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Homemade Watch Parts 2016


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Very limited in time at the moment but want to try and do semi-homemade watches for me and the wife before the autumn ends. First day this year in the garage. Starting with the wife's as this "should" be the easier as it must be a quartz. Total hobbyist at this, and although I have a rough idea of what I am trying to achieve, making a lot of it up as I go along. Hope to share progress on this forum for anyone who is interested 

Dial 0.2mm brass sheet

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Cut out and superglued onto a brass 3mm disc (machined from 10SWG sheet)

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Drill centre hole 1.1mm (was going to be 1.0mm but I snapped the drill bit)

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Swap onto the smaller lathe

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Mark out the dial diameter

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Aldi today selling routers for £24.99. Perfect to fix an old Gravograph I bought ages ago on ebay with dead motorIMG_3198nnn.jpg

 

Test piece which will go on the watch box as a plaque. Can now do engraving on the case back of the gents watch (later project still in the head)

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This is movement for my wife's watch. Ronda 1042. Smallest I could find which suites what I think I will need. Beside is a 5pence piece to give scale. Had to be a quartz as winding and setting the time was an absolute no no for the user

 

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Showing with dial in position. Decided I will try to attach with dial stickers rather then solder on feet (more chance of disaster and no time to keep scrapping)

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Trying bath repair enamel. Will leave this for a week to set. Hopefully not too high and works ok

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Square lump of silver. Starting the casing

 

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10mm hole to start things off

 

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I've always wanted to build a watch from 'scratch', or at least start with basic movement and embellish accordingly. I met a watchmaker, (sort of, on line) who started with ETA 6497/8 and had a variety of dials and hand combinations you could "customize" your own watch. Below pics from his website. I'm not promoting his efforts, just showing what can be done.

Good job on your efforts! Can't wait to see more.

Some of the many parts available for your custom design.

All cases have display backs. These are the plain movements.

Lineup of hand options.

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More progress today, getting close to finish line ......

Make the case back ... fit rubber o-ringIMG_3352small.jpg

 

 

 

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This is not finished, but getting close, so just laid things together to see roughly what end result will look like

 

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Cubic zircona finish

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very good lathe  work !   as far as snapping drill bits,  " vary feed and speed"  to produce a "proper chip".  drill bit sharpening and dubbing is another  vast subject.   keep up the good work.  vinn

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Thank you for positive comments. Glass is on, all the zircona was glued onto silver setting strips with Araldite Crystal Clear. There is plenty of things not right which I would do differently, but I suppose that is the problem when no prototype to try things out first. Anyway, I learnt a lot doing this project, and I know some of the areas that need to be improved

 

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    • The problem sounds very much like what might happen when failing to do the reset procedure. The stopwatch not working could be a few things.  There are two different motors, one for the center sweep seconds and one of the minute counter.  Damaging a coil is the most likely thing to do wrong when changing the battery, but that would likely just take out one of the two.  So "start" it wait and see if the minute counter doesn't tick over.  If that ticks, and you've done the reset procedure, it's probably damage to the sweep second coil. If neither works, then it could be the button contact is damaged.  It's a tiny bit of copper trace on the PCB that curls around the edge to make a circuit and it can break off.  There's a way to trigger the buttons from the small pads on the back of the movement, as well as check them with a multimeter, if you are familiar with one. But give this a try, pull the crown out to the second position and hold down button "B" (10 o'clock) for a few seconds.  This is suppose to spin the minute counter to let you reset it to 0.  If it doesn't move and (I assume) button 'A' (2 o'clock) doesn't start the chronograph, then either both buttons have failed at the same time or there is something else wrong. A leaking battery can take out the traces on the circuit board, and this can take out the motors and/or buttons, but you didn't say anything about it and it should be obvious if it leaked enough to do that.  
    • Perhaps not where you live, but here in DK, you get by the taxman financially quartered if you order from outside the EUSR. These center wheel weren't that expensive 5 - 7 years ago, around $45-$50. I guess stock is drying up and these days we have to pay with worthless confetti money.
    • A little cleaned up, don't think I will polish the brass. Nice caramel color I think. Looks like the inscription says: Ludwig & Fries Frankfurt A.M.  The lanterns were a little tweeked but able to gently flatten out with no breaks. The 6 and 7 pivot beds are broken but the rest of the beds are intact. Box and velvet a bit rough but still functional. Overall nice and just a bit larger than the one above. Why I need 2 I haven't figured out yet...
    • Good job! Wear it well.. .  
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