Leaderboard

This is one of my favorites. The dial is just stunning. I have had this for a while now but tonight cleaned the case and bracelet and replaced the crystal.all of that and still under $10. An ETA 2452 with 25 jewels. As mentioned elsewhere, this was the base movement for the Tudor 30 jewel caliber 2484.

I'm not sure I could deal with adrenaline rush of their hedonistic life styles.

Just as rehajm expained, The ( center tube & pinion ) is one only piece which is friction fitted onto the gear, and is removable. YOU CAN FIT THE LONG TUBE ONTO THE NEW GEAR. While you have the long tube removed, you have good access to polish its pinion leaves. Good luck

Something a little more traditional this time. A "Hinds Magpie" nickel cased pocket watch. Not sure of the age, possibly late 1920s or later. I might be able to be a little more precise once I know what is inside it. A non runner, but the listing was a little vague, so I have no idea what ails it. Needs a crystal too, but other than that it looks to be in good cosmetic condition.

Find the web page you wish to link to and copy the URL (from the address field at the top of the browser) Mark the word or words in your post where you want the link (in your example the word here) Click the Link button at the top of the editor (opens the Link window) Paste the copied URL into the field with the label URL and click the Insert into post button. Hope that answers your question!

Hi again here, Old thread, but if still interessed in repivoting wersus new staff turning, I can give my 5p here. This is not my routine way of balance staff turning, but I haven't made routine turning video, just this one I have. But it shows the technic I use when needed to work on T rest. The repivoting of balance staff is something I generally don't recommend as prefered way. You can see the balance in the video is useless and I used it just to show the process, as a friend asked me to. Repivoting takes about 10 minutes to me and saves dissassembling and reassembling of the balance. Staff turning usually takes 30 min. and then assembling, trueing, poising checks and so on may be another 30. The both ways usually will reqire regulation of the balance, but it strongly depends on what is expected as watch performance - is it needed to be chronometer-like adjusted or just good strong beat is enough. Another helpfull video shows how to take off the brokend old balance staff from the balance, when it is the riveted type. This all are simple phone recorded videos, so quality of the record is bad, but anyway, I hope, still can be helpfull

Good point, I'd maybe search the same site for offerings with stems/crowns as it makes putting the keyless works back together a little easier. I also think you have a good point in switching up models, if you want to stick with Seiko, then maybe look at some of the following 7009, 6309 and 7S36/7S26 (the 7S26 and 7S36 are almost the same movement). Maybe get two of each type you select, then you can be sure to have spares just in case you ping-a-spring into that worm hole under your desk that leads to Darkest Peru. All of the models I mentioned are very common so will have lots of YouTube tutorials by different people so lots of different ways to skin that cat. However, I would recommend Mikes My Retro Watches YouTube channel, link here, as he is a Seiko Guru and shows his mistakes and how he gets out of them, and he is also pleasant to listen to. On the subject of pinging springs, get yourself a good magnet, I got some of the below from Amazon and stuck two of them onto a steel ruler and just waft it over the floor/desk/wife/cat.... to find springs, screws etc. saves hours on your hands and knees inventing new and creative combinations of swear words As an aside, I recently invested in a blacklight as the jewels in a watch (and all rubies I think) fluoresce under UV light like a red beacon making it much easier to find them after you tiddlywink them across the room with your oiler. Tried my best to avoid a spat over Timex, but I feel like the kid in the crowd looking at the emperor with no clothes. The poster below sums it all up. Timex were making cheap and nasty movements that were designed to be essentially disposable (sorry, but dunking the entire movement in lighter fluid does not constitute a service, just a poor attempt to fake a 'me too', product) ....... this would be forgivable IF they were charging cheap disposable movement prices to their customers, but charging the same for their movements as a comparable Swiss or Japanese movement is just dishonest and exploitative. I can genuinely see the attraction and challenge of servicing a Timex movement because you are trying to do something out of the ordinary and test your skills, but this is not justification for a company cutting every corner in their designs just so they can maximize their profit by exploiting the naivety of their customers who are paying way over the odds for disposable junk, when, instead, they could invest their money in a quality movement that would last. This is why I cannot bring myself to recommend Timex in any way shape or form, yes they showed tremendous innovation in their designs, but the innovation was unethical by being motivated to maximize profit at the expense of their customers, not making better watches.

