Watch of Today

[rehajm]

2 minutes ago, Waggy said:

"I am no Jedi yet".

Use The Force Waggy…trust your feelings!!!

…I love the love for the pins

Edited September 23, 2023 by rehajm

[rossjackson01]

14 minutes ago, Waggy said:

Working on a Rocar (Ebauches Bettlach Cal. 8135) which is really putting my Padawan skills to the test - "I am no Jedi yet".

However I think I may have spotted 2 issues, the first being a mangled hairspring:

 

Usually I would have walked away from this, but decided to 'give it a go' and it ended up like this:

Quite proud of myself

Here is issue number 2.... can you spot it:

Replaced the jewel using my jewelling tool (another first!)

Lets hope those were the last of the surprises!

Good man you are. I'm now at my skill level where I am going to try to repair mangled balance springs. Microscope at the ready.  Well actually in a few days. Can't concentrate to well after a tooth extraction and infection . Hence watching Youtube and reading 'Talk' posts.

[RichardHarris123]

Everite King. ETA 980. New crystal.. It needs a strap, what do you think would be in keeping for this age and style of watch?

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Waggy said:

Working on a Rocar (Ebauches Bettlach Cal. 8135) which is really putting my Padawan skills to the test - "I am no Jedi yet".

However I think I may have spotted 2 issues, the first being a mangled hairspring:

 

Usually I would have walked away from this, but decided to 'give it a go' and it ended up like this:

Quite proud of myself

Here is issue number 2.... can you spot it:

Replaced the jewel using my jewelling tool (another first!)

Lets hope those were the last of the surprises!

Well done waggy, you straightened out that little blighter .

1 hour ago, rossjackson01 said:

Good man you are. I'm now at my skill level where I am going to try to repair mangled balance springs. Microscope at the ready.  Well actually in a few days. Can't concentrate to well after a tooth extraction and infection . Hence watching Youtube and reading 'Talk' posts.

Bless you Ross , tooth pain , the closest pain a man can get compared to the fairer of our kind popping out a small human

2 hours ago, rehajm said:

I love the love for the pins

Someone has to , are you crazy ?

[Waggy]

4 hours ago, rehajm said:

…I love the love for the pins

At least the timegrapher has no problem picking them up!

BTW I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I didn't notice that the staff was broken. It wasn't until I removed the jewel to clean it that I noticed it floating around in there. Mrs W. asked if there was a way to fix it..... she didn't approve the purchase of a lathe.... but Christmas is coming soon, so you never know!

[Neverenoughwatches]

10 minutes ago, Waggy said:

Mrs W. asked if there was a way to fix it..... 

Hey matey, at least she took an  interest and asked a question. Thats some kind of win, unless you went on and on and on and on about it and she was just trying to shut you the hell up

[Waggy]

After my defeat at the hands of the Rocar  I decided to try another, an Orient. After battling with the pallet fork, balance, date finger wheels (the horrible plastics ones), putting on new dial feet, crystal, crown, winding stem and second hand (ship of Theseus??) I finally managed to get it up and running.

Wearing it into work today after a first pass at the regulation after assembly, I'll tweak it tonight, but seems to be running well.... So far.

Black strap is just temporary, thinking of getting a grey one as permanent one... Any thoughts?

Edited September 25, 2023 by Waggy
Added some extra background

[AndyHull]

8 hours ago, Waggy said:

Any thoughts?

Grey sounds like it should work, or how about a dark navy blue?

My lunchtime fix for today. Not much to say, new crystal obviously, new battery, full fumigation and case clean and polish. The original Rotary strap was almost unworn, so it also got a fumigation and was re-used. 

 

.. and here is the Montine I did the other day for comparison.

I'm spoilt for choice.

[RichardHarris123]

9 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

Grey sounds like it should work, or how about a dark navy blue?

My lunchtime fix for today. Not much to say, new crystal obviously, new battery, full fumigation and case clean and polish. The original Rotary strap was almost unworn, so it also got a fumigation and was re-used. 

 

.. and here is the Montine I did the other day for comparison.

