetism there is, it only indicates whether there is any. The distance of the object above the screen, by which magnetism is detected, gives you some indication of the strength of the magnetic field, but nothing more. For me, when magnetism is detected, that's enough reason to "Zap" that part on my no-nonsense self-build demagnetizer. Of course, in reality the demagnetizer is not placed anywhere near my iPhone or the other watch-parts / metal-objects like here on the photo. Also, it may be a good idea to take your watch off during the "zapping” operations!

Quite a few parts, particularly in the calendar works, were magnetized.

 

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With the main-plate anti-shock Chaton cleaned, pegged, cap-stone oiled and re-installed in the main-plate (1), the assembly of the 7751 can begin.

Escape wheel (13), Second-wheel (14), Third-wheel (15), Main-spring barrel (12), Great-wheel (16) and Stop-lever (17).

 

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Installation of the barrel-bridge (18) (by a 7750 the wheel-train the and barrel-bridge are combined in one bridge). Make sure that all the wheels turn fine before tightening the screws; check, check and double check. Again, if you using the re-installed screws method, some screws may protrude the bridge. (I took the "warning picture" below a little later, so don't look at any additional installed parts)

All the Lubrications as per the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication".

 

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These two re-installed screws do protrude the Barrel bridge (18). The one on the left will touch the Great-wheel (16) and the one to the right may just touch the main-spring barrel (12). Back them out far enough so they don't cause any trouble.

 

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The installation of the Crown-wheel (21), Crown-wheel core (22) and the Ratchet-wheel (23).

 

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With the movement turned over, installation of the keyless works; Sliding-pinion (3), Winding pinion (2), Winding-stem (4), Setting-lever (5), Yoke-spring (7), Rocking-bar (8), Yoke (6) and placing of the Time setting gear (9) before placing the Intermediate setting wheel (10) and Setting lever jumper (11) as a "combination".

 

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Keyless work completed. Check for proper working!

 

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Installed the pallet-fork (24) and the complete balance assembly (26 & 27). Cleaned, pegged the balance Chaton and oiled the cap-stone.

 

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Before going any further with the assembling, I tested the power-train and escapement for any irregularities. On the timegrapher the readings were looking a whole lot better than initially.

Instead of picturing each position, here are the readings;

DU & DD both 292-294 degrees, 0 ms and 0 s/d.

CU: 244, 0.1, -14 s/d

CR: 249, 0.2, -16 s/d

CD: 252, 0.1, -6s/d

CL: 262, 0.0, -5 s/d

Even though I adjusted the Etachron as good as I could, that's to say centring the hairspring between the two regulator pins and thereafter reducing the regulator pins gap to the point that the hairspring could still, but just "breath", the positional deviation with max. 16 seconds is slightly higher than I was hoping for. Then again, it's not a chronometer grade and each position produced straight lines, so I think that with some daily-rate adjustments the watch will run just fine.

 

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Once satisfied with the running of the power-train and the escapement, the assembly of the chronograph can start.

Cam jumper (28), Chronograph cam (29), Detent (30), Minute counter driving wheel 30 minutes (19), Lock (33), Operating lever spring (35) and the Operating lever (36). As said; lubrication as per "Technical Communication" and test the proper function of the start/stop and reset levers.

 

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Placement of the Ratchet wheel driving wheel (31) and the Friction spring chronograph wheel (32).

 

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Install the chronograph bridge (34); don't forget the lubricate the Reversing wheel jewel on the bottom of the chronograph bridge before placement. Also pay attention to the reset-lever, it has to be pushed in so the bridge can sit level & flush. Check the working of the Ratchet driving wheel (31) and the reset lever before tightening the bridge screws.

 

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The placement of a well lubricated Reduction wheel (41), Minute counter jumper (46), Oscillation pinion (39, biggest sprocket down), seconds recording Chronograph wheel (37), Minute counting wheel (38), the Clutch (40), make sure that the oscillation pinion pivot is engaged), Reversing wheel (43) and finally the Hammer (42) before the Automatic device bridge (44).

