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Fellow Wrt! What Are You Repairing Currently?


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My first proper dismantle and repair on a £1.49 eBay NIXE6d05952f55df84d8e8e48bc53e3e8f23.jpg

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Good man! I'm with you on the £1.49 for your first watch service/repair. I'm afraid that NIXE has me stumped though. Google tells me nothing so what is it? An acronym?

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I'm at a loss too but have bought 26 mainsprings of different sizes for £4.99 and will attempt a repair. While waiting for the springs to arrive I had an attempt at reassembling - phew not easy - small adjustments to bearing assemblies can cause problems - Overbanking I think the term is - even slight pressure on the screw causes the mechanism to lock up - I will keep you posted [emoji6]

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I'm at a loss too but have bought 26 mainsprings of different sizes for £4.99 and will attempt a repair. While waiting for the springs to arrive I had an attempt at reassembling - phew not easy - small adjustments to bearing assemblies can cause problems - Overbanking I think the term is - even slight pressure on the screw causes the mechanism to lock up - I will keep you posted [emoji6]

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Don't you know the cal and number for the movement? Have you a m/spring gauge for thickness and strength and a measure for the barrel. I used to have I D books of movements  to look at but even sometimes I would need to send the movement away to get it identified. In the past I have seen such items on ebay. 

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I successfully put a new mainspring in and reassembled and tested with ratchet. I reassembled the drive train wheels and found that pallet wheel shaft appeared fractionally too short - I disassembled numerous times and reset the bridge and every time it came short and flopped around (excuse my terminology as I am new to horology) - I have come to the conclusion that the wheel is either incorrect or the bearings have worn - I am disappointed as I was on track for my first full repair - any suggestions please !

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Well its been a good while since i posted here, so many jobs this time of year i can't keep up lol.

 

After a great deal of patience i finally have the dial for my Tudor Oyster Princess exactly as i wanted it, so tonight will be a nice relaxed re assembly of the watch and finishing touches.

 

A reminder of how it was after water damage >

 

DSC02175_zps0hgqjbwa.jpg

 

And how it is now, all ready to be fitted again :)

 

DSC02401_zpsi97nv79o.jpg

 

 

Im more than happy with the result and the finished watch will hopefully work out well. Once i have finished working on it i will post a photo or two of the completed piece.

 

I do like my challenges :D

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Dial work was done by David Bill & Sons, very very good dial finishers and pricing that is fair.

 

I only use restoration where the dial is beyond usable ( as you can see above photos the original was bad ), i can do some dial work but this level i think is exceptional considering condition and prices. The movement was rusted through but now ticks away at +- 7s // 0.5ms, casing re polished by hand but not overly so.

 

Its a bit of a break from what i normally work on but when i saw it i thought.....hmm now there's a challenge. Casing seized shut , rusted broken movement, dial shot , glass cracked, and swimming in fluid, most leave well alone but im a silly sod and like to push my limits.

 

Thanks for the comments :) 

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I was browsing the bay and took a punt on this 1950's Gruen

 

gruen490ss_01.jpg

 

It's a bit of a strange one. The description said it was a caliber 490ss. I looked up that movement and found it was an automatic. Mine has no rotor. There is an empty place near the ratchet wheel where I would think a click would be, a click on the crown wheel and someone, somewhere in time had scratched Gruen 490 on the barrel bridge and scratched "Automatic" off the case back. So it seems it was converted to a hand winder at some point. Not so bad, I actually prefer hand winders.

 

gruen490ss_06.jpg

 

 

gruen490ss_05.jpg

 

 

490SS_01.jpg

 

gruen490ss_02.jpg

 

The inside of the case back is marked as 490ss

 

gruen490ss_03.jpg

 

I've not seen a pallet like this before

 

gruen490ss_04.jpg

 

It was listed as not running. The balance seems good. The mainspring is set but I've got an NOS spring on order. The watch doesn't set - canon pinion or something not obviously wrong with the keyless works? Hopefully I'll be able get it running. Then I'll have to figure out how to clean up the dial and hands.

 

I kind of like that it's different. It makes me wonder at its history.

 

Don

Edited by Don
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An interesting watch Don. The empty space beside the ratchet wheel would be for the gear and pinion of the auto mechanism. The click there and acts on the crown wheel. I've only once seen a pallet lever like that and it was fitted to an old pocket watch.

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I just finished to service my new HEMA with Landeron 248 movement, which I recently bought. The movement came in working fine, but upon inspection I found a lot of oil and debris of unknown nature, thus the decision of servicing it. This is how it looked, in the picture of the seller:

 

original.jpg

 

Removing the movement from the case, the sides of it was full of junk:

 

service_hema-6.jpg

 

The rest of the movement was in a fair condition, although submersed in oil:

 

service_hema-12.jpg

 

While all the parts were cleaning in the small ultrasonic machine, I manually cleaned the incabloc cap jewels:

 

service_hema-15.jpg

 

Even after cleaning the cap jewel, you can still notice some wear on it:

 

service_hema-24.jpg

 

A tiny drop of oil:

 

service_hema-26.jpg

 

And back it goes where it belongs:

 

service_hema-28.jpg

 

service_hema-29.jpg

 

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I took them with my mobile phone this time, the digital camera has dead batteries...

 

One last picture of the balance wheel:

 

service_hema-30.jpg

 

And after reinstalling everything properly (I hope...) Here it is at my wrist:

 

1.jpg

 

2.jpg

 

Still to do: change the glass... and find a proper leather band... I was wondering if I should change the dial, but I decided to leave it untouched: the patina tells its story very well!

 

Any comments are very wellcome!

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An interesting watch Don. The empty space beside the ratchet wheel would be for the gear and pinion of the auto mechanism. The click there and acts on the crown wheel. I've only once seen a pallet lever like that and it was fitted to an old pocket watch.

Thanks for the info Geo.
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Hi,

   Just to update on the clock I was working on I now have it finished an running. What my son-in-law thought was a grandfather clock turned out to be a grandmother clock. The wood for the case was cherry and all I did was put the case together and applied two coats of polyurethane, wanted to let the natural wood show through. I did have to adjust the hammers a bit but not much. Other than that all went well.

post-250-0-57463200-1437940932_thumb.jpg

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Some nice watches ( and clock ;) ) getting some love here on wrt.

 

Thanks for the compliment clockboy :)

 

Just finished another two repairs/services, both suffered with destroyed balances but both back in action.

 

Omega 1953 RAF / Calibre 283 ( Customer Job ) & Omega SeaMaster 1956 / Calibre 420 ( One of my own )

 

DSC02453_zps9mmyjm2z.jpg

DSC02454_zps2iq6yzg9.jpg

 

 

The Omega RAF had a nasty drop from quite a height which smashed the crown clean off and of course did not fair well for the balance too much either. The Seamaster was more of a disastermaster but after a good few weeks of graft i think she looks respectable again.

 

Now im awaiting a Breitling which needs some tlc , im quite looking forward to it as ive never owned one before and it would be nice to have at least one in my collection :)

 

 

The Hema chrono looks really good, i must get me a few scrappers to play with after seeing that little gem :)

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Thanks Geo, i wish it were mine but the RAF Omega belongs to another :(

 

Can't say why i love Omegas but i do.... :wub:  though id have to say JLC are also a massive favourite make me go all wobbly inside :D

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