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Hmmm, I forgot about this thread. I've been wearing this one for the last week after I got it freshened up again.

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And this is what I started with.

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On 11/21/2022 at 1:29 AM, grsnovi said:

New macro focus rail. 18 images focus-merged. Didn't think about the fact that the second sweep and minute hand would move during the 18 separate exposures (so a quick edit to replace the whole second hand dial).

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Very nice result with the focus stacking! I've been meaning to mess with it a bit for macro shots. What focus rail are you using? 

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6 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

What focus rail are you using?

I purchased a Novoflex Castel-L from B&H Photo here in the States. Very smooth adjustment. So far I'm happy with it. It has been criticized for the way it holds the camera as well as the amount of travel per 360° turn of the adjustment knob but as I said, it's working fine for me on 1:1 macro shots.

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Edited by grsnovi
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On 11/24/2022 at 11:46 AM, gbyleveldt said:

Hmmm, I forgot about this thread. I've been wearing this one for the last week after I got it freshened up again.

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And this is what I started with.

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Very nice result with the focus stacking! I've been meaning to mess with it a bit for macro shots. What focus rail are you using? 

Love it our bearded wonder 🙂. Is it real matey ?

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5 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

hahaha noooo. I've had someone else repost some of my pics on a local auction site as their own so now I watermark everything.

Lol. Cheeky blighters.  I did think it was a bit too finely detailed, wouldn't mind meeting the person that did it. Aw matey do it, its a part of what you are about. 🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...

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This Suizo 1950s AS1361N 10 micron gold plated Automatic got an outing today. It is a gents watch, but is quite a diminutive piece (as was typical for the time). It is also very well engineered. The plating has a few wear marks, but other than that it is looking pretty good for its age.

There is one minor discrepancy though. The dial states 25 jewels but the rotor says 21 jewels. Oh well, I guess nobody's perfect.

It got a new crystal as the old one had resisted my best polishing efforts, but still wasn't up to scratch. I also treated it to a period correct 17mm dark green leather band from a job lot of 1950s or 1960s straps I picket up recently. 

Before you ask, no, I am not responsible for all of those scratches on the rotor, they were there long before I got my hands on it.

Suizo is almost certainly a Achille Hirsch brand.

 

Edited by AndyHull
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Boy, did I ever get lucky!  I went back to a local antique mall (more of a flea market, really) early this morning to buy something I'd seen several days ago. And it was still there!  And this time, I had money!

A Girard Perregaux Gyromatic.  Not running, so they weren't asking much. I bought it and went straight home to my bench.  Cleaned, inspected, oiled, regulated, and now it runs quite nicely. Fitted with a nice patent leather strap, and I've been wearing it this evening.

I often turn about and sell many of the watches I rescue and repair, but not this one.  Not this time.  I took a liking to it rather quickly. 

Addendum:  it has a 17j GP 21.19 plated with gold.  It's a jem to look at.  And a 14k gf case which took a nice polish.  The original crystal is not too terrible at all, so I'm thinking of leaving it on.

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Edited by KarlvonKoln
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That spectacular Girard Perregaux Gyromatic and the diminutive Suizo above reminded me a somewhat of this ETA 1080 based 1950s Linaso Candido, so I dug it out and gave it some fresh air too.

I'm fascinated by the elegance of these smaller 1950s watches. So much more refined in my opinion than the majority of recent designs.

Edited by AndyHull
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Bentima Star 1940s I think AS1240

£3 Charity Shop find. Needed a new balance staff. Fitted wrong one at first that turned out to be for incabloc (0.1mm too long, staff numbered 724). Eventually got the right staff for non incabloc, numbered 723. Running at 280 degrees DU an hour after full wind. Will see how it keeps time and regulate as needed. Late additional Christmas present for my wife.

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On 12/20/2022 at 11:25 PM, AndyHull said:

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That spectacular Girard Perregaux Gyromatic and the diminutive Suizo above reminded me a somewhat of this ETA 1080 based 1950s Linaso Candido, so I dug it out and gave it some fresh air too.

I'm fascinated by the elegance of these smaller 1950s watches. So much more refined in my opinion than the majority of recent designs.

Love the dial on this watch. Need to get myself a 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 dial.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Seiko 7005-8042 April 1972

Revisited this watch 2 and a half years after I first serviced it. Never ran as well as I wanted it to with poor amplitude and timekeeping. With the extra experience I've gained over that time I have managed to get it running really well. Running consistently in wear between +0.5 and + 1 second per day. Dial up/down amplitude 280 degrees 1 hour after fully wound. Not bad for a 50 year old Seiko. Thanks must go to Kalle at Chronoglide watchmakers for all his great teaching via his YouTube channel. If you've not seen this then it is wholeheartedly recommended, especially the live streams every Tuesday at 8pm.

