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2 minutes ago, JohnD said:

If we are 'going digital' today how about my only Timex digital?

vNWtfLx.jpg

 I had a problem with the display fading out and had to do a total strip down, removing the LCD and connecting strips and cleaning all with alcohol prior to re-assembly to cure it.....

In the lot where the Sheffield and the Texas Instruments was acquired, I also recieved the Timex SSQ digital below. It is also fading in and out after a new battery. I suppose I'll be doing the same as you did for yours. I may need a new LCD as there is bleeding on the left most edges.

2104768680_s-l1600(30).thumb.jpg.d6842bd2035a40cd03eee025ef94f53d.jpg

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On 3/12/2020 at 8:30 AM, FLwatchguy73 said:

In the lot where the Sheffield and the Texas Instruments was acquired, I also recieved the Timex SSQ digital below. It is also fading in and out after a new battery. I suppose I'll be doing the same as you did for yours. I may need a new LCD as there is bleeding on the left most edges.

2104768680_s-l1600(30).thumb.jpg.d6842bd2035a40cd03eee025ef94f53d.jpg

Finding the correct display will be a challenge. You will find many that look similar but are not interchangeable.

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On 3/11/2020 at 1:32 PM, FLwatchguy73 said:

"Lic. Ato. West Germany"    I think

20200311_093010.jpg

I have got to the bottom of this:-   

"The Hatot Company was among the first to embody in their instruments important improvements in horology. Their first patents ware filed on 16th September 1953, but the Hatot Company did not have sufficient funds to exploit their numerous patents worldwide, so they granted licences to several of the principal horlolgical producers in the industrialized countries which is why there exist throughout the world millions of watches and clocks signed L.Leroy & Cie., Ebauches S.A., Junghans, Westclox, Smith & Son, Bulova, Jaz et General Time, all carrying the words 'Lic.ATO.'"

Thus it appears that ATO's application of the transistor switch for watches and clocks was patented only in France but license was granted to a few major watch and clock manufacturers.

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9 hours ago, JohnD said:

Thus it appears that ATO's application of the transistor switch for watches and clocks was patented only in France but license was granted to a few major watch and clock manufacturers.

ATo-Movement.jpeg.ea6ee3feb79653f94c2b32b4698e3623.jpeg

This is roughly the schematic of an ATO clock or watch circuit. The balance works like a mechanical balance, and thus controls the period of the oscillator, but the balance in turn is driven in pulses from the transistor. The feedback to let the transistor know when to send the next pulse is sensed by the sense coil, closing the feedback loop. Simple, but effective. There is usually a current limiting resistor, and often a spike suppressing diode in the circuit, but the above is the basic circuit from which all of the variants are derived.

See also :-

 

Edited by AndyHull
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I've been working my way through the stuff I picked up on ebay, while I was on holiday, which is why there has been a bit of a splurge of postings lately. One of those things was a blue dialled and "gold" cased manual wind Komandirskie .

I paid slightly over my usual 404 price tag for this, but not much. The strange thing about Komandirskies and Amphibians is that they go for almost as much used, as you can pick up one new for, so finding one in the 404 range, even one that was in terrible condition was proving impossible, so I eventually compromised and pulled the trigger on this.

It arrived in fairly terrible condition, but still a couple of quid over budget, but.. that blue dial.. I just couldn't resist.

RIMG0680.thumb.JPG.0e099afcbed8cf2e8947a17796926823.JPG

RIMG0684.thumb.JPG.0f10e6a0746ee09d874f740de75c0ae5.JPG

I treated it to a dark navy (almost black) strap, and a full service, and a prolonged clean and crystal polishing session (the crystal had more scratches than clear patches).

It also wouldn't wind, and it came with the original (terrible) strap, which was sorta blue, and sorta leather, maybe... but was so completely disgusting that it had to go. 

image.png.c959895f84a2e423b69dc284a5838c7f.png

OK, it is utilitarian and slightly heavy for my normal tastes, but it is also highly entertaining, and those numbers speak for themselves. I could stare at that blue dial all day. It looks good on camera, but even more eye catching in real life. I'm well pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks Mark for the inspiration.

 

Edited by AndyHull
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Hi Andy, well done, a lot of watch for the price of a packet of fags! Far more entertaining and much better for you. I have no Russian watches but having hands like shovels maybe I should. Think I will put one on the shopping list along with a Strela ! :biggrin:

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1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

I've been working my way through the stuff I picked up on ebay, while I was on holiday, which is why there has been a bit of a splurge of postings lately. One of those things was a blue dialled and "gold" cased manual wind Komandirskie .