 

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Before installing the Automatic device bridge (44), lubricate the jewel for the seconds recording Chronograph wheel underneath the bridge.

The installation of the Automatic device bridge can be very tricky. It's very easy to touch the Clutch (40) and the pivot of the Oscillation pinion comes out. Before inserting or tightening the bridge screws, double-check the placing and working of every component!!

Once the bridge is installed and with the relevant lubrication done, before mounting the hammer-spring (45) and the Clutch-spring (47), all the functions of the chronograph can be checked & tested; the engagement of the oscillation pinion, the smooth running of the seconds recording chronograph wheel, the advancing of the minute counting wheel, the start/stop- and reset-levers etc.

 

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Next is the installment of the Hammer-spring (45) and Clutch-spring (47). To prevent scratches on the Automatic device bridge (44), as per brilliant idea of WRT member "Nickelsilver", a piece of Scotts tape was taped over the edge of the bridge.

 

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With the installment of those two springs, the assembly of the chronograph is completed 🙂

 

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Movement flipped over and placed in the 775x movement holder.

 

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Installment of a well lubricated Driving pinion (49), The Cannon-pinion (50), the Minute wheel (51), Hour counting wheel (52), Set hour operating lever (53+54), Hour counter lock (55) the Hammer spring (56), the Day corrector spring (57) and the Day corrector (58).

The build-up, up till the Day corrector spring (57) and the Day corrector (58), was identical as to a standard 7750.

 

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The Hour wheel 24hrs (59) drops over the Second wheel (14) pivot.

Attention: Sadly, no picture but when installing the Hour wheel (60) over the Cannon pinion, one has to lift the Minute wheel (51) slightly and to make sure that the hour wheel teeth do engage in the small minute wheel sprocket. Once they engage, both wheels can be lowered in place.

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Finally, before installing the Calendar platform (62) the Calendar driving wheel (61) with the "day finger" pointing as shown. From here on I pulled the winding stem to stop the running of the movement and thereby avoiding the advancement / altering of the positions of the wheels.

 

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The installation of the Calendar platform (62) can be a bit tricky. It's all too easy to dislodge the hour lever (53) and the Hammer spring (56). Make sure that the platform sits flush with the Main plate (1) before tightening the 3x screws. Place the Day star (63) as shown in both above pictures.

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Placing of Date + Month jumper (70), the Day + Month jumper (74) (Both jumpers are identical), Day jumper (72), Moon phase yoke (73), Day jumper spring (71), Date corrector (65), Corrector maintaining small plate (66), Moon phase corrector (68), Moon phase jumper (69) and Moon phase jumper spring (67).

 

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Installation of the Moon phase platform (75), the Combined maintaining plate (76) (Be aware that the top of the Combined maintaining plate slides in the gap of the Day Star) and the placing of the Month star driving wheel (77).

 

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Placing the Month & Day indicator disk (78) and the Moon phase indicator (79).

 

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Adjusting the Phase corrector eccentric (64) wasn't that hard as I feared. By adjusting the eccentric one determines the "depth" of the Date corrector (65), shown by the blue arrows. Set too high and the top-sprocket of the Date corrector (65) won't even touch the Moon phase corrector (68). Set too deep the top-sprocket of the Date corrector will jam the Moon phase corrector (68) into the Moon phase indicator. The "depth" has to set such that the sprocket of the Date corrector (65) pushes the Moon phase corrector (68) just far enough so that it will just advance the Moon phase indicator by one click before the top Date corrector (65) sprocket releases the Moon phase corrector (68).

There is clear information about the Moon phase corrector "depth" setting in the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication".

 

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With all parts installed and tested as far as possible, the dial goes back on.

 

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Before re-installing the hands, I re-lumed the minute & hour hand with new high-class LumiNova.

