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Posted

I have always wanted to tear a watch down and restore (repair) it but never have. It has always seemed intimidating. I recently found a Bulova 333 M9 Oceanographer at an estate sale though and am dying to give it a shot. Could anyone give me a list of tools that are a must have to work on a wrist watch? Are the generic looking kits offered on eBay sufficient for a beginner?

Posted

Welcome to the forum and enjoy the advice and all the support that is offered. Have a look at this topic Question For The Watchmakers. All sorts of advice there including mine. I have around 30 years asa watch/clockmaker but now retired.

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Posted

Welcome to the wacky world of watches! As Micky said above, search the forum and you will find lots of info on the subject. Have a look at Mark Lovick's repair videos and start on something that you are prepared to destroy first.

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Posted

Welcome to the forum. There are lots of guys here to advise. A starting point is some good quality screwdrivers & you will need a movement holder/s.

As Geo suggests your first watch should be a watch that does not matter, perhaps a cheap watch for repair off eBay.

Enjoy 

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Posted (edited)

To add on the good advice I'd recommend your shift focus from repairing a watch you like, value or is of value, to very simple and cheap watches you can practice one first.

Edited by jdm
Posted

Welcome to the forum from me too! All has been said so...Welcome to the forum! Did I repeat myself? Must be the old age! :) No matter, happy to have you around.

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

 

and am dying to give it a shot.

The gun and gun caliber is not listed in that topic...but I guess any of them will do! :D

 

How are you doing so far? You never came back!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

Posted

Thanks for all of the replies. I ended up doing like a lot of others I, sure and just picked up a $9 watch repair kit off eBay. I figure that while the quality of tool might be lacking they will at least let me get my feet wet. I did like many of you suggested and did not start with the Bulova. Instead I chose another watch I had in my drawer which while it does mean more to me simply because it was a gift, it hadn't worked in several years. I knew what the problems were which should (I would have thought) made this simpler. 

 

The watch is a Relic ZR77206, skeleton automatic. Two of the 5 minute markers (not sure the correct name) had come loose from the watch face years ago and had fallen into the movement. On top of that the crown stem gone missing and I wasn't sure why. So with all of that this is the one I chose for my first attempt.

 

I thought it would be as simple as opening the case, removing the movement, and the markers would just fall out. Not the case. After disassembling the movement about 3/4 of the way I finally found one of the markers. It doesn't appear to have done any damage to any gears or anything, just lodged where it shouldn't have been, near the main spring. I haven't torn it down any further just yet as I haven't had the time (no pun intended). 

 

A couple of revelations about the experience thus far: 1) the parts are about 100x smaller than I ever could have imagined....holy cow, 2) while disassembling, two pieces were not removed intentionally but rather fell out on there own while I was trying to take a closer look. Who knows where they go...LOL? I'll figure it out though. 3) If my complete lack of experience wasn't enough part of me thinks the Bulova movement would have been simpler  for one reason and one reason alone. This Relic movement has all sorts of engraving on it which actually makes it more difficult to things and identify them, such as screw heads. Its almost like playing "Where's Waldo?".

 

So as soon as I get the chance I look forward to tearing it down even further in search for the other marker. I am not positive yet what happened to the crown but it looks like the stem my have broke. Ill have to see for sure and find another crown for it.

 

I have watched many of Mark's videos which are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and are enough to at least give a guy confidence to try it on his own for the first time. I will say though that they aren't so good that after you get the movement torn down as far as I have that there is still the thought, "What in the hell have I just done".

 

Oh and yes, the screw drivers that came in the eBay kit are indeed horrible! I'll update when I have jumped in feet first again!

Posted

Excellent account mcass! I enjoyed every bit of your splendid narrative and yes, the first experience does give you many surprises! We are looking forward to hear more about your watchmaking exploits!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Hello mcass,

 

Welcome !

Don't recognise your Clan but I bet the tartan is interesting :cool:

I am by no means an expert and fall into the "tinkerer" category but my two penneth is to use your phone or whatever to take a photo of the watch movement before and after you dismantle every single part paying attention to the small stuff and zoom in as far as possible on the tricky bits ie the ones your eyes blur over on (if your sight is like mine).  You can then work backwards through the photos to put it back together again.  So my useful tool would be a camera.

