Zodiac Gmt & Omega De Ville Completed

[DJT2]

Purchased this Zodiac aerospace gmt calibre 75 a few months back, it was a none runner & in a bad state of repair. During the teardown, clean & service, I replaced the offset cannon friction pinion, mainspring, a few screws & a cap jewel. I managed to source a NOS original dial, rhodium plated the bezel & repainted the worn out numbers. Swapped the rough hands & replaced the cracked glass.

The Omega De Ville. I bought the case as NOS a while ago for a different project that didn't happen, I had a 620 movement in my spares box, I then found a dial & hands on the bay. Then gave the movement a clean & service etc. Cleaned the dial, bought a new glass, replaced crown & reassembled. Looks good I think.

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[Geo]

That's a great result DJT2, both watches look excellent!

[DJT2]

That's a great result DJT2, both watches look excellent!

Thanks Geo, the biggest issue was finding a replacement offset friction pinion for the zodiac. Tried everywhere & kept getting the same result "obsolete" then I started looking at the movement it was based on, the AS 1687. Again same result, finally I tried another movement that used the AS 1687 as the base movement. The Favre-leuba 1149, tried cousins & they had one for that movement. Purchased it & it works perfectly.

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[dadistic]

Outstanding! I'm hoping that I'll be able to do similar kinds of things in the future. Getting there, slowly but surely!

[DJT2]

Outstanding! I'm hoping that I'll be able to do similar kinds of things in the future. Getting there, slowly but surely!

Thank you for kind comments, it's been slow process & a big learning curve for me. But I'm finally getting there, I still need to conker manipulating the hairspring, It's a real pig for me.

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[Marc]

A couple of nice resurrections, I particularly like the Zodiac.

 

What is the regulator arrangement on the Zodiac? It looks like it's some kind of micro regulator but I can't quite make it out in the photos.

[DJT2]

A couple of nice resurrections, I particularly like the Zodiac.

What is the regulator arrangement on the Zodiac? It looks like it's some kind of micro regulator but I can't quite make it out in the photos.

Hi Marc, Yes your correct, there is a micro regulater. I've enclosed the link for my full teardown & better pictures.

https://goo.gl/photos/EuhCXt5Dvtpr6ULu7

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[Marc]

I can see it now, that makes much more sense.

Nice pictures.

[DJT2]

Thanks Marc, I tend to take a lot of pictures when I teardown as I still need a road map to reassemble. The hardest thing I find is remembering which screw goes where. That's why I take the individual pictures with corresponding screws, it helps but sadly it's not a fool proof method.

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[Marc]

I actually have a dedicated watch bench camera to record anything that I've not seen before, and any movement that I've not worked on before gets the full photo treatment.

 

For making sure that the right screws go back in the right place I'm in the habit of putting the screw back in the hole it came out of once the bit it was securing has been removed.

If you look at any of my photo walk throughs you will like as not see all sorts of screws sticking out of the main plate for no apparent reason.

 

Of course it does assume that the screws were all in the right place in the first place, and it does slow things down a bit, but it reduces the risk of losing a screw, and it does mean that each screw goes back where it came from.

[DJT2]

I really can't believe I've never thought of that before. Great idea & one I'll be using in future. Thanks Marc

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