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Posted

I found a box of watches at the back of my cupboard that I had totally forgotten about. In it was this Timex electromechanical quartz watch. It had a nice dial but everything else was about was cr*p.

I took off the caseback and found that someone had gotten into it before. The hairspring was mangled until it had an "overcoil". And the back must have been left open for some years as the was cockroach poop inside! 🤬

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As there has been recent interest in Timex Electrics, I thought I'd refamiliarize myself with them, to be able to give better advice.

Looks like I'll be busy for awhile.

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Posted

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After spending the evening straightening the hairspring, I tested the coil conductivity for another topic I had posted about and found that the coil was open! 🤬

I should have seen the scratch marks on the coils. It looks like someone gripped the balance wheel by the coils! The scratch is on both sides of the coil!

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Oh well.... Now I can go try silver conductive paint or run solder over the scratch and see if that works.

Posted
2 hours ago, JerseyMo said:

Yikes.... I would have tossed that one and moved on.  good luck

Haha. This is purely for practice. I've got another Timex Quartz that has a good balance but the motion works and calender works have corroded into a lump of rust. I'll probably combine the two and see if I get a working watch.

How's your cleaning machine coming along?

Posted
12 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

Haha. This is purely for practice. I've got another Timex Quartz that has a good balance but the motion works and calender works have corroded into a lump of rust. I'll probably combine the two and see if I get a working watch.

How's your cleaning machine coming along?

the machine is coming along fine.  I was able to test out the main motor and it runs in both directions.  Next task is to get to a local motor shop and see if they can help out with the motor on the auto-reversing gear box.

Posted

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Here is the completed watch. The watch movement works fine. I had to use a donor balance and hairspring. 

This is definitely not a movement for a newbie to attempt servicing. I would rate this as one of the most tricky movements I've worked on.

The watchcase, hands and crown are in pretty bad condition. I'll probably just keep this as a movement donor.

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