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After my defeat at the hands of the Rocar I decided to try another, an Orient. After battling with the pallet fork, balance, date finger wheels (the horrible plastics ones), putting on new dial feet, crystal, crown, winding stem and second hand (ship of Theseus??) I finally managed to get it up and running. Wearing it into work today after a first pass at the regulation after assembly, I'll tweak it tonight, but seems to be running well.... So far. Black strap is just temporary, thinking of getting a grey one as permanent one... Any thoughts?

Mostly they go in the bin. Occasionally if it is interesting, unusual or unused, then I may take the time to clean it and re-use it. I also tend to save interesting buckles and such like, to put on to fresh leather. I figure cleaning metalwork is a lot simpler and safer than trying to fumigate well worn old leather. Leather is pretty tough stuff though, so a little diluted bleach and a lot of scrubbing goes a long way. Rejuvenation with neetsfoot oil or leather rejuvenation products can work wonders.

I was thinking more of genuinely liberated. I was thinking more of a situation when the allies took control of parts of Germany. At the time, a lot of Wehrmacht equipment was seized. There would be no point in letting a consignment of perfectly serviceable mil. spec. Swiss watches sit in a warehouse if they could be re-inventoried and issued to allied soldiers.

I'd be confused if my mainplate was Chinese and the rest Swiss? Just kidding vivat.

Link below to an homemade dial foot soldering machine, should be an easy build, i'll have to stop reading the posts on the forum as it's another tool i'm going have to build. http://www.geocities.ws/dushang2000/Horology/Dial Feet Tool/Dial Feet Tool.html

Full wind, 40 hrs. Rotor 100 shakes to what I think is full, 40 hrs.

Hi. I built my own no problem. If you check out this site there is a load of data. Mine was built on the principals by Wesley R Door and Dirk Fassbender. It works and no problem with the dial either. Not a fan of glueing the feet on . There is a lot of info on Google as well for all types, mine is on there it’s a black box driven from a battery charger.

Okay, we're officially done! For now.. The 6309-7040 turned up, and there wasn't a lot worth rescuing on it. The case, crown, and casebook are in okay condition, but a lot of shallow tool marks on the caseback. The dial was aftermarket and the hands had barnacles on em. I bought a new crystal replacement kit and a period correct bezel, plus all required gaskets. I've shoehorned in the 6309 movement that I'd previously rebuilt along with a new dial and hands, plus waffle rubber strap. At the end of the day, not a lot of that original eBay watch made it into this, but there are some parts in there. This ended up costing an absolute mint, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't worth it. The amplitude for this movement absolutely sucks (~190), most likely because I made a complete dogs breakfast of the mainspring install. I've been practising, and have some more 2892 mainsprings on the way, so I'll do another service and see if I can get the movement working better in the future. But for now... we're done.

If you've never done it before and can't find any good resources, replacing this gasket is a real pain in the arse. I tried a lot of different methods and spent probably a good 45 minutes on this, but the gasket would just fold up into the bottom of the crown and (due to it being covered in gasket grease) would just spin around when I tried to coax it back up. To prevent the gasket from bunching up in the bottom, I tried to install it with the full crown stem installed, but there wasn't enough room to get the gasket past the spring on the lower half. Then I tried using just the lower half of the stem with the spring removed. This allowed enough room to slide the gasket past, and to use a thin piece of pegwood to get it down past the thread. The wide end of the stem was enough to prevent the gasket from bunching up at the bottom, and was actually useful by unscrewing the stem and using the end to "pull up" any parts of the gasket that got too low. Within a couple of seconds I had it in place.

This points out to either balance rim/ hairspring/ roller table rubbing. Check the shakes ( side and end ) on balance pivots, it can also be what mike pilk said " BENT PIVOT" or short pivot. Have you checked the jewels in settings? Settings on Chinese mainplate and Swiss cock probably have different geometry. Rgds

Where do I send the honeydo list?

Its home sat in the workshop, and is some serious piece of kit. I think the new chuck on it is worth more than i paid for the lathe. A Boley and leinen A3 lathe. A bit of trivia from the guy i bought it from, both Boley and Leinen as we know made watch repairing equipment and lathes etc around the same time. Probably in competition with each other, now apparently according to this guy Leinen searched for and found a woman with the surname Boley, added her to his company with some role, a small silent insignificant partner in some way ? so he could use the name Boley and Leinen, crafty swine .True ?

