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Universal Geneve 2-66 (1-66 / 66) walk through


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Good morning!

My next walk-through. This time of an Universal Geneve 2-66 calibre in a "White Shadow" watch. With less than 2.5mm thickness, the movement was one of the thinnest automatic movements at its introduction in 1966 and for decades to come. Some say it was the thinnest of all, but I found the Piaget 12P was 2.3mm and introduced in 1960. That would make the Universal 66 the second-thinnest automatic movement unitl 1985 when the Frederic Piquet 71 came in with 2.4mm. 

ANYWAY, it's very thin! 

Another cool story is that no other than Patek Philippe poaches the movement engineer of Universal and let him basically copy the UG 66. They then introduced the Patek calibre 240 in 1977. They looks strikingly alike. Apparently, Universal sued Patek, but settled out of court and then went bankrupt during the quartz crisis. (see my post here for a picture comparison of the UG and the Patek: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/3470-which-watch-have-you-got-coming-in-the-mail-show-us/?do=findComment&comment=270754 )

 

As usual, I'll share the walk-through in several posts. 

Today: disassembly.


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Hands and dial off reveals the keyless works (two dial screws)

Note: the dial washer doesn't fit too well. I'll look for another one for assembly.

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NOTE on letting the power down! 

The power is held by TWO clicks. One directly at the ratchet wheel (dial side) and one in the automatic works. I first completely removed the click at the ratchet wheel and then held back the click of the automatic works. It worked ok, BUT is not ideal. It lets the rotor spin to release the power in that direction (instead of the crown).

I therefore suggest to first remove the automatic works completely (rotor, wheels and click). THEN proceed as usual by holding back the ratchet click and releasing power gently by holding/slipping the crown.

 

To show the (supposed) better practice, I'll post my pictures in a different order from my actual disassembly. This is how I think it SHOULD be done (in retrospect),

 

0. Remove the balance

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1. Automatic works:

remove the rotor 

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The automatic bridge (please ignore that the barrel bridge is already off and don't remove it before releasing the power!)

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VERY gently with this spring on the click! It's insanely thin. The end of the spring rests in a small hole in the mainplate. I'll show that in my pictures for assembly.

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Note that the wig-wag winding wheels for the rotor can stay in place. They are riveted to the movement. A total of three ball bearings here! Two are visible, and the backside of it (that wigs and wags) also has a ball bearing. The rotor also has one. So four ball bearings in the movement!!

 

2. Turn movement over and release the power with the usual method (hold back click and gently let the crown slip through your fingers)

The click is here:

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Then disassembly the click

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I also took the hour wheel of (no picture, but obvious). 

NOW, IMPORTANT. The apparent cannon pinion here, is not a real cannon pinion!! It should be completely free. The movement doesn't have a central centre wheel and therefore the "true cannon pinion"  also isn't in the centre of the movement. This "false cannon pinion" is just a reduction wheel for the minute hand. DO NOT have the stupid idea of tightening this "false cannon pinion".... like I did 🫣...

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But ok, onwards.

3. After letting the power down, I go back to the train side.

 

Note on pallet fork: the lock is very heavy. If amplitude turns out to be very low after service, I may have to push the pallets in a bit.

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Note that there a two different screws for the train bridge!! The one on the edge is a bit shorter.

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Barrel bridge.

Again, note that there are two different screws! The one at the crown is longer.

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Now, the larger wheel next to the barrel is the decentralized centre wheel with cannon pinion. I will show how to disassemble it in a later post.

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The ratchet wheel is under the barrel

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4. Dial side

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cover plate

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Watch out, under this wheel is basically the crown wheel. There's an outer crown and also a seat around the post.

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the downwards bent side goes down on the setting lever

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careful, very strong spring here

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this lever engages and disengages the integrated wheel directly with the ratchet wheel for manual winding

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Now again very careful with the spring under the lever! It is very thin and very springy. I actually lost it and couldn't find it even after 1.5h on the floor... and since I managed to buy one, there are now only very few left in the world!

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finally the stem with the pinions

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removing lower balance jewel for cleaning

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barrel open. NOTE that the square bit of the barrel arbor points up from this perspective (not pictured). This is important to remember for assembly.

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This concludes today's post of disassembly.

Next post will show the disassembly of the integrated decentralized centre wheel and true cannon pinion -- and tightening it (because it was slipping).

 

 

 

Edited by Knebo
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Ok, next one!

First, the cannon pinion!

Remember, this is the decentralized cannon pinion with integrated cannon pinion (and it goes where the green arrow indicates):

image.thumb.png.8389bfbfa9456c4d5ac5cc414ab322a0.png

First challenge: how to disassemble!?

- do not use a Presto tool with its "feet" against the spokes/rim of the wheel! It'll bend the wheel.
- using a scalpel or razor blade to slide between wheel and cannon pinion is also not working well

--> I cut a triangular wedge into a spare barrel lid (of course, any other thin sheet of metal will do). Then I slide it between the two steel pinions, like so:

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Now I can use a presto tool to lift off the cannon pinion. Make sure the wedge is properly between the two steel pinions! No force should be on the brass wheel.

Clean.

In my case, the cannon pinion needed some tightening:

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Grease the staff of the (decentralized) centre wheel. I used 9504.

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To combined the two parts again, on the staking set, make sure the top punch fits over the whole staff of the centre wheel. It'll protrude from the cannon pinion and you don't want to punch on the staff.. 

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Secondly, note that the wheel seems to "hover" over the staking block. You want to chose a hole on the staking block that just fits the green circle here, and NOT the red one (if you do the latter, you may punch out the staff from the wheel...)

