Revisiting an old hobby

[AndyHull]

Here it is, re-assembled.

There are a couple of teeth worn on the winding pinion, so winding is a little crunchy, but I probably have a spare, so I'll address that later. The dial has a mark around the 12 O'clock area, and it needs a crystal, but it runs fine. 

I'll leave it overnight and see how it is going tomorrow, but so far, so good.

 

[AndyHull]

The EB8805 "Dimetron" has been on my wrist for a few days now, so I thought I'd pop it on the time-grapher and check to see how it is getting on.

Not bad at all. Its amazing what a little TLC can do.

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

Much as I am enjoying the "Dimetron", there are a couple of others in the to-do pile that I needed to take a look at.

This is the first of them. The mechanism got a quick clean, and a fresh AG10, and now it is ticking away nicely.

That still leaves the crystal and the crown. I can easily fit a temporary crown, and possibly then source a genuine one online, or simply go for one of the close matches I have in my stash.

The crystal on the other hand has me stumped. How do I accurately cut shapes from 1mm thick glass I wonder?

"Very carefully" would be the obvious response, or perhaps "with a fantoosh $10,000 specialist glass cutting machine" might be another, but bearing in mind the theme of this site is "watch repair talk ", rather than "send your watch to Longines and complain about the eye watering glazing bill - talk",  what suggestions does anybody have?

The original glass is flat and of uniform 1.09 mm thickness, without a beveled edge, so it should be possible to do this with a little skill and imagination I would have thought.

In the meantime, while I come up with a solution, I have cut a temporary cover from some acrylic to protect the dial and hands.

Before anyone asks, this one doesn't quite make it in to the 404 club, but it did leave plenty of change from a tenner, and I couldn't resist a bargain.

[AndyHull]

The pile of Slava automatic parts arrived, and I had a quick rummage through them last night.

I started with that green pile of snot on the right, and after a lot of cleaning and a small amount of brute force, I extracted the mechanism from the case. It was held in by a stem that was rusted solidly in place.

Once extracted, it got torn down. I discarded the dial into my scrap pile for the time being, it is a complete mess. I then cleaned and partially re-assembled the mechanism, to the point where it is all ticking away nicely, but still dialless. The only part other than the dial and stem that needed replacing was the day disk, but there were a couple of clean examples in with the rest of the spares.

It is now running on the bench, as is the mechanism with the red hands next to the cardboard box in the picture above. That case needed a 322 crystal (which I had) and a stem (which I do not have).

So, I'll need to source  couple of stems, and do a little more work, and I should have two complete working dual barreled automatics.

With a little more part swapping, I may even be able to get one or perhaps at a pinch two more going, using the remaining stuff and parts from another donor in my spares pile, but I may be short of some keyless work bits.  I'll keep you all posted with my progress.

I did some damage though. While attempting to remove the dial, I had the "green gunker" movement in a movement holder and it kept popping out.

I then grabbed it between my thumb and forefinger to get a better grip.

Thinking to myself "I had better be really careful here, or I'll stab myself in the thumb with this screwdriver", I then proceeded to stab myself violently in the thumb with the screwdriver.

Much profanity and not a little blood later I passed my wife with my thumb in my mouth. "What are you doing" I was asked. I refrained from replying "Nothing dear, just bleeding to death", as I headed off to grab the Dettol and the Elastoplast.

So today I have a throbbing left thumb with an interesting blue tattoo mark. Sometimes I wonder if this game is too dangerous and perhaps I should take up something safer. Base jumping perhaps.

[AndyHull]

It has been a bit of a busy couple of weeks recently, but I have managed to find a little spare time to fix a few things. A couple of other watches distracted me from the USSR's finest mechanical marvels in the previous post.

Here are four recent 404 faces to keep you amused while you wait for me to get back to the Secondas.

Most of the repairs were minor. The Timex requiring nothing more than a full service.

The Orion on the other hand, is a jigsaw of left over BFG 866 parts salvaged from my junk pile. It runs surprisingly well considering its somewhat random origins. Not quite COSC, but certainly within the +/- 15 seconds per day range. Currently, fully wound it is sitting within about 4 second of keeping pace with the Pulsar kinetic that also distracted be from the Russian junk pile. Whether it will keep up this sterling performance remains to be seen, but I'm pretty confident it will.