I'm spoilt for choice.

Maybe I should start a new thread on watch straps, we've all seen the amount of cheese on watches, I do wonder about straps. 

[AndyHull]

6 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Maybe I should start a new thread on watch straps, we've all seen the amount of cheese on watches, I do wonder about straps. 

Mostly they go in the bin. Occasionally if it is interesting, unusual or unused, then I may take the time to clean it and re-use it.
I also tend to save interesting buckles and such like, to put on to fresh leather.  I figure cleaning metalwork is a lot simpler and safer than trying to fumigate well worn old leather.

Leather is pretty tough stuff though, so a little diluted bleach and a lot of scrubbing goes a long way. Rejuvenation with neetsfoot oil or leather rejuvenation products can work wonders.

[Waggy]

19 hours ago, Waggy said:

Black strap is just temporary, thinking of getting a grey one as permanent one... Any thoughts?

I tried a few, but blue was close but not close enough and grey didn't work, so went with a steel bracelet in the end which seems to set it off nicely.

I always struggle with strap selection, in a way they can make or break to look of the watch. But it's such subjective thing I guess there are no hard and fast rules to help. However, this is not what this thread is about so maybe worth starting a new thread to discuss?

11 hours ago, AndyHull said:

My lunchtime fix for today.

@AndyHull Great job on the Rotary by the way! I always have a soft spot for Rotary as it was the first watch I ever 'wanted', I remember it was a square black and gold one. Similarly Accurist which was the watch I bought with my first pay check and still have it.

Here is the new thread:

 

[Waggy]

It was a public holiday here in the UAE on Friday, so I decided to put it to good use and work on a watch that has been on my to-do list for a while which is an automatic Zodiac square watch. The build went well, however I am still ironing out the bugs in my scope camera and ended up losing all the photos I took of the pre-build and build  this also made the re-build a challenge as the calendar works side was a little unusual (bridge over the cannon pinion).

So only have a picture to show of the before and finished watch, the dial was in great shape under a beaten up crystal which I replaced. I didn't do much with the case as the plating was already starting to wear, so just a quick polish with some Flitz.

Here is the before:

 

And here is the completed watch:

 

[steve1811uk]

1 hour ago, Waggy said:

It was a public holiday here in the UAE on Friday, so I decided to put it to good use and work on a watch that has been on my to-do list for a while which is an automatic Zodiac square watch. The build went well, however I am still ironing out the bugs in my scope camera and ended up losing all the photos I took of the pre-build and build  this also made the re-build a challenge as the calendar works side was a little unusual (bridge over the cannon pinion).

So only have a picture to show of the before and finished watch, the dial was in great shape under a beaten up crystal which I replaced. I didn't do much with the case as the plating was already starting to wear, so just a quick polish with some Flitz.

Here is the before:

 

And here is the completed watch:

 

I'm interested to know what type of crystal you fitted as it looks quite low profile.

[Waggy]

It was just a regular acrylic crystal, nothing special.

[Waggy]

Another productive weekend, I fixed my Orient which suddenly stopped, on inspection I found a blue fibre wrapped around the escape wheel... no idea how it got there. I then decided to do a Seiko 7009 from 1985 that I purchased recently from speedtimerkollektion. On reassembly I noticed that the centerwheel was cracked around the inner diameter where the pinion is fitted... very strange (sorry forgot to take a picture). The crystal broke when I took it out (of course!) so I had to replace, hence the missing 24 hour numbers which were painted onto the original crystal. Everything else is original including the bracelet. Before and after pictures:

Here is the movement:

Our old friend Mr Glue! - no dial feet:

I replaced the dial feet using my new mini soldering gas gun and low temperature solder paste, worked a treat, and here is the finished watch, complete with fingerprints (Doh!):

Let me know what you think

 

I gave it a rough calibration, but will wait 24-48 hours to do the final calibration.

[RichardHarris123]

Looks great, well done. 

[steve1811uk]

Looks great, would love to hear some more details of how you did the dial feet, equipment, materials, technique etc. I would be afraid to cause damage to the dial using heat.

