Rolex 1570 Advice Wanted

[CKelly]

Hi all,

   My friend from the local jewelry store called the other day and had two Rolexes he wanted serviced. First one is a 3035 and it has a broken mainspring and possibly cannon pinion is a bit loose but I'll have to wait to be sure of that until I get watch actually running. The other one is a 1570 that was completely seized. You could set the hands but the drive train would not move. Even after I took the watch apart down to the drive train (removing balance and pallet fork) the wheels still would not move. After I had it apart I started putting it back one wheel at a time to see if there was any issue other than just lots of grime. When I did this all wheels would move, as freely as I expected considering how dirty movement was.

    Yesterday I cleaned The movement with the exception of the autowind part as it needs upper and lower jewels. I reassembled the watch last night except for the wheel that drives the center sweep pinion and the autowind. Gave it a wind and it started running very well until I turned it over face down and it stopped. Now when I cleaned it I had balance on mainplate and checked balance several times and it has a good free motion. Anyway after scratching my head and thinking a bit I finally saw that the center wheel leaned ever so slightly so that it came in contact with the balance. You can only see how it is leaning by looking at the gap between the wheel and mainplate. You can see there is a larger gap on one side of the wheel. To further test this I can allow the watch to stop then apply gentle pressure on the cannon pinion pushing away from the where I think it hits the balance and the watch will then start on its own and run fine in all positions.

    I seem to remember when I put the watch together the center wheel had more side to side shake than I thought normal but didn't see anything wrong so continued on. I checked under 10x magnification.

    Now I'm trying to figure out what is most likely wrong. Could be a bent wheel however the gap between wheel and mainplate always is on the same side and if it were the wheel that should move. The entire shaft of the wheel could be worn and it is just being pushed in that direction or the center hole is worn itself. Does anyone else have any ideas or suggestions or have you ran across this issue before?

Thanks,

Charles K

[clockboy]

Difficult to analyse but if not a bent/broken pinion then check the jewel/jewels. 

[CKelly]

Hi,

   I have taken the cannon pinion back off and looked at the watch under 20x power microscope and it does appear as it the lower center bushing is oval shaped. Now I have been searching and researching about all afternoon. Does anyone know if a bush for a 1530 will fit a 1570,I think it's part #8076. I saw one supplier who had one and they said they were interchangeable however I can't access the Jules Borel material page where I usually double check claims like that. I did find another site when looking for a parts list and when I checked 1570 the parts list came up listing 1530 as the base movement for 1570.

Thanks,

[CKelly]

Hi,

   Just wanted to update the 1570 progress a bit. I finally decided to just look for a donor plate and move on. I found one with several other good but extra parts that I picked up with the intention of selling the unused parts. Made the transplant a few days ago and watch ran well until yesterday. Yesterday the watch just up and stopped. After several hours of observing I finally saw that the mainplate jewel for the balance looked as if it had raised up some. Decided that what I would do would be to take the jewel from the now unused plate and transplant it, I liked the way it looked better. Anyway got that done last night and have it back up and running. So far I have replaced those parts, new case tube, and new crown. Later today I will try to post a picture or two. 

   Also got another call from the store with two other watches to repair. An old Waltham pocket watch that was very gummy and dried out in the need of a new crystal, and a Movado chronograph that is running but has sticky buttons and the hands are a bit reluctant to reset at times. Have already finished and returned the Waltham however I'm still observing the Movado operation. Had to build a wrench just to get the back off. If has a ten sided back but none of my wrenches would fit.

Charles K