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1 minute ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

I was cognizant of the fact that there may be differences in the screws and I did keep them segregated while I was servicing this. Very good fact to know though @JohnD, thank you.

Under normal circumstances you should not have all three screws out of the movement at the same time, the shorter one always being re-placed, after removing the balance wheel cover plate, before removing the two that hold the balance assembly in place.....Guess who found out the hard way? :(

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1 minute ago, JohnD said:

Under normal circumstances you should not have all three screws out of the movement at the same time, the shorter one always being re-placed, after removing the balance wheel cover plate, before removing the two that hold the balance assembly in place.....Guess who found out the hard way? :(

In my case, I was battling the magnetism of the permanent magnet while trying to place the balance back. It kept sucking the balance away from it's proper place. By removing the dial, date and magnet assembly I could place everything where it belonged. During assembly  I had to ensure one of the gears that rides in-between the two plates was lubed and placed on its arbor. Then I had to use the crown to ensure all the gears meshed properly by turning the hands. Thankfully everything cooperated during this stage.

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5 minutes ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

In my case, I was battling the magnetism of the permanent magnet while trying to place the balance back. It kept sucking the balance away from it's proper place. By removing the dial, date and magnet assembly I could place everything where it belonged. During assembly  I had to ensure one of the gears that rides in-between the two plates was lubed and placed on its arbor. Then I had to use the crown to ensure all the gears meshed properly by turning the hands. Thankfully everything cooperated during this stage.

I must have done about a dozen balance assembly removal/replacements on these movements, and while aware of the magnet influence on the balance, when replacing it, I have not yet had to resort to removing the magnet to get it back together and in place.....perhaps I've been lucky? I am surprised just how resilient the balance spring is, on these movements, and how much 'mishandling' they will take with out permanent distortion....:thumbsu:

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3 minutes ago, JohnD said:

I must have done about a dozen balance assembly removal/replacements on these movements, and while aware of the magnet influence on the balance, when replacing it, I have not yet had to resort to removing the magnet to get it back together and in place.....perhaps I've been lucky? I am surprised just how resilient the balance spring is, on these movements, and how much 'mishandling' they will take with out permanent distortion....:thumbsu:

I will admit to much muttering and teeth clenching while working on this because of the hairspring. Very stressful! Once again, the simplicity and robustness of Timex movements wins the day!

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Brand new in box, never worn, and with original guarantee and user manual, all for the heady sum of 0.99p plus postage, no other bidders.

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Admittedly it had been sitting around so long, unworn and unloved that the battery was flat, but never the less, I think this one more than qualifies for the 404 club.

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Another Swiss pin lever joins the 404 crowd today.

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The style suggests early sixties, but the fact that the lume kinda works, suggests it might be a little later.

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It has 17mm lugs, and I have no 17mm straps at the moment, so it is flapping around on a 16mm. It got a service and clean, and is now clanking away at around +30 sec/day. Not bad, but I think we can do better.

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1974 U.S. Military Benrus branded Eta 2750

A number of decades in a drawer with a bent lug and the wrong crown.  Finally found a NOS case on ebay.  Invested in a crystal claw, new MS from Cousins and a crown from stock.  My first front loader and thank you Mark for the excellent video. 

I managed to rebuild it and get it back together without losing the lume from the hands so left the patina intact.  Gains around 4 seconds a day or less.

Finding a period correct one piece black nylon strap was as hard as finding the MS!

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Another elegant quartz number for 0.99p (plus P+P and a battery). This one even has an, as new, soft calf skin leather strap, which got an antiseptic bath and a splash of leather restorer. It now feels kid glove soft, and smells of fresh leather with a faint whiff of vanilla. Other than that tiny scratch on the crystal, the thing looks like new.

Edited by AndyHull
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My Heritage jump hour arrived yesterday. Looks great and runs like a champ. I opened the case to look for dirt, turns out it was just surface discoloration on the backside of the dial, no worries! This also has an actual glass Crystal, no acrylic for Heritage I guess, lol.

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Today we have a Baumgartner 844(CLD) based Ingersol with date, from some time after 1975.

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This one was a little tricky to get running nicely, as it is similar to the EB8800 and Baumgartner 866 in terms of construction, and the resultant faffing about necessary to get all of those little pinions stuffed into their respective holes at the same time without breaking or loosing anything.

The main issue was old oil which had set like varnish. It took a couple of cleaning runs. After the first one, it would run nicely for around five minutes, then stop dead.

