Enthusiast, Collector, Repairer

[oarieder]

Hi everyone.  I'm Adam from NY.  First of all, I have to thank Mark for helping me to work up the courage to do my first real repair about a year ago.  I mean, I geek out over his videos as crazy as that may sound.

 

We all have a watch 'journey'.  Mine started about 10 years ago as a fan of military-style watches which led me to the FIRST watch - a Seiko SNX425K - 7S26A.  This was followed by countless others.  It wasn't until a couple of years ago at a new job that I met someone who is not only a collector but an enthusiast who opened my eyes to a lot of the history.  Since then we've gone through several phases together in our collections:  Automatics, Mechanicals, Electronics, Tuning Forks, LED, LCD, Sapphire Crystals...(!)    We've spent almost a portion of every single work day, discussing watches to some extent - to the point where every morning we ask each other "what do you have on today?".   People around us just roll their eyes.  Of course a key enabler to all of this is Ebay.

 

It wasn't until a year or so ago that I started to see the potential in '4U2FIX' watches.  I thought to myself - "I can fix them an resell them - yeah!" (of course the selling rarely happens).  Since I'm a tinkerer in general, and I do my own repair of just about everything including Automotive, Electric, Plumbing, Carpentry, why not Watch Repair?   Slowly I filled my tackle box with the tools of the trade as I did a crystal removal here, a battery change, or a movement swap there.  It was time to do a real tear-down, clean, oil and timing job.  I had this crazy idea that I would specialize in bringing back ESA 9154 transistorized movements to life.   Well frankly I'm not a patient person and I can say that when I first started it was the absolute most frustrating endeavor I've ever gone through.  I killed at least two movements.  I wanted to cry.  I wanted to quit.  It was like a bad game of "Operation" trying to keep parts from pinging all over the place.    Eventually, I brought back one (YES!), then two...and the list goes on.  I think I got through that crucial first phase wiser for the wear - and I'm still repairing watches.

 

I always had questions that I was kind of afraid to ask, but I think it's time I joined the conversation.  Hopefully I can add a little something to this watch repair 'movement'. 

 

-A

[anilv]

Hi Adam,

 

Can you share what are the problem areas with these movements?  Do you actually repair the components? What is involved?

 

Thanks

Anil

[Geo]

Excellent introduction Adam, it's nice to get an insight into new members' background and level of skill. Your's is not too dissimilar to my own, as it was a work colleague that got me into watch collecting. Like a lot if us, you will have learned a lot from Mark's excellent videos.

I look forward to your future input from a technical perspective and general banter. :)

[WillFly]

Welcome, Adam, from another keen collector and amateur tinkerer.

 

Will

[oarieder]

@AnilV...

 

9154's ...  Elegant but 'fussy'.  Problems with biggest ones on top:

 

• Dirt.  The electronics give the balance a gentle push.  Cleanliness seems to be the biggest issue.  Cleaning the balance alone does help sometimes, but that's not a service.
• Battery placement, electrical shorting.  Sometimes just slightly torqueing or un-torqueing the battery holder screw will bring a movement back to life.  Sometimes it's as simple as the battery touching the case.
• Metal debris on the balance magnets.  Use sticky tape to remove this.
• Spring issues.  I've had a lot of problems with resetting the balance and getting the springs lay flat without touching the balance cock.  There's not a lot of room for error there and sometimes, the spring is bent to the point where you can't really correct it, unless you're a master watch maker.

 

As far as electronics,  I don't experience a lot of issues with these.  I have replacement capacitors, but the problems are usually related to something above and not the circuitry.

 

If you're going to repair electronic watches.  Get "The Electronic Watch Repair Manual" second edition (red one) by Henry Fried.

http://www.biblio.com/book/electric-watch-repair-manual-complete-manual/d/129350875

-A

[anilv]

thanks oarider.. will look out for the book.!