Revisiting an old hobby

[AndyHull]

It is possible to produce an iconic brown dial, but it is a tricky task.

In my opinion the  troicalized Omega Speedmaster hits the spot a bit better than the Rolex.

[JohnD]

11 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

It certainly isn't Rolex's finest work I agree.

I wonder if the "explosions" are an artefact of the low level radiation. I guess they may also be caused by some chemical process or moisture ingress. 

Maybe I should start a "Show us your brownest watches thread" as an antidote to the blue dials one.

I'll start it with this one......

[AndyHull]

Not the worst example. Quite presentable in fact.

[AndyHull]

Speaking of presentable, this popped up in my YouTube feed, and may be the push I need to try some nickel plating experiments, although the garden is still taking up a lot of my time currently.

 

[JohnD]

2 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Speaking of presentable, this popped up in my YouTube feed, and may be the push I need to try some nickel plating experiments, although the garden is still taking up a lot of my time currently.

 

Very interesting video

[JohnD]

2 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Not the worst example. Quite presentable in fact.

I 'might' be able to find a few more Andy ...........

[AndyHull]

There are many ways to measure time. 

I've been observing this little brown, red, white and grey faced "watcher" for a over a month, and she has been watching me with equal intensity. She tolerates my presence, but I don't want to disturb her, particularly now that all that time sitting around on her eggs has finally paid off.

The grey wagtail by comparison has already fledged with their dumpy little fellow (who was initially taking turns to sleep on the dusty path in the sun and hopping and flapping about indignantly waiting for mother to bring him lunch), now flying with ease.

Mrs red legged partridge on the other hand seems to be leaving things a little late.

Lets hope her offspring make rapid progress, as the summer here can be short, and unpredictable. So far it has been very pleasant. Warm without being too hot, and as a result there should be plenty to fill those hungry mouths.

I suspect some more of my garden seedlings are likely to end up in those fluffy little bellies.
Well you know what they say. "One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow".. well in this case, maybe not the crow, but the partridge instead.

Edited June 9, 2020 by AndyHull

[oldhippy]

How lovely. 

This is what I have been watching over the past few weeks. Click on the black screen. A pair of Osprey's and two chicks. One poor little one died. I felt so sad. 

https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/cams/osprey-cam?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020-04-08-Places_We_Love___Lake_District&utm_content=title_Cumbria_Osprey_Webcam&eid=O912815080973722218488246342522

[AndyHull]

My brothers family are a little further north, not far from Loch Insh, an area I know pretty well from my youth. There are a number of ospreys breeding there.

The most well known being at Loch Garten. I wont reveal the exact location of any of the others I know about, but if you know where to look, you can often spot them fishing or simply enjoying a bit of soaring. There are even some down here nearby on the river Tay. Very impressive creatures. Watching them fish is a fine way to while away a quiet afternoon.

As to loosing chicks, it must be petty disheartening for the parent birds when something kills their offspring. There is a nest in a dead, ivy covered tree close to where I park the car by the house. Possibly a dunnock's nest as one of the egg shells I spotted blowing about on the ground earlier in the year was the characteristic pale blue.

About a month back I found three recently hatched chicks on the ground under the nest. Killed possibly by a rat, stoat or weasel (there are no cats round here so far as I know), but just left on the ground. I peeked in to the nest and there was one chick left.  

About two weeks later I found the bones of the last of those chicks on the ground near one of the sheds, picked clean this time.

There are a lot of hazards for young birds, buzzards, peregrines, sparrow hawks, owls, even the ospreys may catch young birds, although most of their diet is fish. There is also a busy road nearby. All in all its a wonder any of them survive. 

Another place worth a visit if you are in this part of the world, and interested in wildlife is the Argaty red kite centre, near the place I used to live in Stirlingshire. Assuming we are ever able to escape the current virus related lockdown of course.

Here is the grey wagtail fledgling, proving that not all chicks end up as dinner for the predators.

His camouflage was so good that I nearly stepped on him the first time I encountered him on the path.  After a half hour or so he was so used to me hanging about that he bounced right up next to me and started "shouting" I suspect he hoped I would feed him a few grubs.

A day or two later, he was flapping about almost as well as his parents.

[watchweasol]

Hi Andy    an Ornithological  Horologist eh,  We have Strathbeg nature reserve  about 5 miles away always worth a wander for the waders and ducks, and a pair of Swans on the Loch I fish. We have also had the odd osprey helping him self, a better angler than most.