I've been to a lecture where it was explained why Rolex watches cost so much to service. In the service center where they have an endless supply of parts we don't have they do replace stuff. This would mean more than likely they must have supplemental information telling the center what they're supposed to be replacing and why. But we don't get that information ever. Oh and then what about old Rolex service information what is that go? So I asked a friend who used to run the service center and he said when Rolex would send out at least the days of the physical now it's all online where it can't be copied supposedly. But in the days of the physical when you received the new documentation you are required to send all of the old documentation back to Rolex. If you're seeking a technical guide the best place to look is eBay. There's a seller in Italy that seems to have a continuous supply of Rolex manuals. I've seen some other one stroll up on eBay in one particular case the seller was getting negative reviews because apparently the seller was photocopying some of the manual. Otherwise anything out there is only going to be bits and pieces or vintage stuff like the PDF I'm attaching. oh and a suspicion of why he don't see anything modern PDF if somebody had the modern manual why would they PDF it anyway. then I have a suspicion Rolex would be unhappy if you are distributing PDFs of their manuals. yes the old days where I service to watch for somebody and it came back with the reverser is not suitable. I'm sure if all the procedure my instructor told us in school but that didn't apparently work. Fortunately in those old days Omega parts were still available for material house I just purchased a brand-new one the problem was solved. Today you would look in the technical guide like the one I attached from Omega there is a procedure for the reverser wheels you don't even have to take them apart which you can't do anyway because you wouldn't have the tools and there's no reason to when you have a procedure that's better. the problem with reverser wheels each of the companies have differing procedures. Rolex has a procedure where lubrication has to be in specific places but definitely not in other places they have to use epilam and follow some procedure that they have in their manual. the phrase turn it away implies moneymaking job? The problem with a Rolex watch is if you make a mistake a can become a very expensive mistake. Plus the bonus of Rolex doesn't like any of us which means purchasing new components well go look on eBay and see what things cost. There are some aftermarket components for Rolex although Rolex frowns on that. The big thing the think about is if you taking jobs in for money you're doing it for the fun of that and you have an accident just how expensive is at accident going to be. Then you find out why typically the service people I think for Rolex watches don't know about this one was at the lecture was at least $600. And that's from a service center that would have all the parts Omega 8645_WI_40_rules for lubrication cousins UK.pdf 2130-2135-tech rolex technical notes update March 1987.pdf

Hi that’s a good tooland when connected up will give years of service. That one I think is the one devised by Wes Door. Pretty simple to use and does a good job. Your rig as shown uses a torch to get the heat down the leg to melt the solder. The one by Wes Door uses an arc at contact point to melt the solder. Best use either chip or paste and only apply the heat/ arc long enough to melt the solder. No bit extra for luck. Also what helps is a damp disc on the table. And practise on some old dials first

tweezers typically should work fine. There is one thing you do want to pay attention to end that would be ideally the minute wheel should not be in place. Sometimes it has to be there but it would be nice if it wasn't there. The reason for this is when you're snapping it on if the minute wheel is there it's possible to bend a minute wheel teeth which I've seen on minute wheels were the teeth are bent. Or worst-case you can actually shear one of the teeth off of the pinion. Yes I did that once I wasn't really happy some always mindful of your popping it in and the minute wheel is there make sure it has some place to go and doesn't damage something.

It's amazing how much bigger the parts get after you've worked with them a while. A canon pinion on an ST36 is huge in comparison to other parts I've sprung from my bench and yet miraculously found. The canon pinion in general is just a friction fit and shouldn't require all that much pressure to put back. If you're pushing hard enough to pop out the jewel, you are either pushing way too hard or the jewel wasn't set properly. In any case, a firm push with a good set of tweezers should be all it takes. If it required a special tool, you can be assured Bergeon or Horotec would already have their hands in your pocket.

Do you mean me? If so I'm more confused than anyone, Chinese mainplate, ETA rest, suddenly running. Totally lost.

Grey sounds like it should work, or how about a dark navy blue? My lunchtime fix for today. Not much to say, new crystal obviously, new battery, full fumigation and case clean and polish. The original Rotary strap was almost unworn, so it also got a fumigation and was re-used. .. and here is the Montine I did the other day for comparison. I'm spoilt for choice.