 

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Both hands now re-lumed and drying before the installation.

 

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Placing the long Date indicator hand required a bigger size hand-pusher which I didn't have. The idea was born to cut a tweezer protector-cap from the top until the required size was obtained.

 

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Stuck to protector cap onto the handle of a diamond file for more stability / pushing-power. It worked like a treat 🙂

 

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Turn the date quick-set until the month indicator disk changes month, that will be the first (1) day of the new month. The rest of the hands (8! in total) to be set at 24:00 midnight when the day indicator disk changes. Detailed instructions about the "shift tolerances" are described in the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication".

 

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All the hands installed and correctly set on the month / day / date and moon phase. The 18th of January 2022 had a full moon.

The German gentleman received the watch when he turned 60 in 1995, now I'll continue with his watch as from my (65th 🤭) birthday in January 2022 😉

I'm still awaiting new crystals and once the case has been restored, I'll add the final picture of the fully restored/serviced watch.

I really enjoyed working on this watch and even though I sometimes feel that contributing to this current WRT-forum has sadly become a bit of wasted time, I do hope that my write-up, perhaps found via Google or some other search machine, will be of some use to somebody, at some point in time 🙂

Endeavor, Denmark 😉

 

 

Edited by Endeavor
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  • Endeavor changed the title to Full service; Valjoux / ETA 7751 Triple calendar Moon-phase.
On 1/21/2022 at 12:50 PM, Endeavor said:

Valjoux / ETA 7751 Triple calendar moon-phase;

This gold-plated Berney-Blondeau S.A. with an ETA 7751 belonged to a German gentleman who received it new on his 60th birthday in 1995. Through the years he kept the original box, the warranty card as well as the 1995 price-list and the dealer’s business card. He has worn the watch only on social accessions and the watch spent most of its time stored in a "Panzerschrank". According to the original price-list, the 1995 purchase price was 1450 CHF.

As you can see, the watch held up pretty well, only a few small scratches in the front- and rear mineral-glass crystal and on the top of the lugs some of the gold-plating has worn through. The watch ran, all function did work. It had never been serviced nor opened 😉

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Disclaimer;

This walk-through is written in the way I do it. That's not to say it's the most correct way of doing things but as they say: there are many ways to Rome, all leading to the same result. Neither do I, as a hobbyist, have fancy horological equipment such as a cleaning machine or a "sterile" & "dust-free" room and therefor the end result will not be "Rolex"-standards. All I can say is that I'm always give it my best shot and I will mention problems encountered or were I went wrong, so you don't have to 😉

Without any further ado, let's dig into this beautiful & complicated watch ......

First make sure that you downloaded the latest ETA 7751 "Technical Communication". Throughout this walk-through I'll use the same parts reference numbers as used in the "Technical Communication". Below the currently latest September 2021 version;

7751 manual.pdf 10.65 MB · 0 downloads

Before having done anything to the watch, I tested all the functions for proper working and took the timegrapher readings to see if there was anything which needed special attention. These readings can later be compared with the readings after the service.

Dial-Up;

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Dial-Down;

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Crown-Right;

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Crown-Down;

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Crown-Left;

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Crown-Up;

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From the readings, it's clear to see that the watch needed a proper service.

 

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The back-lid, just like the front-crystals found on pocket-watches, required a knife-type case-opener. Checked out the oscillating weight ball-bearing, it had next to no play and therefor good for another round. Removed the oscillating weight (48). Removed the two casing-screws and clamps, pulled the stem and flipped the case over onto a soft pillow.

 

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With the watch-case removed, the winding stem re-inserted and the movement was placed in a proper 7750 (or family) movement-holder.

To me, working on these movements a proper movement-holder is paramount. During the disassembly of the movement I encountered some problems and without this holder I most likely would have made scratches or worse.....

 

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Pulling the 8x hands; they all came off without any problems.

 

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All the hands safely nicely stored in a small plastic container.

