Hello Rom Sweden

[jedmo]

Hi all

My name is Mats, and I'm living on Orust, the big island in Swedens west coast. My interests is mainly all technical stuff such as clocks, watches, building and repairing electronics, amateur radios,,,,, I'm also a beekeeper and we have an aquarium, two dogs and some hens.

Well about the watches and clocks I have a couple, some that's working good and some that needs some treatment :-) and I am interested in learning how to repair them, I have bought some tools and started with some that isn't a catastrophy if I ruin them instead of fixing them. Now I have the first question to the forum, I have a ETA 2824-2 (automatic and date) that gains some 10 - 20 minutes a day. When You look at the balance wheel it seems to getting faster with smaller swing and then suddenly going slower with bigger swing approximatly once a minute. I can think of 2 possible errors, first can it have been magnetized or secondly, can it be one pivot or maybe one of the wheels that is bent ?

I dont think the watch is ever opened before I got it and yes, the problem whas there before I opened it :-)

As You can see, my native language is not English but I hope You understand me anyway.

// Mats

[Geo]

Welcome to the forum Mats, and thank you for an informative introduction. I think you may well be our first apiarist!

Regarding your watch question, I would start by demagnetising it and see if things improve.

[jedmo]

Thanks,

 

How is it with demagnetisers, is it just a electromagnet running on AC ?

[rogart63]

Had to google that word? Apiarist. Biodlare in Swedish . Hi Mats welcome to the forum.

I am not so in to electronics but i think a magnitizer it's a electromagnetic coil . You could buy one at Ebay for little money ? They are as good as anything else. How old is the watch? If it hasn't been serviced for a while and maybe has left in a drawer for a while? That could be the problem? 

Edited December 23, 2015 by rogart63

[SSTEEL]

Well one aboard Mats ;)

[bobm12]

Welcome Mats,

 

I love bees but has never had a chance to do anything with them...just drink the honey! In any case, yes, a demagnetizer is essentially a coil generating a field in such a way that "atoms are re- ordered" in an object when it is exposed to this magnetic field. Anyway, that's a way to put it in my not so technical language....Welcome to the forum!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[jedmo]

I will rather build a new unit myself for  15£ then buy one for 8£ as it is much more satisfying

[Vich]

Hello Mats and welcome to the forum,

Demagnetising is often useful where some of the outer coils on the hairspring look like they are "sticking" together, effectively shortening the spring and making it run faster. You may be able to see this with a loupe. De-magnetising is often worth doing as a standard part of the cleaning process, It is possible to use a simple compass to check whether a watch has a problem with magnetism as the pointer shows an attraction if magnetism is present. Bergeon even sell their own compass but quite frankly you would have to be insane to pay the price they charge when you can get one just as sensitive for a couple of euros.

All the best,

Vic

Edited December 27, 2015 by Vich

[jedmo]

OK, the other day I found a demagnetiser on Tradera ( a Swedish (?) Ebay site). It won it for 1:- witch is about 0£08 + P&P 5£

It is an OLD, looks like from 1950 - 1960 or so, one in a nice wooden box, I will put up a picture soon. Well first I put a new power cord to it and then tested it, worked just fine.

My question now is, I have this ETA 2824-2 I mentioned above and I tried the demagnetiser on it first two times with no result and then two more times but still no progress so I think It's time to take the balance wheel out of the watch and see if it needs degreasing or should I continue to demagnetise it futher more ?

I think the demagnetiser is strong enough cause it is for use on booth 110 ( the old electrical system in Sweden) and 220 V, there is no switch or control circuit for the voltage connected so I think it's about double as strong today than when we had 110 volts.

 

// Mats

[rogart63]

OK, the other day I found a demagnetiser on Tradera ( a Swedish (?) Ebay site). It won it for 1:- witch is about 0£08 + P&P 5£

It is an OLD, looks like from 1950 - 1960 or so, one in a nice wooden box, I will put up a picture soon. Well first I put a new power cord to it and then tested it, worked just fine.

My question now is, I have this ETA 2824-2 I mentioned above and I tried the demagnetiser on it first two times with no result and then two more times but still no progress so I think It's time to take the balance wheel out of the watch and see if it needs degreasing or should I continue to demagnetise it futher more ?

I think the demagnetiser is strong enough cause it is for use on booth 110 ( the old electrical system in Sweden) and 220 V, there is no switch or control circuit for the voltage connected so I think it's about double as strong today than when we had 110 volts.

 

// Mats

You should put or hold  the movement on the demagnetizer press the button. Then slowly move the movement away from the demagnitizer. Out of the magnetic zone 

[Folkvisor]

Make friends with a watchmaker near your house and use his/her demagnetizer.

Trevligt att höra av Dig, Mats. Välkommen här!

Dave

[oldhippy]

Hello and a big welcome from me. I would say demagnetize the watch first and see how it goes.

[Folkvisor]

Also, after you demagnetize the watch, don't keep it near a computer. The magnetic field around a computer makes quite a difference to the motion of a balance wheel and will ultimately magnetize it all over again.