Watch of Today

[yankeedog]

collective brain power is amazing..

[Nucejoe]

4 minutes ago, yankeedog said:

collective brain power is amazing..

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. 

Will Rogers

WRT too, is an instrument of communication.

[ricardopalamino]

6 hours ago, Johnnie said:

And today it's another Seiko, the first watch I really "got into" and repaired and finished. Thanks mainly to the excellent guidance I received from fellow forum members.

Really clean example of this watch ,...Nice work Johnnie .

They say , "like minds think alike" , ........That may be true .

 

 

[AndyHull]

I'm wearing one of the Timexes today. It looks reasonable on the time-grapher, but gained about three  minutes left face up on the desk over 24hrs, so I decided to see if it was better behaved on my wrist before diving in and fiddling.

The strap is probably from roughly the correct period, but I'll most likely substitute a leather one.

These springy old bits of metal tend to wear out the lugs, and since this old fella is pre 1962, probably mid to late 1950s I feel it needs something gentler to keep it company. I also need to check the junk pile to see if I have a suitable second hand for it. 

The Lorus went on the other wrist shortly after I took this pic, so that I don't scratch either of them by bashing their heads together.

Edited May 18, 2019 by AndyHull

[yankeedog]

This one just came off the work bench.The progeny of two movements with different issues.it has more positional variation than I like,but it is shuffling along pretty well.genuwine leather strap from the Wal-Mart discount bin set me back a whole 99 cents

[m1ks]

Vintage Vostok newly fitted strap so first wear.

Edited May 18, 2019 by m1ks

[yankeedog]

Well abused Elbon.DIY leather strap.

[AndyHull]

"Andrew The Hatton" from the mid 1950s finally got a little of the much needed TLC I promised it, when I was waiting for it to arrive back in December. Sporting what I think is a Amida caliber 553 17 jewel variant, it is a bit of a rarity I think (rare ≠ valuable however). I'm probably wrong however, so any better guesses are welcome.

It obviously still needs a crystal, and got a more thorough scrub and polish after I took these pictures, as I clearly didn't make a perfect job of it the first time. The marks on the dial were there when it arrived, and I haven't dared to even think about cleaning the dial yet. I'll probably leave that well alone.

Another non-runner, needing the usual clean and service. It seems to be running reasonably fine around +40s/day, although the error is a little high for my liking at 3ms or so. I'll wear it and keep an eye on it for the next 24 hrs just to be sure it has survived my servicing efforts unscathed.

I thought you might like to see my patented case back opener. aka a short length of carpet tape. This stuff is scarily sticky, so it makes an ideal substitute for the no doubt very expensive bespoke opener that adorned the shelves of the original service centers back in the day. It also doesn't leave any sticky residue. If this hadn't done the trick, I was going to superglue a nut on the case back, another useful trick to avoid marring things when you don't have the custom case back opener you require.

If it keeps ticking for the next day or so, I'll spring for a crystal for it (which may represent a doubling of the cost of my "investment" ). 

Edited May 20, 2019 by AndyHull

[margolisd]

This little cocktail watch was an eBay non-runner. I cleaned it, oiled it, replaced the mainspring and worn barrel arbour, fixed a bend in the hairspring, reduced the hole size in the minute hand, new crystal . And I also did some dynamic poising. I've got it running within 15secs per day in all positions. It's by far the tiniest movement I've worked on. Everything else seems comparatively huge now!

The only annoying thing is I accidentally rubbed off the Omega logo whilst attempting to clean the dial 

 

[yankeedog]

1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

"Andrew The Hatton" from the mid 1950s finally got a little of the much needed TLC I promised it, when I was waiting for it to arrive back in December. Sporting what I think is a Amida caliber 553 17 jewel variant, it is a bit of a rarity I think (rare ≠ valuable however). I'm probably wrong however, so any better guesses are welcome.

It obviously still needs a crystal, and got a more thorough scrub and polish after I took these pictures, as I clearly didn't make a perfect job of it the first time. The marks on the dial were there when it arrived, and I haven't dared to even think about cleaning the dial yet. I'll probably leave that well alone.

Another non-runner, needing the usual clean and service. It seems to be running reasonably fine around +40s/day, although the error is a little high for my liking at 3ms or so. I'll wear it and keep an eye on it for the next 24 hrs just to be sure it has survived my servicing efforts unscathed.