Hi The bezel is a separate piece of the case as is the back and crystal. usually when the bezel is removed the crystal stays in . there is a usually a flat spring athough I have had round ones which tension the bezel so it has controlled rotation. when you rotate the bezel do you feel it click or is is a smooth action. What tools do you have to facillitate the removal, If you lookup bezel / caseback remover on ebay you will get a selection. Even Rolex bezels remove. By the pictures your Bezel might be in two parts the knurrled ring and the black ring above it. Unfortunatley getting exploded diagrams of specific watch cases is along the lines of hens teeth/ just explore ALL options.

I have never seen jewels like this. I can see no point in having the cap. I suggest that someone has put the jewels in upside down. I recently had a similar problem where I had to replace the balance jewels, as they were flat, not domed.

I'm waiting to find out what a magpie lever is. Swiss lever, English lever etc, no problems but magpie level?

Hi. This is a topic that has been discussed at length by various members, maybe worth searching the site for the information. Have you pictures of the rest of the machine so the members can see where you are at. Thanks.

... and we do like a nice apostrophe round here. I hadn't actually spotted that little detail.

I'm having a go at making the old wheel flat if bent is the only issue...and the wheel is probably friction fit on the pinion so I suspect Nucejoe's 'the new replaced with the old' is swapping out the bent wheel for the new one on the correct sized pinion.

Here you go. I used a thin walled plastic bottle to minimize the weight. Then I drilled a hole in the centre of the lid and made a plastic washer and glued it to the underside of the lid to reinforce the lid to reduce wobble. Then I put a M5 bolt through it. All this was done on a lathe to reduce vibrations when the bottle is spun at speeds of about 1000 rpm. The distribution of parts in the basket is already unbalanced, so you wouldn't want a off axis bolt to make ot worse. The basket came from a jewelry wash bottle from AliExpress. The tiny parts baskets are from Cousins. After each ultrasound cycle, the basket is transferred to the spin bottle and spun for around 15 to 20 seconds, then the basket goes into the next bottle of solution. With each spin cycle, I can spin out about 1 ml of solution. This would have either been transferred to the next solution and end up contaminating it or dried up on the watch plates, etc. I know it can be rather troublesome transferring the basket from bottle to bottle but now the jewels come out squeaky clean. Even the endstones come out clean. This would probably be replaced in the future with something like what Alex Hamilton showed in his video on a DIY cleaning machine.

nice apostrophe ‘

The Grenchen is quite something- that dial!…but maybe yellow card for the price- how far under $10

one of the problems with closing holes is it seems like a simple solution to a problem and it is not. Your hole is out of round typically when you close the hole it's probably still out around is just smaller. then you have to use a reamer to open it up followed by smoothing broach and you somehow have to keep it where it's supposed to be. It is extremely easy to end up with your holes where they're not supposed to be.

Hi Murks. Check each wheel separately in the frame for side shake and end shake once that’s correct then add the next and do the same untill you have all the wheels in the frame and free, all with side and end shake. Please add pictures of what you have done and are doing and ask before attempting any major changes. If when you screw down the bridge you loose the end shake either your bush is wrong or the bridge is bent.

Do the mean the center and third wheel are locking up ? What exactly have you re-bushed and how did you do that ? Check both wheels separately with the bridge on starting with the center wheel, does it have some end shake and side shake ? Is there any obvious wobble to the wheel when you give it puff of air ? Looking down on the bridge and mainplate does the center wheel arbor have correct amount of sideshake, thats enough to permit free running but not so much that its position shifts to cause binding up of the third wheel. Then check the third wheel in the same way on its own. They must both have adaquate play in both directions. If they both have end play to spin freely and the side play is ok that they mesh correctly then they should spin together . Murks i know you're keen an all, thats bloody fantastic mate , but can i just remind you of the statement Old Hippy made. Previous hole closing without advice first has caused you some grief, yes we all make mistakes, I've made some monumental ones but i like to think i learned from them. I have only been doing repair for 2 years not even consistently but in that time ive replaced and adjusted jewels, replaced staffs, peened holes in plates, bridges, barrels, manipulated,fixed and repinned hairsprings, trued and poised wheels, messed some of it up and got some of it right, but asked watched and read how i should go about it first. I haven't replaced a brass bush and although i might think its the same as replacing a jewel, i would say " hey Old Hippy can you just run through with me please how to do that to make sure I'm on the track " I think you know where I'm going with this. So even though i might be sounding like an ass, can i just say without offending you and from the bottom of my heart , "back up mate , hold your horses, slow down and be sure what you are doing is right " Its always best to ask first if its something you haven't done before, even if in your head you are sure, because in reality there just might be a vital bit of information you are missing. Reg. Rich x

The cheapo Aliexpress ones are fine too, it’s not as if the tolerances for these are important. Tom

Apart from going over it with cotton wool and dip it in warm water there is nothing you can do. You could have the dial restored by a dial restorer but then it might look odd against the clock case. Don't use Brasso as it will remove everything on that dial don't use any abrasive.

