A Couple Of My Vintage Watches

[Spandrel]

A quick shot of two of my vintage watches. On the left is a jump hour digital Sindaco watch from the the 1970's. It is running but needs hairspring manipulation to put it in beat and separate the coils. I may have a go as although the movement in these watches is basic in the extreme, it is in very good condition with its original plastic strap. The other watch has great sentimental value to me as it was a gift from a relative when I achieved a place in grammar school way back in the 1960's. I was taken to an upmarket jewellers and told to pick a watch from a selection, none of which were cheap by the standards of the day. It is a Roamer Vanguard with a beautiful 17 jewel movement and I wore it every day from the day I received it up until a few years ago when it ran out of ticks. The only repair needed has been a new crystal after I broke the original when my motorcycle and I involuntarily parted company. That also accounts for the tiny scratch on the face.

 

Anyway it is now running perfectly again having been serviced and is now worn regularly again.

 

 

[ramrod]

very nice watches. i always liked jump hour watches and i know little about sindaco. i have an old seiko that needs the same hairspring work.

roamers are one of my favorite.

oh - and welcome to the forum. post often - with pics. :D

[anilv]

re the hairspring coils touching,

 

If no one has messed with the watch and the coils are touching, it could just be a case of the watch being magnetized... I would check this first before trying to physically adjust the coils.

 

Anil

[Spandrel]

Thanks for the responses. The hairspring on the Sindaco has a rather... ahem..."interesting" shape which I thunk is pulling the coils every which way. The problem is that as a cheap movement, the spring is bonded to the stud.

[clockwatcher]

Hello!

Since you're into watches I am confident in assuming that you're a Springer Spandrel! :lol:

 

I'll get me coat!

[Spandrel]

Hello!

Since you're into watches I am confident in assuming that you're a Springer Spandrel! :lol:

 

I'll get me coat!

Yellow card ref!

 

:thumbsu:

[WillFly]

Roamers are very good watches, have been underrated  and are well worth collecting. I have 3 or 4 of them, and (IMO) the earlier movements - pre-1970 - are slightly better quality than the later ones. Here's my MST 370:

 

http://www.willswatchpages.com/roamer-mst-370.html

[anilv]

I second that.. they really tried to get their watches waterproof as much as was possible back in the day. Most of their watches from the 60s have the 'brevet' cases where you need to press down on the glass and the caseback and crystal come out together as a unit.

 

Only downside is that the cases are frequently base metal and also the fact that they'e quite small...

 

Anil

[noirrac1j]

Welcome to the forum. Beautiful watches. What's the movement of the Sindaco? I have a bunch of parts for jump hour movements--mostly Bettlach and Baumgartner. I'd be happy to help get it working properly if possible.

 

JC

[Spandrel]

Welcome to the forum. Beautiful watches. What's the movement of the Sindaco? I have a bunch of parts for jump hour movements--mostly Bettlach and Baumgartner. I'd be happy to help get it working properly if possible.

 

JC

That is very kind of you. I will post a photograph of the movement as soon as I have cleared my workbench. I am servicing a friend's 1960's Garrard at present and the regulator lever is giving me some grief as it refuses to stay on the cock.

[Spandrel]

Here is a photograph of the Sindaco movement. It appers to be an in-house effort with the grand total of one jewel! If you look closely you can see the hairspring coils are bound.

 

 

[noirrac1j]

Here is a photograph of the Sindaco movement. It appers to be an in-house effort with the grand total of one jewel! If you look closely you can see the hairspring coils are bound.

 

Sindaco movement.jpg

Tha is definitely a bettlach (ebauches bettlach  EB). I can't see the movement caliber, but is it 8481-74? I might have a few of these with a good hairspring somewhere, but I need the caliber to be sure. EB made one jewel and 17 jewel variants of these and there are still a few floating around on the 'bay but they're getting more difficult to find in NOS or even working condition.

 

JC

[Spandrel]

Tha is definitely a bettlach (ebauches bettlach  EB). I can't see the movement caliber, but is it 8481-74? I might have a few of these with a good hairspring somewhere, but I need the caliber to be sure. EB made one jewel and 17 jewel variants of these and there are still a few floating around on the 'bay but they're getting more difficult to find in NOS or even working condition.

 

JC

You are correct. The caliber number is underneath the balance with a monogrammed "EB". The caliber number is 8491.74. I had assumed it was a Sindaco movement as it has their name on the train bridge. You would save me one heck of a lot of work if you have a hairspring or better still, a balance and cock assembly.

[noirrac1j]

You are correct. The caliber number is underneath the balance with a monogrammed "EB". The caliber number is 8491.74. I had assumed it was a Sindaco movement as it has their name on the train bridge. You would save me one heck of a lot of work if you have a hairspring or better still, a balance and cock assembly.

Hello,

Sorry for the delay. I am super-busy with school and stuff. I checked my spare movements and I have an EB 8481-73 and EB 8461-73. Both are working. Can you do some research to verify compatibility at least with the balance? We could arrange shipping if you figure out whether one of the two would work for your needs.