[AndyHull]

Batman returns   - The early Texas Instruments LCD (Batman face) has a crack in the plastic case, so I'll need to fire in a little bit of epoxy to fix it, and until that is addressed it is a little trick to set, hence the cryptic 0:00 on the dial.

The Gold face is the same Marlin  I posted about recently, and the other Marlin was this evening's full restoration job.

[AndyHull]

The Lanco - Langendorf 25 (aka 1725) arrived in the post this morning. I would guess this is from the 1920s or 1930s. 

I gave it a quick once over to see how much pocket watch you get for £2.20 (+p&p) and was pleasantly surprised.

After a partial strip and clean I have proved it will actually go. The palette clicks over nicely in response to a slight nudge, but there are a few hurdles to jump before it is fully functional.

It needs an hour and minute hand (Ranfft states these are "Hands 2.05 x 1.20/0.25 mm" ) - which I suspect are the easy part, and it needs a few balance parts. To be exact the hairspring, roller table and jewel, balance pivot and the regulator arm.

Alternatively, if there is a source of a complete balance, then the thing will be fully working once more.
 

[AndyHull]

Another Timex Marlin got its first service for many a year. It is ticking away nicely on the side table beside me, along side the Orilux and the Dimetron.

This one from 1974 (dial code 27851 02774) is more of a whale than a marlin, although it does fit on a 19mm strap, so I popped it on a fresh black leather number. It could also do with a fresh crystal. I'll change that if it makes it through the next 24 hrs without any issues.

Oversized watches were all the rage back in 1974 too, it seems.

Also in 1974  August 9 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his resignation on August 8, effective at noon on August 9. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States upon Nixon's resignation.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Edited December 1, 2019 by AndyHull

[jdm]

On 11/4/2019 at 9:32 PM, AndyHull said:

The crystal on the other hand has me stumped. How do I accurately cut shapes from 1mm thick glass I wonder?
"Very carefully" would be the obvious response, or perhaps "with a fantoosh $10,000 specialist glass cutting machine" might be another, but bearing in mind the theme of this site is "watch repair talk ", rather than "send your watch to Longines and complain about the eye watering glazing bill - talk",  what suggestions does anybody have?

I think that 1.1mm glass, which is hard to find, is better replaced with 1.2mm 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33059331401.html
Sapphire is also cheaply available.

Spectacles lenses are ground to shape by any average optical shop. A watch crystal is not different, you could try asking your local shop or just get a suitable wheel for the mini bench grinder or rotary tool and give it a go. Something that is in my plans also.

Edited December 3, 2019 by jdm

[AndyHull]

I'm very happy with the way this one turned out. The case has very slight wear on the back, but other than that it is pretty much immaculate.

The dial is as fresh as the day it left Dundee, and it is ticking away very nicely following a quick clean.

Not bad considering it is 37 years old, and only cost just over two quid. 

Edited December 6, 2019 by AndyHull

[luiazazrambo]

On 10/19/2018 at 10:45 AM, AndyHull said:

I have a couple of other basket case watches ordered from ebay. I set myself an artificial ceiling of £4.04 per watch (although I have already blown that a couple of times), as I figured that there was a lot of fun to be had from resurrecting an item destined for landfill and costing less than a trip to the coffee shop.

My day job involves computers, and I dabble in electronics as a hobby, which means I'm fairly patient, and used to dealing with very small fiddly components, and already have a bunch of small tweezers, screwdrivers, clamps, magnifiers and so on.

 

 

Hi Andy,

I like your 4.04 price tag, i am also in electronics and IT. Tend to buy these time pieces as a job lot so the 404 can be maintained.  What is that SW you use for analyzing the the watches? Maybe it was already asked ,but I have not finished with all of the over 300 comments you received.

Br, Lui

[luiazazrambo]

My Mrs forced me to go for holidays, but i secretly managed to read all of the 14 pages while I pretended sunbathing.  Ok, maybe it was not fair to say, but i kept reading whenever I had a few moments and internet was available. I enjoyed my reading and it turned out that you have not received 300 comments, but this is just the few of the steps you made on your journey. Should I have known it I have read through this earlier.

I found the answer for my question on page 3 as far as I remember. I have seen two watchmaker mics on facebook marketplace for cheap but i missed that opportunity unfortunately. Anyway I am going to try the timgrapher software out as soon as I find the download page for it.

