Jump to content

Hi from Maryland USA


DPhillip

Recommended Posts

Hello,

I joined last weekend but realized I posted as a reply and should have opened a new topic - I have a small collection of modern and vintage watches and just recently got two of the windups below working again after they seemed to be stuck for years.  This site looks like a great place to learn how to take care of them properly.  I also hope to learn what is needed to fix my Lejour chronometer, which I accidentally broke recently.    My vintage watches are all gifts from my father, who likes to collect one here and there; none are high value but all are interesting for their connection to history:

Here is a list and I am posting photos:

 

Modern:

Orient Mako II automatic dive watch (brand new)

Pulsar quartz chronometer (dates from approx 1990)

Seiko quartz dress watch

Vintage:

Lord Elgin mechanical (runs)

Waltham mechanical (runs) 

Elgin DeLuxe Shock Master mechanical (runs but needs a back - it disappeared)

LeJour Chronometer (needs repair)

Duane

Maryland/USA

DSC_0130_314.JPG

DSC_0149_320.JPG

DSC_0150_321.JPG

DSC_0159_324.JPG

DSC_0163_327.JPG

DSC_0164_328.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the replies - I am happy the photos came out well and turned out to be easy to post.  As it happens, #4 and # going up from the bottom have issues.  My father just recently gave me #4, an Elgin with a screw-on back.  It works great and keeps time very well - but the back is missing!  He wore it quite a bit and said the back worked itself off while he was walking and he lost it.  Not sure if this is a bad idea but I am currently winding it daily and leaving it inside a closed box, hoping it won't pick up dirt.  Let me know if this is stupid.  I don't know if I will ever find a correct back for it or if I need to get a different case for the face and movement. 

#5, I plan to post a repair advice request after a bit - this one if from the 50s or 60s I think.  It looks different, perhaps earlier, than pictures of LeJours I saw online.  It has a Valjoux movement.  My father, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, gave it to me when I was commissioned as a 2d Lieutenant in 1982.  I wore it on active duty in Germany and for several years after.  Eventually it stopped working and one of the small hands fell off.  But it turned out the watch itself just needed a cleaning.  A reputable, reasonably priced watch repair professional in the town I lived in took care of both about 10 years ago.  I then moved a significant distance away and later the watch stopped again - or so I thought.  I took it to someone else, who took it apart and told me it would be expensive to fix. Turned out he was wrong - I took it back to the person who had cleaned it and he had it running almost immediately - apparently I was not turning the crown hard enough and was thinking the resistance was a jam of some sort.  But it is normal for this watch.  But my watch guru also said two screws that fixed the movement in the case were missing - the movement was bouncing around inside.  So the person I had just recently taken it to apparently lost them.  

Not happy about the screws, I wanted to see where they were supposed to go and removed the movement from the case.  This required pressing a detent and pulling the crown out.  Being an idiot, I forgot to press the detent when I replaced the stem.  And damaged the watch, apparently.  Everything went out of line.  My good repair expert looked at it again and reassembled it, but said parts to really fix it are unavailable.  He is very elderly and sick so is now out of the picture.  But I really want to fix my watch. 

DP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • in general this shouldn't be any change. but in general questions like this it be nice to know the specifics of the watch in other words how was it performing before it was cased up and what is it doing now.
    • just as a reminder this watch is a Swatch group product. This will bring up a problem like spare parts and technical information. that I found some links to some information on when I talk about your watch and some of the technical and basically your watch is equivalent to 2834-2 for which I'm attaching the technical sheets. But equivalent does not mean exactly the same you want to do a search on the group for C07 as we discussed this watch before including the technical differences how it's supposed to be regulated and basically because it's watch group there is no parts availability. https://calibercorner.com/eta-caliber-c07-xxx/   https://www.chrono24.com/magazine/eta-movements-from-the-2824-2-to-the-powermatic-80-p_80840/ https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/h-10-movement-details.4636991/ eta CT_2834-2_FDE_481857_15.pdf
    • people be honest.... Swatch is evil for the watchmakers and repairers, BUT not everything in watches from Switzerland is from the Swatch-Group. As far as i know, Selitta got sacked by Swatch as a Movement-Assembler for them and they started to produce Movements in their own Name with slight Modifications. As far as i know, they sell Parts to the Market for their Movements. In most cases, if a ETA-Movement fails, it is a valid Option to replace it with a Selitta Movement, which i consider the Solution for this Mess with the Swatch-Group...... I have no Connection to anybody at Selitta, but being a Swiss-Guy, i still like to have Swiss-Made Watches, but not from the Swatch-Group.   ok ? regards, Ernst
    • Just one more greedy act by Swatch. They started a number of years ago here in the US..cutting off supplies to watchmakers that could build complications that many Swatch houses couldn't even touch. Old school masters who had gone through some of the most prestigious houses in the world. Otto Frei has some statements on their page about it. I tell all my customers to avoid new Swiss watches like the plague,..unless they just want an older one in their collection that still has some parts out on the market, or they have really deep pockets and don't mind waiting months and paying through the nose to get it back. Plenty of others to choose from..IE Seiko,..or other non-swiss brands Even a number of Chinese brands are catching up with the Swiss,..and I think that in time, their actions will be their downfall
    • Yes. If that's not what you are experiencing...start looking for something rubbing. A 1st guess is that one of the hands is rubbing against the hole in the center of the dial. Especially if you now have lower amplitude in face up/ face down positions.
×
×
  • Create New...