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Push.

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Done.

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Now over to the barrel assembly.

I distribute a thin layer of breaking grease around the barrel wall (I used 8217)

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New spring in (this is 0.70 x 0.1025 x 375, item number 266771 at CousinsUK)20240103_190426.thumb.JPG.18bcd29d472734df40d09185a5ba2bbe.JPG

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remember that the square part of the arbor points upwards

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close lid. then I oil with HP1300.

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Epilame treatment of pallet stones...

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...and escape wheel (full submersion and then removing epilame again from the pivots)20240103_192226.thumb.JPG.cbfca5d27145af8fd99c1d757e18dbb8.JPG

 

I take advantage of the balance still being installed on the movement (from cleaning) to oil the balance jewels on both sides of the movement. Just two pictures. It should be clear otherwise. 9010, of course.

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Now, disclaimer. Like in the assembly, I realized half-way through assembly, that another order would have been better. So I'll post the pictures in the order that I think is better. So please ignore the presence of some parts that were already installed in my less efficient, actual assembly process.

I suggest starting with the keyless works before installing barrel bridge, train and automatic works. Why? The "decentralized" centre wheel and cannon pinion is held on the keyless side by a jewel in the cover plate for the keyless works. If you don't have that installed first, it's making the installation of the barrel bridge a bit tricky.

So, first the pictures of the keyless works assembly.

HP1300 on the posts (ignore presence of centre wheel here)

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add respective wheels and the seat for the other post image.thumb.png.3b95533f828e832f8cfce511ec5eebbf.png

place the pinions/wheels for the winding stem

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setting lever with some 9504

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setting lever and stem replaced and adding some more 9504 (I spread this amount around by turning the stem while holding the oiler there)

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placing the yoke, adding some 9504 on the sliding points (excess will be removed later with rodico) and then the yoke spring

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unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the next steps, so I'm borrowing pics from disassembly.

set lever jumper with 9504 as indicated

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and a bit of 9504 here

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combine the two parts of the crown wheel and the winding wheel and add HP1300 between them as indicated

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then add HP1300 on the seat and install them

image.png.af33409e5d4383ce4fbab998af85b363.png

 

install the cover plate

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turn movement over

 

add the tiniest amount of HP1300 to this rim (or don't, but don't let it flow over)

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combine ratchet wheel and barrel and replace them jointly (to get ratchet wheel into the right spot immediately and not smear the oil on the aforementioned rim). HP1300 on the arbor pivot as indicated.

image.thumb.png.f2846a0b5f7558d8cf2ff0d302a84cf8.png

 

place wheels and then the bridge20240104_021134.thumb.JPG.1374710914270c49204db292ec453840.JPG

 

now the train wheels

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the 2-66 movement has this unusual fixed cap jewel for the escape wheel. I oil it from below and push the 9010 through with a sharpened oiler. Inspect size and position of oil circle from the top side.

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install train bridge

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I choose to proceed with the automatic works now

first the secondary click (for auto winding intermediate driving wheel). the tiny spring needs to go through a small hole where indicated

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view from the other side of the movement

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place the intermediate winding wheel

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now there's this special wheel which which disengages the automatic works when the watch is wound automatically (same as JLC 889 that I serviced recently). The slipping "arms" need some grease (or oil). I used 9504

image.png.8a14ecdb5c115acd479e66b4cc369129.pngimage.png.595d4f7a3df805b1d33450157f734836.png

 

I then spread it around by gently moving the arms around (clockwise in below picture)

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place the wheel and install bridge

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I decided to use HP1300 on all these pivots (escape wheel pivot was oiled previously with 9010). I prefer the higher viscosity oils to avoid any creeping. Happy to drop a few degrees of amplitude for that.

image.thumb.png.9f7c6c9885d89bddc4ead10381254d60.png

 

turn movement over and install primary click at the ratchet wheel

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very light use of HP1300 (sorry, screw not pictured)

image.png

now back to the keyless works 

again small amount of HP1300

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tiny bit of grease as indicated

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secure with screw and place spring (careful with this one.... it's a highly qualified candidate for the Swiss space programme)

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arm the spring and secure with screw

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dial side oiling with HP1300 (red) for everything except the escape wheel (9010, blue)

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I add a tiny bit of 9504 to the click/teeth here

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turn over again. pallet fork.

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as usual, I install the balance, let it run a few minutes. remove the balance. oil the exit pallet stone with 9415. one small drop every 4-5 teeth.

 

then the rotor. NOTE: I didn't oil any of the four ball bearings! This is up to debate.... in some service manuals across different brands, ball bearings are oiled (with 9010 or Lubeta V106 or 9415), in other manuals they aren't. I chose to not oil because the watch case is barely dust-proof. And if any dust gets inside, it'll attract to oil. If it gets on the ball bearings, it'll quickly clog up. But happy to receive other opinions.

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and the complete train side

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then back to dial side again. Oiling the inside of the "false" cannon pinion with HP1300. 

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then the outside with HP1300

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and place hour wheel and dial washer

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a bit of regulating. Note from disassembly that the pallet stones lock was a bit excessive. The amplitude could probably be increased by moving them inwards a bit. But I'm happy with this result as it is and will let it be. Since I haven't done pallet stone manipulation yet, I don't want to practice on a movement where spare parts are extremely rare and expensive (the company has been out of business for about 50 years).

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dial (two screws) and hands on 🙂

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That's my new baby!

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Edited by Knebo
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