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Best movements for practice?


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The watch came today, the first thing I did, of course, was opening the case. It has a screwed back with 14 edged polygon. I used the Jaxa opener and it worked perfectly. BTW could not to too much wrong: another scratch won't be realized.

The watch case seemed to be severely polished. On the bottom you can see severe traces of corrosion. Has anyone of you seen such a corrosion before?

The movement is running with a 2ms beat error and 30s/d slow. Nothing to worry about. The picture on the timegrapher is pretty even.

I can see that the movement was serviced earlier by a maybe not too gifted watchmaker or a beginner like me. A couple of scratches and the screws look like if the wrong screwdriver was used. All in all it looks OK. I saw a blackish color on the teeth of the second wheel. It seems like the teeth are oiled for some reason.

On the dial side the scratches around the center reveal that someone took off the hands without protecting the dial.

But 150 EUR is a bargain I would say.

Any comments on my "forensic investigation" highly appreciated.

Cheers Alexander

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Edited by AlexanderB
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That's a great starting movement! I recommend you take pictures every few parts you take off, and be careful not to turn the elliptical screws. That way if you cant remember how it goes, you have pictures to fall back to, even if you have a service sheet.

 

Good luck! Chronos are my favorite!

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Thank you. Of course, I will take pictures every single step.

25 minutes ago, HorologicalHobby said:

and be careful not to turn the elliptical screws.

Can you please elaborate on that? I haven't seen elliptical screws so far (maybe because I wasn't looking for them).

Luckily I found a service manual for this movement online with some details of how to disassemble it.

BTW this movement is huge compared to the ladies ETA 2369 and 2551.

Cheers Alexander

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So elliptical screws adjust how far in or out various pieces of the chronoworks go. They look like regular screws but dont come out, they are oval shaped at their base, and you turn them to depth components. So your manual will tell you which screws to take out, it's pretty obvious normally. they dont usually hold anything down.

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Thank you. This is a very good information. I'll watch out for them. But before I start I will work on a couple of other movements. Need some more practice. Quite happy that I was able to service am ETA 2369 recently. Didn't work any more. Now its working again.

Cheers Alexander

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What I found out as a beginner is that I need a backup movement in case something goes wrong. Spares are not easily available, hence I was looking at another bargain. And I found another watch with a 7733 movement for 156 EUR including shipping.

I like this one even better from the design. The second hand is roughly at 1 o'clock so there is something to repair. Hope to get it by end of next week and show you more when I have it. When I look at the prices for the 70's watches with Valjoux 7733 they are usually beyond 500 EUR. 

I will open a new thread when I start working on that but I will do services of at least five more movements just to get more practice. With the support of you guys I will be able to manage this.

Cheers Alexander

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I finally got the second watch of this kind. Unlike the first one with an ETA 7734 (w/ date) this one has an ETA 7733 w/o date.

One thing I noticed when I tried the first one was the stop watch mechanism. I wasn't abel to restart the stopwatch after starting and stopping it. I thought that this might have been the case earlier. But... it wasn't. The watch with the 7733 I got today works flawless besides the fact that the big second hand is not alinged. Not a big deal.

I looked at both movements and it seems that the 7734 has a problem with the setting mechanism of the stop watch. That's good, because I can repair it!

I will start a thread in the walk-through section as soon as I start with this. If the weather is as bad as it is announced I will service a small "Anker" Ladies watch tomorrow. Before I start with the chrono, I will service five more movements, to practice.

Cheers Alexander

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Edited by AlexanderB
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Beautiful projects, Alexander! I'll be very interested in following your progress and more since I enjoy the pictures too! I'm sure I will learn quite a bit of both: horology and photography! :)

Cheers,

Bob

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  • 8 months later...

I have worked with Timex's for the past couple of years and just completed my first overhaul of a Seiko 6119A...and I have another 6119C in progress as well.

I see a lot of vintage watches on ebay, flea markets and antique shows that can be had inexpensively because they are not running. 

My question is this - What brands/movements are known for being relatively easy to work on (for a beginner) and have a higher rate of restoration success?

Thanks!

Scott

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Any swiss movement with a jewel count of 15 and above is good. I would stick with the more common makers, ETA, AS, FE.

Seiko's are good but you wont learn about hand-winding clutches and reversor wheel on most of their common movements,

Avoid....Timex, EB (or any pin-levers), ladies sized movements.