 

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The same counts for the dial, after the removal directly stored in a plastic container with on both sides of the dial a soft lining.

 

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Removal of the Day & Month indicator disk (78) and the Moon phase indicator (79)

The keen observer may have noticed that there are no screws next to the movement holder, for example the two screws holding the Day & Month indicator respectively.

When working on complicated movements or movements which I'm not familiar with, I took on the habit, when possible, to replace the screws in the same hole as they came from. For sure, it's more work, but some movements do have multiple types/sizes screws and it will become a big puzzle if you store them in the same container / basket.

Replacing the screws works (most of the time) very well for me, but in some cases the replaced screws shoulder-out deeper than as they would have done when holding the part above. The protruding screw may touch parts below or when replacing bridges, prevent the bridge from not seating fully "level". To me, replacing the screws thoughtfully is far simpler than facing a huge sorting puzzle later.

 

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Removal of the combined maintaining plate (76) and the Month star driving wheel (77).

The three tiny screws holding the maintaining plate (76) were extremely tight. I couldn't loosen them with my standard (new) screwdriver bits so I had to grind the screwdriver bit to match the exact the same shape as the screw-grooves. Only then, with "force", they came loose and I was glad for having a proper movement-support! One slip of the screwdriver, with the force that was required, could / would have easily made a deep score in the plate or worse ........

 

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Removal of the Day jumper spring (71), Day & Month jumper (70), Day jumper (72) and the Moon phase yoke (73) plus an early warning ! 😉

 

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With those parts out of the way, the Moon phase platform (75) had to come off. Assuming that the with the arrow highlighted screw was one of the screws holding the platform down, I turned the screw only to discover that it was the moon-phase corrector eccentric ....... Oops !!

The setting of the eccentric has to be checked at the end anyway, but now I know for sure that it's set wrongly.

 

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Removal of the Moon phase jumper (69), Corrector maintaining small plate (66) and the Moon phase jumper spring (67). Still in the picture the Date & Month jumper (74) which should have been removed before this picture was taken.

 

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The original stem was replaced by a longer stem to adjust the Calendar driving wheel (61) which was holding the Date-star (63) down.

 

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Removal of the Date-star (63, shown in the previous picture) together with the Date-corrector (65) and the corrector maintaining small plate (66).

 

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Removal of the calendar platform (62). Slowly back to familiar ground; a standard ETA 7750 starts to appear ... 🙂

 

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Removal of the Hour wheel 24hrs H1 (59), the Calendar driving wheel (61), the Hour-wheel (60), the Day corrector (58) and the Day corrector spring (57).

 

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The removal of the Hammer-spring (56), Set hour-hammer operating lever (53 & 54), Hour counter lock (55), Hour counting wheel (52), Minute-wheel (51) and the free Cannon pinion (50).

 

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Pulling of the Driving pinion (49) has to be done carefully; either with a pair of hand-levers or two small screw-drivers. The upwards force on either side of the pinion has to the equal or you may break the pinion of the great wheel (16) (a previous experience has taught me so !! 😩 )

 

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Flip the movement over and from here on I'm using a Bergeon 4040 movement holder.

 

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First the removal of the Hammer-spring (45). When removing this spring I had up till now difficulties avoiding making a small mark in the Automatic device bridge (44). It was our WRT-member "Nickelsilver" who tipped me off using a piece of Scott tape over the edge of the bridge. This worked very well and for the first time I was able to remove the hammer without leaving a mark!

Thanks Nickelsilver! 😉

 

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The hammer-spring (45) and the Clutch-spring (47) removed.

 

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Remove the Auto device bridge (44).

 

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Removal of the Reversing wheel; (43), Reduction wheel (41), the Clutch (40), Oscillating pinion (39), the Hammer (42), Chronograph wheel (37), Minute-counting wheel (38), Minute-counting jumper (46), the Lock (33), the Operating-lever (36) and the Minute counting driving wheel (19).