[AndyHull]

16 minutes ago, watchweasol said:

Strathbeg nature reserve 

Near Crimond, if my memory serves. I've not been up in that part of the world for a good number of years, but when I was younger my job involved a lot of driving (and thus skiving when I could get away with it). As a result I explored a lot of that part of the country while enroute to and from various customers.

Wikipedia has a slightly odd horological detail in its article on Crimond.

Quote

The clock of Crimond Church has an extra minute between the eleven and twelve making for 61 minutes in the hour. The clock mechanism was repaired in 1948 by Zygmunt Krukowski, a former Polish soldier, who adjusted the frequency of the pendulum by adding and removing penny coins. He also repainted the clock face with the correct number of minutes. The subsequent furore resulted in a further repainting with restoration of the extra minute. The clock is electric but the original movement is kept in the church as a display in memory of the late councillor Norman Cowie OBE who raised the funds for the new electric clock.

Some of you may also know Crimond as the name of the tune which is often associated with Psalm 23, and yes, this is one and the same Crimond. Not far from Tarwathie (where?!), also associated with a fine tune.  In fact quite a lot of place names in Scotland are associated with folk tunes, so even if you are not particularly religious, there is bound to be some pace or another that you have heard of due to its appearance in song.  You could probably drive round the country with nothing more than a mix tape to guide you.

[watchweasol]

Hi Andy   spot on, A nice part of the country although the local accent at speed is a foreign language.  I look out over Inverallochy golf course and the sea, Windy but nice

Been watching the sparrows feeding the young, Goldfinches are busy at the sunflowerhearts, they are all very entertaining.  If ever up this way you will always get a cuppa here.

[AndyHull]

1 hour ago, watchweasol said:

If ever up this way you will always get a cuppa here.

Thanks,  always assuming we are ever allowed to go out for a cuppa of course.

[AndyHull]

After the Timex setback at lunchtime, I decided to take a look at a couple of first generation LCD watches.
None of your fancy Casio G-Shocks here, these are watches with "LCD Processors" in them. Well that is what the PCB silkscreen on the Odyssey says any way. 

A Citizen Chrystron LC and an Odyssey Executive 25 Alarm. 

The Citizen is the Rolls Royce of the two, and the Odyssey is more of a Ford Escort, but none the less they now both work.

Battery corrosion was causing issues in both, and the Citizen needed a new quartz crystal. A little TLC, consisting mainly of some light rubbing with a fibreglass pen, cotton buds and some denatured alcohol was also required. The light in the Odyssey seems to be dead, so I may have to address that somehow. White LEDs wont work directly on the 1.5V cell, so some "magic" may be needed. I'll have to have a think about that.

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

I thought some of you might like this.

https://hackaday.com/2020/07/10/its-time-for-watch-clocks-to-make-a-comeback/

[AndyHull]

I've been wearing one of my recent 404 club watches quite a lot recently. The Sekonda on the left in this picture. 

Some might suggest I'm drawn to it because the big numerals are easy for my old man eyes to deal with.

I couldn't possibly comment on that.

However the real reason I've been keen to wear it is because I decided to torture lubricate it with my witches brew of fragrance free baby oil and neatsfoot oil. I have tried this on a couple of Timex mechanicals, and nothing exploded, so I thought I would risk it on a "real" jewelled piece.

Now I am most certainly not recommending this experimental concoction in place of oils from a recognised manufacturer, however I am curious to know how well it stands up to the rigours of actual wear.

Given that the formulation I chose is only a guestimate of what is actually in genuine watch oils, the result could well turn out to be disastrous, but so far it seems to be doing remarkably well. 

When the poor victim arrived, it was completely gummed up and wouldn't run, so it was treated to a fairly conventional strip and clean service, followed by lubrication with my "special formula'.

Here is the result after 24 hrs on the wrist.

For comparison here is the result of re-winding the watch and letting it settle for a minute or so, before testing once more.

So I guess I must be at least in the correct ball park with the viscosity, as I have been wearing it for about a week and the performance has been consistent.

So far nothing has migrated to places it shouldn't have, and the warmth of my wrist and the relative chill at night don't seem to have made any measurable difference to its performance. 

Of course the real test will be to see if it is still going strong in a years time or so.

Edited September 30, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

Not content with torturing just the one poor innocent time piece, I also subjected a couple of others to the same shameless treatment.