That adds extra work. Unless that lead to an extra beer ration, I doubt if they would have taken the trouble.

Ok thats sound fair, often the escape wheel will do a liitle reverse movement for the last couple of seconds if the train is very free running but not always, it can depend on the depth of the gearing as well. The next step would be to put the fork lever back in, if you have fiddled with the fork stones something might not be set correctly. With the fork in but no balance next put a little wind on the movement and test to see if the fork will snap from one side to the other when you gentle touch each side of it, use a tiny artists paintbrush for safety. The escape wheel will move along one tooth at a time. If this is all good then the balance can be checked through as you are being shown by Mike.

No it doesn't. The coils should be evenly spaced, not bunched up, and the terminal curve is not between the curb pins (yellow circle)

Nothing special, the train and the escape wheel are just moving at the hell high speed and that it's, they are not wobbling or whatever. I think now it's all about the balance

Is the pivot bent? I'm not sure, but from what I've read, the parts are generally not interchangeable. That's a problem. Remove the pallet and see how freely the balance moves. The balance may have the wrong pivots sizes for the jewel holes, or a bent pivot. Why would you change the main plate? Was there serious damage? If this watch is of sentimental value to you, I would put it aside and get some practice on cheap movements until you are more skilled.

That very possible Andy, if we did that i would have thought though that the German serial number would have been scrubbed as well ? Ah thanks for that Rich. I have the same Record calibre in my DD which has a fixed bal jewel The caliber is correct also the same as my DD so the movement alone is a couple of hundred quid. What the auction bid at ?

The ATP one's weren't shock protected, the German ones were.

I wonder if that "German milspec" was "liberated" and subsequently used by the British military, either during or after hostilities. It does seem odd to have both sets of markings, and while it is possible someone added the broad arrow and ATP (Army Trade Pattern) later to try to make it more saleable, there may be some other story to it.

…the lume looks old but recent and so does the and arrow, yes. Strange…if someone were trying to extract more value there are easier ways…send it to Ebay for example instead of flanking a few pocket watches in a live auction. Then again if it’s crap that is why it is there… …more pics! Yes. As I said earlier I assumed they had the description wrong and moved on. Anything military style with a black dial often gets the dirty dozen label. It looks like someone may have tried to help this one along…. Shame, yes… If the strap is original, what do you intend to do? I would want to wash it to within an inch of its life I label and stash them in a sealed plastic bag where hopefully the current residents can’t escape, then I find I nice fixed lug strap…

Ah ok. Now thats confused me, ATP i was sure is the Brit military denotation only of their spec watches. Now the D and H either side of the serial number is the German spec military marking. I feel someone has added the ATP. Can you read the dial name, the hands are a terrible addition. Someone has been playing silly buggers with what would have been a nice Germal mil-spec watch.

Ha! You don't know how good you are. My normal with Seiko seems to be 140 to 150. They run ok, but obviously I still need more practice, practice...practice....practice...pr. Well, you know what I mean.

Are you sure parts are interchangeable between a genuine ETA and a Chinese clone. I would look at this idea again. Parts may look ok and be similar but in reality may not be. What are you meaning by your last statement?. I do think we should start from the beginning fella.

Ah thank you. I wasn’t aware of the black versions- I believe I saw one yesterday flanked by dogs in a auction lot. The pics were poor and I wondered if they had the description wrong.

Hi. It’s sometimes easier to sell the movement complete against the price of the coil. You have to part strip the movement to fit the coil , movement it’s just a drop in. Cal. Is usually on the plate, these are Epson branded.

Hi all, have bought an old 6309-7040 for restoration, and will be replacing the crown gasket. It appears as though the gasket is already missing, but I'm not sure. I've dug around with the dental tools to see if I can fish anything out, but can't seem to find anything in there. That's actually a bit irritating, as I was going to use the location of the old gasket to figure out how/where to install the new one. Is there meant to be a channel inside the crown, or does the gasket just sit around the pole where the stem screws in? Any advice would be much appreciated!

How did you figure out the calibre? So many helpful replies. Hope @Welderman84 returns to read them!