Based on the content you posted it seems to me that you operate the same model of junkmagnet and you have the same perspective of life when it comes to watches/clocks.  Actually this thread inspired me, i should have done the same and post the pictures and things I have done so I would have a history which could be vital considering my state of long and short term memory and as a plus some might have even enjoyed it.

All the best. Keep this going if you can, and don't go so often for holidays (the wish of this community) !

Lui

ps: i am not just struggling with broken screws, but often with English, hope it is good enough to understand it though.

 

[AndyHull]

Hi Lui,

Sorry for the late reply, but I'm on holiday staying with my wife's family over in India at the moment, so not much watch related is going on. Glad you figured out the tg software question. I'll post more when I'm back and have a few of the latest 404 candidates on the bench.

Andy.

Edited December 30, 2019 by AndyHull

[mpm235]

Welcome!

[AndyHull]

I'm trying to identify this pocket watch movement. It shares a lot of similarities with some of the Jungans movements, the J69F for example, but isn't sufficiently similar to any of them for me to say it is Junhans. it *may* be, and given that it is stamped "Foreign", it is almost certainly German in origin, so Jungans is a possibility.

 

If I can positively identify it, then I have a batter chance of finding a stem for it, however even if I can't I may take a stab at fabricating one, using something from my junk pile.

Edited March 3, 2020 by AndyHull

[oldhippy]

If you remove the hands and dial,  take a good clear photo of the keyless work that is what we need to see. 

[AndyHull]

I'll do that when I get a spare moment.

[AndyHull]

Any ideas? The interesting thing is that the case doesn't seem to match the watch, despite the fact that it all fits together nicely. Notice the lack of a hole for the hand setting pin.

Edited March 4, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

 

 

A square cased 1971 Timex Mercury joins the club today. It got a quick clean and service, so it went from locked up and fully wound to around  -10sec/day. The crystal still needs some attention, but other than that, it is pretty good shape.

Here it is next to my current favorite the 1969 Marlin I fixed the the other day, which has been on my wrist ever since. I've run out of straps (again), so I'll need to pick up a few more, perhaps something similar to the one on the Marlin for the Mercury.

[JerseyMo]

14 hours ago, AndyHull said:

 

 

A square cased 1971 Timex Mercury joins the club today. It got a quick clean and service, so it went from locked up and fully wound to around  -10sec/day. The crystal still needs some attention, but other than that, it is pretty good shape.

Here it is next to my current favorite the 1969 Marlin I fixed the the other day, which has been on my wrist ever since. I've run out of straps (again), so I'll need to pick up a few more, perhaps something similar to the one on the Marlin for the Mercury.

the square case is a Marlin......

and here is a lot I picked up this past Sunday.

[AndyHull]

3 hours ago, JerseyMo said:

the square case is a Marlin......

and here is a lot I picked up this past Sunday.

Thanks for the correction.  You've got yourself a nice little haul there. One or two look to be early sixties.

 

[JerseyMo]

yes, even one from 1958 \ 9 

[AndyHull]

5 hours ago, JerseyMo said:

yes, even one from 1958 \ 9 

I look forward to seeing them restored, particularly the 1958/59

[AndyHull]

I posted this Luch in the "Watch of Today" thread earlier today, but what perhaps doesn't come across is the fact that there is actually quite a pleasing texture to the dial.

When I spotted it in a pile of junk in the job lots on ebay, I assumed the dial would be a simple flat white one, like some of the Sekonda USSR era watches I have, but the appearance of this one is subtly different.

I bought this as much for for the USSR era quartz movement I hoped would be inside (as indeed it was) as I did for the interesting "сделано в CCCP" dial.

The mat finish has a slightly silvery sheen, which jumps out much more, now that the crystal is starting to look a little more pristine.

[AndyHull]

An EB8800 based "Digital Swiss Chromatic" took its turn in the queue today.

Picked up as a non runner, it was completely gummed up, but responded well to some TLC.

I'm not a huge fan of jump hour watches, but this one is actually quite attractive. It has 18mm lugs, but looks quite large on the wrist.

The crystal still needs a little more finishing, but otherwise I'm pretty pleased with this latest member of the 404 club.