I paid slightly over my usual 404 price tag for this, but not much. The strange thing about Komandirskies and Amphibians is that they go for almost as much used, as you can pick up one new for, so finding one in the 404 range, even one that was in terrible condition was proving impossible, so I eventually compromised and pulled the trigger on this.

It arrived in fairly terrible condition, but still a couple of quid over budget, but.. that blue dial.. I just couldn't resist.

RIMG0680.thumb.JPG.0e099afcbed8cf2e8947a17796926823.JPG

RIMG0684.thumb.JPG.0f10e6a0746ee09d874f740de75c0ae5.JPG

I treated it to a dark navy (almost black) strap, and a full service, and a prolonged clean and crystal polishing session (the crystal had more scratches than clear patches).

It also wouldn't wind, and it came with the original (terrible) strap, which was sorta blue, and sorta leather, maybe... but was so completely disgusting that it had to go. 

OK, it is utilitarian and slightly heavy for my normal tastes, but it is also highly entertaining, and those numbers speak for themselves. I could stare at that blue dial all day. It looks good on camera, but even more eye catching in real life. I'm well pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks Mark for the inspiration.

 

I have the exact one mark featured in his video, love the patina'd dial.

1939047567_s-l1600(6).thumb.jpg.038cd20b8df663a4639da909e9e77df8.jpg

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8 hours ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

I have the exact one mark featured in his video, love the patina'd dial.

I saw a couple of those too and was  tempted, but they were well above my self imposed budget, so I kept looking. When that blue dialled number showed up, my steely resolve to stick to the budget caved in. :biggrin:

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Today I'm wearing my new to me, 1976 Omega Constellation quartz, Ref.391.0011. I got a spectacular deal on it because they couldn't prove to me that it worked at the pawn shop that was selling it. This watch has the in-house quartz movement model 1330. What the pawn shop didn't know, but I did was the fact that when you set the time the traditional way with the crown, only the hour hand sets. There is a hidden button in the middle of the crown to set the minutes. Once I put a fresh battery in it, the minutes set perfectly and it has been running since. I love the sleek angular styling and the simple black dial. This originally came with a polished mesh band which I'm going to source one similar as this leather one has seen better days. Also did a little homework on this watch and the original MSRP was £295. Adjusted for inflation, that's £2357.05 or $2892.10 US, by no means a cheap watch. This is my second and definitely not my last Omega!

20200315_064349.thumb.jpg.a2110eac1a32bdfeeeae03e6f88e9c1d.jpg

20200315_063743.thumb.jpg.5cae71dea33f029b83c46a25475bf418.jpg

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20191028_155722.thumb.jpg.82765745334069f6e8edadee5e7d377b.jpg

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47 minutes ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

Today I'm wearing my new to me, 1976 Omega Constellation quartz, Ref.391.0011. I got a spectacular deal on it because they couldn't prove to me that it worked at the pawn shop that was selling it. This watch has the in-house quartz movement model 1330. What the pawn shop didn't know, but I did was the fact that when you set the time the traditional way with the crown, only the hour hand sets. There is a hidden button in the middle of the crown to set the minutes. Once I put a fresh battery in it, the minutes set perfectly and it has been running since. I love the sleek angular styling and the simple black dial. This originally came with a polished mesh band which I'm going to source one similar as this leather one has seen better days. Also did a little homework on this watch and the original MSRP was £295. Adjusted for inflation, that's £2357.05 or $2892.10 US, by no means a cheap watch. This is my second and definitely not my last Omega!

20200315_064349.thumb.jpg.a2110eac1a32bdfeeeae03e6f88e9c1d.jpg

20200315_063743.thumb.jpg.5cae71dea33f029b83c46a25475bf418.jpg

20200315_063802.thumb.jpg.12791276508fc4b3306f4c40372e61d6.jpg

20191028_155722.thumb.jpg.82765745334069f6e8edadee5e7d377b.jpg

Result! (a little specialist knowledge can be a real advantage sometimes:D)

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My offering for today, a Unitas 6310 powered E. Marten, just off the bench.

P1080387.thumb.JPG.08d1103f10a261a671822116116fcc16.JPG

Not a brand I have ever come across other than this one. Style wise I would have put it anywhere from the early '40's to the late '50's but size wise it's quite large for that period at 37mm excluding the crown.