The gold Sekonda on the left in the first picture, and the Roman dialled Chinese Sekonda are also part of my evil science experiment. 

Here is the trace from the gold Sekonda. So far, not too shabby. Lets see if they stand the test of time.

Finally, here is the Chinese standard movement Sekonda.

The swing is not as energetic as the others, but that may simply be down to a slightly more tired mainspring.

Edited October 1, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

We just came back from the supermarket and while putting the groceries away I spotted this little creature sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. I presume it must have either hopped in through the kitchen door, or hitched a ride on one of the grocery bags.

Just in case you are wondering, it is a European common frog (Rana temporaria). This year seems to have been particularly good for frogs, as the garden was full of them earlier in the year.

I'm not sure if this was down to the lockdown, which may have allowed a lot more of them to escape being squished on the busy main road nearby, or maybe there was less farm activity, less bug spraying perhaps when they were maturing.

Edited October 2, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

A quick morning health check from the lubrication experiment USSR Sekonda.

This is it before its morning wind. Still going nicely.

... and here it is wound back up and ready for another 24hrs. Not bad for a 1970s USSR movement.

All of the others are still going nicely too.

Edited October 7, 2020 by AndyHull

[Tudor]

On 5/24/2019 at 10:56 AM, AndyHull said:

If anybody happens to know off the top of their head what the lift angle for an EB8800 is, it would save me a bit of googling.

Not off the top of my head, but off a chart I have... 42 degrees

[AndyHull]

Thanks. I couldn't remember if it was 42 degrees or 52 degrees, and for some reason Mr Google didn't seem to know either.

[Tudor]

No problem. I happened to have the file open (excel) as I was changing it from 80 pages long (!) to 40 by putting two columns per page. 
 

Im going to print it for the shop, but I searched for 8800 and found yours on the second hit. 
 

Something I farmed from the web and the ones I know correlate, so I have reasonable trust in it. 

[Tudor]

On 8/10/2019 at 8:04 AM, AndyHull said:

At the risk of entering deep and dangerous waters, what does anybody know about rubber?

 

I've seen a couple of these on ebay, but generally they sell for well over the 404 club membership rate, but this one presumably wasn't shifting and the seller messaged me with a buy it now offer of three quid, so I took the plunge.

From the pictures in the listing I could see that the condition of the watch was pretty poor, and when it arrived, it was fully wound and locked up solid. The case had a big dent in the "hubcap" back and the "tyre" is somewhat perished and cracked. The watch is complete, and one of the older examples, judging by the mechanism (Made in Scotland of course )

Getting it working was the easy bit, although it did take a couple of cleaning cycles, as the hairspring was very sticky (and as a result slightly conical). Mechanism running and dial cleaned,   next came dent removal, for which a little light "panel beating" with a rounded dowel and a hammer proved very effective. Following a quick minor polish (keeping the vintage look), you would never know the dent was there.

However the major issue is the rubber. Is it even possible to restore cracked and brittle rubber I wonder? Should I make a cast clay or plaster mold and cast myself a new tyre from silicone sealant?

What experience does the membership have of rubber?

I've got a cool Firestone (I think) tire ashtray from when my Dad has his Foreign auto repair shop... Rubber is in much better condition- I think it was made by Firestone, and is essentially an actual tire (just smaller).

That's all I've got on it. I've never seen a Timex tire before.

[Tudor]

On 9/18/2019 at 10:39 AM, AndyHull said:

More Russian fun. A before and after picture of the Sekonda which I posted about previously.

This particular caliber the Raketa 2628.H also has a date quick change by pulling the crown to position 3 returning to 2, rinse, repeat etc.. A bit of a novelty when you have been dealing with ancient Timexes, with all of their fiddling with spinning backwards and forwards of the hands round midnight to get things set correctly.
 

The older Omega movements "quick set" the date the same way.

[Tudor]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:46 PM, AndyHull said:

If you are referring to the wrecked Sicura then yes, that is one of mine, and it is still a bit of a work in progress. I'm looking for suitable hands for it. It runs fine, but in my opinion, the hands need to be a little more interesting and 1970s.

It recently acquired a new bezel, which I may modify too, as the name Voyageur suggests that a time zone bezel was more likely than a dive one originally. This is its current state.

 

Some Omega PloProf knock-offs perhaps? The splash of color would look cool I think.