 

Some magnification will be needed for most watches - again, a forum search will give info on headgear etc and it does not have to cost a fortune.

 

As you have found, bad screwdrivers can be used sometimes but you will probably have to keep going back to the oilstone with them with monotonous regularity, I gave up on them quite quickly if the steel is too soft it is a nightmare only fit for the bucket.  One of the things to look at on a watch is the drive or slot on the screw heads and if it is chewed up then it has been out before and gives a hint about previous problems with the movement as well, you dont want to do that sort of damage really.

 

I look forward to reading about your progress and you will get loads of help here, I know because I have been helped on numerous occasions.

 

Cheers,

 

Vic 

Edited by Vich
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    • Hello and welcome to the fo4um. Enjoy
    • Welcome to the forum, enjoy.
    • You're asking a pretty broad question and you didn't specify the machine but yes it's simple especially if you have the right machine. The question has problems but I'll take it as it is. Is it really that simple yes especially if you have the right machine. So in the video below he's making a screw and yes it really is that simple but pay attention to the machine it is not simple at all probably wasn't cheap but it is small it will probably fit in your garage. Unfortunately wouldn't fit in my garage as it's far too cluttered up with things. In the video he talks about making a screw and pay attention to the machine. The machine has lots and lots and lots of cutters and lots of things to do lots of machining all-in-one machine conceivably one step after another all programmable. If you look at his channel lots of CNC's stuff and there are several other videos related to this machine. He goes to the factory where they talk about it and show all the other machines they make in Switzerland.  I did look up the specifications the machine I don't recall the price it's not going to cut wheels I think it has a maximum diameter around 11 mm basically it's really good for making small diameter watch parts. Then in one of the other videos he goes to a factory that used to make parts with waterpowered machinery been in business for 100 years and everything they now make is made with CNC machines including this one. What was interesting with the factory photo was that when they make some parts they can put them on a optical comparator comparator compares with whatever the reference is and the machine can be programmed to adjust its cutting to make sure everything is actually being made to specifications. Oh and then somewhere in all of this there was at least one picture of a balance staff can't have a CNC Swiss machine without making balance staffs.   It would be really nice if we had pictures of the machine. Then yes if you look at the page for wheel cutting you can enter parameters and it will generate a G code but he left out things? Notice he has a picture of a complete wheel but the G code isn't making a complete wheel it's only cutting the gear teeth I don't see whereas the program for crossing out the spokes? Typically when you see people cutting gears once the teeth are cut most the time the spokes are cut by hand. Occasionally someone will mill them out but typically not with the program which seems strange if you have CNC capability for instance one of my friends fill it used to design assembly line equipment or things to make things. So his hobby was to continue to make tools to make things like clocks. Very interesting and clever clocks but his true fund was making the machines to make the clocks. Then machine is not controlled by G code like we would typically find today as the stepping motor controller he has was made a long time ago and the individual controllers used a textbased program. So the company had a editor you could write a program to cause each the stepping motors to do something. So basically once you figure out how to cut a gear he would just change the parameters for different size gears so here's an example of a gear as you can see we have the teeth and the spokes. Then we have a picture the machine which sucks because it would've been so much nicer if I could've taken a picture when it was cutting a gears so we can see things better. Then yes there is a worm gear stepping motor indexing this is a mini lathe and the indexing is at the end of the lathe head hiding. The basic operation of this machine would be brass sheet not cut to a specific diameter size not even round mounted on the machine. Then it turns and a milling cutter will cut the diameter. Then the gear would be cut with a gear cutter. The same mill cutter for the diameter although conceivably change the size I don't know but basically the same milling for cutting the outer diameter would be used to cut the spokes. I really can't remember how he did the center hole but whatever it was was very precise.          
    • Yeah I know the site and the creator of it.  the two video clips are good examples of the quicker method and a full tear down.  the quick method will work in many cases. But not always and not for all the different movements.  I strongly suggest to not bend the four tabs as was done in the first clip.  Instead there are three tabs that insert into the top plate, Much saver way as to not break a tab.
    • I found a motor that is 3/4 hp and another that is 1.2hp. They come with speed controller. So I don’t think I would need a wiring diagram. But I sure appreciate you offering your help! Do you think 1.2 hp would be too much for a watchmaker’s lathe?
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