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Watch cleaning machine: What do I use a movement holder for?

MartinOfPrague
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MartinOfPrague Member

MartinOfPrague

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I recently purchased an old Elma cleaning machine and received an unexpected accessory with it, besides the basket. I found out it is a movement holder and I also have an approximate idea how it works. The question is, what am I supposed to fit into it? Just the mainplate? Bridges, too?

2024-02-07 19.54.04.jpg

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Waggy Distinguished Member

Waggy

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These are made so that you can clean the entire movement(s) in one go, without taking it apart first, this assumes that the dirt/oil/debris etc  cannot hide in any covered areas, and that you can access all areas after to lubricate etc.. personally speaking I don't think they are very useful for most members on this forum.

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

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18 hours ago, Waggy said:

These are made so that you can clean the entire movement(s) in one go, without taking it apart first, this assumes that the dirt/oil/debris etc  cannot hide in any covered areas, and that you can access all areas after to lubricate etc.. personally speaking I don't think they are very useful for most members on this forum.

They were actually designed for one purpose but now they can have two purposes.

As you noted the watches cleaned entirely assembled if you are following a modern or some modern shops typically with Rolex for instance you will do a pre-cleaned cycle. This is where the watches left together the movement and its cleaned in that condition usually in a slightly shorter cycle the purpose of giving you a nice clean watch to evaluate.

But the real reason for this is it's a faster way to service a watch. At one time they would make a substance it went by the name miracle lube or one step. There were others is also a dual lube method that did the same thing. The basic principle is you clean the watch assembled that saves that pesky time of disassembling. As far as lubrication goes I really like miracle lube as I think the miracle it works But? So I finally got to see a material safety sheets for one of these substances and basically it was mineral oil which is a high-temperature oil in your last rinse. So your watches all nice and clean with no lubrication and the last rinse has the high temperature oil dissolved in the rinse itself so now you have oil covering everything but don't worry the magic of capillary action. As the solvent evaporates the lubrication will migrate to all of the crevices like where the pivots are. So now your watch is 100% lubricated and yes that was the selling point you can increase productivity by quite a huge percentage because you don't have to disassemble a you don't have to do manual lubrication. Obviously there's a reason why this no longer exists but it didn't exist at one time and it was very popular with production shops.

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