Jump to content

Moving forward with tinkering with watches

rfitts46

By rfitts46
in Introduce Yourself Here

 Share

Recommended Posts

rfitts46 Member

rfitts46

Posted
Posted (edited)

Always had a fetish for the intricacy of a mechanical watch movement as a child. The oscillating balance wheel always amazed me.  My dad recently handed his 1965 Bulova Space View over to me. I knew enough not to tinker with that. That got sent to Rob Berkavicius Thailand for service, great job good price. Then he handed me his award watch from Allstate. That is a mid 70' s automatic with a Racine movement. This is the watch I will eventually disassemble, lubricate, and repair if necessary.

To get going purchased three mid 70's Timex's local FB market place. The first (1605002477) i resuscitated a M24 movement by removing the movement out of the back of the case and did some palpitations of the balance wheel to no avail. Then did some reading on the non-serviceable Timex design, watch smith nightmare, and did a dunk into my lacquer solvent  and went upstairs to lubricate. Still no beating from the balance wheel. Then used my CRC with lubricant and doused it a couple times and low and behold it came back to life. Felt like a heart surgeon watching the balance wheel oscillate.

Next patients was a 1975 Marlin day date watch (26850 02775) with the M27 movement. This one I assumed was fully wound and tried palpitating the balance wheel to no avail. This one had deep tooling marks in the end plate so it had been apart already. The mounting tangs on the dial face were all missing. Observed some tooling mark on the escape wheel and started to understand that the energy for the escape wheel comes from the wound mainspring.  Decided to bite the bullet on this one and disassemble. Should have solvent washed before hand but that wont happen again. Took a lot of close up images to help get it back together. But realized after splitting the end plates that the escape wheel and pallet tumbled around. I was aghast looking at the carnage and wondering how the hell this was ever going to go back together. Inspected the escape wheel damage and noted the damage did not extend to the opposite side of the ring, all teeth were present so it was ruled out as the culprit. I focused in on this small fragment stuck in the gear teeth of the mainspring cylinder and came to realize it was one of the missing dial face tangs that was not allowing the mainspring energy to feed the gear train. I did successfully get that watch back together and it is keeping good time. I will be attaching a couple dial face tangs using .010" brass shim and epoxy this weekend. The crystal has a 3/16" crack in it and needs polishing. When I went to determine availability of replacement crystal I am starting to think there is no duplicate of the OEM crystal configuration?  Looking at Esslinger they didnt seem to have or indicate that this crystal would be a direct replacement for this watch?

I purchased last night a Electro Vise crystal removal tool from Ebay. To get the crystal off without a remover we slit a piece of tube with a machined ID to fit the crystal using a hose clamp I was bale to compress the tube to get the crystal out of the case. 

Purchased 5 more Timex's off of Ebay last week they have been delivered. There is a 1964 Marlin and a 1965 Automatic in there. Happy about getting a couple of earlier ones. Any advice on how to remove the centrifugal weight wheel on the automatic? I took the back off of this morning. Will wait for my crystal removal tool to pull the crystal so I can get the movement out for inspection.

Edited by rfitts46
correct spelling
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • rfitts46 changed the title to Moving forward with tinkering with watches
  • 5 weeks later...
rfitts46 Member

rfitts46

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I have already taken a M27 apart. Not easy getting it back together but I did. 

I worked on the M24 the subject of this thread before the M27. 

This one I have not separated the end plates. Watch runs beautiful but it is fast. Approx 5-10 minutes in 24 hr period. 

Might remove the balance wheel for the second time to clean the hair spring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • watchweasol
      Without Our Forum

      By watchweasol · Posted

      Well Gentlemen and Ladies I think we should thank @Mark for his posts putting our minds to rest and the explanation of running the site which is done very well. As a resource for watch repairs for new and old I would rate it second to none, the casual banter and dissemination of information  top notch, let us ll enjoy working on here and helping others. Any one can PM me as Iam sure others as well if it has to off the “record” and Marks blessing on that.   We appreciate that Mark is a busy man and totally appreciate what he does for us all.    So from me THANK YOU MARK. from an old timer.
    • watchweasol
      Dial Dots

      By watchweasol · Posted

      Hi it depends on the watch. The ones with the day date complications  dial dots are not really any good as you have difficulty getting the clearance between day date wheels a the dial.  Dial feet can be fitted no problem, there are several options, the cheapest is to mill out where the foot is and glue a new foot on. ( available fron Cousins UK ) mterialhouse . Or solder on a new foot, only problem with that is you need great care not to mark the dial. I use a DIY. Dial foot machine works no problem.
    • Neverenoughwatches
      404 Club

      By Neverenoughwatches · Posted

      If everything is inside them, then once restored and keeping time the oris could be worth 20 -30 each, I've paid a lot more Oris date pointers in the past. Bought this last week for a quid at a carboot sale. A cute little Smiths made in England alarm clock. The alarm didn’t function properly because the movement wasn't fastened in. But it runs perfectly now, the previous made a bit of a mess of the dial but i still love it. For the Smiths lovers here's  a picture of the inside before i case it up again. Still with it the original Jewellers box.
    • watchweasol
      Seiko 7N22-7028 Movement Identification

      By watchweasol · Posted

      The canon  pinion height must match the one you are removing, the physical size of the movement if it’s the same as the one removed should fit ok. The bogey hole is the height  to maintain clearance from the crystal
    • Bonefixer
      Mainspring winder question.

      By Bonefixer · Posted

      I’ve come across this sort of problem. The Bergeon universal winders aren’t always universal.    Options are: Track down a movement specific winder Hand wind it Buy a new mainspring - probably the best option in my view.    I’ve been thinking how to invent a winder that uses the actual barrel arbor. Haven’t done it yet…
×
×
  • Create New...