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9 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Tell us what you did!

Proper cleaning using ultrasonic and L and R ammoniated cleaner and rinse. Followed with hairspring cleaning and demagnetisation in Essence of Renata. I put a bit of that in the Renata screw cap with the balance and hold over the demagnetiser for 20 seconds or so that agitates the hairspring in the fluid. Seems to work well. I did initially have sticky hairspring outer coil that was causing ultra fast rate when the amplitude went over 310 degrees (which happens on wrist at full wind). That would cause sudden random shifts in time keeping.

Remove wear from barrel arbor port (with staking set and smoothing broach). Chronoglide call this 'Hammer Time', I love that.

Make hairspring true in the round and in the flat with proper shaped end curve.

Narrow the space between the regulator curb pin and boot so that vertical position rate doesn't drop drastically due to the reduced amplitude.

Then just regulate at around +2 SPD DU as a starting point and cross fingers. Fine regulation is difficult and I find the tiniest movement of the regulator arm can change the rate by about 7 seconds.

Really though if you want to see how the Pros work then take a look at the Chronoglide channel, I promise you will be hooked.

 

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12 minutes ago, steve1811uk said:

…hairspring cleaning and demagnetisation in Essence of Renata. I put a bit of that in the Renata screw cap with the balance and hold over the demagnetiser for 20 seconds or so that agitates the hairspring in the fluid. Seems to work well…

That‘s a nice idea! 😀

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On 1/6/2023 at 8:00 AM, steve1811uk said:

Seiko 7005-8042 April 1972

Revisited this watch 2 and a half years after I first serviced it. Never ran as well as I wanted it to with poor amplitude and timekeeping. With the extra experience I've gained over that time I have managed to get it running really well. Running consistently in wear between +0.5 and + 1 second per day. Dial up/down amplitude 280 degrees 1 hour after fully wound. Not bad for a 50 year old Seiko. Thanks must go to Kalle at Chronoglide watchmakers for all his great teaching via his YouTube channel. If you've not seen this then it is wholeheartedly recommended, especially the live streams every Tuesday at 8pm.

IMG_20230106_144600888.jpg

Thanks to your tip I have started watching some of the videos on The Chronoglide channel, very informative. 

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Another find at a local flea market: a 1918 Elgin trench watch.  It was in sad shape when I found it.  Needed a thorough cleaning, might have had dirt from a bloody ditch in France clogging some of the nooks and corners, the hands were bent.  But outside of all that, hardly any scuffs and no dents or dings.

I did the usual COA, straightened the hands as best I could, did a bit of light cleaning on the dial, and got the old thing going pretty well again.  I'm glad I didn't need to swap out any parts because I'm understanding that, particularly with antiques that also count as war memorabilia, it is important for the piece to be as original as possible.  That said, it had no strap when I found it so I had to replicate a strap (could not afford a genuine vintage strap).  I'm enjoying wearing it, but this one is listed on Ebay because I need the money.  Rough patch right now and I am switching to a different day job, which is horrible timing but I can't go along with certain matters of ethics where I am now.  But I may wear it now and then until it sells.  It's not really my style, but it's an endearing old thing.

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Edited by KarlvonKoln
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I picked this up back in 2020 and have only just managed to take a proper look at it and get it running correctly.

It contains a rather unique sunburst silver dialled, "H Samuel" branded, West German (so pre 1990) six (eight?) jewels "(un?)adjusted" PUW 681A,683A quartz alarm movement. The relatively rare  movement is obviously the thing which caught my eye.

When I saw the original ebay listing I didn't know it was PUW and thought the movement might be byJunghans, Glashütte or someone similar. As it happens I wasn't far from the mark. Junghans did use some PUW movements back then. If you search for PUW on ranft you will find that in addition to Junghans, Lip, Cupillard, Dugena, Bulova, Gruen, Kienzle and various other brands also used PUW movements at different times.

When I originally got it I stuck a battery in and it ran, but the alarm didn't work.


There appeared to be a missing spring contact, to connect the piezo speaker in the case back to the circuit board.

Also there seemed to be no obvious way to set the alarm time hand.

Since I had no other information about it I put it to one side until the day I could figure out how to fix it.