A watch with higher jewel count will be easier as the jewels are dished on the inside, but you need to be aware that the cap-jewels should be installed (on the main-plate) before assembly.

HTH

Anil

 

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Just now, anilv said:

Avoid....Timex, EB (or any pin-levers), ladies sized movements.

I have one EB1197 watch, it was leaked but had no serious issues. After cleaning and service it is surprisingly accurate. 15 jewels and pin lever escapement :D 

I had to make a new stem for it:

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I think every movement has its own beauty, so i suggest to try to repair so many different watches as possible. I would go for movements with different constructions. For example a few sub second movement s first, then some center second movements. Then direct and indirect driven seconds... This one above has a tilting setting mechanism (i hope it is called like this in english). 

I would leave for the end the wristwatches with date and day complications. One need some experience to handle those little screws and springs not to lose.

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SZBALOGH,

Good to see some time spent on the EB.... If no one valued them, in another 20years they'll be as rare as rocking-horse p00 and the next generation of watch collectors will be paying big bucks for them!

For sub-seconds.. while interesting and well-worth giving some attention to, its quite easy for a beginner to break the sub-seconds pivot where it sticks out on the dial side...removing the seconds-hand is also a bit risky as I've broken a few due to carelessness.

Anil

..

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11 hours ago, jjfast said:

eta 6497-1 easy to work on.....

 

16 hours ago, rodabod said:

Omega 30T2 and later variants (see Ranfft) is a joy to work

 

9 hours ago, anilv said:

Any swiss movement with a jewel count of 15 and above is good. I would stick with the more common makers, ETA, AS, FE.

Thank you all, I'm compiling my list! There is a big antique show in two weeks here and I will be keeping my eye out for these.

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  • 8 months later...

My only experience with watch work is replacing batteries and bracelets but I'd like to learn to service my own watches. I have a few with issues and would appreciate some guidance on which one to start with ie the easiest one to service, the idea being that if I don't stuff it up I'll gain some confidence to move on to the next one.

I have the pictured watches to work on, with the exception of the Seiko they are non goers,  the Seiko loses around 4-5 min a day. The unmarked "relic" with the Unicorn movement was found by me as a 5yr old (I'm now 67) while walking home from school, it was promptly taken from me for safe keeping only surfacing when my father passed away around 5 yrs ago, just as well as I seriously doubt it would still be around if I'd been allowed to keep it. I suspect that what is left of the lume is the old Radium type as I can't get a glimmer out of, I have read that this type of lume eventually ceases to work just leaving the Radium behind to continue giving off radiation for the 1000 or so years. With the exception of the Unicorn I took them all to a local watch maker he advised they were not worth repairing.

Any suggestions on which one to start with would be welcome - at present I only have basic tools, but will be taking a break from my model engineering hobby to make what I can. Lastly I have a now working Ultrasonic cleaner salvaged from a skip located behind a dentist surgery - is this suitable to use as a parts cleaner ?

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I've yet to service any quartz movements and I'm looking recommendations on a few different calibers to  practice on.

I've read that the Seiko 7546 is meant to be a good one to learn on, so will look at chasing one of those up, but I'm also looking for a Swiss movement to practice on too.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

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I use a small ultrasonic designed for jewelry. I use lighter fluid to clean the parts: I put a small amount in small plastic pots and sit them in the ultrasonic filled with warm water. I then rinse in isopropanol to remove the oil residue.

I would recommend buying some scrap pocket watches to practice on. Much easier to work on

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The Wostok's are easy to work on. Depending in the movement, parts are cheap. I would assume that your watch has a Wostok 2209 movement. With a bit of luck you will find 6x or 10x scrap 2209 movements on eBay for around $15. If you find some scrap movements, you have plenty parts to give it a try and learn...... just my 2-cents  ;)

Edited by Endeavor
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The 7546 is very similar to a mechanical 6309. It happens to be the first Quartz movement I serviced, and it was ok (I had already done plenty of 6309, so the dial side felt familiar!)

 

otherwise I would say a 955.112 is a good choice, because you find it in so many watches.  There are plenty of spare movements on ebay should you need spares. There is also the usual ETA service manual, so you know exactly what to do with lubrication, orde of assembly etc...

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