 

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Removal of the Chronograph bridge (34), the Friction spring (32) and the Operating lever spring (35).

 

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After the removal of the Ratchet wheel driving wheel (33) it's time to release any residual power in the main-spring. This can be done by holding the crown, lift the Click-spring (20) and slowly release the tension by letting the crown slip through your fingers.

 

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Removal of the Chronograph cam (29), Cam jumper (28), Detent (30), Ratchet wheel (23), Crown wheel core (22) and Crown wheel (21).

 

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Removal of the Balance Assembly (26+27), Pallet bridge (25) and Pallet fork (24).

 

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Removal of the Barrel bridge (18).

 

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Removal of the power-train; the Great wheel (16), Third wheel (15), Second wheel (14), Escape wheel (13), the Movement barrel (12) and the Stop lever (17).

 

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Flip the movement over for disassembling the keyless works.

 

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Removal of the Setting lever jumper (11) together with the Intermediate setting wheel (10), the Time setting gear (9), Rocking bar (8), Yoke (6), Setting lever (5), Winding stem (4), Winding pinion (2), Sliding pinion (3) and the Yoke spring (7).

 

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All the parts safely stored in a compartmentalized box with lid, ready for cleaning & demagnetizing.

 

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Regarding the "wear & tear" of all the watch-parts; it was clear to see that the watch hadn't seen a lot of use. The Oscillating weight ball-bearing (48) was good, reversing wheel (43) looked good etc. However, I decided to change out the main-spring.

This type of barrel has a lid which cannot be "pushed" open.

To open the lid, I place a sharp knife in the groove between the barrel and the lid and while pressing down on the knife roll the barrel, in my case on a "soft" leather underground to avoid doing any damage. This widens the groove into a small gap and with the smallest screwdriver one can pry, going around the barrel, the lid off. When done carefully you won't leave any marks.

 

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Barrel & Arbor cleaned, braking-grease applied ready for the new spring.

 

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Apart from a few (see "technical communication" !) the parts were soaked for 24hrs in Zippo lighter fluid and pegged; all the sprockets, pivots and jewels.

Thereafter all the parts were checked for magnetism.

Instead of using the unreliable compass method, I'm using an App called "Lepsi" on my iPhone. This App doesn't tell you how much magnetism there is, it only indicates whether there is any. The distance of the object above the screen, by which magnetism is detected, gives you some indication of the strength of the magnetic field, but nothing more. For me, when magnetism is detected, that's enough reason to "Zap" that part on my no-nonsense self-build demagnetizer. Of course, in reality the demagnetizer is not placed anywhere near my iPhone or the other watch-parts / metal-objects like here on the photo. Also, it may be a good idea to take your watch off during the "zapping” operations!

Quite a few parts, particularly in the calendar works, were magnetized.

 

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With the main-plate anti-shock Chaton cleaned, pegged, cap-stone oiled and re-installed in the main-plate (1), the assembly of the 7751 can begin.

Escape wheel (13), Second-wheel (14), Third-wheel (15), Main-spring barrel (12), Great-wheel (16) and Stop-lever (17).

 

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Installation of the barrel-bridge (18) (by a 7750 the wheel-train the and barrel-bridge are combined in one bridge). Make sure that all the wheels turn fine before tightening the screws; check, check and double check. Again, if you using the re-installed screws method, some screws may protrude the bridge. (I took the "warning picture" below a little later, so don't look at any additional installed parts)

All the Lubrications as per the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication".

 

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These two re-installed screws do protrude the Barrel bridge (18). The one on the left will touch the Great-wheel (16) and the one to the right may just touch the main-spring barrel (12). Back them out far enough so they don't cause any trouble.

 

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The installation of the Crown-wheel (21), Crown-wheel core (22) and the Ratchet-wheel (23).