 

Regards,

JC

[stroppy]

Spandrel...thanks to another member here (the knowledgeable Roberto) I discovered that my jump hour watch branded "Jaguar" (which locked Sindaco in court battles with Jaguar cars for years) was made by Sindaco.  My watch is a very different design to yours but it uses the Bettlach 17 jewel Roskopf-mechanism movement.  The one jewel and 17 jewel movement are very similar, the only difference being the number of jewels used.  If your movement has had it, why not think about replacing it with the 17 jewel movement?  My watch was given to me by my father when I was 12.  He bought it in Singapore on his way home from a European trip.  It still runs well...keeps good time and the only thing which has become a bit of a bother is that the crown is a bit hard to wind.  The 17 jewel EB movement, despite its generally crude design was as tough as nails.

 

Here's my watch:

[noirrac1j]

Spandrel...thanks to another member here (the knowledgeable Roberto) I discovered that my jump hour watch branded "Jaguar" (which locked Sindaco in court battles with Jaguar cars for years) was made by Sindaco.  My watch is a very different design to yours but it uses the Bettlach 17 jewel Roskopf-mechanism movement.  The one jewel and 17 jewel movement are very similar, the only difference being the number of jewels used.  If your movement has had it, why not think about replacing it with the 17 jewel movement?  My watch was given to me by my father when I was 12.  He bought it in Singapore on his way home from a European trip.  It still runs well...keeps good time and the only thing which has become a bit of a bother is that the crown is a bit hard to wind.  The 17 jewel EB movement, despite its generally crude design was as tough as nails.

 

Here's my watch:

The Ebauches Bettlach are tough indeed--I have both 1 jewel and 17 jewel variants.  

[Spandrel]

Thanks for the information and photographs. Sindaco/Jaguar certainly produced some "different" watches. If I can't reair the movement in my Sindaco I will try to hunt down a replacement (although I have no idae where from!) but I would like to have a real attempt at sorting out my hairspring. It will be a while as I am just getting over a horrible dose of some infection or other and I haven't been at my bench for a couple of weeks.

[stroppy]

Check here for NOS Bettlach movements:

 

http://www.chrono24.com.au/all/movement-complete-swiss-bettlach-eb-8801-signed-8800-mechanical-1j-movement-boxed-nos--id3081781.htm

 

Claro Co. who now own the rights, I believe, to the EB movements; perhaps you can get a new movement from them:

 

http://www.clarowatch.com/movements.html

 

Here you can buy parts on their own:

 

http://www.scotchwatch.com/Bettlach_parts_inventory.html

 

NOS movements on Ebay:

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EB-8800-Swiss-mens-watch-movement-N-O-S-running-/272106769952

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EB-8501-76-N-O-S-gents-watch-movement-running-Swiss-/231803765608

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EB-caliber-1226-swiss-watch-movement-for-parts-repair-/272092165095

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Lot-with-EB-1333-watch-movement-parts-/272089926426

Edited January 25, 2016 by stroppy

[jdrichard]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay. I am super-busy with school and stuff. I checked my spare movements and I have an EB 8481-73 and EB 8461-73. Both are working. Can you do some research to verify compatibility at least with the balance? We could arrange shipping if you figure out whether one of the two would work for your needs.

Regards,

JC

Do you have any spare 6139 movements?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[noirrac1j]

Do you have any spare 6139 movements?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am not familiar with EB 6139. Do you have a picture of it? 

 

JC

[stroppy]

I am not familiar with EB 6139. Do you have a picture of it? 

 

JC

I did a full image search on Google and other search engines (like Duck Duck Go) and all I could find was this (EB 8021):

 

 

 

There is no reference for a "EB 6139" movement I could find but Seiko have a movement with the same number.

[Spandrel]

Many thanks to all who have responded with offers and links to information. I have greatly surprised myself, but after over eigteen hours (not at one sitting!) I have succeeded in re-shaping the hairspring and the Sindaco is at this moment ticking merrily away albeit as an ebauche at present. I found I did not need to disconnect the spring from the stud but I did remove the collet from the staff. This was the first time I had attempted to do this and it wasn't as tricky as I thougfht it would be. Replacing it was a tad fraught though! The majority of the time taken was in assessing the spring after each tiny adjustment, and many times I had need to "undo" a previous tweak and replace it with another. Boy this was some steep learning curve!

 

Now to persuade Mrs Spandrel I need a timegrapher.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Spandrel

[jez]

did someone say (back in 2016!) that they has an EB 8481-73 movement? 

I could do with one! 

Best

J

 

[PaulCam68]

Dear Spandrel

just out of interest - I have the exact same Roamer watch that you showed in your vintage photo above. Have you a feel for what this specific model is worth? 

And also - I'm missing my winder - any idea where I might land a replacement?

cheers in advance

PC