[Waggy]

3 hours ago, steve1811uk said:

Looks great, would love to hear some more details of how you did the dial feet, equipment, materials, technique etc. I would be afraid to cause damage to the dial using heat.

This is the low temp (138 °C) solder paste I used:

And here is the butane solder torch:

I don't have my full set up here yet, so I used a dial foot reamer to mill a slot in the dial (see below), I then put a blob of solder paste in the milled 'hole' and the placed the dial foot with the sticky solder paste holding it in place, about 3 seconds of heat (if that) with the torch on low setting and it melted and stuck the foot in place. Worked a treat, the short blast of heat was enough to melt the solder, but not enough to travel through the dial to the other side (too much) and damage the front of the dial.

I have switched to solder as I have had poor results with epoxy and super glue, slightest force and the feet popped off.

My plan is to use the small dial feet and remove the need to mill a slot, but they aren't here yet:

Here is the dial foot milling machine I used, but will not need soon:

Edited October 8, 2023 by Waggy

[RichardHarris123]

Posted this on which watch have you got coming in the post.  Its a  ST 96, running well, it was filthy.  A good clean and it's looking good.  The bracelet has no guilt left at all. 

[ManSkirtBrew]

Haven't worn this guy in a while. Nice Benrus with a commemorative band from the Hoechst company. Cool little piece of history and a very handsome watch.

 

[Razz]

My work in progress 1983 serial numbered Seiko 6309-836b or Seiko 5 sports diver with Pepsi bezel. With the original bezel insert and a "NOS". Slightly different size numbers on the new insert. Aftermarket bracelet goes very well with the case, I think. Hands are in good shape except for the lume. Slightly scratched glass. Re-lumed, new glass, and polished case this would pop quite a bit more but is quite nice as it is as well.

[mikepilk]

Just finished working on this 70s Paul Jobin 25 Jewel ETA 2772. As expected from  ETA, easy to set up and great performance on the timegrapher.

I'm wearing it today for a test. BUT . . .

I didn't realise until yesterday, when I was casing it up, that this movement joins those ETA movements with the infamous design flaw. i.e. if you don't have the crown in the hand setting position when removing the stem, the clutch is not constrained, and the yoke can come out of the slot.

 . . . so off with the hands, dial, date mechanism to reset the yoke and clutch 

I've added a note in big red letters in my copy of the service sheet.

 

 

[steve1811uk]

I've had the same issue on a 2788 and 2789. Great movements, very accurate. It's one of those mistakes that you try and only make once.

 

Love the dial by the way.

Edited October 18, 2023 by steve1811uk
Added text

[mikepilk]

1 hour ago, steve1811uk said:

I've had the same issue on a 2788 and 2789. Great movements, very accurate. It's one of those mistakes that you try and only make once.

Only a second out after wearing it all day. Great movements, and cheap to buy if not in a big name brand. 

The 2772 doesn't have quick-set date unlike 278x, which is a bit of a pain.

[rehajm]

This one was part of a very profitable lot of ‘costume’ jewelry and two watches. From the pics I knew at least one of the strands of pearls was real and it turned out to be two strands with gold clasps. $$$ and a ladies gold longines I have yet to investigate..

…anyways, Mark L. posted a video of servicing a Chinese fakie movement so for fun and practice I gave this one a go…

Notice the sticker remnants to hold the dial in place

…a gear tumbled out when I opened the case. After cleanup and laying things out for assembly the top wheel on the setting lever was missing so the staking set made it right. Everything works but if I turn the winding stem- yes, it winds, if I turn the stem towards twelve the little date wheel becomes disengaged from the date ring…

The punch line- it regulated DD in beat and zeroed but it was horrible in all the other positions- one to two minutes, fast and wobbly. Just for fun I cased it up and wore it to dinner three days ago, played golf and wore it around the house…and as I write it has maintained perfect sync with the sweep second on my phone clock…what are those manufacturers playing at?  Kind of makes it hard to bin it…

Edited October 21, 2023 by rehajm