P1080384.thumb.JPG.3206387f239180aac4de49279cd88133.JPG

The lovely clean and simple lines of the UT6310.

 

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2 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Searching for "emarten" gives this

Curiously the dial is signed EMARTEN, but the movement is E. MARTEN.

The other curiosity with this watch is that the case is plated (nickel I think) base metal, but the bezel is unplated, and it looks intentional, maybe to emulate a gold cap.... unless it is a gold cap!!

I love the boat logo though.

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5 hours ago, FLwatchguy73 said:
6 hours ago, AndyHull said:

There are  not many Emarten watches on the web either, but this one is pretty interesting.

s-l1600.jpg

I LOVE the chronos from that Era! 

That is pretty damned gorgeous...

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9 hours ago, AndyHull said:

There are  not many Emarten watches on the web either, but this one is pretty interesting.

s-l1600.jpg

That appears to have a Landeron 149 movement in it...

TVR3Rpu.jpg

The same as my Jaquet Droz example from the late 1960's....

zMSbixw.jpg

4UaQigF.jpg

If anyone really wants an EMarten Chrono, like this, there is currently a rather lovely 18K gold cased one on eBay for about £1200 and a not so lovely, GP cased one, at about a third of the price.;)

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Today I'm wearing my newly acquired 1978 Timex Quartz Watch. Visually it is the brother to the Falcon Eye with many similar styling cues. As with every new watch I acquire that has a balance, I gave this one a shake to see if the balance would swing. After several attempts, there was zero movement. This was definitely troubling because of the unknown element. When I got the watch open, I discovered the balance was overbanked. I tried fiddling with what I could gently reach with a screw driver to coax it back into the correct position, but to no avail. I ended up having to disassemble the balance and set everything in the correct orientation. After trying to place the balance back and losing the battle with the permanent magnet I ended up pulling the hands and removing the magnet, dial and date assembly and assembling the balance that way. After all of that I placed a battery in and off it went, Running like a champ! I polished the crystal this morning and it is currently on proud display. 

20200317_054931-01.thumb.jpeg.0102255087eb04422f18fa7433afd4e8.jpeg

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30 minutes ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

Today I'm wearing my newly acquired 1978 Timex Quartz Watch. Visually it is the brother to the Falcon Eye with many similar styling cues. As with every new watch I acquire that has a balance, I gave this one a shake to see if the balance would swing. After several attempts, there was zero movement. This was definitely troubling because of the unknown element. When I got the watch open, I discovered the balance was overbanked. I tried fiddling with what I could gently reach with a screw driver to coax it back into the correct position, but to no avail. I ended up having to disassemble the balance and set everything in the correct orientation. After trying to place the balance back and losing the battle with the permanent magnet I ended up pulling the hands and removing the magnet, dial and date assembly and assembling the balance that way. After all of that I placed a battery in and off it went, Running like a champ! I polished the crystal this morning and it is currently on proud display. 

20200317_054931-01.thumb.jpeg.0102255087eb04422f18fa7433afd4e8.jpeg

The secret of not having the whole movement, fall apart on these M40 derivatives, when removing the balance, is first when you remove the cover plate over the balance assembly, is to replace the fixing screw and re-tighten BEFORE undoing the two similar screws that hold the balance assembly in place. Also be aware that the screw that holds the cover plate in place, while looking the same as the other two screws is slightly shorter and can be recognised by a slight chamfer on the head. If this screw gets mixed up with the other two the longer screw will interfere with the day wheel on watches with day/date complications....I stripped and rebuilt a Dynabeat watch three times (which came with a jammed, non operative day/date change), before I realised that the wrong screw had previously been fitted and that was what was stopping the day/date operation....:mad:

Edited by JohnD
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2 minutes ago, JohnD said:

The secret of not having the whole movement, fall apart on these M40 derivatives, when removing the balance, is first when you remove the cover plate over the balance assembly, is to replace the fixing screw and re-tighten BEFORE undoing the two similar screws that hold the balance assembly in place. Also be aware that then screw that holds the cover plate in place, while looking the same as the other two screws is slightly shorter and can be recognised by a slight chamfer on the head. If this screw gets mixed up with the other two the longer screw will interfere with the day wheel on watches with day/date complications....I stripped and rebuilt a Dynabeat watch three times (which came with a jammed, non operative day/date change), before I realised that the wrong screw had previously been fitted and that was what was stopping the day/date operation....:mad:

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.

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