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This beauty was by far the biggest challenge and most complicated movement in my two years of learning the art/science of watch repair (150 parts in total and a mind boggling number of springs on the dial side of the movement). Purchased as a parts only non-running movement in case from a retired watchmaker, the movement had a broken oscillating weight screw post that was stuck and it took me two weeks to resolve (with the help of several good chaps on this forum). Then a couple of weeks hunting around for another salvage movement as source for several missing/broken parts on the original unit. Finally two days trying to figure out how to re-attach the sprocket to the day wheel while ensuring it has proper alignment with the date. Fortunately all the case, case back, bezel and crystal needed was a good polish. Now for a couple of days wearing to ensure proper timekeeping and day/date rollover out in the field before turning over to the “customer” (a friend I offered to do this for at cost as a favor).

Before you start playing around with the escapement, pin pallet escapements are known to wear, so check everything such as pivots, pivot holes, the pins on the pallets, escape wheel teeth, even the pallets, do they engage with the balance correctly. These movements are poor and not worth spending money on.

you want to look very carefully at the pins themselves as they can have notches born into them. I don't know how we would tell if the escape wheel is worn but I'm sure that can happen. Or conceivably both the pins and the wheel can wear. Also make sure the pins for some reason are not loose. Then as it's kind of a lever escapement does it have anything resembling banking pins and have they been modified although it's probably not that. Then if the pivots themselves of the holes are to big that would allow it to move that could be enough perhaps. usually on watches like this or basically Timex watches there made to be very intolerant to manufacturing tolerances I don't know how closely the lever itself has to be adjusted versus a jeweled lever

It certainly needs re-bushing you can do this by hand. The reason it is pushing up is the power on the spring pushes all the wheels up. I did all my bushing by hand but I also made bushes. I never had a bushing tool they are a waste of money.

Hi matey, There are 14 variant calibers to AHS43, parts of the base caliber interchange between all variants of the same frequency. If it came down to adjusting pins, do not attempt bending the pins as they break easy, each pin is revitted to an arm of the fork, try twisting the arm instead, thats risky though as you might change the geomerty of the fork thus its functioning, you ought to secure the arm in stout tweezers then twist the free end of the arm to get the pin adjusted. This doesn't just sound crazy, it is crazy. Richard makes sense, if pins miss only some teeth of the escape wheel, its either the wheel thats warped/ worn teeth/ excessive side shake. Rgds

casually the tool looks bewildering and there is something it didn't make sense? Then you study it carefully and then you realize oh okay this makes sense now. But it would probably help if I got some pictures tomorrow. although technically I define tomorrow as whenever I wake up after I go to bed so that will be hours from now. what sell the tools that I don't use what if I might need them someday in the future? although I have no idea when I acquired the tool and zero idea of what I paid for it.

Thanks John, this design has no pins for the lever arm to bank against, the banking happens within the escape teeth. There is a little wear at the pivot holes of the esc. wheel and lever which are brass bushes and a just a holed steel plate for the top of the lever, but nothing excessive. Supposedly this rough design has lots of tolerance compared to a jewelled lever. No discernable wear to the escape teeth and but light scratching to the lever pins which I've polished out and seems to have improved the locking somewhat. So maybe the pins were catching the back of some teeth preventing a full lock to happen. I think its now worth turning my attention to polishing the locking faces of the escape teeth and fork horns to hopefully increase the amplitude I've been chasing on it. I've also read somewhere that greasing the impulse pin is advisable. As regards to locking depth of the lever pins de carle suggests escape teeth dropping above the center line of the pins. I have my mornings work set out

Hi to all my Horology fans. I'm a 76 yr old salty dog retired/disabled U.S. Marine combat Veteran (2 tours to that paradise known as "The Nam"). I started my collecting disease at the very ripe age of 14. I had a fascination with taking an old beater watch, bringing it back to life and giving it as much of a face-lift as I could with my limited resources and knowledge. My "disease" grew to include coins, banknotes, postcards, and military items. I retired 20 years ago with my Filipina wife to the Philippines and dragged a very large collection of "you name its" with me. It only grew here, until I started trying to downsize around 13 years ago on fleabay. I now feel the urgency growing by the day to dispose of as much as I possibly can before I take "The Long Dirt Nap" (I'm Sicilian). My lovely wife is 20 yrs my junior, yet has NO desire to have all this responsibility left to her when she has ZERO knowledge of any of it and in fact, doesn't even know how to turn a computer on! So there is my dilemma. Several thousand coins, banknotes and postcards as well as around 400 watches and around 200 movements (what I mainly sell on fleabay). There it is. My life in a nutshell. SEMPER FI!