 

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With the movement turned over, installation of the keyless works; Sliding-pinion (3), Winding pinion (2), Winding-stem (4), Setting-lever (5), Yoke-spring (7), Rocking-bar (8), Yoke (6) and placing of the Time setting gear (9) before placing the Intermediate setting wheel (10) and Setting lever jumper (11) as a "combination".

 

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Keyless work completed. Check for proper working!

 

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Installed the pallet-fork (24) and the complete balance assembly (26 & 27). Cleaned, pegged the balance Chaton and oiled the cap-stone.

 

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Before going any further with the assembling, I tested the power-train and escapement for any irregularities. On the timegrapher the readings were looking a whole lot better than initially.

Instead of picturing each position, here are the readings;

DU & DD both 292-294 degrees, 0 ms and 0 s/d.

CU: 244, 0.1, -14 s/d

CR: 249, 0.2, -16 s/d

CD: 252, 0.1, -6s/d

CL: 262, 0.0, -5 s/d

Even though I adjusted the Etachron as good as I could, that's to say centring the hairspring between the two regulator pins and thereafter reducing the regulator pins gap to the point that the hairspring could still, but just "breath", the positional deviation with max. 16 seconds is slightly higher than I was hoping for. Then again, it's not a chronometer grade and each position produced straight lines, so I think that with some daily-rate adjustments the watch will run just fine.

 

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Once satisfied with the running of the power-train and the escapement, the assembly of the chronograph can start.

Cam jumper (28), Chronograph cam (29), Detent (30), Minute counter driving wheel 30 minutes (19), Lock (33), Operating lever spring (35) and the Operating lever (36). As said; lubrication as per "Technical Communication" and test the proper function of the start/stop and reset levers.

 

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Placement of the Ratchet wheel driving wheel (31) and the Friction spring chronograph wheel (32).

 

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Install the chronograph bridge (34); don't forget the lubricate the Reversing wheel jewel on the bottom of the chronograph bridge before placement. Also pay attention to the reset-lever, it has to be pushed in so the bridge can sit level & flush. Check the working of the Ratchet driving wheel (31) and the reset lever before tightening the bridge screws.

 

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The placement of a well lubricated Reduction wheel (41), Minute counter jumper (46), Oscillation pinion (39, biggest sprocket down), seconds recording Chronograph wheel (37), Minute counting wheel (38), the Clutch (40), make sure that the oscillation pinion pivot is engaged), Reversing wheel (43) and finally the Hammer (42) before the Automatic device bridge (44).

 

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Before installing the Automatic device bridge (44), lubricate the jewel for the seconds recording Chronograph wheel underneath the bridge.

The installation of the Automatic device bridge can be very tricky. It's very easy to touch the Clutch (40) and the pivot of the Oscillation pinion comes out. Before inserting or tightening the bridge screws, double-check the placing and working of every component!!

Once the bridge is installed and with the relevant lubrication done, before mounting the hammer-spring (45) and the Clutch-spring (47), all the functions of the chronograph can be checked & tested; the engagement of the oscillation pinion, the smooth running of the seconds recording chronograph wheel, the advancing of the minute counting wheel, the start/stop- and reset-levers etc.

 

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Next is the installment of the Hammer-spring (45) and Clutch-spring (47). To prevent scratches on the Automatic device bridge (44), as per brilliant idea of WRT member "Nickelsilver", a piece of Scotts tape was taped over the edge of the bridge.

 

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With the installment of those two springs, the assembly of the chronograph is completed 🙂

 

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Movement flipped over and placed in the 775x movement holder.

 

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Installment of a well lubricated Driving pinion (49), The Cannon-pinion (50), the Minute wheel (51), Hour counting wheel (52), Set hour operating lever (53+54), Hour counter lock (55) the Hammer spring (56), the Day corrector spring (57) and the Day corrector (58).

The build-up, up till the Day corrector spring (57) and the Day corrector (58), was identical as to a standard 7750.

 

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The Hour wheel 24hrs (59) drops over the Second wheel (14) pivot.