I am TUNDE , a watch enthusiast . I collect both modern and vintage watches on a regular basis and also a graduate of Mark Lovich of watch repair channel about a year ago.

I'm not quite sure above your picture? in other words the case back says that 18 karat gold is there any other steel on that case back other than the screws themselves? Because if you only have steel screws you should be able to dissolve them out with alum. Typically you do this with a brass plates were your broker screw off as long as there's no other steel or iron that you would like to keep you could just dissolve them out versus drilling them

Rivets? That is a myth perpetuated by those who want to knock Timex because they are not serviceable in the same manor as a typical swiss mechanical. I do agree they are not the best choice to learn on since the techniques learned will not transfer to other repairs. yes they are remarkable devices. Just a small sample here. you may not realize but the screws on the other side of the movement for those models M24 and well up to M109. The M21, M22, M26, M29 were on the back side. Done were riveted together preventing the plates from being separated.

The metal handle is a nice old one with a light weight to it, the wooden handle is when i want a bit more heft. Its not just about the hammer murks its more the person wielding it. I've been using hammers since i was 5 so thats over 50 years now the last 40 years almost daily. I could probably get away with using a lump hammer, control is the name of the game when using a staking tool.

Hello and welcome to the forum

The silicone must be better as it's nearly twice the price. But then the gel one says 'Bergeon' on the cushion, which must make it better? I'm amazed that people will pay £50 for a blob of silicone just because it says Bergeon. Same with the dial holder, £50 for a bit of plastic with holes in I use the ring from an old cheap cushion. I cut some spongy foam packing to fill it. It works really well, and is free! (But then I'm cheap )

Thanks for the advice @VWatchie. I always appreciate you inputs. My plan, if I get the watch, is to try EvapoRust as the primary method. The glass fibre brush only where that hasn't dissolved the rust.

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

Let me send a picture of the one a use is this OK?

The center wheel with longer center tube is for variants of ST96 with date or date/day complications, as date ring takes space which increase the hight of the movement thus longer center tube. Rgds

I have serviced a few Timex watches. In terms of the architecture of them, there is very little fungible knowledge to be gained. However, as @dadisticseems to imply, if you can survive servicing them many times, you will acquire extraordinary tweezer skills and dexterity. Would I wish them on a beginner? No, because likelihood of success is far greater with a Swiss mvt. Just adding my two cents...

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree, and that's OK, if everyone agreed then the world would be a boring place and there would be no need for a forum like this ha ha

I wish people who want to talk about Timex would at least go over the service information, there is disassembly involved and you can build skills by working on these watches. I know I did, they were very helpful in helping me develop my ability to work with small parts, and to understand the inner workings of a watch. And if you work on a calendar movement, guess what? You get to have fun with springs! And did I mention unpinning and pinning hairsprings? I think they are perfectly appropriate for a beginner, they are robust enough that you can have early success instead of taking a perfectly good watch and turning it into a parts watch. At some point, yes, you do need to move on to something with jewels and bridges, but that doesn't have to be the first step. At one point when I was first learning I must of taken the train bridge off and put it back on 20 or more times on a Seiko movement, just to practice getting the pivots in place and handling screws etc. Cheers!

Ah an Ideal Logic or Worcester Bosch kinda guy, give me a call, mine needs a service .

This ninety nine pence, overlooked ebay item is on its way to potentially join the club. It is a two jewel ISA 1198 based "Montine of Switzerland" "Swiss Quartz", which I strongly suspect cost its original owner a whole lot more than I paid. It obviously needs a battery, clean, service and a suitable strap.

Did 2 404s over the course of the week after my previous disastrous weekend (getting back on that horse), first was a SWISSAM 1215-21 and the second was a KIENZLE 058/01 both were part of the same job lot so cost me £2.00 each. Before and after pictures below: SWISSAM before: Unfortunately to date ring was plastic and so old it had become brittle, when I put the watch together the tips or the teeth on the date ring crumbled when the date finger tried to move the ring so it's stuck on 23rd... at least it will be correct one day of every month! Here is the finished watch: Dial is not the greatest, but shows its age honestly.... and groundhog day!! its the 23rd (again). New strap, but everything else (including the crystal is original. Here is the KIENZLE before and after pictures: Watch was a non-runner and the crystal is cracked at 8-9 O'clock position and feather cracks at 1 O'clock so had to be replaced Some small tweaks on the hairspring required The final finished watch with it's new crystal and strap