I thought that as well, but i think he means this disconnection of a pallet slot jewel. Can only guess that the depth is wrong after re gluing it in. Hi vivat, maybe we just need to run through it again, what you have done exactly and what the problems are. Just a side not to your post here, i hope you dont take offence, its the lever( pallet fork ) that ultimately transmits the power from the mainspring to the balance. Its the balance that regulates that power. As its well known ' knowledge is power '

I think he means the hairspring into the stud.

For anyone searching for the same answer in the future, I figured it out. The crown gasket is located in a groove just below the threads. The old one was still in my crown, but was rock hard and difficult to see. I've highlighted the groove in this image. And here's the old gasket next to the new replacement. The part number for the gasket is 0k0240b0a but my local supplier had it as OkO24ObOa

Hello JerseyMo, While there might (cynically saying) be some good intentions behind the scheme. You said exactly what I was thinking. It does make me wonder how many top drawer brands will end up being turned in for that 20% off coupon.

Strange, you can buy a complete new movement and have it through your letterbox by the end of the week for £69.75, CousinsUK is a public site, so you don't need to be a business or anything to use them. Link here: https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/seiko-quartz-movements?code=7T62M Hope this helps PS Not sure how much of a "watch guy" your watch guy is if he can't source this movement, so you may want to look elsewhere... just my opinion

Hey Daz! I'm new to this as well; but I've been shopping on ebay for a long time. When I started searching for something to work on that was less likely to be a disappointment I made use of the boolean search features that ebay has. I started with the basic search "Automatic Watch". Clearly that's very broad, and returns thousands of useless results. I then use the left side bar to set my budget -- say just a max of $60CAD & Buy It Now only. Finally I start trimming: "Automatic watch -quartz" -> "Automatic watch -quartz -timex" -> "Automatic watch -quartz -timex -seiko -citizen" ... That cleared out a good portion of the mixed heritage specials that typically ship from India or Pakistan and the engineered to cost, jellybean timex family. I'm sure that there are some fantastic "Mumbai Specials" to be had, with quality parts that haven't been completely worn out prior to installation, but that's not what I was looking for ... so then continue cutting and refining until I have a few candidates and press play!

So, I'm waiting for my initial order of tools to get in so I can start disassembly of my first movement. As I've been learning about needed tools and skills, one that has come up is the need to maintain screwdriver tips. Being impatient, wanting to do something, and having a bunch of cheap jewelers screwdrivers I thought I'd work on that. Dug though my 3d printing spare parts and round two ball bearing wheels and a couple M3 screws and I was off to the races. Designed screwdriver holding jig Printed, assembled, and proceeded to sharpen every cheap flathead I could find.

Well, it's finally back in the case and polished up. It's not perfect, but I'm still pretty proud of the work. It was a tremendous learning experience, and really stretched my skill set. Thank you again to everyone who helped me out along the way! And bonus penny for scale:

This is probably the bit I have come to hate most in Seiko re-builds, you need to be an octopus to manage the dial spacer and tightening the dial feet at the same time - and then realise that you have put it upside down (again...), take off the hands without scratching the dial and turn over the dial ring and replace the hands without scratching the dial, then realise it was right the first time?!?!?...can anyone remember which way up those #$#@$ things go?!?! Then there is the case adapter/spacer which spins around on you when you aren't looking and you have to coax it back so the winding stem will fit in... all the time that dial is slopping around and scraping under the crystal and bending those hands.... then you realise there is a spec of dust under the crystal and you have to start again .... finally its in, and you try the hands and realise that the dial feet are tightened too tight and are impeding the date/day disc from spinning properly ..... I could go on..... Finally it's in... and working, but with all the messing around above you're always second guessing if you really got it right... and the rattle tells you no........

Err, well not to rub it in or anything but i don't have that problem i live alone, plus the missus earns a lot more than i do, so again i dont have that problem. Did i mention i don't have that problem ? . She's getting a lathe named after her ( its now Betty ) what more does she want ? Not the most romantic gesture I've ever made i will admit. Haha is that your sad face rehajm or sad for my missus ?

I had no experience with Seiko and bought one to fix up for a nephew who needs a durable watch. I didn’t pay a fortune but still felt taken a bit… There is so much Franken it’s hard to say what it actually is… …and don’t feel bad about the mainspring, you’re supposed to replace the barrel complete according to Seiko, right? I botched mine, too. The springs are so soft, worse than a cricket alarm spring. My movement is waiting in the tray for the Cousins package to arrive…