I thought you might like to see my patented case back opener. aka a short length of carpet tape. This stuff is scarily sticky, so it makes an ideal substitute for the no doubt very expensive bespoke opener that adorned the shelves of the original service centers back in the day. It also doesn't leave any sticky residue. If this hadn't done the trick, I was going to superglue a nut on the case back, another useful trick to avoid marring things when you don't have the custom case back opener you require.

If it keeps ticking for the next day or so, I'll spring for a crystal for it (which may represent a doubling of the cost of my "investment" ). 

I love the hasty engraving  seventeen  1 jewels

[AndyHull]

8 minutes ago, yankeedog said:

I love the hasty engraving  seventeen  1 jewels

I was thinking about that, I suspect they had a bunch of rotors, all inscribed in bulk "           1   Jewels Swiss " which then got "Twenty One 2" or "Seventeen   7" inscribed on them later, depending on the movement they were destined for.

Alternatively this was a bit of a Friday watch.

It is still ticking away nicely after a slightly shaky start (it stopped soon after I put it on, so I manually fully wound it). The amplitude has picked up a bit too, and the rate dropped to -50 from around -40 - the beat error has also decreased to about 2.2ms, so it looks like the lubrication is starting to settle in.
 

Edited May 20, 2019 by AndyHull

[yankeedog]

I am just amazed at the quality of work that can be done with a hangover.

[AndyHull]

43 minutes ago, margolisd said:

This little cocktail watch was an eBay non-runner. I cleaned it, oiled it, replaced the mainspring and worn barrel arbour, fixed a bend in the hairspring, reduced the hole size in the minute hand, new crystal . And I also did some dynamic poising. I've got it running within 15secs per day in all positions. It's by far the tiniest movement I've worked on. Everything else seems comparatively huge now!

The only annoying thing is I accidentally rubbed off the Omega logo whilst attempting to clean the dial 

 

These tiny movements can be a real challenge. As to the dial, it is all too easy to do. I cleaned a nasty green mark off one and settled back to admire my handiwork, only to then realize I had also removed part of the word "Swiss"

Edited May 20, 2019 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

6 minutes ago, yankeedog said:

I am just amazed at the quality of work that can be done with a hangover.

Surely that would be a Monday morning watch. A Friday one would be after a liquid lunch, so the hangover hasn't kicked in yet.. not that I would know of course...

[yankeedog]

I will go with Monday. since everything else is good, the person could have been slightly sober.

[HSL]

3 hours ago, margolisd said:

The only annoying thing is I accidentally rubbed off the Omega logo whilst attempting to clean the dial 

What size (diameter) is the dial? I might have a spare if you want to have another try

[margolisd]

Hey. I might buy it from you if you have one. Case ref is 511.016. It's a 620 movement. Diameter of the dial is 17.5mm. Message me if you have one

[Johnnie]

Lecoultre master mariner with bumper movement, 

[m1ks]

Skeleton today, haven't worth this one in ages.

[Johnnie]

Seiko "notch" 

[AndyHull]

1978 Timex Mercury - I finally got this to behave itself.

I could possibly go chasing a little more amplitude, but from >+3600 s/day with a beat error of >14ms and an amplitude of around 140 fully wound following the first cleaning session  to +/- 5s/day, a sub 1ms beat error and an amplitude hovering around 230 degrees is almost good enough to keep the OCD at bay for the time being. Just as well really as I was going cross eyed staring at that hairspring for so long.

Except of course there are still those little scratches on the crystal, (which I have grossly exaggerated by holding the watch at just the right angle to the sun here). Time to do a little more light polishing I think.  But first, I think I'l wear it for a few days, just because I like the look of it, and I'm bound to add to the scratches while wearing it, rather than lessen them.

Its amazing what you can do with a little patience and a couple of sewing needles. The hair-spring-de-nardelling was done with the balance still in the watch, as it is far too much of a faff to take it out, and you run the risk of "fixing it worse" and/or loosing the hs retaining pin if you are not careful.

Edited May 21, 2019 by AndyHull

[m1ks]

20 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

you run the risk of "fixing it worse" and/or loosing the hs retaining pin if you are not careful.

[Johnnie]

Omega Speedmaster 1964, my favourite watch !

[AndyHull]

2 hours ago, Johnnie said:

Omega Speedmaster 1964, my favourite watch !

I like it a lot. That thing is as old as I am, but I suspect it does a lot less creaking and grumbling.

[ricardopalamino]

3 hours ago, Johnnie said:

Omega Speedmaster 1964, my favourite watch !

That's a Beauty Johnnie . .