Hello From Atlanta; '50's Cinderella Watch conversion to quartz?

[HotRod4321]

Hey y'all! 

Hello from Atlanta!

Found your forum.  Quite interesting.  Maybe in another life time I would be a watch maker.  Greatly loved the biography "Longitude" which is the story of mankind learning how to tell time and longitude. 

My Great Uncle and Father had graceful hands and could work on jewelry and watches all day long.  Me?  Well, a sledgehammer is more my tool, ala my Paternal Grandfather!  Not sure why but I didn't inherit graceful hands! 

However, I do have a couple of mechanical Cinderella Watches that no longer work and while I was successful in getting one to work, I do have more grand-daughters who now want one for their own. 

I have a couple left and Ebay offers many to choose from, but rather than trying to take the mechanicals apart, I'd rather try and drop in a quartz movement and be done with it. 

Or am I merely an old guy with too wishful thinking? 

I am always hopeful that someone out there will have a solution for me. 

Thx in advance for any and all help.  Greatly appreciated! 

PS: Yes, I've already purchased them, one and all, including Wife with many current Disney options. The '50's option comes from my Wife whose Grandmother took her to Disneyland in the '50's and bought her a Cinderella watch there.  That one is the one time I forced patience on myself and my Wife can once again wear a working antique watch, albeit she would not like the word 'antique'.  Shhhhssssss....

[RichardHarris123]

Hello and welcome from England. 

[HotRod4321]

Thought I loaded these two pics also, but I don't see them so I'll upload them here. 

These are pictures of the mechanical movement front and back removed from the watch case.  

Thx in advance for anyone out their who might know how to figure out a quartz movement that I could use to replace the mechanical movement. 

 

[HectorLooi]

You can probably find something suitable from Miyota's wide range of movements.

You will need a generic movement spacer too. You will need to fit the spacer ring to the watch case by cutting and filing.

You might need a new set of hands too.

[Nucejoe]

Welcome to the WRT forum.

 

[watchweasol]

Hi you will need to measure the dimensions of the one you have (timex) and as Hector said find an appropriate movement. (Miyota) big selection, and movement spacer ring to fit.

[oldhippy]

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum.

We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement. 

[JerseyMo]

I will have say don't do it since you will likely have a more difficult time with the conversion as trying the basic dunk and swish service of the M22 movement.

 

 

 

[JohnR725]

On 4/21/2023 at 1:27 PM, HotRod4321 said:

I'd rather try and drop in a quartz movement and be done with it. 

at one time for a brief period of time this was a popular thing to do. Replacing mechanical wristwatch movements with a quartz movement. But drop in and be done with it doesn't quite in the description. You'll have to find a quartz movement of the right size and thickness so it fits into the case and thickness part is critical so that the stem aligns with the crown. Then the used to be the issue of the dial feet but that won't be an issue here because you don't have a dial feet the deal with. They also used to make a special not sure what it was was a two-part mix remix these two things together a to make movement rings to adapt the movement but I see somebody has some generic rings that you can file. so basically if you're looking at a drop in the easy replacement I don't think that's going to happen.

https://www.esslinger.com/watch-parts-refills-bestfit-movement-ring-pieces/

 

[Nucejoe]

I am with JerseyMo on this. 

 You will learn to service your watch if you stick around,  Jeresy answers any question you may have to fix it.

With a quartz movement the piece looses integrity.

 

[HectorLooi]

As much as I loath timepieces that have been defiled by converting to quartz, I think if the watch is meant for a child, a quartz makes sense.

I don't expect a child to adjust the time and wind the watch everyday. (Although that's what all of us older folks did when we received our first watch.)

[JerseyMo]

7 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

As much as I loath timepieces that have been defiled by converting to quartz, I think if the watch is meant for a child, a quartz makes sense.

I don't expect a child to adjust the time and wind the watch everyday. (Although that's what all of us older folks did when we received our first watch.)

Lets take the time keeping out of the equation first.  Why than would a child want to wear the watch?  I'll say two reasons, - one is because it is given as a gift. - second is becaue it has Cinderalla on the dial.   So why not just clean it up, give a good polish , add a nice strap and be done with it.