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A second clean and some careful tinkering and it is now going very nicely indeed, considering its somewhat rudimentary 2 jewel pin lever construction.

Edited by AndyHull
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Having failed to get the LED watch, I started the day looking at,  to work reliably, due to aged batteries, I turned to see what else was in the junk pile, and picked up a ladies Ingersoll with an 8 1/4"' Amida movement, and this little Avia quartz.

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The Ingersoll is ticking away on the bench now, following a service, and with a fresh crystal, but I have no strap small enough, so it will need to wait till some more arrive. 

The Avia just needed a battery, to allow it to join the ranks of the 0.99p quartz crew. It even came on an almost new 18mm leather strap, which freshened up with an antiseptic bath, and some leather restorer, and now looks perfect. The crystal and plating are almost completely blemish free, but for a very small amount of pitting in one spot on the rear.

Edited by AndyHull
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I'm still working my way through the stuff I picked up while on holiday over the Christmas period.

Today we have a 1977 Timex Viscount (46562 03277) which was a health hazard when it arrived.

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The strap and pins went straight in the bin, and the case got a full fumigation and polish.

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I tried a new trick for the crystal. I put a big blob of BlueTak on the end of my cordless drill, grabbed a couple of sanding pads (available from B&Q and the like), cut off a 2" square of the "medium" and the "fine" (no idea what actual grit they are, but they looked about right).

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I then squashed the entire case, crystal and all down on to the blob of BlueTak, and then squished that on the end of the chuck, with the crystal facing out (without the case back).

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Finally, I spun the whole thing at low speed a couple of times to check that it was centred and not about to fly across the room or take my eye out.

Once happy that it would stay put, I spun it up, again at low speed, and pressed the sanding pads onto the crystal, first the medium, checking till I had a nice uniform smokey appearance over the entire crystal. Then it got a clean. Then I used the fine the same way. Another clean, then finished off with some T-Cut, taking care to avoid scratching the case in the process.

I repeated the process on the case back.

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The results were pretty impressive. I started with a crystal that I thought was almost certainly for the bin, and ended up with one that, while not quite perfect is absolutely 100% better than I expected. The case back went from completely scratched to factory fresh, without looking over polished. 

I will certainly give this another shot, and refine the process.

The best part perhaps is that the whole process only took a couple of minutes.

Way better than doing it by hand, and way less hit and miss than using the Dremel.

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Here is the "before" shot. Note the "interesting" brown filth on the case, and the "frosting" on the crystal, not to mention the wrecked and insanitary hair puller band.

Another rescued Timex joins the 404 club. :D

Edited by AndyHull
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I gave the crystal polishing another shot. Same method as before, but I took a little more care.

As you can see there is a slight double crater just in from to the 4 o'clock marker, which started out as a big gouge, and of course, that  crack at the very bottom, which I obviously can't do much about. All in all, quite a remarkable transformation.

I don't have one at the moment, but when I get some in, I'll probably eventually replace the crystal, but as far as easy polishing techniques go, this one is about as easy as it gets.

Looking at the watch on my wrist, you would be hard pressed to tell the crystal isn't new, unless the defects were pointed out.

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Today I'm wearing my vintage Timex Marathon SSQ, quartz LCD. It totally looks like a watch that belongs on the island of misfit watches. It's brown, gold and homely! For me it's perfect. It's very 70's cheesy, I love it. Plus my wife said it looks like something her dad wore back in the day, I'm ok with that, lol.

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Edited by FLwatchguy73
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1 hour ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

Today I'm wearing my vintage Timex Marathon SSQ, quartz LCD. It totally looks like a watch that belongs on the island of misfit watches. It's brown, gold and homely! For me it's perfect. It's very 70's cheesy, I love it. Plus my wife said it looks like something her dad wore back in the day, I'm ok with that, lol.

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You've prompted me into donning my vintage Timex digital:thumbsu:

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As an aside, with these vintage digital watches, if you want the day and date to be correct for 2020, set the calendar on them for 1982.....

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3 hours ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

Today I'm wearing my vintage Timex Marathon SSQ, quartz LCD. It totally looks like a watch that belongs on the island of misfit watches. It's brown, gold and homely! For me it's perfect. It's very 70's cheesy, I love it. Plus my wife said it looks like something her dad wore back in the day, I'm ok with that, lol.

20200325_080211.jpg

Love retro!

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