Attention: Sadly, no picture but when installing the Hour wheel (60) over the Cannon pinion, one has to lift the Minute wheel (51) slightly and to make sure that the hour wheel teeth do engage in the small minute wheel sprocket. Once they engage, both wheels can be lowered in place.

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Finally, before installing the Calendar platform (62) the Calendar driving wheel (61) with the "day finger" pointing as shown. From here on I pulled the winding stem to stop the running of the movement and thereby avoiding the advancement / altering of the positions of the wheels.

 

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The installation of the Calendar platform (62) can be a bit tricky. It's all too easy to dislodge the hour lever (53) and the Hammer spring (56). Make sure that the platform sits flush with the Main plate (1) before tightening the 3x screws. Place the Day star (63) as shown in both above pictures.

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Placing of Date + Month jumper (70), the Day + Month jumper (74) (Both jumpers are identical), Day jumper (72), Moon phase yoke (73), Day jumper spring (71), Date corrector (65), Corrector maintaining small plate (66), Moon phase corrector (68), Moon phase jumper (69) and Moon phase jumper spring (67).

 

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Installation of the Moon phase platform (75), the Combined maintaining plate (76) (Be aware that the top of the Combined maintaining plate slides in the gap of the Day Star) and the placing of the Month star driving wheel (77).

 

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Placing the Month & Day indicator disk (78) and the Moon phase indicator (79).

 

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Adjusting the Phase corrector eccentric (64) wasn't that hard as I feared. By adjusting the eccentric one determines the "depth" of the Date corrector (65), shown by the blue arrows. Set too high and the top-sprocket of the Date corrector (65) won't even touch the Moon phase corrector (68). Set too deep the top-sprocket of the Date corrector will jam the Moon phase corrector (68) into the Moon phase indicator. The "depth" has to set such that the sprocket of the Date corrector (65) pushes the Moon phase corrector (68) just far enough so that it will just advance the Moon phase indicator by one click before the top Date corrector (65) sprocket releases the Moon phase corrector (68).

There is clear information about the Moon phase corrector "depth" setting in the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication".

 

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With all parts installed and tested as far as possible, the dial goes back on.

 

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Before re-installing the hands, I re-lumed the minute & hour hand with new high-class LumiNova.

 

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Both hands now re-lumed and drying before the installation.

 

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Placing the long Date indicator hand required a bigger size hand-pusher which I didn't have. The idea was born to cut a tweezer protector-cap from the top until the required size was obtained.

 

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Stuck to protector cap onto the handle of a diamond file for more stability / pushing-power. It worked like a treat 🙂

 

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Turn the date quick-set until the month indicator disk changes month, that will be the first (1) day of the new month. The rest of the hands (8! in total) to be set at 24:00 midnight when the day indicator disk changes. Detailed instructions about the "shift tolerances" are described in the ETA 7751 "Technical Communication".

 

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All the hands installed and correctly set on the month / day / date and moon phase. The 18th of January 2022 had a full moon.

The German gentleman received the watch when he turned 60 in 1995, now I'll continue with his watch as from my (65th 🤭) birthday in January 2022 😉

I'm still awaiting new crystals and once the case has been restored, I'll add the final picture of the fully restored/serviced watch.

I really enjoyed working on this watch and even though I sometimes feel that contributing to this current WRT-forum has sadly become a bit of wasted time, I do hope that my write-up, perhaps found via Google or some other search machine, will be of some use to somebody, at some point in time 🙂

Endeavor, Denmark 😉

 

 

Great walk through! Very detailed. Thanks

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On 1/21/2022 at 12:50 PM, Endeavor said:

Valjoux / ETA 7751 Triple calendar moon-phase;

Thereafter all the parts were checked for magnetism.

Instead of using the unreliable compass method, I'm using an App called "Lepsi" on my iPhone.