Today was that day. I started with an internet search on the movement number, which is stamped in microscopic letters next to the battery holder, and actually found a copy of the "Technic Information" here -> https://www.emmywatch.com/wp-content/plugins/watchsearch/inc/documents/puw--681a-683a--movement_parts.pdf

Armed with the documentation, I now had the necessary info to figure out where the original spring attached to the circuit board, so I fabricated one from a gold plated scrap Ronda battery spring and soldered it in place.

The "Technic Information" also shows the less than obvious method for setting the alarm, so now I can wake up to a rather odd and tinny rendition of the Mexican hat dance.. at least I think that is what the weird alarm melody is.

Setting the alarm is a slightly clumsy operation, since you need to press the button with the winder in position 2, hold it in, and turn the crown at the same time.
This is obviously almost completely impossible while wearing the watch, and even if you take it off, it is still a rather awkward two handed operation.

To silence the alarm, you press the button, but to set it again, you pull the crown back to position 2 and press it back in. "Alarm Set" is indicated by that red flag next to the date. "Alarm Unset" replaces the flag with an all white one.

Having said all that, if you are a heavy sleeper, you are out of luck, as it is relatively quiet and also only plays three rounds of the "tune" before it shuts up again.

Perhaps more usefully though, the movement also hacks, so accurately setting it to the second is easy. Not all quartz movement from this period did hack.

A little more information about PUW including their partnerships with many well know brands (including Glashütte and Junghans) can be found here -> https://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Pforzheimer_Uhren-Rohwerke_GmbH_(P.U.W.)

English translation here -> https://watch--wiki-org.translate.goog/index.php?title=Pforzheimer_Uhren-Rohwerke_GmbH_(P.U.W.)&_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

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Like a lot of brands, they were absorbed by SMH/Swatch Group.

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More PUW Caliber PDFs here -> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B279zYzmTSk3Qm02WndOV2ZjWmc?resourcekey=0-t_QXKmKyubzp2gvWvmV7pg

 

Edited by AndyHull
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On 1/9/2023 at 10:01 AM, Razz said:

Thanks to your tip I have started watching some of the videos on The Chronoglide channel, very informative. 

I like that channel too. I do wish he was a little more concise. He can, literally, take an hour to get across a concept that could be summarized in a paragraph in 2 minutes so I find that I don't watch his videos as much as some others. But he seems such a nice and friendly guy that sometimes I don't mind the time sink.

 

This was a really cheap ebay find that came with the original (I think) band which was the main reason I bought it. The listing said it needed some TLC and that "Keeps time but sometimes you can't set the time". Just needed a cleaning and is good to go.

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7 hours ago, GuyMontag said:

I like that channel too. I do wish he was a little more concise. He can, literally, take an hour to get across a concept that could be summarized in a paragraph in 2 minutes so I find that I don't watch his videos as much as some others. But he seems such a nice and friendly guy that sometimes I don't mind the time sink.

 

This was a really cheap ebay find that came with the original (I think) band which was the main reason I bought it. The listing said it needed some TLC and that "Keeps time but sometimes you can't set the time". Just needed a cleaning and is good to go.

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Beautiful watch. I'm always on the lookout for a 1970s Bulova. I've restored two up to now, a gold plated Seaking for my neighbour and a silver sector dialled model. They are really nice quality inside and out.

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8 hours ago, steve1811uk said:

Beautiful watch. I'm always on the lookout for a 1970s Bulova. I've restored two up to now, a gold plated Seaking for my neighbour and a silver sector dialled model. They are really nice quality inside and out.

For sure, their "gold" movements really catch the eye.

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17 hours ago, GuyMontag said:

I like that channel too. I do wish he was a little more concise. He can, literally, take an hour to get across a concept that could be summarized in a paragraph in 2 minutes...

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I feel the same way. I know English isn't his first, but often I sure find myself wishing I could urge him to "get to the point". Still, the guy knows his stuff and is nice. Not that I would do any better at all, but I'd try to keep working on getting better if it was me. Maybe he'll keep working on it and the quality will steadily improve over time. I hope so.

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15 hours ago, Vinito said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I feel the same way. I know English isn't his first, but often I sure find myself wishing I could urge him to "get to the point". Still, the guy knows his stuff and is nice. Not that I would do any better at all, but I'd try to keep working on getting better if it was me. Maybe he'll keep working on it and the quality will steadily improve over time. I hope so.

Actually, I love Kalle's laid back relaxed demeanor. Typical Dutch I believe, so different from how people behave in the UK. I love watching how much delight he takes from working with watches and sharing his knowledge in such a relaxed way. The pace of life can be too fast these days and watching Kalle is a way for me to unwind and learn along the way.

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