Cannon pinion tightened, seemed to do the trick. I grumble when I have to pay $$$ for a single purpose Swiss tool (in this case my $95 Bergeon Cannon Pinion Tightening pliers), until I need them

I'm still not sure why everyone thinks that servicing Timex mechanical movements is so difficult. I had no real problem with them, in fact, as far as I'm concerned Seiko 7S26 movements are much more challenging. Those are the movements that I worked on most when I first started. I'll say it again, unlike many other watches, the Timex service documents *do not require you to separate the plates*. You can successfully clean a Timex movements without doing that. If you follow the service docs, which I posted a link to above, the most difficult task is unpinning the balance spring. This, however is not as tricky as it sounds, and is an excellent skill to learn. If that is too much, than just loosening the balance to allow cleaning and oiling is a good compromise. Timex movements are different, and they are not serviced the same way that one would a jeweled swiss movement. Now, if you are talking about some of the old "dollar watch" pocket watches, that *are* riveted together, then I'd agree. Only worth working on if you are into collecting them. Cheers!

There are even crazier acts of part mutilation in his book . These old boys had nerves of steel.

Yes but here’s the image in Practical Watch Repairing next to the image Neverenoughwatches posted… …so not only were there crazies out there doing it they had a tool for it… …and here’s the technique with relief cuts and bending. I have seen movements where this procedure had been done. Perhaps not a coincidence they were parts movements…

notice the last little bit you won't know until you try is hundred percent correct. Everything is speculation until you try and then if it fails then you have to deal with it up until then it might work maybe it will work. that is the typical a problem with the small Springs is nothing to file the taper. It's why I usually go to eBay find something it resembles the new old stock purchase that as it should have the band and the proper shaped hole. Otherwise you could try the spring you have who knows it might work I don't think someone would waste there time making a suggestion if they thought it wasn't going to work.

I see, makes sense now. What a scumbag that watch repairer was.

I mis-stated. With a manual wind it appeared to run OK on the timegrapher. It also set fine. During my initial exam and before I opened the case it didn’t dawn on me to check the autowind since I never imagined someone would salvage parts from what was surely a clients watch. it wasn’t until I opened the case that I realized that much of the autowind mechanism had be scarfed. My guess is the last watchmaker figured my father-in-law would not notice since he actually hardly wore the watch (I’ve never seen it on his wrist and I’ve known him since 1982).

Feel for you. Can't believe the unprofessionalism of some watchmakers. Mark's course really does teach us well. Keep us updated with your service.

Yes, part of the fun of doing this as a hobby and not profession is you may ignore the economics if you so choose. While you ignore the horological prospects of a pin pallet at your peril (I certainly have) better still is when the economics work in your favor, as pin pallets are the orphans of the watch world…

Welcome to the WRT forum.

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum. We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement.

Hello and welcome.

Welcome enjoy the forum.

A Molnija (Молния) 15 jewel October Revolution (Октябрьская революция) USSR era pocket watch is on its way to the 404 club. The Molnija 36xx movements are basically a copy of a Cortébert movement used in Swiss watches from around 1940. In a working condition, these are fairly popular, but this one appears to be missing the top balance jewel, as well as the bow. It was described as "Balance is not working", so the price was a bargain bin £1.99 Almost certainly needs the balance jewel, and may need a balance staff too. I think I have a scrap movement with the jewel, but it too needs the balance staff, so I may have to go hunting for some of those.

my bad I didn't read it correctly. So I apologize for the misunderstanding. then I do agree with the safety pinion was rather popular on American pocket watches for a while. usually always proudly engraved on the movement.

A few days ago I spoke with my local watchmaker, who is a very good friend of mine. He is an old dude long overdue for retirement, but since he is the last watchmaker in town, he is still in business. While we were talking, we came across the topic regarding watch oils and I was really surprised by the things he said. He said to me that he does not use synthetic oils and actually uses only one oil for the whole movement (Moebius 8000) and one grease (Moebius 8300). He also said that he uses grease with graphite for automatic movements, but I could not see which. He said to me that he is using the same type of oil since he was a young watchmaker in the '60s and that new synthetic oils have no real benefits. He said that synthetic oils are very hard to clean in a cleaning machine and also that mineral oils encourage customers to take their watches regularly for service because mineral oils gunk up after a couple of years slowing or stopping the movement altogether. That means less wear and more job for him. Do you think this is a bad practice or it actually makes sense? P.S. Excuse my English, I am not a native speaker

I don't know about the cleaning machine, but the rest makes sense. He sounds like a reliable, pragmatic watch repairer, who does a decent job for his customers without costing too much. If he makes a living at it at the same time, so much the better. Of course, if he's charging Rolex prices, then that changes things! By the way, your English is very good indeed. If you hadn't drawn attention to it, I'd have taken you for a native speaker.