Magnetism.
Why is the compass unreliable? Mine is the jewelled model sapphire on hardened steel point and seems to work very well.
I’ve just tested the compass on my Samsung phone and the compass detected magnetism from the phone so I’m not sure that I’d want to use the phone to detect magnetism.
I’m not against new methods and I don’t know anything about the app so don’t take me wrong, I’m not saying the phone is a bad method. I can only speak about my phone that is definitely magnetic and I would like to hear yours and other’s opinions.

P.S. Lighter fluid.
Modern lighter fuel is contaminated with a small amount of oil, making lighter fuel a very poor degreaser. Very small particles of oil will be left on any part that you try and clean when using this substance. If you apply oil to the surface of anything that has been washed in lighter fuel, the oil will spread.

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Quote:

"I really enjoyed working on this watch and even though I sometimes feel that contributing to this current WRT-forum has sadly become a bit of wasted time, I do hope that my write-up, perhaps found via Google or some other search machine, will be of some use to somebody, at some point in time"

I have been following WRT since its inception, but only recently contributing. Unfortunatly you have seen, as I have noticed, the lowering standard of many posts. But I have thoroughly enjoyed and profited from your excellent walkthrough - as good as it was in the old days.

Incidentally another loss is the full set of Mark's early Youtube smoothly spoken and presented watch walkthroughs such as the Breitling Bentley. This may be the fault of Youtube ... or my finger truble?

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55 minutes ago, Jack75 said:

Quote:

"I really enjoyed working on this watch and even though I sometimes feel that contributing to this current WRT-forum has sadly become a bit of wasted time, I do hope that my write-up, perhaps found via Google or some other search machine, will be of some use to somebody, at some point in time"

I have been following WRT since its inception, but only recently contributing. Unfortunatly you have seen, as I have noticed, the lowering standard of many posts. But I have thoroughly enjoyed and profited from your excellent walkthrough - as good as it was in the old days.

Incidentally another loss is the full set of Mark's early Youtube smoothly spoken and presented watch walkthroughs such as the Breitling Bentley. This may be the fault of Youtube ... or my finger truble?

Maybe some of the longer standing members are transitioning from amateurs into unpaid experts? What doesn't interest them any more might be of vital importance to those just starting out. 

The walk-through is excellent it will be of great use to many budding watchmakers, maybe some professionals too?! 

If there are posts that don't interest you, don't read them. No need to diminish others who aren't up to your level. 

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"If there are posts that don't interest you, don't read them. No need to diminish others who aren't up to your level."

Thanks, I can work that one out myself. No diminishment, I  was just going along with Endeavour's comment.

But gratitude  for finding the Bentley Youtube. It is Youtube that, for me, have messed up the original layout of Mark's early set of videos. But they have also done that for Elvis an many others.

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14 hours ago, Plato said:

The walk-through is excellent it will be of great use to many budding watchmakers, maybe some professionals too?! 

The problem or one of the problems on the group is does it exist on the group? Often times people either don't look or can't find it and we get the same question over and over and over again. Then I don't really see an easy solution for this I know that sometimes I will try to go back and find something because I know we discussed it in the past but I can't find itself I can't find it how would some newbie find it.

Fortunately like this particular walk through it has a proper title it reflects what it's about and it's really is an excellent walk-through

Then there's the other problem how do we know if anyone liked the walk-through at all? Seeing as how it could be years before someone needs the information you won't get an acknowledgment for years and then a lot of times people never give you a we liked what you did they just don't take the time or bother. Not uncommon to the world look at YouTube you'll see a video with all these views and practically no likes because just nobody took the time to give a thumbs up.

 

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49 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

The problem or one of the problems on the group is does it exist on the group? Often times people either don't look or can't find it and we get the same question over and over and over again. Then I don't really see an easy solution for this I know that sometimes I will try to go back and find something because I know we discussed it in the past but I can't find itself I can't find it how would some newbie find it.

Good point. There is a thread in the general discussion area talking about making a database with this kind of detail easily searched. Huge project...prolly never happen.

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