ZTZA movement from Harbin

suomaf · July 21, 2022

So being Cheap, I have been looking for ways to practice but not spend too much money on watches. I went down the route of looking for Watch lots from ebay where you get kilos of watches. I had also looked into getting watches from India where they seem unbelievably cheap. Eventually I found out that they sold vintage watches from China at stupid prices. This particular piece is one of 4 that I got from taobao. It comes from a place in the north of the country called Harbin. The brand is Beijiang? I believe it translates to Mighty river in the north. It has got 17 jewels and runs at a respectable 21600 and is part of the Chinese standard movement phase of their horological history. The kicker is I paid 150 RMB for this and it works out to be USD 22.

This is the only one out of the 4 that had immediate issues. I took some photos and then promptly took it apart.

The previous guy that has been in here used Dial dots? or double sided tape which I guess no longer works and so the dial moves.

It is a mechanical and hand wind only. The bands were tough to take out, they seemed to be soldered in there so I snipped them off with a pair of pliers. I have an issue that I will have to sort out where part of the spring pin decided to stay in the hole and refuse to come out.

Over all the movement is working and relatively clean as I am guessing it dates back to 70s, there were some stripped screws and holes to deal with and a lot of old oil and grease. This was exactly what this USD 20 bucks was for it learn how to take apart, examine, clean and put back together.

After some close calls with incabloc jewels and the spring. I am happy to say it got put back together nicely. Amplitude went up, beat error is still crap but regulated it and I am happy with the final product. Not sure what to do with it understand to look at it and give myself an attaboy.

Edited July 21, 2022 by suomaf
added photos