First watch

[p2n]

As I mentioned in the intro post - have decided to try my hand at watch repairs - as a hobby only.

I had a poke about and found one guide that contained this useful piece of advice: "You'll almost certainly break the first movement you work on so don't practice in the family heirloom!" Seems reasonable so I bought a "not working" mechanism from ebay for £6 to have a go on.

My goal: take it apart and rebuild it without breaking it or making it any worse than it started.

I almost managed it as well .

I checked I'd let the tension out of the mainspring by lifting the clicker and gently rotating the winder - it seemed to be full let down. It wasn't - it was just stuck. So when I started removing the bridge over the gear train it decided to let go. As a result I lost the minute hand.

Other than that I managed to disassemble and then reassemble the watch without further mishap. While apart I had a look at the mechanism in closer detail. The hairspring is broken and a little mangled and the balance jewel is cracked. Probably not fixable (let me know if it can be done with limited tools), but that's not why I bought the thing in the first place.

Not sure what make it is either.

 

Anyhow - that was #1. I've attached some photos I took - meant to take more during the process but got a little absorbed and forgot.

On the lookout for movement #2 ...

 

 

[anilv]

Thats a nice watch! Not exactly what I would have recommended but for 6pounds its ok. The dial is in pristine shape, try to find the missing hand.. if this hobby develops you may have skills in the future to bring it back to life.

A better bet would be a Seiko or Russian watch (raketa is good) which can be found in running condition on the net. Problem with dead watches is you cannot gauge your progress. If you start with a running watch and put it back together then you know you've got it right for the most part.

If you get stuck post on the 'watch repair help section' .

Good luck

Anilv

 

 

[p2n]

6 hours ago, anilv said:

try to find the missing hand.

It's not missing in thats sense - I still have all the pieces . The suddent acceleration when the mainspring unstuck was a little too much for it.

To get it going I'm going to need a regulator, hairspring and balance staff jewels. I need to keep an eye out of ebay for spares for that movement I guess.